95%
Poison Idea—The Best of Poison Idea (2000)
Details
These songs were originally released on separate CDs except “Leaning to scream” which was 7″ vinyl only until now. Released on Taang! Records, 2000.
Band
Pick Your King EP (1983) — tracks 16–28
- Jerry A (aka Jerry Lang)—Vocals
- Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts—Guitar
- Glen Estes—Bass
- Dean Johnson—Drums
Kings of Punk (1986) — tracks 4–15
Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes EP (1984) — tracks 29–40
- Jerry A (aka Jerry Lang)—Vocals
- Tom “Pig Champion” Roberts—Guitar
- Chris Tense—Bass
- Dean Johnson—Drums
Learning Scream 7″ (1998) — tracks 1–3
- Jerry A (aka Jerry Lang)—Vocals
- Ian Miller—Guitar
- Chris Tense—Bass
- Dean Johnson—Drums
Tracks
- Learning to scream
- Another place
- Xerox frustrate
- Lifestyles
- Short fuse
- God not god
- Ugly American
- Subtract
- Cop an attitude
- Death wish kids
- Made to be broken
- Tormented imp
- One by one
- Out of the picture
- Untitled
- Think twice
- It’s an action
- Thing called progress
- In my headache
- Underage
- Self abuse
- Cult band
- Last one
- Pure hate
- Castration
- Reggae (I hate)
- Give it up
- Think fast
- A.A.
- Legalize freedom
- Cold comfort
- Typical
- Thorn in my side
- Laughing boy
- Rubber husband
- I gotta right (written by Iggy Pop)
- Rich get richer
- Don’t like it here
- Die on your knees
- Time to go
Review
Thanks mainly to Suicidal Tendencies’ early albums and The Misfits I have quite a soft spot for American hardcore punk. This compilation album from Portland, Oregon punks Poison Idea certainly doesn’t disappoint.
The album comprises their first three releases: Pick Your King 7″ EP (1983), Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes 12″ EP (1984), Kings of Punk (1986), plus the much later Learning to Scream 7″ EP (1998).
There is a marked difference in production quality between the earliest release (tracks 16–28) and the later releases surrounding it. But it doesn’t detract much from the enjoyment of the songs, although in general I do prefer the song-writing on the later tracks.
Poison Idea were seemingly influenced by southern Californian bands like Black Flag, Discharge, and The Germs. I wouldn’t be surprised if Poison Idea themselves then went on to influence the bands in neighbouring Washington state who launched the grunge sound a decade later, like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
There is a raw, energetic honesty to these songs; they are heavy but melodic and played with fervour. “Tormented imp” (track 12) for example (which is probably my favourite song on the compilation) has a wonderful stomp, and lyrics spat out with passion.
Conclusion
While I complained in my last review that many of the songs sounded much the same, for some reason it really doesn’t matter quite so much on this album. Perhaps it wasn’t the homogeneity that was the issue, perhaps it was the soul, the humanity, the passion. And by ‘eck, this album has plenty of that.
This album surprised me. I didn’t expect to enjoy it as much as I have. And ‘enjoy’ is definitely the word: I didn’t just like it, I enjoyed it. It’s definitely the best hardcore album I’ve listened to during this project.
Review score: 95%