The 1990 debut album from Pale Saints, “The Comforts of Madness“, is an outstanding record that owed as much to post-punk and L.A.’s Paisley Underground scene than it did to shoegaze. The Sunday Times called it “an unintended indie manifesto: music that is at once wayward and concise, dissonant and beautiful.”
Shortly after its release and in need of a second live guitarist, Lush founding member Meriel Barham joined the Leeds trio of Ian Masters, Graeme Naysmith and Chris Cooper, bringing a new dynamic to the band.
Having previously worked well with producer Hugh Jones (Echo and The Bunnyman, Modern English, The Sound), he did a brilliant job recording their second album, “In Ribbons” (1992), despite some studio tensions. In a recent celebration of the album that it was the “push and pull between Masters’ outsider tendencies and (the rest’s) commercial interests that makes “In Ribbons” so good. If some of the wild, ragged edges of “Comforts of Madness” have been smoothed off, the album makes up for it with scope and beauty. And there’s still no shortage of weird.”
Missing its original release date last year due to Covid delays and a production plant in meltdown, “In Ribbons” finally gets the 30th Anniversary celebration it deserves with a special double LP / CD release – the first disc being the UK version of the album, the second a bonus disc of never before heard demos (including their first attempt at Slapp Happy’s ‘Blue Flower’ and Ian’s 4 track recording of ‘Kinky Love’) and two brass band versions by The Tintwistle Band.
Coming in a beautiful gatefold sleeve, the limited double LP edition is being pressed on unpigmented vinyl by The Vinyl Factory in West London. A single disc, black vinyl version is also released.
Pale Saints, the ’80s dream-pop and shoegaze band from Leeds, have a 30th anniversary reissue of “In Ribbons“, their sophomore album originally released in 1992. The expanded reissue will arrive on October 6th via 4AD Records. Listen to the previously unavailable “Kinky Love (Demo),” Ian Masters’ rare four-track recording of the group’s Nancy Sinatra cover.
“In Ribbons (30th Anniversary Reissue)” is a special double LP release, with the first disc featuring a new remaster of the UK version of the album and the second disc featuring never-before-heard demos. The latter includes Pale Saints’ first attempt at Slapp Happy’s “Blue Flower,” as well as two brass band versions of songs by the Tintwistle Band, previously only heard on a bonus 7″ that arrived with the initial UK vinyl pressing. According to a press release, the new expanded reissue of “In Ribbons” was originally scheduled to arrive last year for the proper 30th anniversary, but pandemic-related delays and production plant backup pushed its release to 2023.
Back in 2020, Pale Saints’ debut, “The Comforts of Madness”, also got reissued.
The expanded edition of the 1992 album includes a new remaster, never-before-heard demos, and more
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