Artist: Warlocks
Album: Rise and Fall: EP and Rarities

Okay. I’ll say it. The last couple Warlocks albums sucked. Somewhere along the way they lost the plot, churning out boring, polished, Phil Spectory pop and aimless druggy noise. If I wanted my narcotic jams polished and sucky, I’d listen to the Dandy Warhols or latter-day Brian Jonestown Massacre. I don’t. So it’s a relief that they’ve packaged all of their (briefly out-of-print) good stuff into one package. 2001’s Rise and Fall was my introduction into the fuzzy, V.U.-inspired world of the Warlocks, and what a depressingly enjoyable world it was, all long rumbly jams and Kinks via the hopped-up-on-pills era Stones pop songs. 2000’s EP is just as good, if not a more concise slice of all the things the early Warlocks did so well, infusing their hazy tunes with genuine feeling, something I think they’ve lost sight of in recent years. And guess what? The bonus stuff (mostly) doesn’t suck! “Inside/Outside” is positively a monster – on par with anything that made the album – and “Dilaudid” is a hazy acoutic keeper, as well. Bonus, indeed. Good stuff. (Zap Banana)