While I probably wouldn’t call myself a “fan” of the band, I’ve liked plenty of their songs over the years and own a copy of FLOOD that I count among the better CDs in my collection. What this collection does is present their band to best advantage, showing off their strengths as renderers of intelligent but askew pop and downplaying their side trips into “just-plain-weird”-ville.

Disc 1 is the stronger of the pair as it avoids things like the bizarre sound collage “Fingertips” found on Disc 2. Also, some of the picks on Disc 2 aren’t as solid as on Disc 1. “No!”, the band’s foray into children’s music, really wasn’t that strong an outing but there were 2 good songs found there in antonym ode “Lazyhead and Sleepybones” and philosophical “Where do they Make Balloons?” but those two were shunted aside in favor of the inferior title track. “Stormy Pinkness” is pretty awful sound quality and not that involving a track.

Ultimately, disc 2 is redeemed by great tracks like “How can I sing like a girl?”, a celebration of the man who guided the U.S. through Western expansion (“James K. Polk”), a live take on “She’s actual size” that outstrips the studio take, and “S-E-X-X-Y”.

so great!