KT's (Less) Drastic, Fantastic Makeover

Some alternate albums you look for, some alternate albums are looking for you. Especially if they have the help of an algorhythm. Algorhythms are funny things, of course, and sometimes dumb things, too. I bought KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic on a special sales promotion for my wife, because a couple of years earlier she had loved "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree". Plus, you know, KT as a cute rock chick in a short white dress with a shiny guitar - that lady knows how to sell herself. The album is pretty neat, a bunch of well-written and produced pop and rock songs. But, you know, I had never remotely imagined that of all the  albums in my home, Drastic Fantastic would be on the short list for a patented OBG alternate album treatment. Enter Amazon. 

You know what's great about the, oh, two dozen albums or so that I bought on Amazon that had a digital version attached? Amazon's algorhtyhms don't necessarily know - or care - which version of the album I bought. So, while most album are exactly like I bought them, some others...change. Usually for the better. Amazon has (inadevertently?) upgraded a bunch of albums, adding bonus tracks or - as in the case of our dear Ms. Tunstall - a whole deluxe album version. So, all of a sudden I had a bunch of Drastic Fantastic bonus material on my hands...and that could obviously only mean one thing. 

Short dress + big guitar...we got a winner, baby

The Allmusic review to Drastic Fantastic noted how it was a fork-in-the-road kind of moment, where she could have chosen to be more of a gentle, slightly sleepy singer-songwriter or more of a pop star. As said, the chose the latter, and while the pop production on that album is good, some people probably had hoped for that other option. My alternate version of the album does this, to a degree, by sourcing seven of the tracks from the All You Need Is Mud documentary that was issued around the same time and featured Tunstall playing the tunes from Drastic Fantastic as live acoustic versions. 

Less Drastic, Still Fantastic - as I have dashingly called the album - also includes a number of outtakes from the album that are as good as those that made it on it, plus Tunstall's take on Beck's "The Golden Age", which she had issued on stop-gap release Acoustic Extravaganza a year earlier, but I decided to include anyway because it's a great song and KT's version is really good. And finally, included in this Ultimate Edition that was dropped in my lap was a whole disc of instrumental versions of the tracks. I'm not sure what the use and especially the relisten value of that is, but well, I didn't want to let it go to waste entirely either, so I created a handful of small interludes out of that. Result: An album that is 100% different from the original, but an equally good listen. 

Yup, that combo really works...no wonder I had to buy this...

Whether you like KT Tunstall, or have never listened to her before, check this out if you like unpretentious, well-made pop and rock music. And why wouldn't you?