JOY DIVISION: HEART AND SOUL (1977-1980; 1997)
CD I: Unknown Pleasures + bonus tracks; CD II: Closer + bonus tracks; CD III: Studio rarities; CD IV: Live
rarities.
General verdict: Hardly worth it
for the rarities, definitely worth it for the comprehensive feels.
Although I do not usually make separate
sections for boxsets, Heart And Soul
merits an exception, since it contains almost two discs' worth of previously
unreleased, or at least long-out-of-print, goodies. Before the special expanded
releases of Unknown Pleasures and Closer, it may have been the ultimate
package for the fan — just about everything the band ever released in its
lifetime and beyond that, wrapped together in a single artsy package, with tons
of photos, liner notes, lyrics, you name it. Today, in the age of digital
downloads, its importance has certainly dimmed down, and as of 2017, the box is
out of print, but I'm pretty sure that it, or its equivalent, will return again
sooner or later, because, after all, what is a cult band without a cult
coffeetable boxset?
That said, in terms of getting us any new
material it is a relative disappointment. The first two CDs offer you the two
classic albums plus a selection of single and EP tracks, most of which had
already been available on Still and Substance. The main hopes lie with the
third disc, a chronological assemblage of previously released and unreleased
rarities, starting with the An Ideal For
Living EP (ʽWarsawʼ and other tracks from the punk era), which we already
saw on Substance; continuing with
three tracks from the abandoned Warsaw
album, discussed in the previous review; and probably culminating with a set of
live-in-the-studio tracks from The Peel
Sessions — truly the high point, since these performances only saw very limited
release in EP and CD form in the late Eighties and early Nineties. For the
record, these versions of ʽLove Will Tear Us Apartʼ and ʽColonyʼ sound just
about perfect, sharper and with more
energy than in their usual form, perhaps. However, collectors will probably experience
the greatest delight at the early 1980 demo of ʽCeremonyʼ — presented here in
rather low fidelity, but still far clearer in terms of guitar sound than on any
live recording (except for the vocals, alas, which are barely audible).
The real
disappointment is the fourth disc. Apparently, compilers of the boxset wanted
to make fans really happy by scooping up as much previously unreleased material
as they could find; unfortunately, it seems like none of the tracks are
soundboard recordings — everything is strictly bootleg quality, particularly
the first ten tracks, taken from a Manchester show in July 1979, when the band
was arguably at its energetic peak: the version of ʽInterzoneʼ captured here
shows them ready to bring down the house, but, unfortunately, even with the
lowest audiophile requirements (like mine) it is fairly hard to enjoy the muck
with half of the frequencies eaten up. On the other end of the spectrum, the
February 29, 1980 show at the Lyceum in London was hardly one of their best
gigs — you do get to witness a rare live version of ʽThe Eternalʼ, but Curtis
is so awfully out of tune on it that it just keeps reminding me of how
technically weak as a singer he had always been, and that is not something I
need to be reminded of while following the slow funeral procession of the song.
Consequently, the optimistic perspective on the
boxset is that it presents you with everything you ever wanted to know about
Joy Division and more. The pessimistic perspective, on the other hand, is that
it is highly questionable whether you actually want to know more. For all the bootleggish nature of Warsaw, that album, when heard in
complete form, did really add an entire new chapter to the Joy Division history
— Heart And Soul only borrows a few
pages out of that chapter, and clearly shows you that this is it, folks: after
all, Joy Division were not The Fall or Guided By Voices — they reached higher
peaks, perhaps, but at the expense of skipping those smooth, endless kilometers
of lower valleys. Still, great bands deserve optimistic perspectives that trump
pessimistic ones, don't they?
On the other hand, the demo of "In A Lonely Place" sounds just about perfect, but gets cut off after the second verse...
ReplyDeleteAnd if you want a physical copy of the full nearly-six-minutes version, it's only available on an exclusive Record Store Day vinyl...
DeleteWhy did they have to use that f***ing retarded pic of Ian as the cover for the box set? THAT'S why it's out of print...
ReplyDelete