Review
Cave In
Anomalies Vol. 1

The only phrase that could describe my emotion right now is absolutely gushing, because “Inflatable Dream” is finally playing on my record player after years of obscurity as the “lost” Cave In song that blows away many other Cave In songs, and dear lord does its blasting goodness just make my 1999 barely twenty year old self scream like a maniac and bounce all over the damn room as only the best records ever can make me. Listen, I could extol the virtues of Cave In circa 1997 to 2001 with the best of them; but, whereas many of those fools stopped listening to any new band material once they broke out the light up toy guns to rub on their guitars and Brodsky started singing more than screaming, I simply stood in awe at Middlesex County Community College when the band broke into Luminance right around the time that Until Your Heart Stops hit and blew everyone’s minds. When Creative Eclipses finally came out, “Luminance” dominated my stereo as much if not more than Until Your Heart Stops as my voracious appetite to hear the song had only been stoked by seeing the band play the song night in and night out as I followed them around like a lost puppy; but I also felt gypped when <i>Jupiter</i> came out that was all that the band was going to give me of this strange amalgamated sound.

Low and behold, a decade passes and a song called “Inflatable Dream” surfaces from the era in question on the world wide interwebs (where would we all be without this infernal invention), and my mind is blown when I hear this song, much in the same way that it previously had; the song also creeps up in the band’s reunion show footage as well as the limited live CD that Hydra Head made available. Alas, no vinyl release for this mammoth track, that is until now with Anomalies Vol. 1; an odds and ends sort of release from Cave In with a bunch of covers (the Cure, Bad Brains, Black Sabbath, and Codeine), another song close to the Until Your Heart Stops era (Mr. Co-Dexterity, which, in the liner notes, the band wonders how they ever played the song), and a demo version of “Innuendo And Out The Other” from Jupiter.

Sure the Sabbath and Cure covers are neat to hear but the Bad Brains and Codeine covers are mostly forgettable, and while I already had these covers through a bunch of other compilations and what not, they are not really worth hunting down (however the Sabbath song is on an early split with Botch for Hydra Head’s Black Sabbath tribute series which is worth tracking down in that form) making them an inconsequential addition to this release; the gems though are the three originals, which might have made a nice 7” but as an LP, this release is a little disappointing, particularly the lackluster packaging (from Hydra Head this is a surprise).

Seriously though, Cave In completists need this release (NEED IT!) if only for “Inflatable Dream”, although the other two originals also add a little something more to the release; no matter how disappointed I was with the packaging or the cost or the lack of a few other odds and ends from the band, I still feel like I am back in 1999 when this spins on my turntable.