The Sound - Classic/Dud/Search/Destroy

I love Shock of Daylight, kind of for sentimental reasons (first record of theirs I bought), but mostly cos that first side is knockout stuff imo. That sublime guitar part in Longest Days just melts me. Have heard it said that Terry Bickers was a big fan of Borland, and really it's not that far from Longest Days to Love In A Car - both borne out of lovely tremulous guitar lines; songs that make me catch my breath, not wanting the spell to be broken.

Apart from that and the live album, I don't actually know any of the other stuff on that box. Any good?

Just in case anyone doesn't know it already...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FhikwpRR58

Heads and Hearts and Thunder Up both have a lot of good songs on them -- I'm particularly fond of the former's "Wildest Dreams" -- and Propaganda is a nice early demos collection just before he started up the Sound as such.

The second box set arrived today. Digging into the extra stuff - the demos are interesting but I'm often amazed at how a decent sounding demo can go on to become an incredible finished song.

Just became aware of, and ordered, the second box set. Fantastic.

And early talk of a possible third set: http://www.brittleheaven.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=29

A quick A/B comparison of the new box vs the Renascent releases: not a big difference in sound quality, the box sounds like it's just a touch brighter and Adrian's vocals are clearer, especially on "In The Hothouse". A nice improvement overall but not as noticeable as with the first box.

I especially like having a proper version of "Oiled", for which I previously had a vinyl rip. What a fantastic song!

Oh, but they edited out some of the intro/outro stage chatter from "Hothouse". I don't know how I feel about that as I'm so used to it being there.

And while I'm being pedantic, the live version of "I Give You Pain" sounds like it's from a different show than the one on the 12".

Gonna get the new sets as soon as my tax refund comes in, should fill in the gaps in my Renascent discs / general knowledge of The Sound nicely. Til then, I second Ned's honorable mention, 12 years ago, of Borland's solo stuff, I particularly like "Long Dark Train" from the same 1996 album. And I'm shocked, SHOCKED, that no one's mentioned the song "AD RE: IAN," the 2013 tribute to Borland and another guy whose name I'm sure you can guess, from Slumberland gloomies Wax Idols. I felt a nice jolt when I heard of that song, as The Sound seem to be still so unrecognized 30 years after "Heads and Hearts" produced no hits. I'm not well-versed in this band's history, but I wonder if they purposefully avoided choosing "Total Recall" and "Love is Not a Ghost" as singles to escape the certain mega-fame that would have entailed.

Got the box in the mail yesterday and have made my way through a good chunk of it.

Thunder Up is the most dramatically improved, as it never received a remaster job.

Really nice to have all these b-sides as well.

Another winner of a set.

Aw man, that's a great rendition. Just seen what the original poster wrote about it here:

I suspect I'd probably think Winning was a lot nicer if the 'I'm gonna make it after all!' sentiment wasn't offet by the 'Hang on a minute, this guy jumped in front of a train three years ago!' realisation

― Ferg (Ferg), Tuesday, March 18, 2003 8:08 PM (9 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and I totally agree. Knowing that Borland would commit suicide in the most horrific way turns the way I feel about this song completely on its head. On its surface, it's a song about getting on top of a battle with depression and bad circumstances, but after knowing that Adrian killed himself and HOW he killed himself, the song feels so much more desperate. Like he wants to be "winning", rather than he is "winning". The song doesn't console me and make me feel like I can overcome obstacles in life; on the contrary, it makes me feel incredibly sad. The guy who wanted to win, more than anything in the fucking universe, sadly didn't. It's upsetting.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Sunday, 20 January 2013 02:14 (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's one perspective, agreed. And every April I shed a tear for the poor bastard whose music will live with me forever.

BUT... For a time, he WAS winning his personal battles, and in some places he was winning the hearts and minds of fans.

The fact that his end was so dark doesn't diminish the power of the song, and it still inspires me.

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Sunday, 20 January 2013 02:30 (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Keep on thinking about "Winning" and "New Dark Age" right now. Want to believe in the first song more.

Oh, it's a "New Dark Age" alright, and we'll "All Fall Down" and the "Heartland" will suffer during these "Iron Years". We'll see some "Brute Force" in the "Hothouse" while we're "Counting The Days". But there will be "Resistance" searching for that "Fatal Flaw" followed by "Dreams Then Plans". Once we find our "Sense Of Purpose", we'll reach out with the "Hand Of Love" and start "Winning".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH97tb4-6Uw

Been thinking a lot about this version of 'Silent Air' since the news of Anthony Bourdain hit yesterday.

wow that's an amazing song + performance!

Thanks for the revive - that 5CD set is so great.

Finally getting around to the Outsiders with Cherry Red's predictably excellent CD reissue of Calling On Youth.

First impression, for one of the supposedly "important early independent punk" albums, it's not actually very punk, is it? I mean, the guitar playing is way too good to actually be punk, and side two of the album is just kind of slow and quiet for the most part. Adrian's obviously really young and overly ambitious here, but he's obviously pretty charismatic, even at this very early point. Overall though, pleasantly surprised.

Taking in Close Up this evening and, I have to say, it's pretty much an all around improvement over Calling On Youth. Production, songs, technicality. . . just better on all fronts. Definitely segues nicely into the Propaganda era (which subsequently segues perfectly into Jeopardy).

https://austintayeshus.blogspot.com/2018/12/what-are-spectral-projections.html

https://www.discogs.com/master/2523988-The-Sound-Will-And-Testament-Starlight

Uhm?

oh wow! a live album of their later material i guess

look like it's all up on yt:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mbq2cGjX8M

Yep, on Spotify too.

this incoming second layer comp popped up on bandcamp today:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/second-layer-courts-or-wars-review

hadn't actually heard 'courts of wars' before... fuuck, amazing song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_01T9uFgew

'or' not 'of' obv

yeah I first heard second layer through that song on a Messthetics comp. So cool!!

“that song” - courts or wars

(wide eyes emoji)

i'll be back in later with thoughts.

Second Layer is arguably more Joy Division THAN Joy Division. Fantastic, singular work - wonderfully dark and deep.