Buffalo Tom: A-Sides

If you are relatively new to Buffalo Tom, before you buy their A-Sides compilation you will want to know that there are two competing schools of thought on the band’s merits. One group sees them as a major force in early 90s indie rock who lost their way and “sold out” in search of the big hit single. These folks see the Buffalo Tom debut album and the BirdBrain album – which was produced by Indie God J. Mascis, as the band’s rawest (and therefore best) work. Their third album, “Let Me Come Over,” is seen as a capitulation to a more MTV-friendly sound, and it’s mostly downhill from there.

The other school of Buffalo Tom thought, which is closer to my own, is that Buffalo Tom’s first two albums, while hinting at their potential, are the signs of a band searching for a sound and identity of their own. That identity was then found in spectacular fashion on Let Me Come Over, which represented a quantum leap in songwriting and ushered in an era of unforgettable compositions that have put Buffalo Tom on many people’s short lists of the great undiscovered bands of the nineties.

These two perspectives are important to your purchase of the A-Sides CD, because if you are one of those people who liked Buffalo Tom better as J. Mascis proteges and indie rock stylists, you won’t want to buy this compilation, as the first two albums are not well represented here. On the other hand, if you heard a couple of their later songs on the radio, and you’re wondering if there’s more where that came from, then this compilation, which is one of the most thoughtfully-selected best-of compilations out there, is a great starting point for you.

The most memorable Buffalo Tom songs can be roughly categorized into two separate groups - melodic rockers (“Soda Jerk” being the most famous of this group), and edgy, almost-tragic ballads, of which “Taillights Fade” is the most well known example, along with “Late at Night” from the My So-Called Life soundtrack. The big problem with this A-Sides CD is that one of Buffalo Tom’s classic ballads, “Would Not be Denied,” a standout from the Big Red Letter Day album, is not included on this compilation. So if you like the songs on this CD, you have to get your hands on “Would Not Be Denied” at once. And then one of their very best rockers, “Porchlight,” from Let Me Come Over, is also missing here. So you have to pick up that album as well, which is probably worth your trouble anyway since many people see that as their best and most consistent album. But once you own both of those albums, you already have almost half the songs on this compilation. So the question is: what good is this album if you have to buy two others anyway? The biggest benefit from buying the A-Sides CD is that you also get the two best songs from their two last albums, “Summer” and “Wiser.” These last two albums, Sleepy Eyed and Smitten, while interesting, are not essential purchases for the casual fan once you have already accounted for the crucial song on each of them. If you are interested in more background on Buffalo Tom, I am also writing a longer retrospective that I can email to you if you’d like. Send me an email at jonreed@jonreed.net.