I’ve listened to this a few times now and I’m kinda surprised to find myself saying that I don’t hear anything that really stands out and that I feel like should have been on one of the albums.  For me almost all of the tracks on the Outtakes are in one of two categories: either they have something going for them but there’s something that pretty obviously didn’t work out, or they’re very similar to tracks that are on the albums or earlier stuff, but just not as good.

Some examples in the first category-

The Monster: decent, but a track that covers this subject matter needs to feel like one of the darkest, most intense ICP tracks of all time, as opposed to just a pretty decent track

The Carousel: dope concept, but the hook just doesn’t work.

The Dream: pretty cool imagery, but this is supposed to be creepy and somebody having a nightmare is just not that creepy.

I’m Sorry: probably my favorite on the album and has the makings of a great song, but the whole concept is kind of like, huh?

In the second category:

Joey the Butcher: decent Shaggy track, but there’s room for one Shaggy track on TMML and I Fucked a Cop is much better.  Plus, we know Shaggs doesn’t write all his own stuff which is fine, but it sounds like he didn’t write *any* of this one, it just doesn’t feel right. 

Hooker: yeah it’s funny but there’s no room for another comedy track.

Six Pedophiles, Dead Heather: lame retreads of stuff we’ve heard before.

I do think Missing Link, Why’d I Have to Die, and Let Loose are on par with maybe half of the songs that made it on to Lost, but that’s more a reflection that the weaker half of Lost wasn’t that strong.  None of them needed to be on there.

All in all there’s nothing on the Outtakes that I’ll be listening to a month from now but it was fun to hear anyway and worth the $10 for that.

Just listened to the album twice. My thoughts are very similar to Dr. Freshness.

No real hidden gems here that made me think “why wasn’t think on the main albums?”

I enjoy hearing outtakes. Worth the $15, but not sure how much I’ll be listening to this CD in a few weeks, whereas I still listen to Lost & Found quite a bit.

I’m Sorry, Hooker, Why’d I Have to Die? and the Missing Link are probably my favorites. But they each have something that doesn’t quite work.

So all in all, with the pool of songs ICP had to choose from, I think they made the right choices with which songs to put on the albums and which to leave off.

I also like that rather than Lost & Found having a bunch of different versions with various bonus tracks, there are definitive versions of the albums and if you want the outtakes, you can get them on their own album.

Been a pretty cool year to be an ICP fan. New album, then another new album a few months later, then the outtakes a few months after that. Doubt I’ll buy the Riddle Box anniversary edition. Three new releases is enough to keep me busy.