Bride – The Lost Reels I

The first of three odds & ends albums by Bride

Released in 1994, THE LOST REELS is a compilation of tracks by Kentucky's Bride that were submitted as possible songs on proper albums, but not used, although three of the songs ended up being rerecorded for DROP (1995): "How Long," "Only Hurts When I Laugh" and two versions of "I Am the Devil, one of which is titled "It's the Devil." I'm assuming the first five songs were recorded around 1993. As for the rest: Tracks 6-9 were recorded in 1989; tracks 10-12 were recorded in 1988 with "Good Rock n Roll" originally hailing from the Matrix demo STUDIO JUNKIE from 1985; and tracks 13-20 were recorded in 1992.

This means that some fifteen of these songs are exclusive to this album. Needless to say, if you want these obscure tracks, you'll have to pick up this compilation. The original pressing was limited to 2000 copies, but it was remastered & released in 2013 by Retroactive Records with superior artwork, etc.

As usual with Bride, there's a lot of variety and the band tackles each (sub)genre ionately and effectively. While I personally don't need the few songs that appear on the immanent DROP, some of my favorites of the others include "Dirty" and "18," which are very catchy and should've appeared on proper albums. Meanwhile songs like the bass-driven "Help," the lively "Sugar" and "Fine Line" are no slouches. The stanzas of the latter are a little reminiscent of KISS' "Rock and Roll Hell."

The twenty tracks clock-in at 1 hour, 12 minutes.

GRADE: B