Thoughts on the Tracklist for the Palace Best-of

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This is just what the doctor ordered for me...I like a lot of Will Oldham songs but can't sit through the albums (outside of I See a Darkness). So what do y'all who know more than me think of the tracklisting:

01 New Partner
02 Ohio River Boat Song
03 Gulf Shores
04 You Will Miss Me When I Burn
05 The Brute Choir
06 I Send My Love to You
07 More Brother Rides
08 Agnes, Queen of Sorrow
09 Viva Ultra
10 Pushkin
11 Horses
12 Riding
13 West Palm Beach
14 No More Workhorse Blues
15 I Am a Cinematographer

Also, according to Pitchfork, they are being re-recorded, which worries me.

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm excited about the re-recording...he's got guys that worked with Alan Jackson in the studio, I think it will be interesting to see what a slicker, more trad country sound does for Will....his singing seems to be getting more conventional lately (or at least less warbly and more on key)....At least it will be something different, as greatest hits CDs seem a little beside the point in the ipod era or whatever...

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 16:47 (twenty-two years ago)

He's just rerecording them so that I'll feel like I have to buy it, since I already have at least 12 of those songs on other records. That fucking jerk!

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 16:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Especially since the more I think about it, the more I am gonna have to buy this.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 16:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I would have liked to see: "Little Blue Eyes" "Lost Blues" "Weaker Soldier" and "For the Mekons, et. al." OR it should have had no overlap with the two singles collections and been a sort of companion piece to them... But this does look quite good. I'll download it.

― flightsatdusk (flightsatdusk), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

l'll download it.

gee, thanks so much!

― Will Oldham (Tommy), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Is this just material under the Palace name, then? No Bonnie Prince Billy?

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 17:00 (twenty-two years ago)

it's a shame that there's nothing from Arise, Therefore. But the prospect of re-recordings is exciting; we've had a few threads on the ways he's changed things around in live versions and stuff. I'll probably listen before I buy, but eventually I probably will buy it.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 17:10 (twenty-two years ago)

It's one of the few albums I'm really looking forward to right now. Just because of the re-recordings, really. For me, a song like "More Brother Rides" hinges entirely on the "sloppiness" of the playing/recording. While it's very apparent there's a great song in there somewhere, the recordings are just as important to me. I'm looking forward to seeing where he goes with it (a lot); maybe I trust him too much.

It's too bad there's nothing from the last three cause they're my favorites, but they were comparitively a lot slicker anyway.

― Sonny A. (Keiko), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 17:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd love to hear his shit slicked up. I'd also like to see him get a shave and a store-bought haircut. but that's just me.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 17:53 (twenty-two years ago)

dunno,i can't imagine the brute choir being in any way improved by a slicked up version
id be curious to hear this though

― robin (robin), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

i'll buy it, but how can you have a best of w/o "riding" or "drunk at the pulpit"?

― dan (dan), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

well, weren't the tracks voted on? I seem to recall a thread about this last spring.
It's your fault for not voting often enough, Dan.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 19:05 (twenty-two years ago)

"12 Riding"

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Would it be better if Alan Jackson just sang the songs & we cut Will out altogether?

― Mark (MarkR), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I was gonna say, "Riding" is on there. I'm completely excited by the re-recordings and the tracklist is excellent. Everybody's got favorites ("Mountain," "O How I Enjoy the Light," "Cat's Blues" being mine). But overall, it's nice and should hold up as an album.

― scott m (mcd), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 21:15 (twenty-two years ago)

four months pass...

i guess this is will's version of those innumerable scab "greatest hits" re-recordings done by country (and other) artists until the 80s or so (it still happens, but infrequently). (it is will's "gord's gold," really.) one of those drag city jokes that seems at once academic and somehow promising.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 07:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Apparently, the story was that one of his earlies fave records was an 3verly broth3rs greatest hits album where, for what I belive were contractual reasons, they covered their own songs. Some of the songs are out and out gems, some sound like they might just be jokes ( I Send My Love to You, I am a cinematographer).

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 08:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Drag City put up an mp3 of Blokbuster that was an outtake from this record. It's good. When people slsk this off of me, 9 x out of 10 they don't take it with them. Odd.
Anyway... There's a secret Palace mp3 barn out there somewhere. I wonder if they've got more outtakes.

― Mike Dixon, Wednesday, 2 June 2004 10:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Why is it a secret?

― hmmm (hmmm), Wednesday, 2 June 2004 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

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