Customer Reviews

Laugh I Nearly Bought One

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Killing Joke has to be the most uncompromising band to have ever signed a record contract. Their albums, especially the first four, are so dissonant that they're almost unlistenable. Of course, that's the Joke's charm. They've remained themselves and continued to influence bands as huge as Nirvana, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, and Soundgarden, to name a few. This CD is an ideal introduction for anyone not familiar with the Joke. A few of the tracks are rare gems that one would be hard pressed to find elsewhere (Pssyche, Sun Goes Down, Turn To Red). The rest of the songs give the listener a fairly sweeping example of this band's wonderful career. Give the songs "Requiem" and "Follow The Leaders" a spin and then marvel over the fact that these pulsating quasi-industrial pieces were written as long ago as 1980 and 1981, respectively. As a bonus, the cover of the CD is a famous photo of a Catholic priest fraternizing with Nazis. Killing Joke put this picture on a flyer for a show in Glasgow- and were consequently banned from playing the gig by the furious club owner. Don't hesitate on this one- Killing Joke was and is a musical phenomenon. This disc will reaffirm that notion.

"Laugh? I Nearly Bought One!" is a superb compilation of material from Killing Joke's work from 1979 through 1990, with a track listing that I probably could have picked myself. It covers the band's history, but rather than making any attempt at evenness between releases, it picks tracks based on value and importance.

Admittedly, there's substitutions I'd make, but any fan would say this of any compilation-- you've got the essentials on this one and get a good vision of the bands evolution, from its early days as a post-punk genre blending monster singing about the coming armaggedon scenerios ("Wardance", "Unspeakable") to the later, smoother, more disenfranchised with the modern era feel of the later material ("Sun Goes Down", "Eighties"). To top it off, you even get a blazing live version fo "Pssyche" from the long unavailable "Ha!" EP.

As an introduction to the band, this is probably the way to go-- for fans, this is less essential (barring the aformentioned "Pssyche").

This is a good collection of Killing Joke tunes. Definately good for any new-comer to the group. It has some classics such as "Eighties", "Wardance", "Follow The Leaders", and "Wintergardens". There's also some rare tracks such as "Turn To Red", "Sun Goes Down" and a live version of "Pssyche". Even though there are quite a few great songs left off such as "Let's All Go (To The Fire Dances)" and "A New Day", this is still a great collection. Pick up a copy today.

No other band so perfectly epitomized the dark, brutal power of rock better than Killing Joke. This anthology traces their career from their beginnings as primal dance rockers to arty, proto-industrial pioneers. Their earliest works-"Wardance", "Empire Song", "Follow the Leaders"-pack a brutal wallop, courtesy of original bassist Youth, who gave the band both grooves and dynamics. After he left, the later tracks-"Love Like Blood", "Eighties"-still have power but are more conventional. Still, conventional by KJ standards is uncompromisingly intense by any others. If there are any flaws with this record, they are of omission-"The Wait" (covered by Metallica on their "Garage" releases) was inexplicably left out, as were any tracks from their worthy 1983 album "Fire Dances". (Omissions from their disastrous 1988 album "Outside the Gate" are, by contrast, wholly warranted-that album had not a single memorable track on it.) Die-hards may also appreciate the 2 rare early tracks that start the album. As impressive a body of work as any band of any time period.

Since Killing Joke have had a long and varied career. Some new to the game ( me being one of them for a while ) found it hard where to go first. I picked this up because it had Love Like Blood ( which I think is just gorgeous ) and it had an overview on their material from 1979-1990. I have not been disappointed with this release as it has made me buy even more of their material if and when I can. It's interesting to note that the cover was one of the first flyers the band had used for a gig and caused a lot of controversy for what you see on the cover ( A priest giving the Nazis his blessing ) that the organizer refused to let them play at the venue!

Overall a very good introduction to Killing Joke but I do find the last track to be somewhat out of place with the rest of them. But some of you may disagree with that view. However, buy this compilation and soon you may be buying more Killing Joke records than you would have thought possible

This, is Killing Joke. Sarcastic as the cover photo shows. This album compiles the essential KJ; the eighties KJ, plus "age of greed", as the perfect song to finish the album and start another decade, or another age of greeed in the world. If you like the punk KJ era, this is the perfect way to compile this decade, the eighties.

download it now. or at least what you don't have yet. geordie really is a unique guitarist...not that this is a comparison, but he is his own style just as brian may is...admirable, inspiring...

just the fine balance of dissonance and regal wall-of-sound chords...add to that the everpresent tribal thump and shamanistic-jester intonations of jaz...

recommended to fans of meshuggah...

Heard this once many years ago and loved it. Great introduction to Killing Joke - especially if all you know is "Love Like Blood".

....but I don't give a darn because this is one of the best albums I've ever had. It is very dissonant, and they use a lot of repitition. The songs are very very long too, and the lyrics all go back to a repressed socio-political statement that many of the mid- to late 70s punk bands experienced. Obviously Killing Joke more than most. Despite all that, if you have a taste for not just the weird, but the dark, entranced, macabre-styled, neolithic ambient punk, then you'll have made a journey into the void all alone. Why do I love this band? I have no clue. ___________ Also interesting about Killing Joke is that this is the ONLY album of theirs that I like. It's like they built each album around one or two flagship songs and the rest was filler. I hate to say that about such a unique force in music. I've owned probably 5 or 6 of their other albums, including wardance, and nighttime, and the other songs on those albums are frankly forgetable. I can't think of a single song on those albums other than the ones on Laugh. Maybe someone else experienced that too with this band. It's also possible I just haven't risen to their level of genius on those other albums. I'm not being sarcastic. I'll keep an open mind always for KJ because the brilliance that comes from Laugh, you really want to get more and more of. You want all sorts of variations of it. It's addictive. Laugh itself spans many variations of the same band, but all the songs have this same sort of unmistakable darkness. You crave that darkness.