Call Upon The Author

One has to wonder what the point of b-sides collections are, other than curiosity at what the band thought wasn’t good enough to go onto a main album, but quite why we should pay hard earned money for songs the band didn’t think were good enough has always been beyond me. It becomes even more of a dilemma when the band in question is Disturbed, a band who many would say have released albums that are made of a-sides that are bad enough that the thought of b-sides leaves you wondering how much worse things can get.
Earlier this year Disturbed announced that they were going on indefinite hiatus and that they would be releasing a b-sides and rarities album as a parting shot and here it is, The Lost Children, the band’s first and only collection of b-sides featuring 14 songs and 2 cover songs, the question is what’s the quality like?
The main problem with this is the main problem with all b-sides albums and that is that most of the songs have surfaced somewhere before so there’s a good chance you already own them or have heard them before, thus taking away the curiosity factor,and slightly diminishing the need for this release. There are some good songs on here in the form of Hell, A Welcome Burden and 3 being stand outs, their cover of Faith No More’s Midlife Crisis is pretty good but doesn’t deviate too wildly from the original to have any real impact, and the less said about their cover of Living After Midnight by Judas Priest the better.
The Lost Children isn’t the complete disaster that people would probably like it to be, there are some solid songs on there, and a couple of tunes that make you wonder why they weren’t on the albums at that time in the first place, its just that as I’ve already mentioned it seems unnecessary as the bulk of the songs can be found elsewhere or are already bonus tracks on albums you already own if your a fan, it also feels a little disjointed and there is no real flow or pace to it as obviously the songs on here weren’t intended to be put together in the way a traditional album is.
It does smack a little of the record company just throwing a release out there to capitalize on the time of year and the fact that the band has effectively broken up, so they are trying to get one last hoorah out the band and fans, but at least it isn’t a singles collection which really would have been taking the piss.
The only real reason to buy The Lost Children is if you a Disturbed completist or if you don’t already own these b-sides and you want them all in one handy place, but as far as releases go its not going to tarnish the band’s legacy,but simultaneously it isn’t going to win them any new fans either.