Ah, the holiday season. It’s a mighty special time: a time to waste electricity; a time to carefully avoid offending people who don’t suppose that they believe in the same things in which you suppose you believe; and above all, a time to hopefully net some sort of profit in terms of gifts given vs. gifts received.
And that’s where the good people at Rhino come in. So, here’s the plan. You ask someone you love for the the new career-spanning Joy Division box set, appropriately titled + -. As Filter reports, this thing contains 10 7-inch singles spanning the various phases of the band’s storied history (digital downloads are included too, so if your turntable is as broken as mine currently is, don’t let that stop you), and drummer Stephen Morris teamed up with Frank Arkwright to oversee the remastering of all of them. Drool, drool, drool. Meanwhile, journalist Jon Savage curated the set, and Peter Saville provided the artwork. And did I mention that the release will be limited to 5,000 copies, the first 500 of which are individually numbered and will include a piece of art by Saville??? No, I didn’t. But… wait, now I just did. Talk about a paradox!
Anyway, the box set arrives on December 6. So, like I said, you drop a million hints for that certain special someone to get it for you for [insert relevant holiday here], and in return, you get her… that one crappy mid-90s New Order best-of comp where half the songs are remixes. That way, it’ll seem like you thought about her enough to buy a complimentary present, but it’ll only cost you like five bucks from the used bin. You come out on top, and she won’t be able to complain because it’ll seem “poetic.” I mean, just think about the narrative: “OMG, you gave me Joy Division? I gave you New Order!” How Gifts of the Magi is that?
+ - tracklisting:
01. Warsaw
02. Leaders of Men
03. No Love Lost
04. Failures
05. Digital
06. Glass
07. Autosuggestion
08. From Safety to Where
09. Transmission
10. Novelty
11. Atmosphere
12. Dead Souls
13. Kamakino
14. Incubation
15. As You Said
16. Love Will Tear Us Apart
17. These Days
18. She’s Lost Control (12-inch Version)
19. Love Will Tear Us Apart 2
20. Isolation
21. Heart and Soul
• Joy Division: http://www.myspace.com/joydivision
• Rhino: http://www.rhino.com
