Exorcising Ghosts (1984) is a 16-track 2LP set compiled and produced in consultation with lead singer David Sylvian, two years after Japan dissolved. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

Seven years after the release of Exorcising Ghosts, Japan recorded a new studio album, but under the new moniker Rain Tree Crow. David Sylvian and Mick Karn etc produced some great songs during their time together and this CD encapsulates that period brilliantly. And while I was always a bit dismissive of this compilation because I had all of the tracks, listening to it now, it's really well sequenced - it flows really well. Exorcising Ghosts' represents an interesting cross-section of much of the best material released by Japan in their all too brief career in the early 1980s.Luckily, for me, I'm reasonable happy with the 11 tracks here - the listener gets comfortably more than 60 minutes of music and there are a number of classics included such as the marvellous 'Ghosts' - definitely one of the best singles of the 1980s, 'Nightporter' - a beautifully subtle song and surely too brilliant to have been released as a single, the superb 'The Other Side Of Life' as well as the pacey 'Quiet Life' and the classy 'Visions Of China'. The print, has been made from a high-resolution scan of the original 5” x 4” colour transparency of the actual painting used for the album’s cover. It features three recordings from the band's early career on the Hansa Records label (such as 1979's Quiet Life) but mainly focuses on material from their two studio albums on Virgin Records; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. It also gives a good idea of what the band were about by including a couple of interesting instrumentals - A Foreign Place the Quiet Life b-side in particular sounds really good here.

Besides top 40 hit singles like " Quiet Life", " Visions of China", " Ghosts", and " Nightporter", the double-album set includes album tracks like "Methods of Dance", "Talking Drum" and "Swing" alongside a selection of rarities such as the single B-sides "A Foreign Place" and "Life Without Buildings", the 1981 remix of "Taking Islands in Africa", the instrumental studio recording "Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer" included on 1983's live album Oil on Canvas and the 12" mix of " The Art of Parties". The album was compiled and produced in consultation with lead singer David Sylvian, two years after Japan dissolved. This career spanning ‘Best of’ features three recordings from the band’s early career on the Hansa Records label (including 1979’s Quiet Life) but mainly focuses on material from their two seminal studio albums on Virgin Records; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). It’s notable for a few song variations, including the 1981 remix of ‘Taking Islands in Africa’ and the extended version of ‘The Art of Parties’. Exorcising Ghosts was compiled and produced in consultation with lead singer David Sylvian two years after Japan dissolved.

Unfortunately, what was true in Japan was not true in the UK; therefore, the album's promotion, mentioning 'unreleased tracks', was incorrect for the domestic market, attracting criticism at the time. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. This career spanning ‘Best of’ features three recordings from the band’s early career on the Hansa Records label (including 1979’s “Quiet Life”) but mainly focuses on material from their two seminal studio albums on Virgin Records; Gentlemen Take Polaroids (1980) and Tin Drum (1981). Quiet Life' and 'Ghosts' sound immense on this pressing and that's just a couple of the highlights, a very enjoyable and superbly packaged release. Limited edition print of the complete mixed media painting made for use on the gatefold album cover of Japan’s compilation double album Exorcising Ghosts (1984).