In a coma

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In A Coma

Released	2005
Recorded	?
Length	1:12:12 / 2:25:20
Label	Universal Music Canada
Producer	John Shepp, Dale Penner, Warne Livesey, Matthew Good
Chronology
WLRRR	In A Coma	Hospital Music

in a coma is Matthew Good's greatest hits album.

1 General
2 Notes From the Artist
3 Tracklist
- 3.1 CD 1
- 3.2 CD 2

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General

Released in 2005, in a coma was billed as Matthew Good's greatest hits album for the decade between 1995-2005. The album was released in two editions. The regular release contained a single CD with two new tracks, one B-side and 14 previous singles. The deluxe edition release included a second CD with 9 reworked acoustic tracks as well as the songs from Matt's two previous limited edition releases: Lo-Fi B-Sides and Loser Anthems.

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Notes From the Artist

Whenever anyone releases their greatest hits they do so with a certain amount of trepidation. In my case I knew that the disc would have to contain as many of the 20+ singles that I’ve released over the years, a reality that I wasn’t particularly happy about. I have always been of the opinion that best-of packages should contain those album cuts that diehard fans appreciate, not the material that has been widely exposed. But it was a battle that, given years of fighting battles, seemed pointless.

From the outset, the release was to be twofold. One would be a regular disc filled with the typical hits that would also include two new tracks and one previously unreleased track. The other, a deluxe version, would include the same disc, a video library with commentary (one of the best features of the package), a few hard to find releases, and some acoustic re-workings which, for me, became the highlight of the entire release. I would ultimately be able to sneak a few album tracks onto the deluxe version by way of the still photography feature on the DVD disc, but that was about it.

The two new tracks recorded for the release were, as expected, predictably radio friendly, though they failed to garner the sorts of sales that the record company believed they would. The first of the two, Oh Be Joyful was a quickly penned song that has inside 'author' joke written all over it. Despite delving into erroneous meanings with the press, the song itself was actually inspired by its title, which, in truth, has nothing to do with being joyful beyond being drunk. The name Oh Be Joyful was actually used by soldiers during the US Civil War to describe the alcohol that they produced in camp. Another common name was pop skull, which I also included in the song. In truth, I just liked the sound of the phrases, threw them in a song, haphazardly wrote some lyrics around them that made some semblance of sense, and that was that.

The other track, Big City Life, was a song that started out as a impromptu jam during a sound check. Later that night, during the encore, the band and I decided to try it, which meant that I had to make up lyrics as I went. Over time, having never sat down and written proper words, the mish-mash of different ideas ultimately became what’s on disc today.

In the end, had I the resources and support to do something truly spectacular, I would have released a box set filled with far more album material and one with far less emphasis placed on radio singles. The deluxe package therefore became the real gem because of the acoustic re-workings and the DVD commentary, which begs the question why a version containing songs that most people already owned was put out at all.
– Matthew Good ([1])

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