Review Summary: A two dimensional mess of odds and sods
B-Sides records are usually very mixed. Either you get a great selection of non album ratites (Oasis' 'The Masterplan' and Prince's 'The Hits/The B-Sides') or a clunky mix of mediocre tunes to remind you exactly why they were B-sides in the first place. It was an odd move for Gorillaz to release a B-sides collection after only their first album had been released. Originally designed for the Japanese market to allow the public to experience several rare tracks, its release overseas seems like a needless exercise. The US release of Gorillaz' debut already featured two of the songs on here as bonus tracks ('Dracula' and 'Left Hand Suzuki Method'). To rectify this, the US version of G-Sides houses a 7 minute remix of '19-2000' and the English version of deep cut 'Latin Simone'. I'll be looking at the UK release of the album as that is genuinely considered the default version. But regardless of track listing, does G-Sides stack up against its parent release?
Like Gorillaz' debut, G-Sides branches out to a variety of different genres. The 19-2000 remix that opens the record is a blast of bubbly sunshine pop and is vastly better than the original version of the track. 'Dracula' and 'Ghost Train' (actually the first Gorillaz song record when the group was originally called just 'Gorilla') are slow moving dub workouts and 'Hip Albatross' and 'Left Hand Suzuki Method' demonstrate the band's more experimental and avant garde styles. There's a couple of odds and sods here too, including the early version of Clint Eastwood with Phi Life Cypher on the verses (The duo also appear on the highlight 'Tha Sounder') and bizarrely the radio edit of 'Rock The House!'. It's up to debate wether these are all worthwhile tracks. A few of these tracks are, as they say, a bit bad. Hip Albatross, the group's pisstake of the classic Fleetwood Mac instrumental is completely ruined by a layer of samples from Day of The Dead blaring over the music and the Radio edit of Rock The House has no reason to be Here. There's good stuff here, of course! The gentle acoustic gem '12D3' is a bit repetitive but still soothing and lovely along with 'Faust'. 'The Sounder' is a decent rap rock outing and 'Left Hand Suzuki Method' presents a blaring trip
Hop track with spoken word Japanese over it.
But seriously, does this need to exist? There's decent stuff here of course but the sheer lack of content doesn't really make this a good value for money. If you want to get this record, I recommend the Brazilian version, which combines the bonus tracks from the American version and the regular UK version into one super record. Still, there's no absolutely must own songs here. A collection for
Purists only
Standout tracks:
19-2000 (Soulchild Remix)
The Sounder
Ghost Train
Left Hand Suzuki Method
Standout lyrics:
"Let Gorillaz be your guiding light and your shining star" - The Sounder
"Gravitational pull, I'll have ya making a fool out of yourself on the dance floor - Rock The House (Radio Edit)
