★½
I’ll be honest; I’m not a fan of live albums. There are exceptions, but Regurgitator’sNothing Less Than Cheap Imitations, a live recording of their gig at The Hi-Fi in Melbourne from 2012, is not one of them.
Don’t get me wrong – I love Regurgitator. But three years have passed since that gig. This album feels like something they originally planned to release as a download, but forgot about.
Regurgitator have always had a timelessly out-of-date quality to their music, giving them a feeling like they’re constantly behind the times, which is why songs like ‘Kong Foo Sing’ and ‘Black Bugs’ felt like instant classics. They’re a B-grade film you can’t help but love. In a way, this album is a poetic statement to the band’s relevance.
It seems as though a ‘best of’ album would have been better suited here, but if you’re a Regurgitator fan then you’ve probably already got Tu-Plang or Unit in your album collection, which means you should only buy this album if you enjoy listening to music with lower sound quality and crowd noise.
Nostalgia will be this album’s biggest selling point. And like nostalgia, this album is enjoyable, but otherwise pointless.
Regurgitator’sNothing Less Than Cheap Imitations is available throughValve.
