There’s not much I could complain about considering the original 1981 album has received a 2019 remaster and this is no doubt one of the more important albums for the band! A lot of awesome rock songs from one of the more well-known punk rock bands from Los Angeles. X’s “Wild Gift” (2019 Remaster) is recommended!
Click here to purchase X’s “Wild Gift” (2019 Remaster) Album on Amazon
BAND: X
ALBUM: Wild Gift
DURATION: 16 Songs (40 Minutes)
ORIGINAL RELEASE: May 1981 (Remastered in 2019)
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- “The Once Over Twice” – 2:31
- “We’re Desperate” – 2:00
- “Adult Books” – 3:19
- “Universal Corner” – 4:33
- “I’m Coming Over” – 1:14
- “It’s Who You Know” – 2:17
- “In This House That I Call Home” – 3:34
- “Some Other Time” – 2:17
- “White Girl” – 3:27
- “Beyond and Back” – 2:49
- “Back 2 the Base” – 1:33
- “When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch” – 1:57
- “Year 1” – 1:18
- “Beyond and Back” (Live) – 2:48
- “We’re Desperate” [Explicit] (Live) – 2:31
- Year 1 (Live) – 1:26
As a person who loves punk music, back in 1986, while listening to KROQ 106.7 (A legendary Los Angeles radio station of the ’80s and ’90s who played music that other radio stations wouldn’t play, may it be new wave, punk or alternative rock), I would often hear their 1981 song “White Girl” from X being played.
The band which consisted of vocalist Exene Cervenka, vocalist-bassist John Doe, guitarist Billy Zoom and drummer D.J. Bonebrake.
From the opening guitar riff and the drums and hearing John Doe and Exene Cervenka singing for “White Girl”, I kept visiting our local record store asking if they can order X for me.
And no one knew what the heck I was talking about, so I had to do a lot of special orders through our local record shop. I wanted to get “Los Angeles” and “Wild Gift” but to no avail. I think it was until 1988, when my local radio shop knew I liked punk bands and they ordered X’s “Live at the Whisky a Go-Go” (a live album) and I listened to that cassette over and over until it warped.
Their music was so damn catchy and I love how the band members rocked and really got into their music. From their unique punk style which incorporates rock, country, blues, R&B and rockabilly. This would change as the band’s music started to evolve.
I think the most insane thing was seeing the band performing on “American Bandstand” in 1985 for their song “Burning House of Love”. But I became a huge fan of the band’s music and admit that my favorite music from the band would be the 1980-1981 years.
The band would go on several hiatus and did a good number of live performances, fastforward to April 2020 and the band would release their first studio album in 27 years with “Alphabetland”.
If anything, memories of X of my youth made me want to pick up the past albums digitally and noticed that there were 2019 remasters available for both their 1980 album “Los Angeles” and their 1981 album “Wild Gift” in digital format and I couldn’t help but purchase them.
While the bonus tracklisting has changed since their 2001-re-releases, what you get now are added live performances. Although it’s not listed of what year and where the performances were taken from.
But needless to say “Wild Gift” was one of the albums I was looking forward to. I used to listen to this song a lot with my girlfriend (who later became my wife) and my young surfing years.
I had no idea that the album was voted the No. 2 album in “The Village Voice” Pazz & Jop poll and was ranked No. 334 in Rolling Stone’ list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.
I do know that at the end of 1981, their song “White Girl” ranked at No. 16 in KROQ 106.7’s “Top 100 Songs of 1981” considering that there was quite a bit of competition with Adam & the Ants, The Go-Go’s, Missing Persons, The Pretenders and Devo. But considering that the song did better on the station compared to U2’s “I Will Follow”, The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film” on the radio station was a major accomplishment.
Favorites on this album aside from “White Girl”, “Wild Gift” includes awesome tracks such as “The Once Over Twice”, “We’re Desperate”, “Universal Corner”, “I’m Coming Over”, “Some Other Time”, their rockabilly song “Beyond and Back”, “Back 2 the Base”, “When Our Love Passed Out on the Couch” and “Year 1”.
To tell you the truth, all songs on the album are very good and I absolutely love this album. The band and their original members are such a cohesive unit and they rock from beginning to end and hearing John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s vocals, is just awesome! You’ll find you head bopping quite a bit! That’s how cool the songs are on this album!
One thing you will notice with X albums, their duration of songs tend to be short, but for this album, a lot of songs in the 3 to 4 minute duration. When they included the bonus tracks for the 2001 re-issue, it was pretty cool they added seven tracks.
Unfortunately, for the 2019 remaster, six of the seven tracks have been removed except one, which is “Beyond and Back” (Live). I was hoping they would have added the seven tracks plus the two added in the 2019 digital version. That would have been epic!
But nevertheless, there’s not much I could complain about considering the original 1981 album has received a 2019 remaster and this is no doubt one of the more important albums for the band! A lot of awesome rock songs from one of the more well-known punk rock bands from Los Angeles.
X’s “Wild Gift” (2019 Remaster) is recommended!
Click here to purchase X’s “Wild Gift” (2019 Remaster) Album on Amazon
