Best of Adorable: Footnotes

The coolest part about "Footnotes" is the front cover booklet. The booklet features photos of the band and short blurbs written by the four band members discussing their thoughts and memories about the origins of the individual songs as well as their recollections of what it was like to be in Adorable at the peak of their success and life after the band broke up.The most interesting part is how humble the guys are despite their meteoric rise to fame and their public reputation in the music press as egomaniacal rock star types. These guys wrote brilliant, timeless music that sounds as fresh and innovative today as it did back in the early '90s. They burned bright for a few short years and then sadly, like so many other bands, flamed out.There will always be fans who aren't happy with the song selections on their favorite band's "best of" collections, but whoever chose the songs for "Footnotes" did a commendable job.Adorable properly released only 36 tracks, including both full length albums and all the b-sides for their seven singles, and "Footnotes" collects 18 of those. They managed to gather ten of the twelve tracks from Adorable's first album, "Against Perfection," leaving only two tracks ("I Know You Too Well" and "Still Life") off. They also included six of the ten tracks from Adorable's sophomore album, "Fake."The two b-sides that are included, "Sunburnt" and "Summerside" are very good songs by any measure, but with 14 b-sides to choose from they aren't the very best of Adorable's b-sides. Additionally, they are both from singles from "Against Perfection" and it would have been nice to include a b-side from a single off "Fake." That said, "Summerside" shows the softer side of Adorable, with a beautiful melody sung by Piotr over a guitar that alternates between a shimmering strummed part and a low-end arpeggio.Adorable are one of those bands who didn't write "filler" songs. Every single one of the 36 songs they officially released was worthy of inclusion on this collection. "Footnotes" is an excellent introduction to Adorable. Those who enjoy this collection and want to hear more should seek out "Fake" for the four tracks not included on "Footnotes" as well as Adorable's seven Cd singles for the twelve excellent b-sides.

Amazon has saw fit not to publish my original review of this because, I'm assuming, of a few profanities included after a knee-jerk reaction of finding out about this album.Well, I say, good for them - welcome to the 21st century, boys, you bunch of pansies.Anyway, Adorable is a tremendous band that never got it's due.Their first album - Against Perfection - is just that, perfect in that every tune is great.Their second album - Fake - even though never released in the States is also a tremendous achievement.The fact that both these albums are out-of-print, sickens and saddens me.Doom on you, record label retards.Which brings us to this compilation, best-of Adorable, Adorable Footnotes.Which is a fine album, given that somehow, some of the best songs off Fake curiously aren't included.Against Perfection is generously represented here - with 10 out of the 12 songs included. (Shame they didn't include I Know You Too Well, though).But Fake is a different story.I would assume the band chose the songs and not some ignorant record label executive, but who knows.All I'm saying is that any true Adorable fan knows that Radio Days and Road Movie, not to mention Go Easy On Her and Have You Seen The light, are the best songs off Fake and aren't included on Footnotes.(The other terrific song off Fake - Vendetta - thankfully is included).A crying shame, I tell you, especially since you know that some novice to the band will undoubtedly pick up this album as a starting point and thus be deprived of the best songs.Nit-picking?Maybe, but with only two albums to choose from, you would of thought they could of done better.I demand answers, dammit.Fijalkowski, are you listening?

These guys were nominally associated with the shoegazing scene, but the actual music is less dreamy and more straightforward than many acts associated with the genre. I'd probably put them closer to the category of bands like the House of Love, Darklands-era Jesus and Mary Chain, or even the less psychedelic moments of Echo and the Bunnymen.Over the years, I had many chances to buy this band's material but largely avoided them for some reason (maybe the ridiculous name?). Well, that turned out to be a mistake, as they continue to grow on me the more I've listened to them. I even went to the trouble of buying some material by the singer's post Adorable project, Polak, which I also recommend.At any rate, Cherry Red doesn't always hit the mark with their reissues, but they did a good job here. The overall package, song selection, and sound quality are all excellent. My one criticism is given how difficult it is to find some of this band's material, why didn't they just do a 2xCD or 3xCD set with the band's complete recordings? If they ever get around to that I will certainly buy it. As great as these songs are, there are other good songs that you need to hear if you like this band.

A great selection of songs from a wonderfully misunderstood and criminally overlooked band from the 90’s. The only qualm i have with this comp is the running track order. Would’ve liked it better if they didn’t clump together songs from the same album back to back. Otherwise a great jumping off point to one of my most favorite bands.

The first time I heard Adorable was on a Chicago-indie radio station, 92.7 The Bear, in '92. The song was "I Know You Too Well" off their first CD. It was a killer song that led me on a long search for the Adorable CD "Against Perfection" which was hard to find even back then. Unfortunately, this song was left off this Best Of compilation, and I'm sure other great Adorable tracks as well. Disappointing. But I am still giving this 5 stars just for the fact that Adorable Best Of CD was even released given their short time and relative obscurity at least in the States. Yet another great band that did not get the recognition they deserved and went away too soon.

This band is a rediscovery and what a rediscovery! We were fortunate enough to get to see them play live at one of their few gigs that they played in November, 2019, before they split up again. It was an absolute privilege. The band was criminally underrated and personally criticised when they were producing music in the 1990s, to the point where it broke up the band. It was music and our loss. This is a band we should have loved. Now is the time to review these wonderful songs.

Always remind me of my last couple of seasons playing football, sort of creations rise from the kind of indie to the more commercial acceptance,of the music they put out, IT Was a GREAT label anyway, homeboy, what a great song!!!!,anyway, I had a good last couple of seasons then my legs just gave out ,

...die nach 2 exzellenten Alben wieder verschwand. Dies hier ist ein kleiner, feiner Querschnitt aus beiden plus einigen Single-A und B-Seiten...

当時最強の王国とも言えるCreationに所属し、92年から95年の活動期に2枚のアルバムと6枚のシングルをリリースした、英国コヴェントリーの4人組/Adorableのベスト盤。マンチェスター・ムーヴメントとブリットポップ、その狭間に咲いた短命のアンサンブル。OASISのデビューの影に埋没するように消えていったバンドではあるけれど、当時特有の空気を纏ったサウンドが熾す独特の昂ぶりは、今なお褪せずに響いてくる。まるで終わりの見えている夢に漂うような、幸福な酩酊と痛いまでの感傷がせめぎ合う空間。残響する端音までもがナーバスに、過剰な自意識を誘うように鳴り響く。天上の華を掴み取らんとする野望と、なお変わらぬ日常を見やるような憂いの揺らぎ。「ただの格好つけ」だと言われたり、果てはCREATIONから無かったかのように扱われるなど、かなり酷い仕打ちを喰らっているバンドだが、House Of LoveでもBoo RadleysでもそしてOasisでもないサウンドは、彼らなりの個性を持って確実に響いている。もしかするとそれは、何処にも咲き誇ること適わなかったバンドの影を照射した、現在ならではの視点かもしれないが。