I'm not quite sure what has motivated the timing of this release - Jason Pierce originally released this 12 years ago. However, let's set that to one side. Because the main disc is once again repackaged in the lovely pill dispenser packaging. Gorgeous.
This album is Pierce's masterpiece. It's where all of his ideas came together in a beautiful, touching, heart rending, lovelorn, astonishing whole. The world entire is here - love, loss, life, friendship, pain, joy, darkness and light. It's also ridiculously, ludicrously ambitious, but it hits every single target Pierce aims for. It's uplifting and utterly depressing. Joyful and miserable. One of the albums of the 90s. Possibly, although whisper it quietly, the album of the 90s (OK, probably not, but top five, certainly. It's that good) As an aside, it also contains my all time favourite sung punctuation (the comma in "Broken Heart" - "I've been told that it will heal, given time". Listen to it and you'll see what I mean)
And the two bonus discs are packed full of ideas, demos and alternate versions. Do I need a further seven (seven, count em!) versions of the title track? No, of course not. But if you are a bit of a geek like me, it is interesting hearing his ideas come together and evolve before turning into the masterful final version.
The earlier albums were him shaping his ideas, and whilst fabulous in places, they never came together as a consistent whole as this album does. And afterwards, he was too inconsistent - brilliant occasionally. But here he got it all right. Deserved to sell 10 million. Probably sold 10,000. There's no justice.