Heart and Soul [BOX SET] [EXPLICIT LYRICS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Almost everything they've recorded is here, and some rarities are so cool that any fan is going to pee their pants. "In a lonely place" and "Ceremony" (on disc 3) are from rehearsal tapes, and they are awesome. Mind-blowing.

The organization of the box-set is great. The first 3 discs go in basically chronological order and then the 4th is a bunch of live tracks.

If you don't know Joy Division, perhaps it would be best to start out with "Substance". But if you like them at all, then this set is for you.

Included on the set are both Peel Sessions, and also rare tracks that have been unavailable for years. Of course there still are the aforementioned live tracks and rehearsal tracks. You still get (duh!) "Unknown Pleasures", "Closer", portions of "Still", "Substance" and other singles tracks.

There are still some things you don't get, which doesn't make this collection "THE" definitive word on Joy Division (but what collection by any artist could contain every single thing?): you don't get all of the material they recorded as "Warsaw" (available on the "Warsaw" U.S. import) You don't get all of "Still"-- the live part is not included in "Heart and Soul". There also is a new live album called "Preston 28 February 1980" that is pretty awesome too, and it is not on "Heart and Soul"

Even though everything isn't on "Heart and Soul", it still is the final word on the band. A great collection. Buy it if you like the band. "Heart and Soul" is a testament to one of the greatest bands ever, whose depth and intensity are well represented on this recording.

One thing that I can say is that everything about this box set is just beautiful, from the packaging to the lyrics to the songs themselves. The cost may be a bit off-putting right now, but it's probably the most thorough anthology that's likely to come around, so it's well worth it. You get all the tracks from "Unknown Pleasures," "Closer" and "Substance" (though not "Still") -- plus some assorted live and demo versions that had been previously unreleased.

The albums and the compilation are standards, of course. Some of the demos are pretty much hit-or-miss, and I've heard that the sound mixes and even the playing itself at Joy Division concerts were often pretty bad. But even with the diminished sound quality, the live tracks here (particularly the ones from The Factory in Hulme -- roughly the first half of disc 4) have this rollicking, transcendental power that makes current bands like Nickelback, Staind and Fuel, not to mention the pretense behind most of the genre of "emo," seem like adolescent journal entries put to bland rock arrangements in comparison. And there are a few songs toward the end (the live "Autosuggestion" and particularly "Ceremony" and "In a Lonely Place" -- the latter two from the last recording session before Ian Curtis's suicide) where you can really hear how close he was to the final breakdown. Personally, I haven't been able to listen to these few songs since Madrid.

Then there's a booklet containing all the lyrics, listings of releases and recording sessions and even books, a couple of stream-of-consciousness articles on what Joy Division were all about and a more straightforward, strictly journalistic account from "Mojo" (courtesy of good ol' Jon Savage, one of the compilers). The photos are pretty eye-catching, too -- particularly the vidcaps.

Sure, some stuff got left on the cutting-room floor (the typo-ridden liner notes acknowledge this). Sure, you may never hear their version of "Louie Louie." And, sure, the songs and the lyrics and the packaging all whisper that eternal "What if. . . ?" When you're talking about a band like Joy Division (and especially a man like Ian Curtis), there will always necessarily be more questions than answers. At the very least, "Heart and Soul" tips the ratio a bit more in our favor.