Factory Records: Communications 1978-92
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CD Details
Edition: Music CDAudio: English (Unknown)
Format: Box set, Import, Limited Edition
CD Release Date: 2009-01-20
Music Label: Rhino/Wea UK
Music reviews of Factory Records: Communications 1978-92
Music Review: Missed Opportunity
Rating: 3 Stars
The compilers of this often brilliant but ultimately frustrating collection have - considering the magnificent back-catalogue they've access to - made the fatal mistake of cowing to ill-conceived, well dodgy ideas of commercialism.
Ie: including 7 tracks by the awful Happy Mondays; the completely worthless (and insulting!) 'World in Motion'; another re-mix that we just don't need of the over-rated 'Confusion'...
This level of laziness/pandering is inexcusable.
I'm not getting lost in Factory myth, or in its designs of structural gothic and framework modernism; both subjects are either a/ slightly painful and b/ extensively discussed elsewhere.
For once your objectified scribe has his attention on the product...
Briefly: CD 1 is the finest series of music thus far committed to disc. CD 2; ditto but slightly less so. CD 3 sees an alarming drop in quality but still contains a few gems. CD 4 is a stinker.
Major good things: finally the superb 12" 'Temptation' on disc, 'Hymn From A Village', 'Ceremony', Section 25's 'Looking From A Hilltop', the Distractions 'Time Goes By So Slow'.
Major bad things: all of CD 4, too much Mondays (one representative track would've been more than adequate), nowhere near enough critical perspective (compiler Jon Savage is usually reliable - he's obviously been caught on a bad day), and the usual Paul Morley contributions, which are now unfortunately - in relation to Factory Records anyway - morosely repetitive and meandering.
Morley's own epic: 'North By Northwest' suffered identical faults to this set only was a worse offender; he had a much bigger pond over which to cast his net.
I like Morley a lot but enough already; his seemingly inevitable outpourings have become as predictable as the label instinctively and resolutely wasn't.
Baddest bad in the world: with all the Crispy Ambulance to choose from - they have to pick 'Deaf' - their worst song.
Bestest best in the world: 'Tell Me' by Life. The most beautiful, energetic recording ever on Factory Records; this, by all that's good in the world, is the crucial reason why '1978 - 1992' SHOULD exist.
'Communications' should be the greatest compilation of music ever released (the Zoo compilation: 'Uncaged' currently holds that noble distinction). The first two discs comfortably achieve this, but an overall lack of objectivity and lazy over-reliance on their most profitable but artistically suspect turns, designate it (hurtfully) a middle of the field also-ran.
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Description of Factory Records: Communications 1978-92
Limited edition 2009 four CD collection, a tribute to the great Factory Records label as well as a dedication to the label's founder, the late Tony Wilson. The project celebrates 30 years of arguably the most important label in UK pop history, collating rare and obscure tracks from a diverse range of acts. Features 63 tracks including cuts from New Order, Joy Division, The Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Electronic, A Certain Ratio, Section 25 and many others. Sleeve notes written by Paul Morley. Rhino UK.Alternative Rock CDs
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