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If you're an Old 97's fan you've been waiting for this. If you're not, you just might be when it's all said and done.
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What is great about this set is that one disc feels like enough, but once you hear the second you know it's necessary.
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Quite simply, Alive & Wired captures a great band on a great night.
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Hardcore 97’s fans may be disappointed by a few omissions (only two cuts from Wreck Your Life?), but Alive & Wired is a pretty complete package.
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What Alive & Wired does best is reconcile the considerable charms of the band's studio output with the immediacy of their live shows' energy, and the Old 97's captured on this essential double-album is a band that lands at the midpoint between Wilco's high-minded songcraft and the ball-busting rock swagger of Drive-By Truckers.
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UncutA sweatstorm of strum and twang. [Dec 2005, p.106]
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By culling from early releases and rescuing tracks from last year's tepid Drag It Up, the band showcases a surprisingly deep and ridiculously rich canon of loser anthems ("Wish the Worst"), dark ballads ("Salome"), odes to romantic doubt and suspicion ("The Other Shoe"), cowboy calls ("West Texas Teardrops"), and frenzied barnstormers ("Doreen")-- all written and played with generous humor and genuine exhilaration.
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While the lack of onstage banter is welcome, Alive & Wired would have benefited from fewer songs and more space.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 4 out of 5
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Mixed: 1 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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KrisBNov 23, 2005
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MelissaBNov 15, 2005I only give this a 9 and not a 10 because i would have like to hear more banter.. Rhett is funny :)
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RobANov 13, 2005