Eleventh Dream Day, New Moodio (side A)

I've followed Eleventh Dream Day for over 20 years.  I most admire their raw and guitar-heavy moments, and when their approach becomes too clean and pretty, they often disappoint me.  After the dual-guitar power of Beet and Lived to Tell, I always perceived 1993's El Moodio as a bit of a step back.  It's a bit too pretty and careful, and there's too much emphasis on the vocal melodies for my taste.  When I learned about the forthcoming release of demos from that album, I pre-ordered a copy, and it's lived up to my expectations.  The songs are still a bit catchier and less tonally-static than my favorite parts of Lived to Tell (or even their recent Riot Now!, which I also quite like).  It's hard to tell if this stylistic chapter reflects the influence of new guitarist Wink O'Bannan, or if the band was using the melodic emphasis to seek commercial success.  Perhaps the songwriting merely reflects the creative chapter in the band's life.  Even on the prettier songs, the recordings on New Moodio capture the band's live energy and power — they seem to have been freed from a click track and from overly-pretty mix.  They also seem to be having a lot of fun playing, perhaps because they were making demos with an unclear future for the album.  The mixes here aren't perfect, with weirdly uneven stereo balances, so I'm guessing they were made quickly for listening, but the band's enthusiasm and energy come through clearly — unlike El Moodio, there were no fashion-conscious mix decisions here to age poorly.  New Moodio also contains great songs like "Sunflower" that were omitted from the final album and never before released.  The simple painting of a crab, surrounded by hand-lettered titles, reflects the perfectly rough-hewn quality of the contents.