There are a lot of songs on here.
2011 was the year David Comes to Life came out and I couldn't get enough of it. I'd got The Chemistry of Common Life a few years before and enjoyed it, but David Comes to Life blew me away so much more than I was expecting. From that point onwards I was a big fan of Fucked Up and decided to up my game and get some more of their records. I picked up Couple Tracks a few months later in 2011 and, on the surface, it seemed like an ideal purchase - compiling songs from their huge back-catalogue of releases, most of which I'd almost certainly never hear otherwise.
That said, after the continuity and grandeur of David Comes to Life, perhaps 25 disparate hardcore songs wasn't what I needed. I certainly remember thinking that at the time. It's a good compilation and has some great songs, but I remember finishing it and thinking I just wanted to listen to David Comes to Life again. I still get that feeling a bit. For obvious reasons, it doesn't flow like their albums do, and does drag a bit in places. Like I said, there are a lot of songs.
The highlight has to be I Hate Summer; I enjoyed that one from the first play, and like how often they seem to play it live. The opener, No Pasaran, sounds like it could be a Black Flag cover, Toronto FC has a lot in common with the later Fucked Up songs that I was more into and I Don't wanna Be Friends With You is just a great, simple hardcore song. I knew the Daytrotter songs from hearing the sessions a few years beforehand, so knew they were messed up (and not necessarily in a good way - I vaguely remember seeing a video of the show they played in a bathroom in Vienna that they mentioned somewhere too - it was on a website where they'd get bands to play in strange places around Austria). The insert has some comments from the band about each song - No Violins has a particularly funny story about Owen Pallett, who would go on to play violins on a bunch of Fucked Up albums.
I bought this record at the No Idea yard sale at Fest. The person cashing up for me had to look up the price for this one and warned me that it was a bit expensive because it was a distro record rather than one of their own - I can't remember the exchange rate at the time, but it worked out at less than £10, which was crazy cheap for a double LP. It's hard to explain to someone that everything seemed cheap because of the exchange rate without sounding like a twat, so I didn't; of course I wouldn't be laughing now. The records say "non-breakable" on them, which is a promise I'm not willing to test.
Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 26
Cost: £9.92 new
Bought: Fest
When: 30/10/11
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code
