The New Pornographers - Challengers: Executive Edition Box Set
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The New PornographersEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
Format: Box set
CD Release Date: 2007-08-07
Music Label: Matador Records
Free Music Notes for Challengers: Executive Edition Box Set
Free Music Review: Incredibly, Sadly, Heroically Overlooked Gem
Hit: 5 Stars
Matador Records' Buy Early Get Now program never excited me. Why pay an only-kinda fair price via the web a month or more early for an album just so I can stream an album I could easily illegally download for free? (Not that I've done that since age 20.) Sure, Matador offers all kinds of bonus perks to those who buy into their program, but what about the CD-in-hand excitement of walking into a record store on release day? Not until I became obsessed with The New Pornographers fourth album, Challengers, and thus started sweeping the web looking for any holes in my Carl Newman collection, did I give Buy Early Get Now a second thought. For $3.98 (plus shipping) Matador sent me a three-disc box set called Challengers: Executive Edition. I wasn't sure what it was, but hey, a box set for under $4? Count me in.
When the box arrived in the mail I had very low expectations, which at first blush seemed to be met. Included were three professionally presented CDs packaged in a flimsy box that cleverly offered room for my store-bought copy of Challengers. Disc one wouldn't play, nor would two or three. Bummer, I had a dud. Then I noticed something on the floor: a little piece of paper that must've fallen out of my "box set" that had a web address and password transcribed on it. Sure, I'll give it a go, but if it doesn't work, I'm through the roof! After 10 or so minutes of playing around on the website I realized that the discs Matador had sent me were blank (sure enough, they were deep blue - not silver - on their undersides) and ready for the burning. Matador had uploaded six B-sides and four demos for download in both MP3 and FLAC formats, after which you were to burn on disc one. Normally I'd have thought this strange approach into the ground, but was too busy enjoying the six very high quality B-sides. Nothing else was yet available aside from a video for the album's title track and a link to a site where I could watch and exclusive Pornos concert, but the Buy Early website assured me that there would be much more to come. I decided not to think too hard and just keep on enjoying the songs, which eventually led me back to the heart of the experiment: the 12 unthinkably imaginative tracks spread throughout Challengers' core build.
I checked in on the Buy Early site here and there, as Matador promised to upload a live album to burn on disc two, as well as a load of videos and photos for disc three. After a few months came Live From the Future, the band's first ever proper live album. "What a deal" I finally thought to myself, realizing that Buy Early Get Now might after all be a worthwhile way to get people to start buying records again. Six top-shelf B-sides, four filler demos, a live album, photos and videos of the Pornos in action for under $4?! Tack on the $10 the actual albums costs and you have four discs worth of New Porno fun for about $14.
The B-sides, as you'd expect, are first rate. The demos are, well, demos, and the live album is an excellent document of the band's flamboyant genius, most of which should be credited to Carl Newman. If you enjoyed the brainy pop of Challengers, don't think twice, head over to Amazon.com this instant and pick up this $3.98 add-on steal before it's gone forever.
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