Boston Spaceships: Out of the Universe by Sundown: The Greatest Hits of Boston Spaceships

 Boston Spaceships: Out of the Universe by Sundown: The Greatest Hits of Boston Spaceships

2012

Fire Records

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1.You Satisfy Me  2. John The Dwarf Wants To Become An Angel 3. Earmarked For Collision  4. Question Girl All Right  5 .Make A Record For Lo-life  6.  Headache Revolution 7. Tabby And Lucy 8. Canned Food Demons 9. How Wrong You Are 10. Come On Baby Grace 11. German Field Of Shadows 12. Let It Rest For A Little While 13.  Big O Gets An Earful 14. In The Bathroom (Up 1/2 The Night)  15. Tourist UFO 

 

Hooo my God, this is great...I went over yesterday about how I skipped all the other  Boston Spaceships albums and went straight to this...Which in a  way, was kind of exciting...I know a few people whose first Guided by Voices album was "Human Amusements at Hourly Rates" and I've have always been somewhat envious of them...I would love to find that much great stuff in one place...Well, now I can fully relate to that experience...

By the way, I've always assumed that the band name was in reference to the cool spaceships on the Boston album covers...

(I used to have this album...It's one you don't really need to own becaise classic rock radio plays its entire contents all the time...I do have a T-shirt of it though...)

(Man, they don't do album covers like this anymore...I want to live in this album cover...)

(In posting this "Third Stage" cover I was reading the text on the site I stole the photo from, and it was talking about the album's giant hit "Amanda." I was racking my brain, trying to remember it...Since it was a hit from 1986, it seems like there was no way I couldn't have heard it, so I turned to youtube...Holy shit, I totally forgot about this song! I must have heard it 10 million times, but probably not since 1987...This song makes me want to put on a tuxedo and slow dance with a big-haired 80's girl...)

...Anyway, the band name is in reference to Boston Creme Donuts...

...which are as good, if not better than the Boston album covers...

Anyway, "Out of the Universe by Sundown" features 15 tracks, chosen by Robert Pollard himself, showcasing some of the power-pop highlights  from the overlooked Boston Spaceships albums...

From their 2008 debut  "Brown Submarine" we have "You Satisfy Me" which is, in all seriousness, one of the greatest songs I've ever heard in my entire life...It's essentially a series of effortless hooks... Your life is not complete until you've heard it 10,000 times...Somehow it's not even the best song on the album, but it does come in a very close second...

"Canned Food Demons," "Big O' Gets an Earful,"  and "Headache Revolution" all come from 2009's
Planets Are Blasted." The latter two are Big, Quadrophenia style rock...Perfect for swinging your mic around..."Canned Food Demons" is a noisy indie-punk blast with a good singalong chorus...

Boston Spaceships also released the album"Zero to 99: in 2009...From this record we have the inexplicably tender "Question Girl All Right" that makes you feel so warm and fuzzy about some "Equestrian Question Girl."  "Let It Rest For A Little While" sounds like one of those essential latter-day Guided by Voices cuts...An infectious wonder in the style of "The Best of Jill Hives."

Most exciting of all, though is "How Wrong You Are" which unexpectedly catapults itself into my top five or so Robert Pollard songs...This is why I love music so much...This song contains one of the drop-dead coolest moments in his career...The  part where the other instruments drop out and it's just the electric guitar and Robert Pollard singing:

" I live a stuntman's life, 

Support my Mother and Wife, 

I never know how wrong you are..."

I swear to you the chorus is the catchiest thing I ever heard in my life...Especially at the end when it's sung all falsetto like some sort of boy's choir...Check out the video below if you don't believe me! But I'm warning you, it's going to get so embedded in your head that you'll have to have it surgically removed...

See! I warned you!

 

From 2010's "Our Cubehouse Still Rocks" (which is an incredible title for an album!) we have "In The Bathroom (Up 1/2 The Night)," "Come On Baby Grace,"  and "John The Dwarf Wants To Become An Angel."   You probably wouldn't know it by the title, but "John The Dwarf Wants To Become An Angel" is a beautiful, melancholy rock song..."Come On Baby Grace" is also a personal favorite...You must air guitar while this crunchy riff is playing... 

We also get a whopping 5 tracks from the band's final album "Let it Beard." "Earmarked For Collision," "Make A Record For Lo-life," "Tabby and Lucy," "German Field Of Shadows" and
Tourist U.F.O. are all just as spectacular as I said they were yesterday....I probably would have traded the bizarre horn-heavy "German Field of Shadows" for "Inspiration Points," "The Vicelords" or "Christmas Girl" but that's quibbling...They're all great..

This is a killer compilation that sits quite nicely next to "Human Amusements at Hourly Rates"...



 or "Crickets:Best of the Fading Captain Series 1999-2007"

 So let's check out "Tabby and Lucy" by Boston Spaceships...Enjoy..

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