Complete, Vol. 1: 1981-1983

The wonderful thing about punk rock as a recorded medium is its short songs and its penchant for releasing anomalous formats with shorter running times, such as singles and splits, so that one can comprehensively encapsulate a long career in a single disc, such as with the indispensable Minor Threat Complete Discography, or in two discs, as Articles of Faith did. The title leaves nothing to the imagination -- the disc is the first three years of the history of the semi-legendary Chicago troupe, which in this case are the band's contribution to the early The Mastertape compilation, the band's What We Want Is Free EP, and the entire Give Thanks debut LP accompanying two bonus tracks. Fortunately, the music is as bold as the disc's title is generic. Taking cues from H sker D (whose Bob Mould produced some of the material here), Articles of Faith came into life kicking and screaming before melodic intervention would firmly take hold. Volume one shows those neophytic years where vocalist Vic Bondi is screaming for change as loudly as he can while his band is playing as fast as they can. It's a simple enough formula, but the vestiges of the band's future still show up, even amidst the most cacophonous clamor of the early material, and better yet, still stand up on their own two decades later, with a shimmering timelessness that defies the relative lack of innovation that would come about soon enough. ~ Brian O'Neill, Rovi