Customer Reviews

12" Singles

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is just a remix of 4 early Ministry songs and not a full album so don't expect too much. If you don't know this, industrial metal pioneers Ministry started out making wussed out new wave synth pop complete with fake Brit accents. Looking back, this has to be the most dramatic transformation any band has gone through in history - if Celine Dion came out with hardcore gansta rap it would be less of a switch.

On to the content... "Everyday Is Halloween" is an underground dance classic that appealed to outcasts everywhere. It specifically reached out to dressed-up Goths with its mock derision "To me everyday is Halloween, oh you look so absurd, you look so obscene". This is the reason to get this single. "All Day" is also nice. We could live without "Cold Life".

For Ministry historians it's a must. For synth new wave fans, you need it just for "Halloween". For fans of their metal sound who have never heard this, beware - though it is fun to have as a comical artifact.

If you like this then you need to get the full disc 'With Sympathy' that has sveeral other very good dance tracks. I actually prefer "Revenge" to any others from this period of theirs. "Say You're Sorry" and "I Wanted to Tell Her" are solid too.

I write this review because so many people are getting it wrong. The founder of the group was raised in Chicago. At that time chicago house music was on fire. I remember going to lots of clubs (i.e. Dome Room and Club Neo)and ministry 12 inch tracks were played a lot. Neo still rocks this scene. Anybody who knows real chicago house will definitely know these tracks. Calling it synth pop is not accurate.

This is a great collection of goth synth-pop. They talk about everything depressed people can relate to, yet almost every new wave fan will appreciate at least some of the songs on this CD. Songs like "Everyday Is Halloween", "The Nature of Love", and "All Day" (Remix B) are definitely some of the high points in their Wax Trax! years. However, Ministry did have their flaws as well. The synth-intro on "Halloween Remix" is just too long (it takes 3:30 minutes for the song to kick in) "The Nature of Love (cruelty mix)" just gets repetitive without all the lyrics sung, and "Cold Life Dub" has got to be the worst old era Ministry song ever written! This compilation is also missing 3 other songs that Ministry wrote for Wax Trax! "I'm Falling" (a punk new wave song that sounds kind of like latter era speed metal Ministry, only with the crunchy guitar replaced with a new wave guitar, and the shouting replaced with fake british accent singing), "Nature of Outtakes" (another remix of "The Nature of Love" which again sounds like latter-era Ministry only stripped from all crunchy guitars, but they actually shout and bark this time), and "Primental" (a voxless unfinished version of "I Wanted to Tell Her" from their "With Sympathy" album). But this is still a good buy since you still get some of their best work ever as a synth-pop band. In my humble opinion, a few of their goth synth pop songs are even better then Depeche Mode's best work. So cop this if your a Ministry fan or not and witness some of the best new wave music the top 40 charts have been hiding from you. As well as some underground oddities that will probably grow on you also.

Note to music fans who AREN'T into industrial metal: DON'T BUY ANYTHING AFTER TWITCH!!!!

This is a compilation of Ministry's early yet brilliant singles.
"Halloween Remix" is way too long at 11 minutes, and "Cold Life Dub" is inane, but the other 6 tracks are worth the price. "I'm Falling" (an amazing new wave / punk track from the original "Cold Life 12 Inch") and "Nature Of Outtakes" would have been better in place of the two awful aforementioned tracks but still, to have these tracks on cd is priceless. This is where you start to see the attitude that would later give birth to tracks like "Burning Inside" and "N.W.O.". And to think that tracks like "Nature..." and "Everyday..." were recorded in / around 1984 is interesting too when you think of what else was coming at out the time on the dance music scene. Priceless Ministry stuff.

These are the singles that Ministry recorded for Wax Trax before they would become the Super Group that headlined Lollapalooza. This is the sound of Wax Trax! Records back when they were their own label and they had the greatest store in Chicago, before TVT bought them out, before their legendary founder Jim Nash died. The real gems here are "Halloween" which has been a perenial favorite in underground dance clubs since it was released. As a dance track, it still stands up on it's own. Also just as great is "All Day", which a remix of would show up on the CD Twitch. Believe it or not, Minstry (whose stage would one day feature a cow like skeleton on their stage) wrote "The Nature of Love" for an album to raise money against the cruel tretment of albums. Samples include a man saying that he has the right to beat his animal and it is his own God-Damned Buisness. If you are expecting the bombastic, heavy-metalish Ministry here, you should look somewhere else.

12" singles is a harbinger of things to come. The disc is a must have if fans want to understand the development of techno and industrial music. Al Jourgensen is the grandfather of both. "Singles" is a defining step in the development of a band and a musical genre. The first "side" shows the committment to a new and as yet undefined style and the remixes show an evolution to the dark side of early industrial music. "Nature of Love" (Cruelty Mix) was the defining '80s "alternative" club song, "Every Day is Halloween" the defining dance song. "Singles" clearly shows the path Ministry will follow in the future from the all synth "Twitch" to the true industrial sound of "Land of Rape and Honey" to the hard as nails "Psalm 69". It is a strange collection that needs to be appreciated in context. It is the '80s. . . Transition, Cynical, Fearful and Creative.

Classic synth-pop with a dark edge (which culminated with the classic Twitch album), but there are only 4 songs with a mix for each. Parts of the mixes easily annoy, so this album is only for those who crave the style.

I STILL say anything done by Ministry AFTER Twitch is HORRIBLE

Anyone Who Loved the new wave, punk clubs of the early 80's (Todd's and city club,in detoit)has to love The original Ministry. The measurement of a good Alternative dance track is how long it takes your beer to vibrate off the table. Ministry the singles has vibrated many beers in my time, I'm just glad I was able to grab them all without spilling a drop. With that being said if you do not have a systym that will be able to play any of these Ministry classics with a similar vibration you will miss the true feeling. If you do, turn up the bass and enjoy.

I know many of you Ministry fans like to knock the early stuff, but those of us who knew them from the get-go appreciate all they've done. I have been trying to get a hold of "Cold Life" for ages to pod it. Now I finally have it along with other great stuff like "Every Day Is Halloween." This CD is worth buying.

If you were to hand Alain Jourgenson a copy of this CD he would probably break it. Even with the 80s syntho cheese factor the music is good and fun but, not as good as when Mr. J got really pissed off. These are classic 80s tracks and definitely a must for any diehard 80s fan. Everyday Is Halloween is such a classic.