Re-recorded, Not Just Repackaged
On their latest release 2,4,6,8... We're the Kids You Love to Hate, Clit 45 has taken many of their old songs and re-recorded them. Many of their early singles we're out of print and becoming collector's items, forcing their fans to shell out large amounts of dough to get their hands on the earlier stuff.
Rather than simply repackage all of the old songs in their lo-fi glory, the band opted to re-record some of their favorites, as well as a few new tracks, in order to release them with a higher sound quality. It was a good call.
If you've been a Clit 45 fan for a while, odds are you may own some of these tracks. Even so, fans will enjoy the higher quality re-recordings, and new recruits will get a good grasp of the band with this album.
Seriously, the sound is nothing new, but it's very good. This is solid old school hardcore punk, made for live shows filled with angry adolescents. Punk anthems like "Your Life" with its "Your life, your views/Your life to choose" chant-along chorus and the band's relentless buzzsaw guitars on tracks like "It Ain't Over" and "Fight Back" push their energy to a level that you probably won't see in an old school band on a reunion tour, but reminds you of the days those bands were in their prime.
Cover Songs Are a Nice Addition
The album also shines with the addition of two cover songs. Their version of Bowie's Cracked Actor is really nice, sped up in the band's style, but still retaining some elements of trashy glam rock guitar.
The "bonus track" is a cover of The Damned's "Stab Yor Back". It's a great version, but it's also my biggest criticism with this album. Padded on either side with three minutes of silence, it's a pain to listen to, and it eats space on your iPod.
Perhaps the argument is that it's hidden like that so that only "true fans" will put up with it to listen to it, but I think the days of padding bonus tracks on CDs with silence should be dead and buried. That being said, I'm still grateful to Clit 45 for making sure old school punk is not.
