''Oddballs'' is a compilation album by

Frank Black Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV (born April 6, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the alternative rock band Pixies, with whom he performs under the stage name Black Francis. F ...

, released in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

. The album includes various B-sides and

outtake An outtake is a portion of a work (usually a film or music recording) that is removed in the editing process and not included in the work's final, publicly released version. In the digital era, significant outtakes have been appended to CD and D ...

s that were recorded between 1994 and 1997. The album was only available for sale at Frank Black & the Catholics shows or on

eMusic eMusic is an online music and audiobook store that operates by subscription. In exchange for a monthly subscription eMusic users can download a fixed number of MP3 tracks per month. eMusic was established in 1998, is headquartered in New York C ...

. It was out of print until July 2013 when the album became available on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Oc ...

through Black's own label the Bureau. The vinyl record was released in October 2013.

Background

Most of the tracks were released in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

as either B-sides or

bonus track An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

s except "Jumping Beans," which is previously unreleased, and "Man of Steel" which was originally released on the various artists compilation album ''

Songs in the Key of X ''Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files'' is a 1996 compilation album released in association with the American science fiction television series ''The X-Files''. The album contained a mixture of songs that were either fea ...

''. All tracks were recorded between 1994 and 1997 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Frank Black wrote in the album's liner notes, "I got together with ngineerDave Schiffman in Los Angeles in 1997 to review B-sides and outtakes, some to be remixed for this compilation, and so this is not a completist collection, just some songs that I liked."

Reception

Andrew McNally, writing for ''the Filtered Lens'', wrote that ''Oddballs'' "is better than most rarities collections, but it is still barely good enough to stand on its own legs." McNally felt that the album contains "some subpar tracks and ideas that should not have been acted upon." He added that the songs "more often than not sounds a little too traditional and most of the ideas are not fleshed out enough."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Frank Black, except " Re-make/Re-model" by

Bryan Ferry Bryan Ferry CBE (born 26 September 1945) is an English singer and songwriter. His voice has been described as an "elegant, seductive croon". He also established a distinctive image and sartorial style: according to ''The Independent'', Ferry an ...

and " Just a Little" by Ron Elliott and Bob Durand. # "Pray a Little Faster" (trying to be Dylan) – 2:06 # "Oddball" (trying to be Stones) – 3:00 # "Village of the Sun" (trying to be Springsteen AND Dylan) – 3:33 # "Baby, That's Art" (trying to be Bowie) – 2:50 # "At the End of the World" (trying to be Bowie) – 2:25 # "Can I Get a Witness" (trying to be Dylan) – 4:18 # "Announcement" (trying to be Daltrey) – 6:01 # "Hate Me" (trying to be Strummer) – 2:05 # " Re-make/Re-model" (trying to be Sahm) – 3:41 # "Everybody Got the Beat" (trying to be Strummer) – 1:56 # "Jumping Beans" (trying to be Lou) – 2:55 # " Just a Little" (trying to be me) – 2:22 # "You Never Heard About Me" (trying to be Strummer) – 2:57 # "Man of Steel" (trying to be me) – 4:55

Track origins

* Tracks 2, 5 and 8 from the " Headache" single, 1994 * Tracks 1, 7, 9, 12 and 13 from the "

Men in Black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi- government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesse ...

" single, 1995 * Tracks 3, 4, 6 and 10 from ''

The Cult of Ray ''The Cult of Ray'' is the third solo studio album by American musician Frank Black. Unlike his previous two albums, which had been produced by former Pere Ubu keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman, Black opted to produce ''The Cult of Ray'' himself. The ...

'', limited edition bonus disc, 1996 * Track 14 from ''

'', 1996 * Track 11 previously unreleased

Personnel

Credits adapted from the album's liner notes. Musicians * Frank Black *

Lyle Workman Lyle Dean Workman is an American guitarist, composer, session and touring musician, and music producer. His music has been widely distributed since his debut on the eponymous '' Bourgeois Tagg'' album in 1986, and is known for his work as compos ...

* David McCaffery *

Eric Drew Feldman Eric Drew Feldman (born April 16, 1955) is an American musician. Feldman has worked with Captain Beefheart, Fear, Snakefinger, The Residents, Pere Ubu, Pixies, dEUS, Katell Keineg, Frank Black, The Polyphonic Spree, Tripping Daisy, Reid Paley, C ...

* Scott Boutier * Nick Vincent Technical personnel * Frank Black – producer (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13) *

Jon Tiven Jon Tiven (born January 3, 1955) is an American composer, guitarist, record producer, and music journalist. He has produced albums by Wilson Pickett, Frank Black and Don Covay as well as a series of tribute albums paying tribute to the songwriti ...

– producer (tracks 2, 5, 8) * Eric Drew Feldman – producer (track 11) * Nick Vincent – producer (track 14) * Matt Yelton – engineer *

Jimmy Douglass Jimmy Douglass, also known as "The Senator", is an American recording engineer and record producer. His career has spanned more than four decades. Career In the early 1970s at Atlantic Records studios in New York City, he started his studio ...

– engineer * David Schiffman – engineer, mixing

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oddballs (Album) Black Francis albums 2000 compilation albums B-side compilation albums