As soon as I heard the spikey post-punk sound of The Futureheads I knew that they would be a band that I'd grow to cherish. Their first album is a masterpiece of the genre, with fifteen short, sharp pieces of energetic post-punk, and including arguably the only Kate Bush cover that's surpassed the original, with 'Hounds Of Love'. From that point on I sought out everything that they released, and that was something of a mammoth task with the issue of their 'Decent Days And Nights' single, with its myriad formats and variety of b-sides. Their follow-up record 'News And Tributes' was another great album, with a slightly more mature sound, and the band continued to grow with the release of 'This Is Not The World' and 'The Chaos', until they issued their most ambitious album yet in 2012, with the acapella 'Rant'. Eschewing musical instruments, the whole record is composed of just voices, and despite how daunting that sounds, it really worked, and was a triumph. Around 2006 I decided to collect all those hard to find songs onto one CD, and as with the Arctic Monkeys and Laura Marling discs from previous posts, they then sat on my shelf for thirteen years before I decided to share them, so I hope that some of you will remember with affection this superb indie band, and will appreciate hearing songs that you might not have known existed.
Track listing
01 Ticket (from the '1-2-3.nul!' EP 2003)02 Piece Of Crap (b-side of 'First Day' 2003)03 A Picture Of Dorian Grey (from the '1-2-3.nul!' EP 2003) 04 Cabaret (from the '1-2-3.nul!' EP 2003)05 Fit But You Know It (b-side of Mike Skinner & The Streets CD 2004)06 Banquo (b-side of 'Decent Days And Nights' CD single 2005)07 Boring The Children (b-side of Australian 'Decent Days And Nights' CD single 2005)08 Balsh (b-side of 'First Day' 2003)09 Appreciate The Effort (b-side of 'Decent Days And Nights' 2004)10 Tearing Holes (from the '1-2-3.nul!' Promo EP 2003) 11 Park Inn (from the 'Nul Book Standard' EP 2002) 12 Remote Control (b-side of 'Decent Days And Nights' CD single 2004)13 Area (single 2005)14 Easy For Us (b-side of 'Skip To The End' 2006)15 Help Us Out (b-side of 'Area')16 We Cannot Lose (b-side of 'Area')17 Outro (from the 'Nul Book Standard' EP 2002)
