I never heard the Murder City Devils until I heard this album so forgive me if I am not knowledgeable of this band. It's actually funny that the first time I heard them was their last album which is a live album of their last show. Their last show took place at The Showbox in their home town of Seattle, Washington on October 31, 2001, that would be Halloween. Since then the members of MCD's have formed other bands, Pretty Girls Make Graves and Dead Low Tide.
I am not a huge fan of live albums unless it is done perfectly. By perfect, I don't mean that everything has to be in tune and that there are no mistakes. I mean that the sound of the live recording has to fit the band's style and how I would imagine them live.
The problem that I have with this album is that this is the first time I've ever heard MCD so I can't really judge it by any means of personal experience.
RIP contains 19 live songs so it is a full album. I don't like when bands put out a live album with only four or five songs on the album like Boy Sets Fire and Thursday. I believe that the recording does a great job of capturing the sound and personality of MCD that I would want if I went to see them play. The only problem I have with the album is in the recording. On some tracks the mic cuts out and the keyboards drown out the guitar and the song gets tangled and disrupted but they did what they could do in one shot. You only get one last show, well unless you are in Zao.
The MCD grew on me each time I listened to this album. I think this is a great effort for a band that isn't around anymore.
B-
