As Quickdraw mentioned in Friday's post, the band was not too happy with Tom Werman's treatment of their songs for the album In Color. Drummer Bun E. Carlos explains: "He made it safe for radio, but the album sounds like it was done in a cardboard box." Over a decade later in the 90's, the band was in the studio hanging out with producer Steve Albini with nothing to do for a few days, and decided to re-record the album for kicks. They never completed it, but got pretty far in. I recently found the entire album on the internet (props to Rock Town Hall Blog) and present it here in its entirety for your downloading pleasure. It includes two versions each of "I Want You to Want Me" and "Oh Caroline" as well as a cover of John Lennon's "I'm Losing You."

In my opinion, In Color was a perfect record the first time around. The pop treatment of the set makes the songs shine, setting them apart from other hard rock albums. Its ithe very reason I love it so much. I've listened to the Albini versions a bunch, and while there are moments of brilliance overall I find it bit bland and uneven, with the songs getting lost in the mix. Listening to the vocals, you can really hear how much Billy Corgan was influenced by Robin Zander. Still, its a rare chance to hear a band reclaim its vision.

In Color with Steve Albini