5 Album

worth the $$$ ...

This is a mixed bag, but a *must* at this price. These records were the works leading up to the first departure of Brix Smith from the band and their label switch from Beggars Banquet to Fontana. The Frenz Experiment is a solid, somewhat overlooked album with great lyrics, great grooves like Carry Bag Man and Bremen Nacht, and their popular cover of The Kinks' "Victoria" to boot. I Am Kurious, Oranj is a step ahead, with the glam thump of "New Big Prinz", the humorous asides in "Jerusalem" and and the near-reggae patterned title track. The instrumentals are a bit dodgy, but this particular edition is helpful in that, unlike other re-issues, here you will find the alternate LP versions of four songs. The singles collection is the other necessity here — it reaches back before Frenz for a few tunes, includes all the b-sides, and adds "I African Mancunian", which is only available here (and isn't bad!). The Hit the North disc compiles various 12" single versions and is just to satisfy completists; if you like it, great. I've never enjoyed the live performances on Seminal Live, but the studio tracks are on par with the rest of the tracks in this box.

This is a good collection of material from when The Fall were at their peak (minus the year of This Nation's Saving Grace). Unfortunately the artwork that came with each release was left out (as with the other 5 Alum Box Sets). The remastering is very good and the singles related disc includes some great material. Nearly all Fall fans probably have the four featured lps, however, the Hit The North and The Singles cd will be of interest to longtime Fall fans as they contain material that has either not been previously available on cd or difficult to find on cd. Some fans may find this difficult to recommend after the fantastic job Beggars Banquet did on their Omnibus editions of The Wonderful Frightening World of The Fall and This Nation's Saving Grace, most fans will agree that the bonus material and the Singles disc make this a worthwhile addition to your collection. Unlike the other 5 Album box sets I have purchased that Beggars Banquet has released (Bauhaus and Love And Rockets) I can highly recommend this box set.

Bon le chanteur est insupportable. Il a une tête de petit agressif anglais auquel on a envie de filer une paire de claques, mais quel talent.

Keeping this brief as I have only just got this, and it deserves a ***** star rating now. What more could you want? The Beggars remaining albums - minus Bend Sinister, for now - in a neat box. Well mastered, this time...the original CDs were best avoided as the vinyls sounded better. Beggars, with the Wonderful and Frightening World of The Fall and This Nation's Saving Grace box sets - and now this new one, have finally delivered. True, there were carps from some (yes, me) about the lack of live tracks / shows when this release programme first started, but they've done their best within budgets to get these to the market in a viable form. You have here the vast majority of The Fall's recorded work from 1987-1989, including rare and unreleased tracks, different mixes from vinyl. The odd track given away on scattered compilations / music magazine freebie EPs from back in the day may have been skipped but licensing or lack of availability of masters may have scuppered them, and by and large the essential stuff is here. At thirteen pounds or so no-one can rightfully complain about the price, and the 'missing' items I allude to circulate amongst fans or can be picked up largely for a couple of pounds or so on a well known auction website. Don't miss out...even if you own the vinyls, at this price, this compact set (5 CD's in less than the space of one of the old 'fat case' double CD's) is a treat. If anyone from Beggars or who has any sway with them is reading, I did notice this comment online - "Spin This Web beggars Adult Net album that got canned" about the lost Adult Net sessions...well having heard the original Spin This Web (on one of the music paper EP's of the time), I for one would love to hear that. Also I've heard rumours that Beggars *might* be planning 5.1 / DVD Audio releases of some of their catalogue...while some may laugh at the suggestion of any Fall in '5.1' I think some of the Beggars Fall material - much of which had high production values - would be ideally suited to such treatment. In the meantime, get this box, and enjoy!

okay

Four really good albums. The fifth consists of reworks of the same song. Didn't really work for me, but the other four more than makes up for it.

Diese Sammlung ist differenziert (und gut!) und wird in einer stabilen Papp-Box geliefert, so dass sie gut zu händeln ist. Der Preis ist günstig und die Lieferung kam recht zügig.