Elastica

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
It all began with the perfect pop moment of "Stutter," and then everyone wondered if Elastica had it in them to produce more sublime songs. Elastica showed that they did. Never quite as much Britpop as Birdpop, Justine Frischmann parlayed a Bryan Ferry hairstyle into an individual take on the world with material like "Car Song" and "2:1," while the rest of the band showed that they were along for more than just the ride. And if they owed a debt to Wire, well, it was all paid in the end (out of the royalties). The question was, could they ever follow it up? Chris Nickson --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Album Description
Import edition of their Brit Pop classic that spawned many hit singles. Tracks, 'Line Up', 'Annie', 'Connection', 'Car Song', 'Smile', 'Hold Me Now', 'S.O.F.T.', 'Indian Song', 'Blue', 'All-Nighter', 'Waking Up', '2:1', 'See That Animal', 'Stutter', 'Neve --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Tracks:

Line Up
Annie
Connection
Car Song
Smile
Hold Me Now
S.O.F.T.
Indian Song
Blue
All-Nighter
Waking Up
2:1
See That Animal
Stutter
Never Here
Vaseline

Amazon.com

It all began with the perfect pop moment of "Stutter," and then everyone wondered if Elastica had it in them to produce more sublime songs. Elastica showed that they did. Never quite as much Britpop as Birdpop, Justine Frischmann parlayed a Bryan Ferry hairstyle into an individual take on the world with material like "Car Song" and "2:1," while the rest of the band showed that they were along for more than just the ride. And if they owed a debt to Wire, well, it was all paid in the end (out of the royalties). The question was, could they ever follow it up? Chris Nickson

Album Description

Import edition of their Brit Pop classic that spawned many hit singles. Tracks, 'Line Up', 'Annie', 'Connection', 'Car Song', 'Smile', 'Hold Me Now', 'S.O.F.T.', 'Indian Song', 'Blue', 'All-Nighter', 'Waking Up', '2:1', 'See That Animal', 'Stutter', 'Neve

Customer Reviews:

Freshman Year of High School.......2007-04-10

I've been trying this experiment lately. It all started when I heard a song on an episode of [...] As Folk that I absolutely loved and played endlessly. Suddenly, I was swept up in nostalgia, and I was recalling my Sophomore year of university in waves and waves of emotions, sounds and smells and memories that I didn't even know I had. So, I went further into this experiment and began dragging out old mixes and albums.

Here I found Elastica. Sigh. I was about 13, it was my Freshman year of high school. There was this girl on the bus that I knew because we had been riding the same route for a few years. One day, I hear her humming "Car Lover" and I began singing along to it. We became fast friends.

This is playing in my car right now. "Stutter", "Hold Me Now", "Annie", and of course "Hold Me Now" neatly sum up this album for me. I recommended it highly.

Great album from a great band.......2006-11-27

Short, catchy tunes decorated with excellent harmonies, solid drumming, and sophisticated arrangements. The lyrics lament, attack, and celebrate various relationships and, more importantly (or in the case of Stutter, impotently) SEX. Three people who can play their guitars and create lovely harmonies and counterpoint among them. Two guitarists who play on and around the beat. Lots and lots of energy. A bassist who knows how to properly employ the almighty hook. Wonderful energetic british rock.

Elastica!..........2006-04-09

Definitely one of their best work! All the song on this album are totally catchy with a great rock beat!...

Perfectly good 90s music.......2005-08-08

As has been noted in nearly every published review of this CD, and as even a superficial listen to it bears out, Elastica was influenced by Wire. To complain about this, however, is like complaining that The Rolling Stones were influenced by Chuck Berry, that Interpol were influenced by Joy Division, or that REM were influenced by The Velvet Underground, The Byrds, and Big Star. Music is a continuum, an evolving dialog with listeners. That Elastica use Wire as a starting point is perfectly fine with me! Our heroine's troubles with heroin meant that her muse was killed as quickly as it came, but she left behind a very nice monument to the sounds of agitated punk girl group rock - circa mid 1990s (now a decade old). No, it's not groundbreaking or original, but it is good. If any of the foregoing review interests you, check this CD out. If not, you'll survive if you pass it by.

This band desperately wants to be Wire........2005-06-11

Yeah, they had some catchy songs and got substantial radio and television play, but I just can't bring myself to like Elastica.

I think the biggest problem I have with them is how blatantly they rip off the late-70's British no-wave band, Wire. Justine's singing style, the guitar sounds, the song structure...Elastica crosses beyong simple homage and charges headfirst into lame imitation.

The kicker is the song, "Connection," which is --ironically enough-- lauded in so many reviews here. This song is an almost note for note theft of Wire's song, "Three Girl Rhumba," off of their album "Pink Flag." The abrasive, cutting guitar line, the drum line, the bass line... The only real difference between "Connection" and "Three Girl Rhumba" are the lyrics and a guitar slide every 2nd bar. Elastica's song "Line Up" is a similar too-close-for-comofort "homage" of Wire's song "I am the Fly."

There was even a lawsuit in the 90's which resulted in a substantial out of court settlement in favor of Wire.

Bottom line -- if Elastica sounds interesting to you, do yourself a favor and pick up Wire's "Pink Flag."

Average customer rating:

3/4 of this c.d. is good
. . .
help me!
HOLY MOLY!
only 2 good songs

Dead Man On Campus (Soundtrack)
Marilyn Manson , Blur , and Elastica
Manufacturer: Dreamworks
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Movie Soundtracks | Soundtracks | Styles | Music

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Scream 3 (2000 Film)
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The Scorpion King
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ASIN: B000009NTA
Release Date: 1998-08-04

Tracks:

Golden Years - Marilyn Manson
Cowboy Song - Blur
Human - Elastica
We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give) - Supergrass
Paint By Numbers - Self
Realize (Chemical Brothers Remix) - Dust Brothers
Super Bon Bon (Propellerheads Mix) - Soul Coughing
Organizized - Powerman 5000
Bound & Tied - Creed
Sleeper - Audioweb
Walking In The Dark - Goldfinger
When The Curtain Calls For You - Jonathan Fire Eater
Empty Ships - Lagoon
I Only Want To Be With You - Twiggy & Twiggy

Amazon.com

Thanks to a superb rerecording of "We Still Need More (Than Anyone Can Give)" by Supergrass, along with a new Elastica track ("Human"), this soundtrack will be a must buy for Anglophiles everywhere. The rest is a mixed bag that may please fans of those featured, but may not sit well with others. Marilyn Manson's remake of Bowie's "Golden Years" gets a mixed review, as does Manson bassist Twiggy Ramirez's collaboration with '60s supermodel Twiggy that is a cover of Dusty Springfield's "I Only Want to Be with You." Both songs are fun, but the novelty will wear quickly. Other notable tracks include the Beck-like "Cowboy Song" by Blur, a Propellerheads mix of Soul Coughing's "Super Bon Bon," and "Empty Ships" by Creeper Lagoon. --Aaron Tassano

Customer Reviews:

3/4 of this c.d. is good.......2000-07-23

While I am in no way, shape, or form a marilyn manson fan, I did enjoy the song "Golden Years". That is probably because it is a David Bowie song, and not an offensive manson song. The rest of the c.d. does have its high points. "Paint By Number" by Self, and "When the Curtain Calls For You" by Jonathan Fire Eater, are particularly worth listening too. All in all, it is a good c.d., though they didn't include some of the great songs in the movie, on the soundtrack.

. . ........2000-07-08

I bought this cd to hear the golden years Manson's version. It was okay; sort of disapointing. The rest was plain annoying except for the twigy and twigy song.

help me!.......2000-04-12

does any1 know that techno song that they plays in this movie? while he turn on the stero? Email me at babymoo7@hotmail.com

HOLY MOLY!.......2000-04-10

Sure beats Vanilla Ice. It's the exact same music from the movie. Run to Block Buster and watch the movie. If you like the movie then you'll like this. If not then go play flight sTimulator or something.

only 2 good songs.......1999-10-10

I bought this CD only for the Creed song Bound an d Tied, and its the best one on the CD. Cowboy Song, and Golden Years aren't bad. I hate all the other songs. CREED ROCKS.

Average customer rating:

Still fine after all this time
An overlooked gem
I tried to love this cd
one of their best!
this new sound "almost" worked

The Menace
Elastica
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Elastica
The Radio One Sessions
6 Track EP (How He Wrote Elastica Man)
Republica
The Good, the Bad & the Queen

ASIN: B00004VW28
Release Date: 2000-08-22

Tracks:

Mad Dog
Generator
How He Wrote Elastica Man
Image Change
Your Arse My Place
Human
Nothing Stays The Same
Miami Nice
Love Like Ours
KB
My Sex
The Way I Like It
Da Da Da

Amazon.com

Elastica's second album, The Menace, comes a full five years after their million-selling, self-titled debut. A long wait, to say the least, but The Menace doesn't find Elastica making a radical change from the angular pop of their first album. The departure of guitarist Donna Matthews (who still plays on two tracks, "How He Wrote Elastica Man"--which also features the Fall's Mark E. Smith--and "Image Change") steered the band away from their punkier leanings and allowed them to fully explore the new wave path that they started down way back in 1995. Keyboards and synths now blend more completely with their spiky guitars, as do cheesy Casio tone beats and retro-futuristic samples, resulting in such hyperenergetic numbers as "Mad Dog" and "Your Arse My Place." Elastica still wear their influences on their sleeves--yep, they sure do like Wire--and they even manage to fit a legitimate cover onto the album (Trio's 1982 hit "Da Da Da"). Five years on, The Menace sees Elastica on the same ground as their debut, but rather than simply retreading it, they just dig deeper and unearth more treasures. --Robert Burrow

Customer Reviews:

Still fine after all this time.......2005-02-14

After a hit first album, which remains a classic and great favourite, there was a five-year gap before the follow-up arrived in 2000. Studio perfectionists, after some eventful years of work, they had ditched the lot and re-recorded the bulk of the album in a few weeks, only to see the album flop upon release.

A tour followed in which the band felt they were regularly blown off stage by the support act, Peaches, who was accompanied only by a beat box, so, considering wryly their banks of equipment and teams of support, they split up.

I suppose the market must have changed after the first record, because the music is still fine, highly entertaining in fact. I had been surprised not to come across it in second-hand shops - perhaps those who did buy it had hung on to it. Justine Frischmann and Elastica are much missed and needed at the present time

An overlooked gem.......2004-09-11

Post-Punk perfection. I have read many bad reviews of this album on other sites. I don't understand. Much better than their first.

I tried to love this cd.......2004-04-27

There was so much to look forward to on The Menace. Unfortunitely where Justine et Elastica delivered one of the best albums of the 1990's, they fall very much off the mark here. But is it a bad album? No there are certainly enough songs that are good and fun, but it is not the overall listening experience that their self titled debut was. A debut so good that invariably everyone will compare their second and only album to.

But in Defence of Elastica, this is a different album with a different goal and a nearly soap operetic change in the band. Unfortunitely even taken as its own entity, without comparison to the first Elastica CD, The Menace is an average effort at best and perhaps a harbinger to the band's destruction shortly there after.

Elastica is dead, long live Elastica.

one of their best!.......2004-03-06

This is art-punk at its best!

this new sound "almost" worked.......2003-09-29

wow. well. hum. i didn't see that one coming. a very weird follow up to much raved about debut. but at least they tried something different. the tongue & cheek thing really over takes this album :) check out the track How He Wrote Elastica Man. lol. what is up with that, huh. it's like a cheerleader chant. and then of course we have My Sex (sorry folks but i love that one). i like Nothing Stays the Same alot too. it sounds like a leftover track from the 80s. Miami Nice is a nice instrumental (sorry for the pun). and Da Da Da is pretty damn catchy. this is an interesting expertment from the band and there is some good tracks on here. sadly thou. there is also some crap. oh well it's a good idea but it's hit and miss. i think when it does hit it's very good thou. and you have to love that album cover :)

Average customer rating:

A nice late 90s collection
The wonderful world of Beck

Buy-Product 2: Brief Encounters
Boss Hog , Skiploader , Beck , Loud Lucy , Elastica , Maria McKee , Jawbreaker , The Sugarplastic , Southern Culture On The Skids , and Various Artists
Manufacturer: Geffen Gold Line Sp.
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tracks:

Winn Coma - Boss Hog
Synonym - Skiploader
Novacane - Beck
Down Baby - Loud Lucy
Blue (Donna's 4-Track Demo) - Elastica
Absolutely Barking Stars - Maria McKee
Chemistry - Jawbreaker
Montebello - The Sugarplastic
Vow - Garbage
Red Beans N' Reverb - Southern Culture On The Skids
Pretty - The Raincoats
Fight It (If You Want) - The Posies
Pass You By - Gillian Welch
Encyclopedi-Ite - Sammy
Temenos (Here Come The Shakes) - Remy Zero
Honky Time - James Hall
All Over Now - Aimee Mann
Not Perfect - Hog
Speaking Confidentially - Cowboy Junkies
Little Trouble Girl (Instrumental) - Sonic Youth

Customer Reviews:

A nice late 90s collection.......2004-08-20

I just bought this CD used, and I feel it was worth buying because although I knew about half the artists already (ex: Beck, Garbage, SCOTUS, Aimee Mann) I am also really digging the tracks from groups I don't already know.

Here are my quick & dirty impressions...
1- straight ahead loud punk-influenced rock
2- late 80s sound a la "Melt With You" - not my fave
3- Beck is great and this is a good choice
4- softer than Nirvana/Foo Fighters but reminds me of them
5- twee version of an Elastica song. Lo-fi and pretty harmonies
6- slow rock, female vocals. Doesn't grab me.
7- ditto #1
8- A little surf music influence, big drums, heavily distorted vox. I like.
9- Garbage - they are great.
10- SCOTUS - an instrumental. Surf music meets the funky South.
11- reminds me of the obscure band Shakespear's Sister. Not my fave.
12- light pop, male vox
13- nice countryish song, female vox. k.d. lang-ish
14- lo-fi pop
15- more lo-fi pop, multiple vocals, lots of percussion
16- pop rock, kind of generic
17- Aimee Mann, this is great, it's on her album
18- hard rock'n, like Green Day
19- funky slowish rock with dreamy female vox
20- like #19 but no vox, a little surf music-y

The wonderful world of Beck.......2000-11-16

I really enjoyed this cd when I first was introduced to the group Beck a year ago by a friend. I love them and especially this album. They create a great combination of lyrics and instrumental to make you want to listen to them all night long. As far as alternative bands go I consider them among the top artists. They have a kookie unique style that is all their own, but that isn't so far out there that it really isn't good listening music. If you like music that is a little more up beat, mellow enough to groove to and yet still a little different then you will love this cd and this band. Go out and find some more of their music to rock to and enjoy!

Average customer rating:

Freshman Year of High School
Great album from a great band
Elastica!...
Perfectly good 90s music
This band desperately wants to be Wire.

Elastica
Elastica
Manufacturer: Import [Generic]
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Menace
Republica
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Last Splash
Suede

ASIN: B000024GWV
Release Date: 1995-03-20

Tracks:

Line Up
Annie
Connection
Car Song
Smile
Hold Me Now
S.O.F.T.
Indian Song
Blue
All-Nighter
Waking Up
2:1
Vaseline
Never Here
Stutter

Amazon.com

Album Description

Customer Reviews:

Freshman Year of High School.......2007-04-10

Great album from a great band.......2006-11-27

Elastica!..........2006-04-09

Definitely one of their best work! All the song on this album are totally catchy with a great rock beat!...

Perfectly good 90s music.......2005-08-08

This band desperately wants to be Wire........2005-06-11

Average customer rating:

Rough and ready
not their best, but a good preview for "The Menace"
a disappointment

6 Track EP (How He Wrote Elastica Man)
Elastica
Manufacturer: Deceptive Records / Vital
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Menace
The Radio One Sessions
Elastica

ASIN: B00001ZTYN
Release Date: 1999-09-07

Tracks:

How He Wrote Elastica Man
Nothing Stays The Same (Donna's Home Demo)
Miami Nice (Home Recording)
Kb
Operate (Live Version)
Generator

Album Description

Six song EP featuring the first new material in four years from the hit English indie pop group. All tracks are previously unreleased. Contains 'How He Wrote Elastica Man', 'Miami Nice' (Home Recording), 'Generator', 'Operate' (Live Version), 'KB' (with The Fall's Mark E. Smith as guest vocalist) and a home demo version of 'Nothing Stays The Same' by former band member Donna Matthews. Digipak. 1999 release.

Album Details

Elastica Return with their First New Material in Four Years with this UK Only Six Track EP. All Are New Recordings and the Selections Reflect the Changed Line-Up.

Customer Reviews:

Rough and ready.......2007-01-16

No, this is not the glossy, radio-friendly Elastica you know from the first record. Instead, you get Mark E. Smith doing his trademark "Northern white cr@p that talks back" amphetamine howl all over How He Wrote Elastica Man and KB (hmm, what if Justine had replaced Brix in the Fall?). These two tracks alone make this EP worthwhile for Fall fans. Incidentally, MES makes some funny comments about working with Elastica here:pennybroadhurst.c*m/mesinterview.htm

The other standout is Operate, a raw and energetic track. This is what Elastica sounds like with all the polish and artifice stripped away: noisy and intense.

Beyond HHWEM, KB, and Operate, the rest of the EP is taken up by demos. They are interesting if you are a completist or are a fan of the second album. Otherwise, they're not essential.

not their best, but a good preview for "The Menace".......2000-08-03

I was so overjoyed to get this CD as a gift! Finally, a little something to tide us over in the 5 year + period we Elastica fans have had to wait for a new album. I won't tell you this is a must-have, actually I don't listen to this anymore now that I have the import of "The Menace." This is a good album, Elastica still rocks, get it if you're a collector, otherwise buy "The Menace" cause its the album you're looking for to follow up the stellar debut.

a disappointment.......2000-07-20

as a big fan of the band's first Lp, I have been waiting a long time for their second, so I eagerly purchased this EP when I saw that it was available, only to be sorely disappointed. There is not a single song on this EP that touches even the weakest on their debut. The songs seem half-developed, the best (ironically) being the demo that is the second track. The Fall's Mark E. Smith performs guest vocals on two tracks, both of which boast decent riffs but little else. Sadly, based on this EP, I have no intention of buying the new LP.

Average customer rating:

Ep
Elastica
Manufacturer: Msi Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000N0QYYI
Release Date: 1999-08-23

Average customer rating:

Fun but not essential--3.5 stars
Summation of a much-missed band's career
Much of the best of...

The Radio One Sessions
Elastica
Manufacturer: Koch Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Elastica
The Menace
6 Track EP (How He Wrote Elastica Man)
Angelfish
BBC in Session

ASIN: B00008XS43
Release Date: 2003-05-06

Tracks:

Annie
Spastica
Line Up
Vaseline
Brighton Rock
In The City
Waking Up
Four Wheeling
Hold Me Now
Ba Ba Ba
All For Gloria
I Wanna Be A King Of Orient Aah
Rock 'N' Roll
2:1
I Want You
Only Human
A Love Like Ours
Kb
Da Da Da
Generator
Your Arse My Place

Amazon.com

Radio 1 Sessions is an assured, spiky, and immensely enjoyable parting shot that more than justifies the furor that initially greeted Elastica's arrival on the '90s alt-rock scene. Culled from the sessions that took place between 1994 and 1999, it's heavily weighted toward songs from their eponymous debut and the ensuing singles and B-sides. Despite the band's indie celebrity status, it's worth noting that their debut sold half a million copies due to their distinctive pop-fuelled take on new wave, rather than the notoriety that surrounded them. Opening with the brittle "Annie" and careening through such gems as "Spastica," the eerie "Hold Me Now" and the synth-led "Human," the album provides a reminder of the immediacy and thrill of Elastica's songs. --Suzannah Brown

Customer Reviews:

Fun but not essential--3.5 stars.......2007-01-19

This album is a fun ride but won't cause anybody to toss out their copies of the debut album and 6-Track EP...

--These live versions point out the huge role production and mixing played in Elastica's sound, especially on songs from the first album. Justine's guitar and vocals are placed way up front in the mix which changes how everything fits together. Rather than the bassline and lead guitar riff driving the songs forward, the vocals now float over a muddy full-band roar. It doesn't ruin anything, but the songs don't instantly burrow into your brain the way they did on "Elastica."

--Devoted fans get new material for playing that time-honored Elastica game "name the influence." For instance, doesn't 'Spastica' sound like the Clash? And 'I Want You' could easily have been written by the Jesus and Mary Chain. Whoo hoo (apologies to Blur)!

--More fun for fans: hearing the band gain confidence over the first few sessions. In the earliest set, the band sounds tentative and maybe even a little exhausted on a couple of the songs. On 'Line Up' in particular, Justine's singing sounds forced and her voice doesn't have that cool sexy-but-bored quality. But by the time they hit the late '94 sessions, they're brimming with confidence and energy. Too bad things went downhill from there.

Bottom line: this album shouldn't be the first Elastica disc you pick up. Start with "Elastica" and the EP. If you dig those, "The Radio One Sessions" will give you another perspective on the band and help you to decide if you want spend time searching used-record stores (or paying big import $$$ here) for "The Menace."

Summation of a much-missed band's career.......2005-02-14

Elastica were signed by Steve Lamacq to Deceptive Records in 1993, before he joined Radio One as co-presenter of the Evening Session. Elastica managed 7 sessions for Radio One during their career up to 1999, of which four were for John Peel's programme. The first of these was in August 1993, prior to the release of their first single, Stutter (which they never recorded in a BBC session), and is included in full (although a bit of laughter and chat at the end of Annie, when Justine discovers that their bass guitarist, Annie Holland, had been stuck with a cigarette in her mouth throughout the take, has sadly been excised) and captures the spontaneity and sense of fun that the band exuded.

By the time they returned to Maida Vale in March 1994 for Steve Lamacq's show, they had been in the Top Twenty with Line-Up. Two tracks are included, the unreleased but fabulous In The City and the definitive version of Waking Up (2:1 and Connection are omitted). Another unreleased song (except in Japan), Ba Ba Ba, turns up at their next John Peel session in June along with songs that would turn up on their debut album, Four Wheeling (aka Car Song) and Hold Me Now (Never Here is left out of this release), and they came back to do a special Christmas session which included the traditional All For Gloria and I Wanna Be A King Of Orient Aah. As this version of Gloria has appeared on an official release before, I would have preferred to see Father Christmas here, or Donna Matthews' non-Xmas Blue, which was also included in the broadcast session.

Mark Radcliffe got the band in to his House Of Earthly Delights BBC studio in Manchester in March 1995 and they performed 4 songs from the just-released album. Rockunroll and 2:1 are chosen for this CD (Gloria and Car Song are not), both fine versions broadcast live to air.

During their long hiatus, a dark night of the soul for them, the band made their second appearance on the Evening Session in July 1996, previewing material from the second album (still four years away, unbeknownst to all). The session version of A Love Like Yours appeared on Volume 17 so is slightly wasted here. I Want You and The Other Side never saw the light of day on an official release, but Only Human was included on The Menace (as Human). Sadly, The Other Side does not appear on this collection either.

By the time the band, in a somewhat changed line-up, recorded their next and final session, for John Peel in September 1999, a 6-track EP of demos and alternative takes from the still-forthcoming album was in the shops, and from it they played KB and Generator, also previewing their cover of Trio's Da Da Da (the initials of Justine's ex-partner Damon Albarn) and Your Arse My Place, both to appear on the album (Mad Dog from this session is excluded here).

The collection plays well and shows the effectiveness of their tight minimal arrangements, with nothing so vulgar as a guitar or organ solo ever allowed, and leaves one keen for more. Perhaps this is a good thing but with a playing time of under 53 minutes, all the omitted session tracks would have fitted onto the CD, which would have pleased completists and put a line under one aspect of the Elastica story

Much of the best of..........2003-07-04

Covering a six-year span of live performances at the BBC, these 21 tracks show Elastica doing songs that go from the beauty of "2:1" to the stamina of "Annie", plus many non-album pieces. For instance, "Brighton Rock" and "In the City" give us a peek at what the group was doing shortly before and while recording their first album; for those of us who longed for more of that early stage, it's a bliss to recover those unequalled high spirits. After all, spontaneity is a basic element in this music. The beauty of "Waking up" (ie "Waking") and "Four Wheeling" (ie "Car Song") remains untainted in spite of the natural lack of polish of a live performance, as opposed to a studio version.

There's an incredibly finished 1996 song, "I Want You", that could have been a strong album piece. It creates a dense atmosphere with a highly dynamic synth beat that excites the listener. I think it's a masterpiece.

It's a pity that a single as great as "Stutter" wasn't commited to tape in these recordings, but Justine Frischmann insisted that "you don't do a Peel session to promote a record".

After the five "debut" sessions of 1993-95, and the middle stage of 1996, the last one, and the only devoted to "The Menace", is from 1999, while that album was painstakingly being constructed. It shows that the group hadn't lost their strength, but that they were attempting new things.