Camper Van Beethoven, Popular Songs of Great Strength and Enduring Beauty

by dave heaton

Popular Songs is essentially a greatest-hits-type retrospective compilation of the '80s oddball pop-folk-whatever group Camper Van Beethoven, with songs diehard fans love and songs that have by now made their way out into the broader pop-culture consciousness, like "Take the Skinheads Bowling" and their cover of Status Quo's "Pictures of Matchstick Men", an MTV staple once upon a time.

But it's a hits-album with a slight twist, courtesy of record-label politics. It falls into that small sub-category of 'greatest hits' albums where the band couldn't get the rights to all their songs and re-recorded them. If my memory is correct, the band's singer/guitarist, David Lowery, did the same thing with a greatest-hits album by his post-CVB band Cracker (or post- and pre-, since Camper got back together). Camper Van Beethoven just re-recorded five of the 18 songs here, the songs from the two Virgin LPs: 1988's Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart and 1989's Key Lime Pie. They're both fine albums; I'm especially partial to the first one. The re-recorded versions are spot-on, maybe too spot-on; that and the fact that almost 20 years has passed means that the transitions are odd sometimes, between the obviously young CVB and the band today.

Still, this isn't a CD where that sort of continuity matters much. It's not much of a chronological overview or any other kind of history lesson. The liner notes say little about what was done when. Instead, the emphasis is on songs. There's the bratty "Opie Rides Again/Club Med Sucks", the country slow-dance "Sad Lovers' Waltz", some ska and art-folk instrumentals (including one titled "ZZ Top Goes to Egypt"), the classic (to me at least) "One of These Days". and "Seven Languages", a catchy song that's both driven and relaxed, and somehow has a romantic air about it even though it's basically a just a trip through the non-sequitors in someone's brain. That song captures the way the band could be absurdist but at the same time grounded, relatable. The same goes for the bitter "All Her Favorite Fruit", the song that follows it. Popular Songs... is set up like a real solid Camper van Beethoven mix CD, a very listenable tour of what the band's all about.

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