Rage Against The Machine – XX

I’ve already covered this record, in these pages. It really is like a bomb going off in your stereo. I love it completely. After so many play-throughs over these decades I know every note and word, and if I had a drum set, I’ll bet I could play along fairly well with every song. True story: ages ago, a guy with whom I occasionally jammed loved to play Know Your Enemy, him on guitar, me on drums. Even with just two people, much fun!

So I was at HMV (soon to be defunct!) and had got enough stuff that I would be allowed to buy a selected $12 CD for $7. Most of the stack sucked, but this remaster caught my eye. Still, I hesitated. Did I need it? I mean, I have owned that CD since forever, did I care about a remastering? Did I need it again just for three live tracks? And then I was told it would be closer to $5 with the new HMV death throes discount. Ah what the hell, sold.

So I brought it home, plugged it in and it still sounds as great as it ever did. Did I notice anything in the remastering job? Not really. I read somewhere one criticism that it’s now more compressed and louder, but for me it wasn’t noticeable enough to stop me. I was too busy getting indignant about the world and getting ready to break some shit! This record never fails to get me fired up.

Actually, thinking about it, given the recent inauguration of a new president in our southern neighbours’ fine and beautiful country, a track like Take The Power Back really, really, REALLY hit the spot.

The three live tracks are great documents. It’s awesome to hear how they attacked the songs in a live setting, and they sound pretty damn great. Bombtrack (from the Bombtrack single, including Zach’s rant about Leonard Pelletier as intro), Bullet In The Head (from the Bullet In The Head single), and Take The Power Back (from the Freedom single).

This set also came in a bunch of super-fancy-pants versions, none of which I could afford or would even really need. All I need is the main album tracks, played in order, at top volume. Put it in, crank it, and achieve fuckin’ lift-off.

If you don’t own this album, uh, first of all, WHY NOT? You need this, so go get it. This RM is really cheap right now, and worth every damn cent for thinking persons everywhere.

In Sum:

If you already own an old original copy of the album (as I do), then you don’t really need this. But it’s friggin’ cheap, and the extra live tracks are therefore worth it.