5 out of 5

Label: Island

Produced by: Various

Regardless of how you joined the Tripping Daisy bandwagon, this is an amazing collection. It works as an intro; it works as the-only-TD-disc-you-own; it works as an amazing bonus to an already impressive discography.

6 tracks, stepping backwards, chronologically, from 1996 to 1991, which really only covers Bill and I Am an Elastic Firecracker – so before they ditched the alterna-rock for psychedelia – but good riffs persisted throughout their career, and these songs are focused on some of the best of those. Plus, opener Rise – from the Basquiat soundtrack – dips its toes into Jesus Hits Like the Atom Bomb waters, coming across as that much more trippy and unleashed than what came before, giving this a “looking forward” vibe as well.

While elements absolutely speak to the earliest incarnation of the group as stoned out teens – a trio of titles like Boobie the Clown, I’m a Fish, and blue Train all just kinda speak to that – the core of each of those songs proves out either the pop hooks that made Daisy stick out, or double-down on the kind of epic writing that hit hard on Elastic Firecracker; nothing on this is skippable, just, for a few opening notes, makes you think it might be, before wrangling you in with melody or catchiness.

Perhaps most importantly for and odds and sods collection, Time Capsule never feels like it’s odds and sods, excepting some production shifts in quality – it’s a seamless set that presents a very focused version of what the band did, either proof of their existence beyond I Got A Girl – if that’s all you heard – or becoming a prized addition of singles for a collector.