5 Albums

For me, the Icicle Works were the closest anyone got in the 1980s to replicating Phils Spectors Wall of Sound. The Icicle Works had a big sound with infectiously catchy & melodic pop songs, mostly about love, and sung by a vocalist with one of the most distinctive voices around at the time. They were undoubtedly one of the best and most distinguishable Indie Rock bands of the decade. The fact that during this period they could only manage to achieve 1 Top 20 single and all their albums failed to make the Top 10 must be one of the great injustices in the history of popular music. I would agree with a previous reviewer that this 5 Album Box Set has a far clearer and defined sound to the muffled Cherry Red remastering on the If You Want to Defeat You Enemy… deluxe edition. As for the album considered to be their best I expect fans would argue between the debut album and “Enemy” both of which have their merits. The first album contains their one hit single, Love is Wonderful Colour as well as the equally brilliant follow up single Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream), the U2 influenced As the Dragonfly Flies , the wonderful Out of Season and the anthemic Nirvana where McNabb recites the words “You know we’re living for your love, You know we’re living for you Come out of the dark, be sure of this, Nirvana we adore you” like a preacher to his congregation. “Enemy” though edges it for me. Not one weak track to be found, it contains my favourite ever Icicle Works song , the guitar driven Understanding Jayne as well as other singles such as Evangeline, Who do you want for your love & Up Here in the North of England and equally strong songs like When You Were Mine, Walking with a Mountain, Hope Springs Eternal and Travelling Chest. Even bonus tracks like the moody Everybody loves to play the Fool, the garage/blues of I Never Saw my Hometown til I went Around the World and the Van Morrison cover Into the Mystic are of a particularly high standard. The album Blind doesn’t quite reach the heights of Enemy but is probably their most accomplished album from a musicianship perspective. Delving into new territories from the Prince meets INXS dance/funk mash up The Kiss Off, the Led Zep styled heavy blues of S**t Creek and the Punk inspired Tin Can to the calypso flavoured What do you want from me, the psychedelic rock of Two Two Three and the pure pop perfection of songs such as Little Girl Lost (how was this not a hit?), High Time, Stood Before Saint Peter and the emotive and simple beauty of Blind. The box set is completed by the live concert at the Town & Country Club from 1986 & is the one reason why I almost gave this package a 4 star rating instead of 5. It inexplicitly omits their raw and powerful cover version of The Doors Roadhouse Blues as well as their cover of The Clash’s Should I Stay (or Should I go) both of which can be found on the same live recording on the aforementioned Enemy Deluxe Edition. I have loved this Doors cover since I first heard it in 1986 and the fact it has been excluded is my one and only small gripe on an otherwise definitive and essential collection for fans of 80s Indie/Alternative rock.

one of those bands like the chameleons or the sound or the comsat angels who should have been bigger.. not that any of them were totally unknown but it seemed that the icicle works got to a certain level but they couldn't break through into mainstream chart success, not that the charts mean anything these days but they did back then... anyway what you have here are 4 studio albums, complete with b-sides and extra tracks etc... and 1 live album from 1986.. all 4 studio albums are very decent efforts, the live album isn't that great but that's just me, i personally tend to find live albums are always a bit of a let down... overall still a very good purchase, buy it and find out for yourself that there was far more to the 80s then the smiths and the bunnymen

Following the hugely disappointing Cherry Red reissues of The Small Price of a Bicycle / If You Want To Defeat Your Enemy / Blind albums (which all had some of the worst remastering I've heard on any CD release) this package is a delight. Firstly the clarity of the sound is the same high quality as Beggar's own reissue of the first album (The Icicle Works) from a few years back. This means that the music shines through, and this applies to all carefully chosen bonus tracks as well some of which are real rarities.Secondly it's great to have each album housed in a mini-vinyl replica sleeve for the first time; although the booklet simply details the credits for each album and nothing else, it's absolutely what's expected at this incredibly low price.Therefore you cannot go wrong with this box set - 4 of the best albums ever made, an excellent rare live album thrown in, and superb sound and packaging. Great value Beggars Archive - thanks for making these recordings available again as they should be heard.

Keep it quiet but this is a criminally underpriced cd box set, beautifully remastered.I owned the IW best of and enjoyed the sound and so when I saw this boxed set I thought it worth a try, and I am so glad I did. Well crafted songs, with great lyrics both insightful and intelligent. It is definitively an ‘80’s sound’ but nothing wrong with that, and I will be listening again to all these albums again for sure as there was only a couple of duff songs in the 90 or so in this release. For the rest they were consistently engaging so much so I bought the omitted album Permanent Damage immediately.IW join a number of overlooked bands, that give me the greatest musical pleasure, for so many bands it’s about the calibre of their management unfortunately…

After picking up a cd for 50p in a charity shop of Ian McNabbs first solo release i wanted to hear more of hid beginnings and saw this release, good value for a box set anyway but with extra tracks an added bonus.This hasn't been off my stereo since it arrived.Can't even remember The Icicle Works when younger but oh boy am i glad i have now.How and Why they were not bigger than they were is unbelievable,I'm now adding to my collection of the Works and Ians solo career

The Icicle Works. I was familiar with this band but did not realise just how many excellent albums they had made. I was impressed by the many 5* ratings this five album set had attracted and by the price. Difficult to find anything bad to say about their music.