Punk Rock Rarities

Album Review

Completing Captain Oi's admirable recounting of the Boys' career, Punk Rock Rarities is a 22-track roundup of studio rarities recorded between 1977-1980, picking up a handful of previously unanthologized single mixes ("I Don't Care," "Terminal Love," and "Kamikaze"), but most notable for the inclusion of the band's unreleased third album, Junk. That set, scheduled for release on the NEMS label in early 1979, was abandoned when the group switched to Safari and embarked instead upon the tortured journey that resulted in the To Hell With the Boys album, which itself underwent considerable revision before finally seeing the light of day. Junk, on the other hand, remained on the shelf for the next 20 years and, dispassionately, one must confess that the band made the correct decision. To Hell With the Boys, after all, was a wildly adventurous and ambitious album. Junk, on the other hand, is basically a continuation of the same sounds and thrills that the Boys had already patented across two earlier albums. But that, too, appeals — not everybody, after all, welcomed the band's new direction, and Junk's stick-to-basics approach has a frenetic edge that the later Boys were occasionally lacking. Ultimately, of course, Punk Rock Rarities is for collectors and completists only, and there it succeeds on every count. The Boys will probably always labor beneath the banner of punk's most underrated heroes, but an evening spent with even these odd ends of their catalog will certainly leave you wondering why.