Lake of Tears - Greatest Tears Vol. I (2004)

Now I love Lake of Tears, at least when they're on their game, and I'm sure I am not the only soul in the world to feel this way. But after five albums, the band was still relatively obscure. To this day, even, the band remains without the pageantry due them. Having filled out their contracts with Black Mark via The Neonai, a good but hastily assembled album high on electronics, they were free. But the clan of Quorthon were apparently not finished with the band, and the lemon required a few more squeezes into the tea. So in 2004 we got not just one pair of compilations, but two compilations of previously released material called Greatest Tears Vol. I and II. Which brings me back to my earlier statement...Lake of Tears is a fucking spectacular band (for the most part), but how do they warrant a Greatest Hits package? Never mind two of them! The band is not Billy Joel, and they're not Otis Redding, so why, why, why?

The sad part of this is that the cover art for these comps would have been perfect for a re-issue of the band's first two albums, which were becoming a little scarce by this point. But instead, it's the gallows for us: two discs full of songs we already own as Lake of Tears fans. And assuming there are plenty of individuals out there who were not privy to the band by 2004, I would swiftly direct them to ordering a copy of Headstones or A Crimson Cosmos before being fleeced by this latest edition of corporate snake oil.

The track list is randomly scattered about the band's first five albums, with no real logical order aside from an assumed 'emotional' impact. This begins with "Burn Fire Burn" and then proceeds to "Dreamdemons", from the Headstones album, which is also represented with "Twilight" and "Sweetwater". From A Greater Art we are given "Under the Crescent" and "As Daylight Yields", and A Crimson Cosmos proxies include "The Four Strings of Mourning" and "Boogie Bubble". More recent material is shoveled onto the end of the CD, including "Otherwheres" and "The Homecoming" off Forever Autumn and lastly "Sorcerers" from The Neonai.

I can't fault the selections, because really, unless you're going to stack the album with mediocrity from Forever Autumn, you can't exactly go wrong...the songs flow well enough in this order but that's only because they are so good to begin with, and only "The Homecoming" here is one to really skip if you want a solid listening experience. However, since we live in an age of digital files, and we can all make our own playlists (and we could in '04), there is just no reason for the compilation's existence. Buy the albums, skip this shit, and rue the misuse of the cover art. Fuck, just think if they would have re-pressed Forever Autumn with one of these covers. Wouldn't fix the music, but it'd be a start...

Verdict: Epic Fail [0/10]

http://www.lakeoftears.net/