The Icicle Works - 5 Albums album mp3

For me, the Icicle Works were the closest anyone got in the 1980s to replicating Phils Spectors Wall of Sound. The Icicle Works had a big sound with infectiously catchy & melodic pop songs, mostly about love, and sung by a vocalist with one of the most distinctive voices around at the time. They were undoubtedly one of the best and most distinguishable Indie Rock bands of the decade. The fact that during this period they could only manage to achieve 1 Top 20 single and all their albums failed to make the Top 10 must be one of the great injustices in the history of popular music. This 5 Album Box Set has a far clearer and defined sound to the muffled Cherry Red remastered albums. As for the album considered to be their best I expect fans would argue between the debut album and “Enemy” both of which have their merits. The first album contains their one hit single, Love is Wonderful Colour as well as the equally brilliant follow up single Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream), the U2 influenced As the Dragonfly Flies , the wonderful Out of Season and the anthemic Nirvana where McNabb recites the words “You know we’re living for your love, You know we’re living for you Come out of the dark, be sure of this, Nirvana we adore you” like a preacher to his congregation. “Enemy” though edges it for me. Not one weak track to be found, it contains my favourite ever Icicle Works song , the guitar driven Understanding Jayne as well as other singles such as Evangeline, Who do you want for your love & Up Here in the North of England and equally strong songs like When You Were Mine, Walking with a Mountain, Hope Springs Eternal and Travelling Chest. Even bonus tracks like the moody Everybody loves to play the Fool, the garage/blues of I Never Saw my Hometown til I went Around the World and the Van Morrison cover Into the Mystic are of a particularly high standard. The album Blind doesn’t quite reach the heights of Enemy but is probably their most accomplished album from a musicianship perspective. Delving into new territories from the Prince meets INXS dance/funk mash up The Kiss Off, the Led Zep styled heavy blues of S**t Creek and the Punk inspired Tin Can to the calypso flavoured What do you want from me, the psychedelic rock of Tow Two Three and the pure pop perfection of songs such as Little Girl Lost (how was this not a hit?), High Time, Stood Before Saint Peter and the emotive and simple beauty of Blind. The box set is completed by the live concert at the Town & Country Club from 1986 which in-explicitly omits their raw and powerful cover version of The Doors Roadhouse Blues as well as their cover of The Clash’s Should I Stay (or Should I go) both of which can be found on the same live recording on the If You Want to Defeat Your Enemy Deluxe Edition. I have loved this Doors cover since I first heard it in 1986 and the fact it has been excluded is my one small gripe on an otherwise definitive and essential collection for fans of 80s Indie/Alternative rock.

Bang For the Buck Box From An Underrated BandProbably one of the most underrated UK post-punk guitar pop groups that ever had a hit, outside of their first album the Icicle Works are a somewhat unknown band in the U.S. As much as I've loved their first LP for years, I never got around to checking out anything else by them prior to acquiring this set. Even though it is an import, the price (around $25-30) is very fair for all the music you get and less expensive than tracking down all the albums separately. Each album comes in a cardstock mini-LP sleeve and the booklet in the set is minimal, but the overall package is a bit nicer looking and less flimsy than the budget CD sets from labels like Columbia, Rhino, Sony, etc. Disc 1 covers the band's first (and best album) along with several strong bonus tracks. Here the sound is a highly atmospheric and pop-oriented take on the 80s neo-psychedelic sound (produced by the excellent Hugh Jones) and there are very few weak points. The disc follows the UK running order, which might take some getting used to if you are accustomed to the U.S. Arista-issued LP. One minor disappointment for me is that the U.S. version of "Waterline" is not included anywhere. Disc 2 is the sophomore album and contemporaneous bonus tracks, which was apparently never issued in the U.S., which explains why I rarely see it in the used bins. There is some debate over whether this album or the third LP is their second best record. My personal opinion leans toward this one. The sound (stripped of some of the first LP's atmosphere) does lean toward the heavily melodramatic at times and seems to lean on 60s influences a bit more than the first LP. Even though the album utilized a handful of producers, the sound is uniform enough throughout.Disc 3 covers the third LP, produced by Ian Broudie this time around. If you've listened to a few productions by him from the 80s, you'll know that his heavy-handed style (slick, fond of synths) hasn't always aged that well. That is definitely the case here, which makes it my least favorite of the first 3 albums. If you can get past the production, there are some strong songs, although the bonus tracks on this disc can be a bit weak. The Van Morrison cover in particular misses the mark.Disc 4 is where things take a turn for the worse. "Blind" shows the band going in a hard rock-ish direction, perhaps somewhat similar to what the Cult were trying to do with their "Love" LP, but this is nowhere near as good as that album. I'd rate this album as poorly dated at best, awful at worst. Frankly I had a tough time even getting through it.Disc 5 redeems the set with a good quality live album from 1986. Here the band feels a bit looser and rougher around the edges compared to their studio LPs and the result is mostly positive. In fact, I'd like to hear more live material from the band if Beggars or some other label ever gets around to issuing it.