4 out of 5

Label: WEA

Produced by: Michael Jonzun, Rob Mounsey, Roddy Frame 

A fun collection of B-sides / alternates and live cuts, with the recorded material Love-era bop and the live stuff of the stripped-down solo variety.  A nice mix, then, and one that I think helps to highlight how good some of the Love stuff can be, especially this peppy, kinda silly ‘alternative mix‘ of Somewhere In My Heart by Eric Calvi and the wildly upbeat ‘Boston 88’ version of Everybody Is Number One.

The live tracks are well performed and well recorded – maybe not the widest range, fidelity-wise, but Frame’s voice and guitar come across cleanly – with the odd man out being the ‘new’ track, ‘I Threw It All The Way,’ which, fine, is a Dylan track, but ends up feeling rather slight in Frame’s hands for whatever reason.

Amounting to alternate takes for collectors, New Live And Rare offers distinct enough alternates (and a nicely sequencing) to make it something that’s worth rotating in to your Aztec Camera playlist.