Various Artists
Theodore: An Alternative Music Sampler

Columbia    CK 46062  (1990)

Rock/Pop
CD, 16   Tracks, 71:33  Length
01 Be Kind To My Mistakes Kate Bush Kate Bush 03:02
02 Bury Me Deep Frank Orrall Poi Dog Pondering 04:54
03 She Says (Come Around) Jimmer Podrasky The Rave-Ups 03:34
04 Let It Be Me Gilbert Bécaud; Manny Curtis; Pierre Delanoë Social Distortion 04:15
05 Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution (Live) Tracy Chapman Living Colour 05:57
06 Come Back Down Dean Dinning; Randy Guss; Todd Nichols; Glen Phillips Toad the Wet Sprocket 03:18
07 Overflow Dave Herlihy; Alan Petitti O-Positive 03:57
08 House (long version) Richard Butler The Psychedelic Furs 05:44
09 Welcome to the Terrordome Carlton Ridenhour; Eric Sadler; Keith Shocklee Public Enemy 05:25
10 If I Were John Carpenter Mick Jones Big Audio Dynamite 07:26
11 Run Through The Fields Nuclear Valdez Nuclear Valdez 04:06
12 Kid Fears (Live) Amy Ray Indigo Girls 04:42
13 Shotgun Down The Avalanche Shawn Colvin; John Leventhal Shawn Colvin,  guitar 04:06
14 Another Life Bill Goffrier; Gary Waleik Big Dipper 02:08
15 Triple Stage Darkness Michael Berrin 3rd Bass 04:10
16 Your Fear Mike Kirkland; Ted Parsons; Tommy Victor Prong 04:49
Music Details
Product Details
Packaging Jewel Case
Spars DDD
Sound Stereo
Personal Details
Index # 3679
Owner Dave
Tags Alternative Rock, Art Rock, Folk Rock, Indie Rock, Punk
User Defined
Purchased New
Notes
Since Ryko, with Steal This Disc, and Sire, with Just Say Yes, made the multi-artist low-price sampler respectable again (the latter by including rare versions, live tracks, and so forth), every couple of months generally brings forth another example -- Columbia/Epic have another on the market called Hitchhiker Exemplar, for example, which spotlights their country/rock/folk artists.

Theodore is a mixed bag of items ranging from softish rock/hard folk (Kate Bush, the Indigo Girls) to rap, dance, and house music (Public Enemy, Big Audio Dynamite, 3rd Bass) and errs mostly in not really including that much of vast interest -- for the most part, the album includes album tracks, or easily available material such as Kate Bush's "Be Kind to My Mistakes," which was released on Aspects of the Sensual World, a CD5. Highlights include Poi Dog Pondering, who somehow manage to convey the American Southwest by sounding Irish, while O-Positive have a sound that indicates that when the Cure are gone, they won't be forgotten soundwise. 3rd Bass, too, a white rap outfit with a mean lyrical bent and one hell of a rhythm sense, are very impressive, blowing the muddy, unintelligible "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy out of the water. The Indigo Girls kick in a nice live track, and Big Audio Dynamite are represented with the royally silly "If I Were John Carpenter," which uses house techniques to generate a long dance piece around whatever they felt like chucking in at the time.

In other words, some hit and some don't, and different tracks will hit with different people.

-- Steven McDonald (allmusic.com)