TPOH: Sex and Food
After listening to Sex and Food, I started thinking about how subjective taste is. Moe Berg's favourite TPOH record is, according to the liner notes, Where's The Bone. The critics' choice is said to be One Sided Story, which is my friend Gerald's favourite too. In my reviews, I say that these two are the worst! I say that if Downward Road had come out instead of One Sided Story, the band would have been more popular, because people were listening to Guns and Roses then. I say these rock fans did not eat up OSS because OSS was not very good.
In the end, I think, is that critic's choices say as much about them as about the material reviewed. Why do people apparently look at OSS as as a peak, when I see it as a precursor? Is it because they didn't listen to Downward Road? Or, Maybe it was me. I was suicidally depressed when both those records came out (sorry). But I was pretty goddamned down when Wonderful World came out, and that one cheered me up a lot. The band got more press in the One Sided Story era, they were played on the radio more. Could it just be familiarity that the critics like?
That doesn't explain Gerald's choice, and he's got great taste. Do I just really dig the sounds and songs and ideas on Downward Road because of what I grew up listening to? I certainly don't know.
The Sex And Food package is pretty good, but it isn't a retrospective so much as a favourites-of-the person-who-put-this -together, who picked the tracks and the title, supplemented with whatever b-sides and live tracks could be had. If I was in charge of the universe, a TPOH best of would look somewhat different. Wonderful World, Downward Road and One Sided Story are wildly under-represented.
Sex and Food is worth getting: the songs are fine and the order is smart. Having a couple of the Love Junk demos is nice, but the live tracks are weak, and really show off what I'm talking about when I say that Moe's not a great singer live.(Sorry) TPOH's live strength was all in the energy, which is not really captured on Food. Edmonton Block Heater is alright, but as most fans likely don't have the Hard Core Logo tribute/soundtrack, the original would have been better.
TPOH: Sex And Food (the best of TPOH). Razor and Tie, 2000.
Review by jep clayton, BadMonkeyX. 1st issue, January 2001.