The Fat Angel Sings

Spearmint re-unite with producer Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) to follow-up 2021’s highly acclaimed “Holland Park”, with the superb “This Candle Is For You”, their tenth album proper. Missed out so far? This new album provides the perfect place to start! The dizzying multiverse of an album covers a wide array of themes, including the search for a missing sister, the ways we remember lost loved ones, Prince’s encounters with Joni Mitchell, the story of John Gavin, the James Bond star who never got to make a film, late-night drinking in Soho, the joys of B-movies and video nasties, changing attitudes to mental health, the plight and wonder of older cats, the reaction to the death of Sarah Everard, and the afterlife.

UK indiepop vets will release new album “This Candle is for You” on November 17 and this is its breezy new single.

By Spearmint, from the album ‘This Candle Is For You’, released on 17th November 2023.

Synthpop icons OMD just released their new album after such a long time “Bauhaus Staircase”, their best album in nearly 40 years, and here’s the video for its opening cut.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) return with their 14th studio album over six years after the triumph of their Top 4-charting record “The Punishment of Luxury”. The album was born from the impetus to kickstart new explorations during lockdown when as Andy McCluskey admits: “I rediscovered the creative power of total boredom.”

The album’s first offering as a single is the title track which serves as a nod both to Andy McCluskey’s love of the Bauhaus era and the power of protest art. “I am a huge lover of visual arts especially mid 20th century movements” Andy comments. “The song is a metaphor for strength and artist passion in the face of criticism and adversity. When times are hard there is a tendency for Governments to look at cutting funding for creativity just at the moment when the arts are most needed to nourish our souls. It seems appropriate that the song and its eponymous album were created during Covid Lockdown.”

Ranging further from the beautiful film noir ballad of ‘Veruschka’ and the dance stylings of ‘Anthropocene’ – a term for the current epoch in Earth’s evolution to the sinister ‘Evolution Of Species’ and the hectic ‘Kleptocracy’ – OMD’s greatest straight-up protest song – the new album is a broad electronic sonic masterpiece that lyrically tackles the topics of the future. The record closes on ‘Healing’ – a moment of reflective calm.

By rights OMD should be in semi-retirement performing classics like Enola Gay and Maid Of Orleans on the nostalgia festival circuit like so many peers. Instead they’ve created a landmark album worthy of their finest work. “Bauhaus Staircase” remains unmistakably the work of a duo who are still perfectly in sync 45 years after their first gig at legendary Liverpool club Eric’s. 

“They say people change their cell structure every seven years, so I’ve totally regenerated several times since we started Pylon forty years ago,” says Vanessa Briscoe Hay, frontwoman for that iconic Athens band and now frontwoman for Pylon Reenactment Society. “Over the course of your life, you’re going to learn new things. Your mind is going to change and expand. I’m a lot older now, and I can’t be something I’m not anymore. Pylon is our guiding star, but we’re not Pylon. We’re Pylon Reenactment Society.”

It’s easier to explain what Pylon Reenactment Society isn’t than what it actually is. It’s not a continuation or a reunion, because Vanessa is the only member in both groups. It’s neither a tribute act nor a cover band, although they do perform Pylon songs. Instead, this new band draws inspiration from that old band, taps into its motivating principles.

The 11-song set organically grew out of jams and writing sessions over several years. “Every now and then my lyrics are inspired by a meaningful conversation,” says Pylon / Pylon Reinactment Society’s Vanessa Briscoe Hay of their new single. “Several years back, Pylon Reenactment Society opened for Cindy Wilson at a small club in North Carolina. A young woman shared with me that having her father’s record collection available to her in the middle of nowhere Alabama had ‘saved her life.’ I remarked to her that ‘flowers grow everywhere’ — thinking of my own upbringing in a rural community where music and art had kept me going — I was inspired by the hopefulness of teenagers wondering about the future, no matter their circumstances.”

Pylon Reenactment Society’s “Magnet Factory” organically grew out of jams and writing sessions over several years. As the album took shape, the lyrics peeled away at the layers of time and shared spaces that make up a life. A pair of unrecorded songs by Pylon were brought in to round out this collective unspoken theme. All the music was recorded by the current four members of the band (Vanessa Briscoe Hay, Jason NeSmith, Kay Stanton, Gregory Sanders) with a stellar vocal duet with the incomparable Kate Pierson of The B-52’s.

“Magnet Factory” is set for release on February 9th, 2024 via Strolling Bones Records.

Robert Plant is always down to include versions of songs by his former band Led Zeppelin in his setlists, but he hasn’t played their most iconic hit, “Stairway to Heaven,” since the one-off 2007 Led Zeppelin reunion show that became the “Celebration Day” film.

That changed on saturday night (10/21) at a charity concert for The Cancer Platform at Soho Farmhouse in Oxfordshire. Developed by the Cancer Awareness Trust and organized by former Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor, the concert was dubbed An Evening With Andy Taylor And Special Guests, and it featured Plant, former Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt, Andrew Ridgeley of Wham!, prolific drummer David Palmer (ABC, Andy Taylor, etc), comedian Katherine Ryan, and more.

Plant sang Zeppelin’s “Thank You,” “Black Dog,” and the aforementioned “Stairway to Heaven,” marking his first performance of “Stairway” in 16 years. He doesn’t wail the ending the same way that he used to, but for the most part, he’s still got it. 

Andy Taylor and Robert Plant performing ‘Stairway to Heaven’ at Soho Farm House on 21st October 2023 with Andrew James Taylor, David Palmer, Dino Jelusick, Guy Pratt, Goldray and Anne Rani.

The National have a surprise-released a new album, “Laugh Track”. It’s the band’s second album of 2023, following the April release of “First Two Pages of Frankenstein”, and is out now digitally via 4AD Records. The album features guest appearances from Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver, and Rosanne Cash. the band shared an animated video for the album’s “Deep End (Paul’s in Pieces).”

But despite all that, the album’s near-eight-minute long closing track, “Smoke Detector,” was the song we liked the best, as it finds the band rocking out more than they have on recent releases. The song was recorded in June during a soundcheck in Vancouver and those circumstances aid the song’s welcome looseness.

“Laugh Track” includes two songs the band shared in August, “Alphabet City” and “Space Invader.” was one of our Songs of the Week. It also features the band’s 2022 single, “Weird Goodbyes,” which was a collaboration with Bon Iver (the project led by Justin Vernon), but was surprisingly not featured “First Two Pages of Frankenstein”.

“It felt like the story had already been told. It was its own thing,” says the band’s Aaron Dessner of “Weird Goodbyes” and why it was held for the new album. “But it also felt related to what we were doing. That was part of the logic for making another record—let’s give ‘Weird Goodbyes’ its own home.”

“Laugh Track” originates from the “First Two Pages of Frankenstein” sessions and is regarded as a companion album (even the album covers are almost identical). The band recorded at producer Tucker Martine’s Portland studio, Flora Recording & Playback.

The band features frontman Matt Berninger, as well as two sets of brothers: Aaron Dessner (guitar/piano/bass) and Bryce Dessner (piano, guitar), and Scott Devendorf (bass, guitar) and Bryan Devendorf (drums).

Aaron Dessner says The National has often resisted making a full-on rock record, but leaned more into that notion this time, with the drums having a more prominenet role. “It’s not because we don’t enjoy sitting in a room banging around ideas. It’s just that it wasn’t that productive, so we developed a fairly elaborate way of building songs in which [drummer] Bryan Devendorf had a very important but compartmentalized role,” he says. “This time we had the desire to make something that was more alive so that Bryan’s playing would drive more.”

Matt Berninger says of their approach to making “Laugh Track” “Let’s just turn everything off and walk away. Bail out of your head, of all the things you’re worried about, your career, your whole identity, how strong you thought you were.”

“Laugh Track” is the band’s most freewheeling, all-hands-on-deck album in years. If Frankenstein represented a rebuilding of trust between group members after 20+ years together, the vibrant, exploratory “Laugh Track” is both the product of that faith and a new statement of intent. Reveling in the license to radically upend its creative process, The National honed most of this material in live performances on tour, and captured those invigorated versions in impromptu sessions at producer Tucker Martine’s Portland studio.

Released 17/11/2023

As it’s Halloween Weekend and Duran Duran are getting in the spooky spirit with their new album “Danse Macabre“, The album centred around the dark arts and was inspired by a Halloween show they did last year in Las Vegas.

“We had decided to seize the moment to create a unique, special event…the temptation of using glorious gothic visuals set to a dark soundtrack of horror and humor was simply irresistible,” says keyboardist Nick Rhodes. “That evening inspired us to explore further and to make an album, using Halloween as the key theme.

The record metamorphosed through a pure, organic process, and not only was it made faster than anything since our debut album, it has also resulted in something none of us could have ever predicted. Emotion, mood, style and attitude have always been at the heart of Duran Duran’s DNA, we search for light in the darkness and darkness in the light, and I feel we have somehow managed to capture the essence of all of that in this project.

“Danse Macabre” is about the madness of that time of year. Anything goes. With the horrors we’re surrounded by, it’s quite difficult to think of escaping life and having a bit of fun, but we need to. The song is meant to be uplifting. It’s a dark mood of chaos that makes you smile.”

“Danse Macabre” features a mix of new songs, reworks of thematically appropriate songs from the Duran catalogue (like the early single “Night Boat”) and some appropriate covers. Those include Siouxsie & The Banshees‘ goth classic “Spellbound,” Talking Heads‘ “Psycho Killer’ (a duet with Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin), The Specials‘ “Ghost Town,” Cerrone‘s “Supernature,” Billie Eilish‘s “Bury a Friend,” and The Rolling Stones‘ “Paint it Black.”

The covers are pretty good and Duran Duran manage to put their spin on them without losing the original in the process, and you can tell they were having fun making this one.

There is a rare rework B-side of fan favourite track “Secret Oktober 31st”. Guest artists include producer, guitarist and composer Nile Rodgers, Victoria De Angelis of Måneskin and former band members Andy Taylor and Warren Cuccurullo. Exquisitely packaged featuring images adapted from a collection of authentic vintage séance photos that band member Nick Rhodes sourced at auction.

Tape Modern under exclusive license to BMG Rights Released on: 27th October 2023

The Velvet Underground began as a collaboration between frustrated songwriter Lou Reed and the classically trained John Cale. Cale had worked with experimental composers John Cage and LaMonte Young, and Reed’s interest in alternative guitar tunings and drone notes provided common ground. The pair recruited guitarist Sterling Morrison and drummer Moe Tucker and The Velvet Underground was formed.

The band were introduced to artist Andy Warhol, who negotiated a recording contract and showcased them in his multimedia road shows, which combined his films with the band’s music. He also introduced the band to German vocalist Nico, who sang three songs on their debut record.

The Velvet Underground became famous for their influence – despite a lack of commercial success during their tenure, they’re now critically revered. Brian Eno is often quoted as saying – “the first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who heard it formed a band.”

The band gradually lost key members – John Cale left after their second record, forced out of the band by Reed, who wanted to make the band more accessible. When Lou Reed left perhaps the foundational band of underground, artsy, experimental guitar music, he moved back into his parents house on Long Island and took a gig as a typist at his father’s office. In 1970, affter creative power struggles, romantic drama, and four eccentric albums (each now thoroughly canonized), Reed had failed to break his little project into the mainstream. Reed and Morrison both left after 1970’s “Loaded”, leaving replacement bassist Doug Yule in charge for their final record.

The Velvet Underground only made five studio albums, although a couple of 1980s compilations “Another View” and “VU” mopped up outtakes, including a scrapped fourth album.

SQUEEZE 1973

Lou Reed left the Velvet Underground in 1970, followed by Sterling Morrison. This left Doug Yule as the band’s focal point. Yule had contributed heavily to “Loaded”, but Reed wrote all the songs. It’s tough to expect Doug Yule to measure up to creative giants Lou Reed or John Cale – “Squeeze” is a likeable album but it’s clearly lightweight compared to the band’s earlier work. It has pleasant songs like ‘Friends’, later covered by Luna, and inspired the name of Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford’s new wave band.

Vaguely pointing to bands like The Beatles (as heard extremely clearly on the McCartney-esque ”Crash” or The Beach Boys (the inspiration behind “Caroline” isn’t exactly subtle), and pushing absolutely no sonic or formal boundaries, the record is offensively forgettable. Not a single hook stands out among this collection of uninspired blues and folk instrumentals. Had “Squeeze” not plastered the name “The Velvet Underground” on its album art (the lesser of the Velvet’s two phallic covers by a mile), it’d almost assuredly be lost to time. We wouldn’t have lost out on much.

Closer “Louise” is the most sonically engaging of the set, even if it does fall short of its Beatles aspirations,.

“Squeeze” is essentially a Velvet Underground album in name alone. Reed and Sterling had officially left the band, leaving Yule — who replaced Cale following his unceremonious firing two albums prior — as the new band leader. He wrote and recorded the entirety of the project nearly alone; not even Tucker, who continued to tour with Yule, makes an appearance. Functionally, the album is a Yule solo project that utilizes his old band’s name because Steve Sesnick, the band’s manager at the time, thought he might be able to squeeze (ha!) a few more dollars out of The Velvet Underground brand.

---

LOADED (1970)

If “Squeeze” sounded like a copy of a copy of a copy of rock ‘n’ roll, “Loaded” sounds like a masterful reinterpretation of the genre’s original blueprint. Ten songs and 40 minutes in length, the collection is perhaps Reed and company’s most immediate, easily enjoyable set of tunes. Unlike the avant garde nature of albums like “White Light/White Heat”, all-time classic songs like “Sweet Jane” or “Rock & Roll” are perfect Velvet Underground tracks not because of their progressive experimentation, but because of their flawless construction. It’s a record that proves that, if they had wanted to, The Velvet Underground could have been doing straight rock music all along.

Every Velvet Underground (or Spacemen 3 fans, for that matter) should listen to “I Found a Reason” in all of its slow, dreamy glory.

Atlantic Records demanded an album loaded with hits – an odd request for an avant harde band. But “Loaded” is a valiant attempt at a more accessible and radio-friendly Velvet Underground record. “Loaded” starts with three of Lou Reed’s most accessible and memorable songs; the sunshine pop of ‘Who Loves the Sun’, the indelibly simple riff of ‘Sweet Jane’ , and ‘Rock & Roll’. The rest of the album is surprisingly bland – it lacks the experimentation of The Velvet Underground’s previous releases. With Mo Tucker on maternity leave, Doug Yule is highly involved – as well as playing bass, he sings lead vocals on four tracks and plays drums, keyboards, and guitar.

“Loaded” just might be The Velvet Underground’s best rock record, and had any other band released it, it would undoubtedly be in competition for the top spot. “Who Loves the Sun” is a heartbroken pop-rock tune in a uniquely classical sense, “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” is a ballroom bop, and the immaculate “Oh! Sweet Nuthin’” is the ideal of an epic, rockin’ closer.

---

WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT (1968)

“White Light/White Heat” is often characterized as a sonic battle, and it’s not hard to hear why. The product of two warring creative forces (Cale with his unrestrained lust for musical revolution and Reed with his aspiration for pop perfection), it’s The Velvet Underground at their noisiest, most abrasive, and least conventional. This fruitful conflict comes through most obviously on the cacophonous beast that is “Sister Ray,” but even the album’s most tuneful ditties have an edge sharp enough to scratch a diamond, like on the eponymous opener, which sounds like if a bluesy, pub-ready rocker was blasted with enough saturation to warrant a warning label.

“The Gift,” with its extremely literary spoken word and stereo trickery, was never going to be a radio hit — but gosh darn it if it isn’t one of the most enthralling eight minutes the original Velvets ever put together.

The Velvet Underground’s second album is their noisiest and most extreme. John Cale stated that “White Light/White Heat” was “consciously anti-beauty”. It’s a six track record with punchy garage-rockers like ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ and the title track, and two longer experimental pieces. John Cale takes the lead vocal on ‘The Gift’, reciting a Lou Reed short story over feedback – it’s distinctive but doesn’t hold up to repeated listens well. The focal point is ‘Sister Ray’, which dominates the second side – a 17 minute tale of debauchery. “White Light/White Heat” is the band’s most out there album, but it’s not always enjoyable listening.

“Sister Ray” is damn near a literal translation of Reed and Cale battling it out through competitive jamming. But what a swan song it was for the band’s most celebrated lineup, and it stands today as their most unapologetic and aggressive statement.

“White Light/White Heat” is likely The Velvet Underground at their peak. It certainly is the band at their most unbound and distorted. Cale’s had successfully upped his sonic fuckery and Reed was penning some of the most transgressive tales of his career. Tracks like “Lady Godiva’s Operation” — hummable yet dirty and touching on taboo subject matter — showcase the magic that spawned from the two artist fighting for creative control. By all accounts, it was a hellish and dramatic recording process, but the results speak for themself.

---

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (1969)

If the band’s most abrasive material featured on “White Light/White Heat”, The Velvet Underground’s third album features their mellowest work. With John Cale forced out of the band, “The Velvet Underground” is more conventional than before – Doug Yule’s sweeter voice is used on the opening ‘Candy Says’.

With Cale out of the band and his resistance to anything remotely commercial-friendly, Reed quickly took the band in the opposite direction. The juxtaposition of the final song from “White Light/White Heat” (“Sister Ray”) and the opener of The Velvet Underground (“Candy Says”) is akin to that between a car crash and a cup of hot cocoa. The rest of the album follows suit, keeping the volume lower and the timbres cleaner. It’s the band’s most successful (creatively, at least, if not financially) attempt at crafting artful pop.

There are some vestiges of experimentation on ‘The Murder Mystery’, the most ambitious track on “The Velvet Underground“, helps add nuance to the prevailing narrative of Reed as the populist and Cale as the sonic terrorist. The track reads like the younger, sweeter sister of “The Gift,” complete with overlapping vocals and an extended runtime with a raga rhythm and all four band members contributing vocals, but the heart of the record are Reed’s mellow and confessional ballads like ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ and ‘Jesus’.

The set contains some of Reed’s most moving, plainly beautiful songs — it truly is a wonder none of them managed to introduce the band to the masses. Stripped of Cale’s abrasion, the album’s 10 tracks are able to showcase Reed’s songwriting prowess clearly and without the pesky obscuration of unappealing sounds. They’re intimate and softly presented, and yet retain Reed’s subversive lyricism. If “White Light/White Heat” is The Velvet Underground record for the Cale-loyal, “The Velvet Underground” is the pick for the Reed-heads.

---

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO (1967)

The Velvet Underground’s debut, “The Velvet Underground & Nico”, was largely recorded in the spring of 1966 – it’s amazing, given how groundbreaking and influential it was when it was finally released in 1967. The band tackled taboo subjects like drug dealing and S&M, and brought ideas from the avant-garde onto a rock album. It still sounds fresh and daring, especially key tracks like ‘Venus In Furs’ and ‘Heroin’. Despite the band’s avant-garde credentials, they still have great melodies like the gentle opener ‘Sunday Morning’ and the gentle folk-rock of ‘Femme Fatale’. The final tracks, ‘The Black Angel’s Death Song’ and ‘European Son’, are more impenetrable, only recommended for adventurous listeners. Andy Warhol provided the famous cover – early editions of the LP offered a peelable banana.

Bank-rolled and managed by Andy Warhol, The Velvet Underground’s debut is the sound of something new. Rough around the edges with a solid-gold center, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” tops “best albums of all time” lists for a reason the songs are simply incredible. Tabling talk of influence and innovation, Reed, Cale, Tucker, Morrison, and Nico put together a set of timeless rock songs that sound just as engaging today as they did to the few that heard them in ’67. From the understated majesty of “Sunday Morning” or “Femme Fatal” to the unbridled creativity of “Venus in Furs” or “All Tomorrow’s Parties,” the genius of “The Velvet Underground & Nico“ is so vast it almost seems accidental and inimitable.

If any song on a record as heralded as “The Velvet Underground & Nico” could be underrated, it’d be the wonderfully weird, string-scratching “Black Angel’s Death Song.”

Though the band (and Warhol, for that matter) were assuredly doing everything they could to become the next great artistic phenomenon, “The Velvet Underground & Nico” was too revolutionary to be embraced by general audiences. Be it the proto-punk energy of “I’m Waiting for the Man” or the stark vulnerability of “Heroin,” even at their most restrained, the band was too innovative, too disruptive to break into Top 40. 

The Velvet Underound only lasted a handful of years, only releasing five albums in total, but they left a mark on rock music matched only by fellow behemoths like The Beatles. Despite their brief existence, the band’s sound twisted and morphed with each subsequent release, resulting in a wildly varied, incredibly impressive discography. With such variety in style and consistency in quality, only a fool would attempt to draft a ‘definitive ranking of every Velvet Underground record.’

History has been kind to The Velvet Underground, and for good reason: the music of Reed, John Cale, Maureen Tucker, Sterling Morrison, Doug Yule, and sometimes Nico oozes with enough sheer creativity and artistry to fuel artists for countless more half-centuries.

On December 8th, Sony Music (US) will release a special edition of “Atom Heart Mother”, the 1970 album from the English rock legends Pink Floyd.

This collection was originally only released in Japan in 2021.

Per a news release, the set contains some unique memorabilia – a special photo book containing many rare, never-seen-before photos, reproductions of the pamphlet, the poster, the concert ticket, and the flier distributed at the event.

The only Pink Floyd footage at Hakone Aphrodite that exists is that of the 16-minute-long suite “Atom Heart Mother.” The details including whereabouts of the master film and how it was shot had been a mystery for a long time. However, after fifty years, the original 16mm film of this video was discovered in a fan’s garage. The meticulous processes of digitizing, restoring and remastering was undertaken and finally this enhanced video will be released outside of Japan.

The set contains not only the original live footage (with audio taken from the gig at Hakone Aphrodite), but also behind-the-scenes footage of the band, travelling between the airport, the hotel, the press conference, the bullet train, the show set-up, and, of course, beautiful Japanese scenery.

At the time of the historic concert, Pink Floyd had just released “Atom Heart Mother” (in October 1970), and were yet to release “Meddle,” (released in November 1971). Pink Floyd appeared as the final act of the festival, and alongside ‘Atom Heart Mother’, they performed another five songs including “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”, “A Saucerful Of Secrets” and “Echoes” from then-unreleased album “Meddle.” Sadly, official footage of these songs has not resurfaced. The band’s mystical and fantastic show, enhanced by nature’s unwitting stage effects of fog emerging from the lake when they played, was talked about for years to come. For the show, Pink Floyd used huge PA systems not yet commonly used in Japan back then, and it is widely believed that this show greatly influenced Japanese audio and stage production after that.

Chelsea Wolfe’s latest album, “She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She“, is a rebirth in process. It’s about how such a moment connects to our past, our present, and our future. It’s a powerfully cathartic statement about cutting ties, as well as an important reminder that healing is cyclical and circular, and not a simple linear process. As Wolfe explains, “It’s a record about the past self reaching out to the present self reaching out to the future self to summon change, growth, and guidance. It’s a story of setting yourself free from situations and patterns that are holding you back, in order to become self-empowered. It’s an invitation to step into your authenticity.”

Supreme goth Chelsea Wolfe is known for her darker-than-dark mixture of goth-rock, doom and folk. Her latest album the confusingly-titled “She Reaches Out To She Reaches Out To She” appears to be a cathartic work for the singer exploring finding change in your life and cutting off earlier ties.  A re-birth then, it seems. 

Released 9/02/2024

Author and Island Records former head of press Neil Storey has promised his new book tracing the illustrious history of Island Records is as “definitive as can be”.

Hitting shelves this month, the first volume of the Island Book Of Records documents every album released on the label between 1959 and the end of 1968, with insight coming from a host of names including the legendary Chris Blackwell. 

Very much an essential for vinyl lovers – not least because the hardback book is vinyl-sized – each Island release is fully illustrated to include labels, booklets, die-cut covers and foreign editions as well as “scheduled but ultimately unreleased LPs”. This is on top of a 20-plus page illustrated discography of 45s and EPs, subsidiary label LP releases, gig adverts, record release flyers, magazine covers, concert tickets, Island’s LP adverts and much more. 

The book marks the first volume in a project that will seek to “represent the entire analogue compendium of Island’s records from 1959 to when Chris Blackwell sold the label in 1989”, with Volume 2 (1969–1970) planned for publication in 2024.

The Island Book of Records brings the early years of this iconic record label to life. A fifteen-year labour of love, the volumes will fully document the analogue era of Island. Offering a comprehensive archive of album cover design and photography, together with the voices of the musicians, designers, photographers, producers, studio engineers and record company personnel that worked on each project, the volumes show in unique depth the workings of the label, covering every LP.

Featuring material from recent interviews and from media interviews of the time, and each including a comprehensive discography of 45s, the books are lavishly illustrated with gig adverts (very many at venues which no longer exist), concert tickets, flyers, international LP variants, labels, LP and 45 adverts and other ephemera.

These LP-sized editions are a collector’s dream, offering a truly unparalleled resource for those interested in music history and a perfect gift for any music lover.

‘It’s like entering the record shop of your dreams.’ – David Hepworth, author, podcaster and Radio Times columnist

‘Eyewitness accounts underpin a vault-load of memorabilia across 390 elegant pages where the footnotes are as fascinating as major events in what is an exemplary piece of musical archaeology.’ – Phil Alexander, MOJO