Uneasy Listening Vol. 1

Uneasy Listening Vol. 1 is a compilation album by Finnish band HIM. It contains special versions of various songs from their first four studio albums, most of which have already been released on various editions of their singles. The album was re-released with a different cover due to legal issues with the original. The album's artwork is by Finnish artist Natas Pop, in emulation of the Art Nouveau style of Alphonse Mucha. A second volume, Uneasy Listening Vol. 2, was released on 20 April 2007 in Germany & Ireland and on 24/25 April in Finland and the rest of Europe.

The album has been described as “In addition to a handful of remixes (see the ominous Thulsa Doom reworking of "Salt in Our Wounds"), the album presents acoustic renditions of the romance-obsessed songs[…] lushly orchestral takes that vaguely recalls the moody late-1960s work of avant-pop crooner Scott Walker. While not the best introduction to the revered goth/rock band, Uneasy Listening is an excellent HIM rarities collection that is sure to please the group's international legion of diehard fans”.

(wiki)

====================================

by Thom Jurek

While it's true that H.I.M. (His Infernal Majesty) have a slew of special editions, Europe-only releases, singles, EPs, Japan-only tracks, etc., they all have their perverse charm. Uneasy Listening, Vol. 1 is another such collection, but it's not a repackaging of one album or another. This is a bona fide rarities collection. It contains remixes, live cuts, acoustic versions, dubs, and versions of cuts with and without strings -- many previously unreleased in any form. This is a band with an absolutely fanatical following of mainly young people who are caught in the goth web. Good for them, actually; the reason H.I.M. inspire loyalty in so many is because the songs themselves -- at least most of them -- have great melancholy pop hooks and hearing them in this way is a fine way of discerning that. Check the acoustic version of "Funeral of Hearts," with its lilt and absolutely naked vocal. Then there's "Close to the Flame" from The Rappula Tapes, with its aching, gorgeous guitars and skeletal beat. The big heavy AOR mix of "When Love and Death Embrace" could have been sung by Morrissey if he fronted a metal band. And on it goes. For fans, this is essential; for the uninitiated (or those afraid to admit liking this band), this is a new, darkly sweet collection of lyrics so utterly transgressive that they are as poisonous as nightshade or belladonna, and melodies so completely infectious that they bring out the warped teenager or secretly broken adult in anyone who gives them a chance. (Let's put it this way, if Sam Phillips had recorded this material, or Bright Eyes, or Patty Griffin, this record would have been called a masterpiece of vulnerability, but since it's these Euro kids, it's shock value music or overly emotive teen balladry that can be dismissed.) Decadent? Excessive? Possibly sick? Yeah -- but so romantically charged and drenched in ragged beauty that it's nearly irresistible.