Customer Reviews

Wilful Days

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

 

 

A collection of Killing Joke rarities and B-sides is an excellent idea, since many of KJ's best tracks were never released on albums (and, therefore, never reissued on CD). Unfortunately, while "Wilful Days" collects some superb tracks, it is staggeringly incomplete. Why not include the mega-rare live EP "HA!", only one track of which is currently available? Where are all the early singles-"Wardance", "Requiem"-that were different from the versions on KJ's first album? Why only some B-sides and not others? (Why have "Are You Receiving" but not "Almost Red" or "Pssyche", for instance?) Maybe such completism would have made this a 2-CD set, but then it would have been a real treat for fans. As it is, it has some great music, to be sure, but feels like something of a letdown.

This is a compilation of rarer B-sides and remixes from the pre-Extremities era Killing Joke. Some of it is great to have, especially if you're a completist who's come to their career late in the game (when the original vinyl is hard to come by). Be warned, however: that version of "A New Day" (the one non-album single I've always wanted) is NOT the regular 7" version, but is the b-side "dub" version with half of the verses missing (not as in, we've got 1 and 4, but not 2 and 3... more like you only get half of each verse). A minor quibble, perhaps, but it soured the overall purchase for me, which is why I've only given it a 4 instead of a full 5.

I made a passionate plea to a bandmember backstage once that I'd give ANYTHING to have a version of "Wilful Days" on cd, and months later, this gem appeared.

The serious Jokester already has this stuff, and I was never partial to these 'dance' mixes, which seemed to dilute the irony of their relentless use of rhythm in order to appeal to dance clubs. But this one is also a must if you don't already own the singles containing "Sun Goes Down" (the muted studio version), the radiant "A New Day", or the colossal warble of the title track, which is worth the purchase price alone.

Not the compilation I would have birthed (where are those master tapes for the "HA" concert, anyway?) but still partially essential.

I love CD's of rarities and B-sides and this is a great one from Killing Joke. Standout tracks are "Me or You", "Dominator" and "A New Day". I would've included the B-side to "Empire Song" - "Brilliant" and some other stuff but nay mind - you still got great VFM here.

This disc is a fine compilation of Killing Joke rarites and re-mixes. From early 1979 singles to dub versions to extended re-mixes, "Wilful Days" traverses the English noise/punk band's career up through circa 1989. Seven of thirteen tracks are either extended mixes or re-mixes, while the other six cuts are comprised of rare singles and b-sides. Standout tracks include "Sun Goes Down", "A New Day", "Me Or You", and "Ecstacy (The Extended Mix)". Highly recommended.

I became a KJ fan relatively late, back in the early 90s. I knew who they were, I remember when Follow the Leader was played on KROQ pretty regularly and Living In the 80s was on MTV often. But it wasn't until I heard Helmet do a cover of Primitive that I decided to really check them out. I bought tons of their albums, but the first two are my favorites by far. After buying so many of their records, I noticed something was missing. At some point on MTV's 120 Minutes I'd seen a video for a song called A New Day, and I really loved it. I had to have it, so I hunted it down until I found it on this CD. Now it's the only song on that CD that skips, so here I am buying a new copy! Yes, I'm a wasteful idiot.

I bought this b-side and rarities compilation to fill in the gaps in my Killing Joke collection. It also gives the vinyl versions I own a rest. The track listing is somewhat misleading as the track titled A New Day is actually the b-side Dance Day. Not a bad collection at all, but don't expect the version of A New Day with all of the vocals.

Where's the song Flock the B Side you may ask? You'll have to buy the 2005 CD pressing of Ha! Killing Joke Live to get that one along with its wonderful a-side counterpart, Birds of a Feather. How about Pssyche, Follow the Leaders Dub or a handful of others? Try the box set Chaos for Breakfast for that. Poor completists. We'll keep shelling out money for the precious scraps.

"Willful Days" is a compilation of rare Killing Joke remixes, b-sides, etc. It's not really quite what anyone would have hoped as it leaves off many essential pieces, and much of this is available elsewhere.

Of the thirteen tracks, seven of them are remixes-- most of these are fairly extraneous, I'm not really big on the concept of remixes for this band to begin with, although the dub mix of "Follow the Leaders" is decent enough (for that matter, so is the gestalt mix of "Love Like Blood").

The real gems are the rarities-- "Are You Receiving" was on the band's first single (the entire thing is available as part of the "Chaos for Breakfast" set), its a decent enough punk song, "Sun Goes Down" (also available elsewhere), a "Fire Dances" era b-side is superb-- tribal rhythms, muted guitars, and a haunting vocal. While they're both well loved, I don't rate either the pop song "Me Or You" or its roasting guitar driven b-side, "Willful Days" all that highly, the latter is decent enough, but its chorus and bizarre pop vocal delivery ("yeah yeah, willful days") just gets to me. "A New Day" is a good enough song in the style of the "Night Time" material, but has this totally annoying echo on the vocal that ruins the song. Oddly enough, the same can be said for "The Maddening Crowd", from the following year-- did the band develop some sort of echo obsession?

If you're a collector, you'll want this, anyone else can skip it.