Various Artists
This Changes Everything: A Second Nature Recordings Sampler (Second Nature)

originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2003

Although it rarely receives comment, the near-constant failure of label samplers is almost preposterous, since their very raison d’être is supposedly to provide us with the very best. Freed of the necessity to hew to the vision of a specific artist and beholden only to those records falling within a moderately arbitrary release window (or, in the case of a retrospective, a historical narrative, however subject to revisionism that may be), the compilers get to choose the cream of the available crop. Considering that the whole purpose of this enterprise is invariably to tempt you in the direction of other albums, picking anything but the one or two best songs from each of the selected artists would be risky at best and counterproductive at worst.

And still we find ourselves inhabiting a world in which it is the rare label sampler that is even start-to-finish listenable, let alone consistently superlative. It’s truly one of the great paradoxes of our age, and if you let it, Second Nature Recordings’ This Changes Everything will lead you straight into that minefield. The label draws heavily, though by no means exclusively, from bands from the general vicinity of its Kansas City base, and it’s your typical don’t-call-us-emo smorgasbord. The best cuts, from Reggie and the Full Effect (the thunderously melodic “Thanx For Stayin’” from Promotional Copy , a better deal at twice the price) and Sharks Keep Moving (“Try To Sleep,” which makes effective use of space by finding an idea and building on it instead of just repeating it), minister effectively to those who haven’t yet heard the gospel. It’s too bad that most of the other bands (which include Coalesce, the Blood Brothers and Kid Kilowatt) simply preach to the choir. Of course, there exists the possibility that every single act here kicks my ass and yours and that Second Nature has left far worthier cuts on their albums proper. That’s too bad, because based on This Changes Everything , I have no real desire to hear them.

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