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1. Intransit
2. Quincentuple Your Money
3. 100 Resolution
4. There's No Place Like A Stranger's Floor
5. Hey, What Time Is 'Pensacola: Wings of Gold' On Anyway?
6. Presenting: The Dancing Machine (The Robot With The Monkey Head)
7. Overheated
8. Necrotism: Decanting The Insalubrious (Cyborg Midnight) Part 7
9. A Boring Story
10. Faintly Falling Ashes
11. A Toast
12. Nebraska
13. Another Boring Story
14. Joyce Carol Oates Is A Boring Old Biddy
15. The Old Timers 2x4
16. Turnstiles / Old Mexico Way / Purple Haze / Haven Help Me

A handy 19-track compilation of B-sides, stray contributions to compilations and split EPs, live recordings, and three re-recordings rounding things out, Cocktails & Dreams is both a boon for longtime fans and a perfectly fine introduction to the Chicago pop/rockers for the uninitiated. Unlike a lot of bands, the Lawrence Arms don't treat these stray tracks as an excuse to be half-assed, goofy (although one track is titled "Joyce Carol Oates Is a Boring Old Biddy," a sentiment to which a generation of English majors nods in assent), or needlessly experimental; silly title and all, "Hey, What Time Is 'Pensacola: Wings of Gold' on, Anyway?" is a powerful, punky rocker with a soaring chorus, a well-turned lyric, and a killer primary riff. The similarly impressive "Overheated" is quite possibly the band's best song yet. "Intransit," "Turnstiles," and "The Old Timer's 2x4," are equally fine (the latter two were first heard on Ghost Stories); they're catchy indie rock songs that don't sacrifice catchy melodies for punk rock power, featuring lead singers Brendan Kelly and Chris McCaughan's gruff but tuneful vocals and the whole trio's admirable musical muscle. Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

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