The Best of Joy Division

Control (The Miriam Collection) In his elegiac debut, Anton Corbijn combines the music film with the social drama to stunning success. Based on Deborah Curtis's clear-eyed biography, Touching from a Distance, Control recounts the wrenching tale of a working-class lad about to hit the highest highs only to be wa...	Viva La Vida To say there has been a lot of anticipation for Coldplay's fourth album, Viva La Vida, is an understatement. Having enlisted legendary leftfield producer Brian Eno, borrowed their album title from a painting by renowned Mexican artist Frida Kahlo and made tantalising remarks abou...	Joy Division (The Miriam Collection) Fans of the gloomy Manchester-based band from the late 1970s will have less to feel down about with the release of this rockumentary. JOY DIVISION follows the unlikely rise of these working class lads up to Ian Curtis's suicide which tore the band apart until it was reborn as New...	Third Portishead's Third has been a long time coming, the result of a lengthy creative torpor following 1997's dark, distinctly underrated album Portishead. Importantly, though, they've shaken it. While the core trio of Beth Gibbons, Geoff Barrow, and Adrian Utley remains, this is quit...	Accelerate In the decade since the departure of drummer Bill Berry, R.E.M. could seem at times schizophrenic. Their albums of the era, which veered from the experimentalism of Up and reaffirmation of Reveal to 2004's more diffuse, reflective Around the Sun, often stood in stark contrast to ...
Closer 2007 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the influential Manchester quartet's 1980 album. Joy Division's influence on modern music is not only based around the band's unique sound, but also their vision, their personalities and their intense and troubled vocalist,...	Narrow Stairs Narrow Stairs might be the first album recorded by Death Cab for Cutie since Ben Gibbard's former solo project went unexpectedly stratospheric, but Gibbard hasn't let it go to his head. Oh, OK, maybe a little: lead-off single "I Will Possess Your Heart" is an eight minute jam tha...	Still 2007 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the influential Manchester quartet's 1981 posthumous compilation album. Joy Division's influence on modern music is not only based around the band's unique sound, but also their vision, their personalities and their intense...	Unknown Pleasures 2007 digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition of the influential Manchester quartet's 1979 debut album. Joy Division's influence on modern music is not only based around the band's unique sound, but also their vision, their personalities and their intense and troubled voc...	The Best of (Special Edition 2CD) Radiohead's first-ever career retrospective, this 2 disc Limited Edition CD package includes 17 of the band's most popular tracks including "Creep," "Karma Police," "High and Dry," "Fake Plastic Trees," and "Optimistic," plus a bonus disc featuring 13 more standouts including tra...

BRING OUT YOUR DEAD
This band is being exploited in ways that would make the Catholic church blush during the Inquisition. The little studio music that there is from this band continues to be spread over multiple cds that are absurdly expensive for no apparent reason other than greed. Multiple "documentaries", real and imagined, books, re-mixes [you know your in trouble], cd interviews discs [mein gott!!], accompany the copyright renewal rites for this music. If you hear any of these tunes as tv bridge music, supermarket muzak, or god-forbid, elevator music, make a move to the early Mekons. However, having noted the above, this really is a very good introduction to this band [14cuts:55Min.] that is available at a reasonable price [I paid $10], and contains their two "hits": 'She's Lost Control', and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', as well as a representative sample of their other songs. Prior to this release, to get these two "hits" alone you would have to buy two studio lps [with lots of live filler cuts of dubious performance and/or sound quality] at $20+ each. Note that this is not the UK two disc version as described above; be thankful as although the studio cuts are the same that one's other disc consists of live filler cuts and is three times the price [unbelievably the price of the UK version has gone up $10 since I first posted this review]. The music appearing here also ties into the Corbjin film ["Control": also recommended], so that if you are looking for music that you heard on the film soundtrack, you won't be disappointed by this lineup. This is a Rhino production with very good sound. At the time, I thought that this band was a great example of post-punk speed crash music wallowing in Thatcher induced despair and nihilism - I loved it. After seeing the Corbjin film, it turns out that its just a guy living in a bleak industrial town in the north of England with marital problems, suffering from various illnesses, and possessed by primal doubts fueled by the writings of: W. Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, F. Kafka, and a dollop of Fred Nietzsche - among others. Almost thirty years on, the music is hilarious in terms of it's references and self possession - I still love it. The follow on band New Order is actually much more depressing than this, but for different reasons. For a comic send up of this musical scene see the film/DVD: "24 Hour Party People". For a double bill of rock n roll nihilism, see Gus van Zant's, "Final Days", and, "Control". Note that rebellion is far better directed outward than inward. Persons new to this band should proceed with caution as this is now a "cult band", and others are recommending discs [especially live ones] that can be of very poor sonic and/or performance quality.

BE AWARE: no bonus disc on US version!!!
The "Product Description" lists this as a Limited 2-CD edition, but that's only for the UK version, which is more $. It's a great collection nonetheless, recommended for anyone who doesn't have anything by this seminal band. Also check the film CONTROL, & the new documentary about them by Grant Gee.

No novelty?
No Novelty??? I mean that in two senses - these songs are all on previous compilations and one their best songs, Novelty, is AWOL on this offering. A waste...