Superchunk - Wild Loneliness LP - Green w/ Yellow Splatter Vinyl

Merge (2022)

Kind of weird to not be writing about Godzilla on Friday now.  Luckily there are more Toho soundtracks on the horizon.  When I wrote about the Endless Summer 7" on Monday, I had noted that I sat on it for a while and didn't write about it in a timely manner.  Part of that was limited days to write about rock music while the Godzilla and Ed Lover days were taking up two of my three review spots of the week.  But the other side was that I just wasn't very excited by the song.  I was hopeful that I'd be more impressed with the full length.  Sadly, I am not.

I don't really know what to say about Wild Loneliness.  It's not like it's a bad record with bad songs.  The songs themselves are beautifully written and performed.  There's an attention to detail and craft that you're not going to find just anywhere, but I think what it boils down to is that I just find the record kind of boring.  It's so loaded full of acoustic guitar strumming over slow tempo songs that whenever I put it on, it fades into the background and I find that I'm not paying much attention to it after a while.

There's ten songs on the album and nine of them are pretty much as I described above, slow.  The only time Superchunk kicks it up a bit is on the eighth song "Refracting."  It's easily the best song on the album and at least contains a little bit of the energy that is what I want out of a Superchunk record.  It takes all sorts of fans to keep a band going for as long as Superchunk has been.  I'm sure there will be a contingent of fans that will like this, particularly amongst the Indoor Living/Come Pick Me Up set.  For me, this will just end up as a Superchunk record on my shelf as I just can't imagine picking it up when there's a double digit amount of better albums sitting right next to it.

Superchunk - Wild Loneliness:
https://superchunk.bandcamp.com/album/wild-loneliness

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication 2xLP

Capitol / Grand Royal (2009, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I have developed a pretty crazy pile of backlogged hip hop albums that I haven't gotten to write about yet.  Some of them are probably over a year old at this point, which is kind of nutty, but I'm gradually making my way through them.  One of the oldest in the pile is Ill Communication something I picked up quite a while ago when the record was popping in and out of print for a bit there. I like the Beastie Boys a lot, but I'm also kind of picky with them regarding what albums I actually like and even them I'm kind of critical on what I consider filler on those albums.  Ill Communication, while not my favorite Beasties album, is probably the best one to listen to straight through without running into tracks that slow things down.

This album originally came out in 1994, which was such a huge year for me music wise.  I was starting to get a little disgruntled with hip hop (see: Warren G & Nate Dogg type nonsense) and getting into Beck had started to open my eyes into the world of indie rock and punk.  Ill Communication was probably one of the last hip hop albums that came out in 94 that really clicked with me.  It has some pretty killer songs on it like "Sure Shot," "Root Down," "Flute Loop" and the untouchable "Get It Together."  You're going to have a hard time finding many albums with four songs that great on it.

It also has "Sabotage."  That's a song that I do not understand at all.  I didn't like it in 1994 and I still don't really like it.  I don't care how cool the video is, it still just sounds like a bunch of yelling to me.  But what do I know, I really dislike the song "Intergalactic" as well and I know plenty of people who swear by that one.

I'll never like this one quite as much as I like Check Your Head and I think a lit of that is time and place.  Check Your Head hit in the middle of my complete and unadulterated fixation with hip hop, but the time Ill Communication came out, I was starting to get ready to move on to other things.  The album truly holds up great and in a lot of ways I like it more now than I did when it first came out, but I think that if it had been released just a year earlier, I probably would have been completely obsessed with it.

Beastie Boys - Ill Communication:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mpNpWNYbbQjTGgoYgI7klaApNUmHmYGzs

Superchunk - Endless Summer 7" - Yellow Vinyl

Merge (2021)

I sat on this 7" for a bit too long.  It's no longer a precursor for an upcoming LP as the LP has been out for a little bit now.  But, I figured I should probably document this 7" before I get into the full length in the next few posts.  

"Endless Summer" is a song from the full length and is a Superchunk original.  It's a mid tempo song with its foundation built off the strumming of an acoustic guitar.  It has the nice melodies of a typical Superchunk song, but for me it's just a little too slow.  When I look at the Superchunk catalog, I tend to be into the faster songs and albums like Indoor Living are ones that I tend to not revisit as often.  This song is more in line with that sort of lower key Superchunk sound.

The B side is a cover song called "When I Laugh."  It was originally done by a band called The Glands, though I can't say that I'm familiar with the original.  The Superchunk version is alright.  Like "Endless Summer" it's solidly mid tempo.  Nothing too fast or frantic here.  Good hooks, mellow vibes - again a totally fine song.  I'm just used to expecting a bit more than 'fine' from Superchunk.  They had been on a tear lately and it's odd to me that they left turned back to mellow stuff.

Superchunk - "Endless Summer":
https://superchunk.bandcamp.com/track/endless-summer

Terror of Mechagodzilla LP - From Godzilla: The Showa Era Soundtracks, 1954-1975 Box Set

Waxwork (2021) 

For the past several Fridays I've be writing about an LP from the fantastic Godzilla Show Era soundtrack box set. Godzilla was such an important part of my childhood and the music was such a vital piece of that puzzle. Thrilled to finally have these on vinyl.

Here we are, the final LP in this fifteen album boxset containing the soundtracks to all of the Showa era Godzilla movies.  It's been a blast revisiting the movies and the music over the past many weeks.  While I'm sure it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, it was very satisfying for me to write about all of these.  I also think that it is appropriate that the box set wraps up with my favorite Godzilla movie, Terror of Mechagodzilla.

This was a movie that I had on VHS at a pretty young age and boy oh boy did I wear it out watching it over and over and over again.  I love the design of Mechagodzilla.  I love the wacky Interpol storyline.  And even though I always watch the Japanese language version these days, I even love the ridiculous dubbed English version as it's just the sound of my childhood.  But my favorite part might actually be the third monster in the film, Titanosaurus.  The design is fabulous and he might have the best roar (warble?) in all of Toho.  A terribly overlooked monster that needs more toys and shirts immediately.

For the soundtrack Akira Ifukube makes his return and final appearance in the Showa series, providing a dark and ominous soundscape that has a great mix of new passages and previously known Godzilla music.  The triumph of the main title from the original 1954 Godzilla making multiple appearances whenever Godzilla is around is just perfect for this film.

And that wraps it up for the Waxwork Showa Era Godzilla box set.  I really cannot say enough great things about how amazing this set ended up being.  The art for every album is incredible.  The box itself is super sturdy and looks beautiful on the shelf.  The extra turntable slipmat is a lot of fun and most important of all, the records all sound amazing.  Hearing these soundtracks on vinyl, coming from my old 70s Marantz receiver is just one of the most perfect sounding things I've ever heard.  I am so grateful they took on this project and am eagerly awaiting some of the other Toho soundtracks that I already have on preorder from them.

Terror of Mechagodzilla - "Main Title Theme":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz1wuhHPazQ&ab_

Blahzay Blahzay - Blah Blah Blah 2xLP - Brown Vinyl (/300)

Tuff Kong (2022, Reissue)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I've said it many times, but aside from a few things here and there, I completely checked out of hip hop in about 1994 after about a five year run of it being my whole world, musically speaking.  It just felt that the fun and innovation had been driven out of rap and my never ending desire to hear something new and different was instead embraced by punk and indie rock.  Over the years I've heard a few albums that I missed out on that came out in 93 or 94, maybe even the occasional 1995 release that I didn't know about.  But Blahzay Blahzay came out in 1996.  That might as well be a different century compared to the type of hip hop I usually listened to.

Regardless of it's original year of release, Blahzay Blahzay's debut album Blah Blah Blah could have stood alongside of just about anything that was released during the timeline that I consider the golden era.  The beats are full on New York boom bap.  It's a rough edged sound that owes influence in equal parts to Gang Starr, EPMD and Tribe Called Quest.  Lyrically, the rhymes are straightforward and powerful, weaving stories, calling out inferior MCs and handling the mic with a deep flow, steeped in gravitas.

I never heard Blahzay Blahzau when the record originally came out.  I don't know if it would have been possible for me to, in all honesty.  I was on a completely different wavelength by then and even if I wasn't, I can't imagine this sort of sound is something that would have been pushed or promoted properly considering what was 'hot' at the time.  But I am really glad I eventually stumbled across this.  Along with Mysterme & DJ 20/20 and The Future Sound, Blahzay Blahzay are one of the best discoveries I've made while digging back into the sounds of 90s hip hop.

Blahzay Blahzay - Blah Blah Blah:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nWUhXzAlw1TOB7Tg6Q6zgqZYvoIdnxxIk

PLOSIVS - PLOSIVS - Red Vinyl & Black Vinyl (/200)

Swami (2022)

Before I get into this wonderful, wonderful album, I just wanted to mention that as the release date of the record approached, I tried to read some reviews on it to see what others thought.  The sheer amount of awful websites that copy and paste the press release and pass that off as a review is staggering to me.  It makes me wonder if any of them even bothered to listen to it.  

It's very easy to write that John Reis is also in Rocket From The Crypt, Hot Snakes, Drive Like Jehu, Night Marchers, Sultans and more while pointing out the Rob Crow has history in Pinback, Thingy, Heavy Vegetable and others.  Throw out that Atom Willard used to drum for Rocket From The Crypt and has spent time in Against Me, Special Goodness, Offspring, etc.  And Maybe Jordan Clark will get a mention for his work in Mrs. Magician and The Soaks.  Maybe.  

Look at that.  I just filled up an entire paragraph without actually saying anything.  I'm not going to pretend that I'm a great writer with anything particularly useful to say.  Anyone who reads this dumb website knows I just blather on about records and often I write more about my relationship to said record than any intricacy of what the record sounds like or is trying to convey.  But I'll be damned if I just copy a press release and pretend I wrote it.

Diatribe aside, what you need to know about this PLOSIVS record is that it is unbelievably great.  Mind-melting perfection.  I have been a Swami devotee since about 1994, when I first got my hands on a borrowed copy of Circa: Now.  Since then I have joyfully followed John to every band he has been a part of, loving every single thing he's ever touched.  There's always been something about the way his songs come out that really connect to my ears.  But even with all of that history and the insanely lofty expectations that come along with it, I was shocked by just how completely, ridiculously amazing this PLOSIVS record is.

You've got some of John's familiar aesthetic here for sure.  The chugging guitar riffs that drive the songs and the intricate breakdowns that crop up and veer off into unexpected territory that miraculously makes perfect sense when it reconnects back to the main song structure.  But as familiar as you might be with the tricks of John's trade, adding Rob Crow to the mix just blows up everything you thought you knew.  Rob's complete mastery of vocal melodies and innate ability to cram a hook into a song that maybe wasn't expecting one elevates PLOSIVS into mythical territory.

I could go on and on and on about how much I adore Hot Snakes and Night Marchers and everything that John has been involved in, but this truly is one of the best records that has his name on it.  Sure, Rocket will always be my favorite band he's done, but I'll put this PLOSIVS record up against anything he's done in the past, I don't know, twenty years?  And that's twenty years filled with some of the greatest albums I've ever heard in my entire life.

I am a pretty big Pinback fan, I have all of the records and listen to them regularly (especially Summer In Abaddon), but PLOSIVS is probably the best thing Rob Crow has ever released in my humble opinion.  There's an energy and a propulsion that I think is bringing out the best in him.  I know that Atom is an incredible drummer and hearing him with John again is rekindling a magical connection.  Pairing Atom with Jordan on bass gives these songs a depth and a vigor that reminds me a little bit of how Mark Trombino and Mike Kennedy created something really special in Drive Like Jehu.  PLOSIVS has a completely different vibe than Jehu, but a killer rhythm section making songs magical is something they very much have in common. 

There are two versions of the LP.  The red vinyl is the regular edition that you can get at your local record store or online retailer of your choice.  Once again a Swami related band has the black vinyl as the more limited version.  So far it has only been available directly from the band at shows.  I got my copy when I saw them play in Philadelphia.  An unsurprisingly wonderful show.  I am not positive that the black vinyl is limited to 200 copies, but if the quantities of other limited Swami releases are an indicator, I'm going to make an educated guess and just come back and correct it if I find out other information.

I don't know who is still reading at this point.  If you come to this website, you probably are naturally inclined to like something like PLOSIVS.  I don't know that anything I write is going to make you listen to this record if you weren't already planning to.  But what I can say is that this is hands down the best album of 2022.  It's probably the best record I've heard in the last ten years and I'm saying this with only about a month of listening to it.  It's kind of crazy just how completely I've connected with this record.  I love every second of it and can only wait, hoping for more.  I have read that they've already recorded a lot of their second LP already.  I would be happy to get two PLOSIVS records in a year.  I'll take that every year.

PLOSIVS - PLOSIVS:
https://music.youtube.com/channel/UC2XGi1rWjD3eUL-HtChZziA

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla LP - From Godzilla: The Showa Era Soundtracks, 1954-1975 Box Set

Waxwork (2021) 

For the next several Fridays I'll be writing about an LP from the fantastic Godzilla Show Era soundtrack box set. Godzilla was such an important part of my childhood and the music was such a vital piece of that puzzle. Thrilled to finally have these on vinyl.

The 1970s Mechagodzilla is such an amazingly cool design.  I have loved it since I was a small child, but it took me a while to finally see the movie where it first appeared.  While I will write about it more next week, Terror of Mechagodzilla is my favorite Godzilla movie and one that I saw a million times as a young kid.  I'm not even completely positive I knew that there was a prior movie with Mechagodzilla in it, though the big long intro that happens during Terror of Mechagodzilla does point that out pretty clear.  This is pre-internet folks, do you really think there was an easy to find list of what Godzilla movies existed when I was 8 years old in 1984?

I did finally come across a VHS copy of Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla, I'd say when I was maybe twelve or thirteen years old?  I remember being very surprised with how odd it was.  Especially considering Godzilla's new buddy King Caesar.  King Caesar is a giant, brown, furry rabbit like thing that moves really fast and gesticulates wildly.  He was there to give Godzilla the two on one babyface advantage, which everyone knows is poor psychology.  

This fulfills the prophecy that the movie is built around: "When a black mountain appears above the clouds, a huge monster will arise and try to destroy the world; but when the red moon sets and the sun rises in the west, two monsters shall appear to save the people."  Not sure why that is still so clear to me after all of these years, but they do really hammer it home during the human part of the plot.

The soundtrack was handled by Godzilla veteran Masaru Sato.  There are elements of Ifukube style suspense and dread, but there's also a lot of weirdly upbeat passages where characters just kind of feel like they're bebopping around.  It's an interesting mix, but one that I do still find enjoyable.  And look at the art on this LP cover.  It's gorgeous and like all of the others in this set, it just sounds superb.  Next week we tackle the very last LP on the Showa collection.  For the ones that have enjoyed this fifteen week odyssey, sadly it's coming to an end.  For those looking for pop punk, don't worry you've only got one more Friday to go.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla - "Main Title Theme":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u0DJFWXVpg&ab_ 

Czarface - Every Hero Needs A Villain 2xLP

Brick (2015)

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

After ignorantly ignoring Czarface when they first started releasing records, I've been trying to make up for lost time and backtrack on their catalog.  I've mostly tracked down all of the main releases, but I am still looking for one of the RSD instrumental records at a nice price.  Every Hero Needs A Villain was the second Czarface record, once again featuring Esoteric and Inspectah Deck on the mic with 7L handling the production.

It's really a Golden Era style hip hop album with great, hard hitting beats and lyrics that weave in nods to Sci Fi, comics and an unusually large amount of pro wrestling references.  There are aspects of it that keep it more in the lineage of early 2000s underground hip hop, but if you had dropped this on Jive in 1993, it wouldn't really feel all that out of place.

There's a good amount of guest appearances, including MF Doom, GZA, Method Man and Large Professor.  But it never feels overcrowded or that the guests are taking away from the main Czarface MCs.  Everything just meshes together perfectly and again, I can't compliment the beats enough as they really make this a special album.  I'm not sure why Czarface wasn't on my radar for so long, but I'm doing everything I can to get current.

Czarface - Every Hero Needs A Villain:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kjwLRaGr9tlFtQaWHILSSkJA5WGMUpGsw

Gentlemen Rogues - Francy 7" - Red,Blue & Yellow Tri Color Vinyl

Snappy Little Numbers (2022)

Over the years Gentlemen Rogues have but out a bunch of singles and EPs, many of which I have written about in the past, always eager to point out that singer Danny Dunlap was also in Jill, a pop punk band of my youth very near and dear to my heart.  This newest single is their second release for Snappy Little Numbers and it contains an original and a They Might Be Giants cover, both of which are a mighty good time.

A side "Francy" is a an energetic, crunchy guitar fueled blast.  The verse builds ever so perfectly into the supremely catchy chorus.  It's power pop for sure, but has a roughness to it that reminds me that these guys have punk rock roots and that just can't help but seep in and give it that extra little something that I'm always looking for in a song.

On the B side is a cover of the They Might Be Giants song "I've Got A Match."  The original TMBG song is from the album Lincoln and while I can't say that I'm the biggest fan of theirs, I do know some of their earlier material after being exposed to them on Al TV, when Weird Al would take over MTV.  The Gentlemen Rogues version strips out the nursery school vibe and turns it into a straight forward guitar pop blast.  A different take to be sure, but one that I enjoy quite a bit.

All these great Gentlemen Rogues singles.  I enjoy them immensely, but what it does more than anything is make me continue to salivate for an eventual full length.  Let's get on that!

Gentlemen Rogues - Francy 7":
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/francy-b-w-ive-got-a-match

Godzilla vs. Megalon LP - From Godzilla: The Showa Era Soundtracks, 1954-1975 Box Set

Waxwork (2021) 

For the next several Fridays I'll be writing about an LP from the fantastic Godzilla Show Era soundtrack box set. Godzilla was such an important part of my childhood and the music was such a vital piece of that puzzle. Thrilled to finally have these on vinyl.

Godzilla vs. Megalon is not one of the more lauded entries in the Godzilla series, but it is one that is so very near and dear to my heart.  It was the first Godzilla movie I ever owned on VHS as my mom bought it for me one day when we were at the supermarket.  I'm not sure why they were selling a Godzilla tape, but as soon as I saw it and thought that I could then watch a Godzilla movie whenever I wanted, instead of hoping to see one on Saturday morning on channel 9 or 11, I was hooked.

I watched that tape so many times as a kid and it became the cornerstone while I tried to add more VHS tapes to the collection.  I don't think I finally had all of the Show era VHS tapes until I hit high school, but I had Megalon the longest.  It's a very campy movie that is certainly weird in places.  Gigan teams up with Megalon to make a pretty fun monster tag team.  Godzilla receives help from Toho's Ultraman knockoff, Jet Jaguar - who is probably the character/thing this movie is most well known for.

Riichiro Manabe handles the score for this one, which features a pretty upbeat and jaunty feel throughout the movie.  While it doesn't have the same sort of ominous tones one would expect from an Akira Ifukube soundtrack, at least they did a proper score for this movie instead of recycling music like they did for Godzilla vs. Gigan.

Broken record time where I repeat myself again.  What Waxwork has done with this album is fantastic.  Sounds great, looks even better.  Another piece of joy on my record shelf.

Godzilla vs. Megalon - "Main Theme":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m07T85lxgyQ&ab_

MC Serch - Return of the Product LP

Def Jam (1992) 

Every Wednesday, in honor of Ed Lover Dance Day from Yo! MTV Raps, I take a break from rock and roll to write a little bit about hip hop. In the late 80s and early 90s hip hop ruled my musical life. During this often called 'Golden Era' I discovered so much incredible music. As I am slowly replacing the CDs I've had for twenty-five plus years with vinyl copies, I'm going to talk about some albums that had a really important impact on me during some very formative years.

I was a pretty huge 3rd Bass fan when I was in late grammar school/early high school.  I don't know for sure that I was aware they had actually broken up, though I imagine if it was ever mentioned in The Source, I would have read about it.  While I did prefer Prime Minister Pete Nice when 3rd Bass was together, I was certainly more than happy to pick up the debut MC Serch solo album when it came out during the summer in between my freshman and sophomore years of high school in 1992.

"Here It Comes" got play on Yo! MTV Raps and I liked it enough to jump into the full CD instead of testing the water with a cassingle.  I never remember liking the album too much aside from a couple of stand out tracks, and now that I'm older and revisiting, I still kind of feel that way.  The aforementioned "Here It Comes" still strikes my fancy as does the title track "Return of the Product."  But then and now the highlight for me is "Back to the Grill."  It's a posse cut that also features Chubb Rock and a young Nas.  Not that it's the guest appearances that put it over the top, it's really just how great the beat is.  But everyone holds their own and easily makes it my favorite thing on the record.

It took a while for me to find a coy at a reasonable price.  It's never been reissued, so the only vinyl out there is thirty years old at this point.  I finally found a copy on Discogs, but it's not quite in the contidion I'd like it to be in.  There's a bit of surface noise on the vinyl itself, but it's not too noticeable most of the time.  It's a perfectly fine filler copy for now, but if they ever reissue it, I'd gladly upgrade.

MC Serch - Return of the Product:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k0ln86xfvHuOuF6kra-2cC8CQhX8pVqzU

Night Court - Nervous Birds! One Cassette

Snappy Little Numbers / Debt Offensive (2021)

This lingered a little longer than I would have liked as it was released this past December.  On my birthday, no less if the Bandcamp release date is accurate.  Snappy Little Numbers does a great job of unearthing bands that fit pretty perfectly into my wheelhouse.  So much so, that I even forgive them for putting out some of it on tape.  Debt Offensive is no slouch in the quality releases department either and Night Court is yet another example of this.

I watched the TV show Night Court a lot as a kid.  I'm not sure I really understood all of the jokes, but they had a wacky cast of characters and Yakov Smirnoff as a recurring guest star.  Gold.  Nervous Birds! One is also gold.  They have a lo-fi guitar sound and beat it into submission resulting in song after song just crammed full of catchy hooks.  

There are times where I hear Wavves, other times where So Cow feels like a good touchstone and still others where Pavement or Guided By Voices seem to make the most sense.  It's an album oddly anchored in early 90s indie rock and early 2010s garage rock, but somehow they mesh perfectly together.  

For me, if you put out an album that's this catchy and memorable, I'm going to be a happy guy no matter what fidelity you're recording in or what era has most inspired you.  Night Court has done that and it seems that Nervous Birds! Two is already lined up for release really soon.  Color me excited to complete the duology.

Night Court - Nervous Birds! One:
https://snappylittlenumbers.bandcamp.com/album/nervous-birds-one

Godzilla vs. Gigan 2xLP - From Godzilla: The Showa Era Soundtracks, 1954-1975 Box Set

Waxwork (2021) 

For the next several Fridays I'll be writing about an LP from the fantastic Godzilla Show Era soundtrack box set. Godzilla was such an important part of my childhood and the music was such a vital piece of that puzzle. Thrilled to finally have these on vinyl.

I've always felt that by the time we hit Godzilla vs Gigan, we've reached a new section of the Show series Godzilla movies.  This and the next two Godzilla films have a vibe to them for sure.  I'm not always sure exactly what that vibe is, but it's different than the others.  It feels like they are simultaneously trying to be more comical and kid friendly, while at the same time using more blood and gore (albeit in a cartoony manner).

The real star of this film is Gigan.  What a wonderfully designed monster.  In a lot of ways I think it's actually a shame that Ghidorah is even in this movie as I think you could have very easily gotten Gigan over as a major threat without recycling a top villain from past films.  That said, I remember my younger brother and I having conversations about if Gigan and Ghidorah were the most devastating monster combo in the series.  Based on the amount of stock footage destruction, probably not...

Speaking of stock footage, that's what most of the soundtrack is as well.  Although it's credited to Akira Ifukube, it's mostly just reused passages from prior Godzilla films mixed in with sections of Atragon, Battle in Outer Space, Frankenstein Conquers the World, King Kong Escapes and some pieces that Ifukube composed for the Mitsubishi Pavilion at Expo '70 (so says Wikipedia anyway).

While not the most necessary of soundtracks, you have to release it if you're doing Godzilla soundtracks so I'm glad it's here and given the same sort of loving, attention to detail that Waxwork has given all of the soundtracks in this box set.

Godzilla vs. Gigan - "Main Title":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdbZldLDAHo&ab_