Killing for Love: Albums, Singles, Rarities, Unreleased 1987-2017 is a five-CD compilation box set by Welsh band The Darling Buds. It was released by Cherry Red Records on 27 October 2023.
Curated and compiled by the band, the collection includes their early singles, their first three studio albums, B-sides, remixes, live recordings, the 2017 Evergreen EP and 14 previously unreleased recordings.
Release and content
The set was issued by Cherry Red under catalogue number CRCDBOX152. Its accompanying booklet contains new interviews with the band, their notes on different periods of their career, an introductory essay by music journalist Lois Wilson and photographs from the band's private archive.
The first disc, titled The Early Years, collects demos, independent singles and other recordings from the period before the band's debut studio album. The second, third and fourth discs contain expanded versions of Pop Said... (1989), Crawdaddy (1990) and Erotica (1992), together with contemporary B-sides, remixes and alternative versions. The fifth disc contains demos, live recordings, previously unreleased material and the four tracks from the Evergreen EP.
The fifth disc includes three demos recorded in Los Angeles: "Perfect Pain", "Drag King" and "25". Louder Than War reported that the recordings were produced by Roy Bittan.. Vocalist Andrea Lewis Jarvis later said that the Los Angeles demos had been intended for a proposed fourth studio album following Erotica.
Critical reception
Nick James of God Is in the TV awarded the collection eight out of ten. He highlighted the early demos, the stylistic range of the previously unreleased material and the Los Angeles recordings, and considered the collection a substantial account of the band's development.
Reviewing the box set for Louder Than War, Iain Key praised its presentation of the band's musical development and the range of rare and unreleased recordings. He regarded it as both an introduction for new listeners and a comprehensive retrospective for existing fans.
Backseat Mafia highlighted the chronological structure of the collection, the band-authored notes, previously unheard recordings and photographs from the group's archive. The review also noted the contribution of Wilson's essay to the historical presentation of the set.
Track listing
Track listing adapted from Cherry Red.
References