Quick–seal up that contrived mystique before it gets stale! Atlantic Records is signalling with two new singles compilations, both due out next month, that early-oughts grief-rockers Staind and P.O.D. are no longer saleable as exciting new icons of angst, but might still have a shot at the part of the market that fondly remembers drinking peach schnapps out behind the school while listening to "It's Been Awhile" and/or "Youth Of The Nation." Even if you hated most of Staind's hits, you've got to credit Atlantic with making sure The Singles 1996-2006, due out next month, has an interesting range. Billboard reports:
The Singles CD begins with a new remix of the track "Come Again," which previously appeared on the band's 1996 indie debut, Tormented. In addition to rock radio hits such as "It's Been Awhile," "Everything Changes," "Right Here" and "Outside," the disc sports four tracks recorded last month during an acoustic show at New York's Hiro Ballroom: "Everything Changes" and covers of Tool's "Sober," Alice In Chains' "Nutshell" and Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."
The version of "Outside" mentioned above is Staind singer and pain-guru Aaron Lewis' acoustic duet with Fred Durst and, though that sounds like a recipe for death on paper, may be the most enjoyable piece either artist ever produced. Sure, it's almost as bad as one might expect, but really not all that excruciating.
The title of P.O.D.'s compilation, Greatest Hits: The Atlantic Years, makes said years sound like a far-off and heady period, but it's still going on, or at least was in January, when Atlantic released the band's latest album, Testify. (Billboard mentions, though, that P.O.D. might be searching for a new label.)