Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s: The Bride on the Boxcar – A Decade of Margot Rarities: 2004-2014

With a career spanning 11 years thus far, Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s have a broad range of transformational experiences in style and soundscape throughout the years to go with their over a decade-long presence in the music industry. They’ve gone from the foreboding chamber pop of 2005’s The Dust of Retreat and 2008’s Animal!/Not Animal, on through the more electric era of 2010’s Buzzard and 2012’s Rot Gut, Domestic, and finally to 2014’s more reserved, ethereal folk rock of Slingshot to Heaven.

In celebration of their illustrious first ten years, the band’s chameleonesque evolution has seen it fit to release a boxset dedicated to a decade’s worth of musical métier. Instead of working more towards the traditional greatest hits compilation at this point, Margot has gone out on a limb for its fans in releasing an all-encompassing, career-spanning set of rarities. From living room and bedroom recordings, track demos, b-sides, and alternative takes, The Bride on the Boxcar – A Decade of Margot Rarities: 2004-2014 is the band’s most widely circumscribed ode to the years packed into their portfolio thus far, and it is glorious.

When it comes to box sets, physical presentation is half of the entire sale, and Margot flashes brilliance in spades when it comes to The Bride on the Boxcar’s exhibition. Packed within an intricate, meticulously wound LP book containing a vast showcase of artwork and photo prints from throughout the band’s history, each album cover is a hand-painted piece set in dedication to its major release mirror. For instance, Hybristophilia features a fleet of ships similar to the one present on the cover of The Dust of Retreat; now, though, it’s on smoother tides with clearer weather on the way. Although the stunningly vibrant multicolored pastels of the first 300 prints have now sold out, there is an $85 version featuring black vinyl that still contains the same strong selection of music, as well as the aforementioned LP book.

In every way, The Bride on the Boxcar is Margot and the Nuclear So and So’s love letter to ardent fans of their tunes that have stuck around since the very beginning, but for even the most discerning boxset enthusiast, the set proves to be a scintillating piece of work. No fuller encompassment of Margot’s collective sound evolution has ever been developed, and it isn’t every day that a band puts the offer out there for such an eclectic, encompassing, and ornately put-together work for their listeners. For longtime fans and those with any bit of a passion for the storyteller’s end of rock ‘n’ roll, The Bride on the Boxcar is a provocative purchase.