Dontcha sometimes just hate some aspects of record labels, sure they put out the goodies for us when we want them but this whole re-packaging thing should surely contain a ‘this material has been previously available’ label or something to protect the unwary. So here we go – hot off the back of the news of the reunion between Tracii Guns and Phil Lewis comes this rather nicely packaged anthology: and yes we’ll give it that for it is rather nicely packaged…
Sadly this ‘new’ LA Guns anthology has all been available before and is largely made up of previously released material from Deadline/Cleopatra. That of course means that it’s largely re-recordings- some of which were found previously on Greatest Hits & Black Beauties and Cocked & Reloaded (which both revamped tracks from the original major label albums with mixed results).
In addition to the re-workings there are other inclusions: ‘Ritual’ the original track from Greatest Hits & Black Beauties appears, as does ‘You Better Not Love Me’ from ‘Hollywood Forever’ and ‘Cry Little Sister’ from ‘Covered In Guns’ as well as the Phil Lewis solo version of ‘Over the Edge’.
If you have those already (or better still have the original recordings plus those odd few tracks) the best news is the inclusion of, as the press release says: “the 1987 sessions produced just before their self-titled debut album and the 1985 demo tape that first earned the band attention from major labels”! Though of course they too have been released before.
If you love LA Guns you may well still want this – the new versions are a little more aggressive than the originals but really what is lacking here is scope: there’s whole swathes of the bands history ignored – with nothing off of records like Vicious Circle, Man in the Moon, Waking the Dead or the Phil-less recordings: American Hardcore and Shrinking Violet, or the Tracii-less: “Tales From the Strip’.
