Abandon Tracks! is a collection of, well, abandoned tracks of the rare, remixed, and unreleased variety. The songs compiled here do a good job of representing the many faces of Death in June; post-industrial terrorism is provided on anxiety-causing tracks such as “My Black Diaries,” “We Said Destroy,” and “Death of a Man,” while the apocalyptic folk end of the spectrum is well-covered by the acoustic strumming and deadpan vocal delivery of “The Only Good Neighbor,” “Many Enemies Bring Much Honour,” and a wonderfully rerecorded version of “13 Years of Carrion.” Of course, there are some very interesting and unexpected curves here as well: Death In June ventures into acoustic ambiance on “The Concrete Fountain” and crafts its most gentle ballad yet in “Unconditional Armistice.” (Well, sort of. “Unconditional Armistice” is “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)” if the latter involved a “gun that would set us all free.”) Overall, the recording quality here it top-notch, by far the most nuanced item in Death In June’s substantial catalog. Interestingly, even though Abandon Tracks! is a collection of odds and ends it doesn’t suffer in the least from the disjointedness that often mars this type of product. If anything, this disc actually feels more coherent than some of Death In June’s proper album releases, such as The Wall of Sacrifice. Also, I would be remiss not to mention that this recording comes in a lovely embossed digipack with gilt edges and lettering. Some things are better left unabandoned!

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