Deftones - B-Sides & Rarities [2LP]

Deftones' B-Sides & Rarities pulls together covers, acoustic reworks and live cuts onto two LPs, a side door into the Sacramento band's moodier instincts.

Originally released in 2005, the collection rounds up material scattered across singles and soundtracks from the band's first decade, the kind of tracks fans once had to hunt down import by import. Heard together, they reveal a group whose taste ran far wider than the nu-metal label ever suggested.

The covers say a lot about where Chino Moreno and company were coming from. They turn Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man" into a slow, heavy crawl, find the hidden menace in Sade's "No Ordinary Love", and give The Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" a hushed, devoted reading. Elsewhere, versions of Cocteau Twins, Jawbox and Duran Duran songs show off their love of dream-pop, post-hardcore and new wave.

The acoustic versions are just as revealing. Stripped back, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" exposes how strong the band's melodies were all along, with Moreno's voice floating rather than roaring.

For longtime fans, this is a crucial piece of the puzzle, showing the sensitivity that always sat beneath the heaviness. Newcomers will find a surprisingly gentle entry point to one of alternative metal's most adventurous bands.