Ida has been one of my favorite bands ever since I bought their debut back in the late 90s based solely on its cover art. I thought I had most
everything they'd ever released, but I recently found out that their
two disc Japanese-only collection, Rarities: Who Were You Then,
featured almost 20 songs I'd never heard before. Not even bothering to
convert ￥4,438 into U.S. dollars to figure out my actual costs, I went
ahead and ordered the CDs last week. I got the package in the mail
today.
Who Were You Then is an
absolutely beautiful collection that looks like it was compiled with
care by a true fan (or Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton
themselves). The packaging is exquisite with liner notes in both
English and Japanese, a color photo of the band on the inside of the
gatefold, and perhaps most impressively, little plastic sleeves for
each of the discs so they won't get scratched going in and out of the
cardboard case. I love those little plastic sleeves. Oh, and disc two
features Ida covering my all-time favorite Bob Dylan song, "Boots of
Spanish Leather." I'm sure all that's worth at least ￥4,438.
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