Customer Reviews

Coals to Newcastle (6xCD + DVD)

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This box set released by Domino is one of the best designed ever. There is no muss-no fuss as everything is enclosed in book form. All the original LPs slide out of cardboard facsimile covers. There are nice notes by Simon Goddard. The overall graphic design is super also. If you want everything by the forgotten Orange Juice, here it is! Edwyn Collins' wobbly croon will put a smile on your face and it's a great way to start the day.

Like most Americans, I missed out on Orange Juice during their original life--but the hints were always there: Aztec Camera's live b-side cover of "Consolation Prize," lead singer Edwyn Collins' surprise 1994 hit "A Girl Like You," Simon Reynolds' masterful survey of post-punk, "Rip it Up," named after Orange Juice's biggest hit. It wasn't until I came across a copy of "The Glasgow School" with label blurbs from Stuart Murdoch and others that I took my first sip. Bubbly! Refreshing! A fantastic way to get a little OJ 1.0. And it may be a good place for softcore fans to stop. But then you'll miss out on the delicious wonders of "I Can't Help Myself," "L.O.V.E. Love," "Rip it Up" (of course), and so many others. This set has it all and more--maybe more than you want, but a bargain at this price (especially with all the great video on the DVD). My only regret: that I didn't know Orange Juice back in the day, when I could have had the right hair.

For the curious, overkill; for the obsessive, cornucopia. Seriously, here is a band that cracked the Top 10 one time -- one time! -- in the UK ("Rip It Up") and barely got a sniff of the cut-out bins stateside, and suddenly, miraculously, twenty-five to thirty years on here comes a magnificent gift from good God almighty in the form of a stupendous box set. Domino proves itself, definitively, to be a record company piloted by lovable fools by believing this will ever reach anyone here beyond myself, the other lunatic who posted a review and a few more misbegotten souls, who for years have carried along the joys of the absurd, enchanted Edwyn Collins moaning, "Did I mention first verse, how you would come to disown me?" and other deliciously lobbed, awkward, doomed, overwhelmed, comic, embarrassed and shameless grenades from the front lines of young Scotland. I came upon Orange Juice in some misty time like 1981, a college student drenched in Yes, Genesis and jazz rock and being fed by dorm mates Clash and Sex Pistols and the dregs of all MOR at the time. Nothing was working until an old cab driving buddy of mine mentioned this band, and I found the 12-inch single of "L.O.V.E." -- a remake of an Al Green tune, backed with "Intuition Pt. I" with the aforementioned lyrics. They looked almost foppish on the cover, and I didn't know what to make of them, but I caught the groove, the pristine production, the deep Scottish brogue, the crazy take on soul, and then, the flip side was everything I ever wanted, a guitar rave-up with lyrics that weren't attempting to send me into the streets or the inside of a bong. It was all clean and bright and joyful. Why be so angry or spaced-out? Why not fun? And I dug back into the early singles, with their stripped down muscularity, popping bass over roiling, churning, climaxing rhythm guitar, power-pop and punk with funk and Velvets and knew this was a great band, a lifelong treasure. And as they changed and grew, so did I, straight through 1984, when the masterful last album came out and went down with a plop and the band split and Edwyn Collins ventured out on his own. Years later, he had a worldwide smash with "A Girl Like You" and it felt like vindication. Years after that, two brain hemorrhages that almost killed him. He had a bit of a renaissance in the UK for his courageous fight back, and evidently folks like Franz Ferdinand name-checked him as a towering influence. I don't know. Really, how do these things work? This crazy little band, which dipped its toe into fine dub, always displayed inventive, scrappy guitar work, irreverence, and, yes, a few missteps, has been at the forefront of my wide-ranging musical life for like 30 years, and here it all is, every last inch of it. The albums are all here, the B-sides, the alternate takes, the BBC sessions, the videos (a lovely display of young bodies in one by Derek Jarman), everything and the kitchen sink. It's overkill. It's life-affirming. It's well-packaged. It's a fetishistic romantic's dream come true. Orange Juice somehow now gets credited in many distinguished quarters for literally having created indie. I question this, but don't hate it. Most of this still sounds startlingly fresh, despite, for me, its familiarity. If someone, say, in their twenties, picked it up, they would find much pleasure instead of feeling like they blew money on a hoary old artifact. Again, like with "A Girl Like You," some strange vindication. Everything I've believed in and championed about pop and punk and DIY is here. Make it up as you go, and don't worry about what everybody else is doing. If you are truly exceptional, you can be ignored for thirty years, but someone, somehow might just find you and give you a box set as exceptional as this one. I think box sets cut two ways - epitaph and Pandora's box. This one will not sit and collect dust on the shelf. It is already blasting out the car windows and back into the world. I'm simply thrilled.

Whether youre an ardent orange juicer or a budding orange juicehead, this does the job. There are movie footages of some videos and their live performances. The CDs also feature some uncut and varied versions of the songs that appear on the regular albums. I wanted the whole collection and this edition featured everything. It's a good price too! and there's this cool booklet that is embedded within the cd holders. It has nice little bios and stuff and its nice.