CD Reviews

Old 97's | Too Far To Care [15th Anniversary Edition]

Omnivore Records (2012)

By DAN WEISS | October 3, 2012

4.0 Stars

What if the Beatles didn't have an audience? That's a crude way of putting the seminal talent of Old 97's vs. the size of their cult, a small swatch of rock fans not put off by Rhett Miller's extra-Texan twang and country fans who could stomach Philip Peeples's steamroller rhythms in 1997, when they made this, their Rum Sodomy and the Lash. Born for heavy rotation on a radio station that doesn't exist, three of the love-anxiety tunes on Too Far To Care are among rock's all-time greatest anthems: "Time Bomb," "Barrier Reef," and "Big Brown Eyes." Hear those before you croak, preferably in this edition, with four winning outtakes (including one that mentions Johnny Cash's "Wreck of the Old 97," and Murry Hammond's "No Doubt," which tops the original record's "W. Tx Teardrops") and a full disc of demos that highlight Miller's lone-guitar-with-voice abilities even without his incredible band's piston-pounding execution.

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