LIVE DAYS

Unlike Into the Dream... Discipline Live, Live Days doesn't offer a continuous live show - rather, it's a grab-bag of songs from various live performances from the 1990s. Whilst I'm less keen on live albums which take that approach - I prefer ones which draw all their material from the same show because I think they do a better job of recapturing the live performances - the expansiveness of the set, the fine performances and decent sound quality, and the brace of rarities all makes this worth the effort for Discipline fans.

The songs from Push and Profit get a live delivery which is very close to how they were performed on that album, whilst the entirety of Unfolded Like Staircase is represented here in performances which are often a little more hard-edged than they were on that album. In addition, there's some great tracks which didn't appear on either of the band's 1990s studio albums; Circuity and When the Walls Are Down wouldn't get a studio release until 2011's To Shatter All Accord, Between Me and the End got a live release on Into the Dream and also appears as a track on Astray, Matthew Parmenter's debut solo album. Mickey Mouse Man and Wrists appear on some of the band's ancient 1980s demo tapes, and the former song is also a live staple of theirs, appearing on many of their live releases, as is the case with Homegrown. Safe In Your Vision, meanwhile, is a song which can only be obtained here.

As well as providing songs which are simply not available elsewhere on CD, the album also helps in a greater appreciation of more familiar Discipline material and in the band's style as a whole. Despite not offering a continuous show, the set does retain at least some of Matthew Parmenter's between-songs banter, which reveal a cheerful and more comical side to the "prog mime" than the subject matter he usually sings about would suggest. I still feel that offering complete shows rather than mixed-up extracts would be a bit more satisfying, but on the whole this is a very good value live release from the band which won't disappoint anyone who likes their first two albums.