This is a limited edition set of live recordings, available only from the label's website, drawn from two shows on the band's 1996 and 1998 tours. Aside from leader Scott Miller's usual excellent and intriguing songcraft, the recording demonstrates several aspects of the Loud Family less apparent in its studio recordings. First, unlike too many acts who sound wonderful in recordings but helpless and enervated onstage, the Loud Family execute these songs in concert with grace, power, energy, and precision. Even though non-musicians are unlikely to notice, "Such Little Nonbelievers" sends its players through a series of hairpin rhythmic curves, which the band hugs like a finely tuned Italian sports car. Noteworthy as well is the band's genius for sequencing: The opening track, "Where the Flood Waters Soak Their Belongings" segues seamlessly into a brief instrumental cover of Brian Eno's "Here Come the Warm Jets" (I like the in-joke between the two titles), before a breathless full-stop leads directly into "Spot the Setup." Or hear the way the Game Theory track "Not Because You Can" here seems as if it's always been preceded by one of the previously untitled odd-numbered tracks from Days for Days (the ninth track, now christened, logically, "Nine"). Or listen to how the noise-ridden climax of "Go Ahead, You're Dying To" drops away to reveal the opening of "Asleep and Awake on the Man's Freeway." From Ritual to Romance also confirms that not enough attention has been paid to Scott Miller's guitar playing. First, there's his tone: most often, he uses a fairly dry, trebly sound, lightly distorted, poised midway between delicacy and power. It's somewhat similar to the sound Hendrix used in "Little Wing," or the rhythm sound Richard Thompson sometimes uses. As a player, Miller would never claim to be in either guitarist's league (nor would such playing suit his music), but he's an adept and resourceful musician, modulating his chords skillfully across the neck and filling out the sound admirably, particularly when considering that he's singing at the same time. And those who might have recoiled at Miller's high-register and occasionally squawksome vocals in Game Theory might be surprised at how well he's learned to use his unique instrument: he sings around the more unpleasant aspects of his voice - except when he wants to emphasize them, as on the intentionally irritating vocals of "Nonbelievers," which here trades off some of the original's whining for a note of exasperation, to positive effect. And on the 1996 tracks (13 of the album's 20 listed tracks), guitarist/keyboardist Paul Wieneke discovers some wonderfully noisy synth sounds and makes brilliantly queasy use of pitch-bending. This CD is the only recorded documentation of 1996 tour drummer Mike Tittel, who joined the band at short notice when its previous drummer, on the eve of the tour, decided some other band better suited her talents. And the 1998 tracks feature the reunion with Game Theory drummer Gil Ray, whose playing is both powerful and musical, as well as the warm backing vocals of keyboardist Alison Faith Levy. Two covers top off the collection. The Pixies' "Debaser" receives a bug-eyed rendering, including a new middle section quoting from the Loud Family's "He Do the Police in Different Voices." The second cover doesn't fare as well: My Bloody Valentine's "When You Sleep" suffers from some vocal lapses and a missed keyboard cue. I would have preferred their versions of either Roxy Music's "Re-Make, Re-Model" (covered on the 1996 tour) or "Sexy Sadie" (from the 1998 shows). From Ritual to Romance is a fitting valedictory to ex-Game Theory leader Scott Miller's 1990s band, which Milk scribe Jon M. Gilbertson once called "the best pop band most of us have never heard."

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