''JoCo Looks Back'' is a

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

by American internet comedy musician

Jonathan Coulton Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are " Co ...

. The title comes from Coulton's nickname, ''JoCo''. It is his first 'greatest hits' compilation and his first of three compilation albums, the others being the live concert recording '' Best. Concert. Ever'' and ''Jonathan Coulton's Greatest Hit (Plus 13 Other Songs)'', a compilation created for the

Humble Music Bundle Humble Bundle, Inc. is a online distribution, digital storefront for video games, which grew out of its original offering of Humble Bundles, collections of games sold at a Pay what you want, price determined by the purchaser and with a portion of ...

. The album features 20 previously released tracks from Coulton's first four studio albums, plus the two EPs ''Our Bodies, Ourselves, Our Cybernetic Arms'' and ''Where Tradition Meets Tomorrow''. The album was released on October 22, 2008. " Code Monkey" was accidentally released in mono on the previous album ''

Thing a Week Three Thing or The Thing may refer to: Philosophy * An object * Broadly, an entity * Thing-in-itself (or ''noumenon''), the reality that underlies perceptions, a term coined by Immanuel Kant * Thing theory, a branch of critical theory that focuses ...

''. It was properly released in stereo for this compilation by Jonathan Coulton. All other songs on the CD are the same as on previous releases. Like most of Coulton's music, the songs are protected under the

Creative Commons license A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work".A "work" is any creative material made by a person. A painting, a graphic, a book, a song/lyrics ...

Track listing

Background

The album was recorded from 2002 - 2006 in Coulton's hometown of

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Most of the songs on it are about intentionally random or lighthearted topics, but some, like ''A Talk With George'' or ''You Ruined Everything'', are more serious with their sound and message. According to Coulton, he had the idea of "Mr. Fancy Pants" rattling around in his head for a while, but rarely performed the song live since it has no real ending and, as he said himself, doesn’t make sense. History was made on September 14, 2007 when Coulton used his newly-purchased

Zendrum A Zendrum is a hand-crafted MIDI controller that is used as a percussion instrument. The Zendrum was influenced by the "Drumitar," invented by Future Man. There are several Zendrum models that are well-suited for live performances: the Z1, ZX, E ...

to remix the song live as a solo in the middle of other songs.

Personnel

All instruments are played by Jonathan Coulton.

References

2008 compilation albums Jonathan Coulton albums Comedy albums by American artists Folk compilation albums {{2000s-folk-album-stub