- Audio CD (22 May 1995)
- Number of Discs: 3
- Format: Box set
- Label: EMI
- ASIN: B000024HZE
- Other Editions: Audio CD | MP3 Download
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 67,842 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
Amazon.co.uk allows you to pay for your items in your local currency. Restrictions apply. Learn More. |
Product details |
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
This lavishly-packaged three-disc set is more than enough Buzzcocks for anyone except the sort of completist who really should get out a bit more. It contains three complete studio albums (Another Music In A Different Kitchen, Love Bites, A Different Kind Of Tension), the Buzzcocks' essential best-of collection (Singles Going Steady, of which any self-respecting pop fan should have worn out at least three copies) and a live album (Many Parts: Live At The Lyceum). It's no less a testament than the Buzzcocks deserve. Although they've tarnished the legacy somewhat since their ill-advised reunion, they have made some stunning pop records and Pete Shelley was probably the best songwriter who worked with the primary colours of punk. At his peak, he was a one-man Motown, cranking out perfect, simple, universal songs of love gone wrong. Though often crudely played and hurriedly recorded, "Love You More", "What Do I Get" and "Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldnt've)" and many others here will sound like pop in excelsis as long as love hurts. --Andrew Mueller
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Buzzcocks first hit turntables with the manic totally brilliant punk ep 'Spiral Scratch'. Almost immediately Howard Devoto, lyricist, vocalist and all round intellectual dropped the group and his fake cockney accent to sit his exams before forming the excellent Magazine.
Thus began Buzzcock's second phase chronicled admirably on this collection. Guitarist Pete Shelley took over vocal duties on the Shelley-Devoto composition 'Orgasm Addict' - a great masturbation record with a wonderful line about 'international women with no body hair'. After this Shelley took over the main songwriting burden (with some support from Steve Diggle). The songs remain literate and intelligent, but love songs become the order of the day. Buzzsaw guitar, hyperactive drumming,superfast pixievoiced vocal deliveries and a series of great hooklines characterise the music from hereon in.
All three studio albums are included here - the perfect 'Another Music In A Different Kitchen' which begins with the Shelley-Devoto punk of 'Fast Cars' and 'Love Battery' then develops through the thoughtful pop of 'Fiction Romance' to the experimental 'Moving Away From The Pulsebeat'. The second album is less even but still includes one of the decade's finest singles 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)' plus the fine punky 'Nostalgia' and 'ESP' (the musical equivalent of a Bridget Riley painting?). 'Love Is Lies' is one of Diggle's finest with an almost folky flavour.
'A Different Kind Of Tension' is also uneven - beginning with the somewhat awkward 'Paradise' and Diggle's lacklustre 'Sitting Round At Home'. The patient listener is rewarded with the beautiful 'You Say You Don't Love Me' a philosophical attempt to make sense of relationships. From the hard-hitting 'I Don't Know What To Do With My Life' to the awesome 'I Believe' Shelley creates a brutal suite of songs chronicling breakdown - it is in some ways his 'John Lennon Plastic Ono Band'. It is an intense uneasy listening experience.
The box set also includes the singles (a and b sides) originally collected on 'Singles Going Steady'. All are small classics but special mention should go to the b sides 'Noise Annoys' and 'Lipstick'. An excellent early live set and the disappointing final trilogy of singles close the set.
If punk/new wave/powerpop in any of its guises means anything to you this should be on your shelf.
Thus began Buzzcock's second phase chronicled admirably on this collection. Guitarist Pete Shelley took over vocal duties on the Shelley-Devoto composition 'Orgasm Addict' - a great masturbation record with a wonderful line about 'international women with no body hair'. After this Shelley took over the main songwriting burden (with some support from Steve Diggle). The songs remain literate and intelligent, but love songs become the order of the day. Buzzsaw guitar, hyperactive drumming,superfast pixievoiced vocal deliveries and a series of great hooklines characterise the music from hereon in.
All three studio albums are included here - the perfect 'Another Music In A Different Kitchen' which begins with the Shelley-Devoto punk of 'Fast Cars' and 'Love Battery' then develops through the thoughtful pop of 'Fiction Romance' to the experimental 'Moving Away From The Pulsebeat'. The second album is less even but still includes one of the decade's finest singles 'Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)' plus the fine punky 'Nostalgia' and 'ESP' (the musical equivalent of a Bridget Riley painting?). 'Love Is Lies' is one of Diggle's finest with an almost folky flavour.
'A Different Kind Of Tension' is also uneven - beginning with the somewhat awkward 'Paradise' and Diggle's lacklustre 'Sitting Round At Home'. The patient listener is rewarded with the beautiful 'You Say You Don't Love Me' a philosophical attempt to make sense of relationships. From the hard-hitting 'I Don't Know What To Do With My Life' to the awesome 'I Believe' Shelley creates a brutal suite of songs chronicling breakdown - it is in some ways his 'John Lennon Plastic Ono Band'. It is an intense uneasy listening experience.
The box set also includes the singles (a and b sides) originally collected on 'Singles Going Steady'. All are small classics but special mention should go to the b sides 'Noise Annoys' and 'Lipstick'. An excellent early live set and the disappointing final trilogy of singles close the set.
If punk/new wave/powerpop in any of its guises means anything to you this should be on your shelf.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
'Product' is most certainly the definitive Buzzcocks's collection. This 3CD boxed set,beautifully packaged with a detailed 92 page booklet, brings together all 3 of the Buzzcock's classic albums 'Another Music', 'Love Bites', and 'A Different Tension'; together with the singles collection 'Singles Going Steady' and a live album. Superb value at the price, this is a must for anyone from the most ardent of fans to those just discovering the punk era. All the hits are here, 'What Do I Get', 'Orgasm Addict', 'I Don't Mind' and 'Ever Fallen in Love', with raw, lesser known material alongside. I would strongly recommned this album to anyone. A must.
0 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Probably the most wildly overrated turn in rock history, nevertheless, 'Buzzcocks:Product' does contain a handful of great moments, unfortunately sandwiched between great slabs of mediocrity.
It was always gonna be difficult for Pete Shelley and co when 4-eyed genius Howard Devoto left, and so it proved. While Devoto went on to produce some of the most outstanding art of the late 20th Century, Shelley trapped himself in stifling power-pop, having neither the profundity or creative sense to escape it.
'Product' has some brilliant work: 'ESP;' 'Hollow Inside;' 'Sixteen Again;' 'Get On Our Own' and maybe 'Are Everything,' but these superb song's impact is tempered by some of the most annoyingly mono-directional and simplistic twaddle it's possible to hear on disc.
Co-writer/guitarist Steve Diggle's attempts carry the most guilt, particularly 'You Know You Can't Help It' which has the worst lyric to a song EVER (I won't even type an example, they're that bad), and 'Mad Mad Judy,' - a melody-less thrash which even a desperate punk turn such as The Dickies would've baulked at.
The glories of 'Product' are drowned out by the sheer weight of middling standards - most of which are passable but certainly won't blow your socks off - and the handful of shockers (all of Diggle's efforts are here) undeserving of the energy wasted to 'produce' them.
I suppose, for the propitiatory of your good self, blessed reader: the 7 or 8 live tracks are as abominable as you'd expect.
A sad case of what might have been ('ESP,' for example, is an astonishingly good song), but such is the nature of rock. An idiot could work out that greedy old Devoto obviously took all the kinetic genius away with him.
It was always gonna be difficult for Pete Shelley and co when 4-eyed genius Howard Devoto left, and so it proved. While Devoto went on to produce some of the most outstanding art of the late 20th Century, Shelley trapped himself in stifling power-pop, having neither the profundity or creative sense to escape it.
'Product' has some brilliant work: 'ESP;' 'Hollow Inside;' 'Sixteen Again;' 'Get On Our Own' and maybe 'Are Everything,' but these superb song's impact is tempered by some of the most annoyingly mono-directional and simplistic twaddle it's possible to hear on disc.
Co-writer/guitarist Steve Diggle's attempts carry the most guilt, particularly 'You Know You Can't Help It' which has the worst lyric to a song EVER (I won't even type an example, they're that bad), and 'Mad Mad Judy,' - a melody-less thrash which even a desperate punk turn such as The Dickies would've baulked at.
The glories of 'Product' are drowned out by the sheer weight of middling standards - most of which are passable but certainly won't blow your socks off - and the handful of shockers (all of Diggle's efforts are here) undeserving of the energy wasted to 'produce' them.
I suppose, for the propitiatory of your good self, blessed reader: the 7 or 8 live tracks are as abominable as you'd expect.
A sad case of what might have been ('ESP,' for example, is an astonishingly good song), but such is the nature of rock. An idiot could work out that greedy old Devoto obviously took all the kinetic genius away with him.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
