Shake the Feeling: Outtakes & Rarities 2015-2021＜限定盤/Colored Vinyl＞

The snarling and abrasive Iceage that blasted punk out of the gates on their 2011 debut New Brigade was an entirely different band than the one that showed up with the swaying moodiness and nocturnal horn arrangements on Plowing Into the Field of Love just three years later. The bands evolution was fast and unusual, with huge leaps in style and sound from album to album pointing to creative restlessness and a strong drive to keep things from getting stale. Shake the Feeling tracks phases of Iceages evolution in the form of outtakes recorded during sessions for 2014s Plowing Into the Field of Love, 2018s Beyondless, and 2021s Seek Shelter, but were left off of their respective albums for whatever reason. Though made up of seemingly unrelated segments, Shake the Feeling seems at times like its own chapter in Iceages story. Rather than a chronological track order, the songs are arranged to flow like an album, and a haphazard one at that. Blasting and sloppy rockers like "Sociopath Boogie" bleed into two covers (a yelping rendition of Abner Jays "My Mule" and an especially shambling and drunken take on the Bob Dylan-penned, Nico-perfected tune "Ill Keep It with Mine") before stumbling back into midtempo originals. "Broken Hours" is spare and angular, crackling with a Birthday Party-informed tension, and the overblown recording and farm-punk rhythm of "Im Ready to Make a Baby" adds to the over the top atmosphere cultivated by the songs ridiculous lyrics. The depraved space gospel of "Lockdown Blues" includes lyrics that directly reference COVID-19 and quarantine, placing it a little bit firmly in time to really fit on an album, where the gentle flutes and mellow delivery of an acoustic version of Seek Shelter opener "Shelter Song" offer a lovely alternate perspective of the album version. Shake the Feeling serves more as an annex for outcast ideas: Songs not quite too far gone to be discarded outright, but still just a little bit too removed from the greater statements of the albums they were considered for. Its a fascinating, disjointed listen, and one that illuminates a little bit of the process behind Iceages rapidly changing output. ~ Fred Thomas