Pixies
Trompe Le Monde (30th Anniversary)
For its 30th anniversary, Pixies 1991 album Trompe Le Monde is being reissued on limited marbled green vinyl, out September 24th 2021. Trompe Le Monde bookended a golden run of landmark records - a mini-album followed by four albums, released in quick succession – that cemented Pixies as one of the best for a generation.
Translated from French to mean “fool the world”, Trompe Le Monde showed the band still restless to push their sound forward. Recorded between Burbank, Paris and London, with producer Gil Norton again at the controls, their fourth album is arguably their most playful with Black Francis’s lyrics on UFOs and conspiracy theories keeping things weird while power pop creeps in to amplify the space rock established on predecessor Bossanova.
Featuring singles ‘Planet of Sound’, ‘Alec Eiffel’, ‘Letter to Memphis’ and a flawless cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Head On’, Trompe Le Monde goes full throttle with 15 tracks coming in a quickfire 40-minute salvo. Receiving critical praise at the time and being supported by a huge tour that included playing stadiums with U2, it also proved to be the end of act one for the band with them taking over a decade before returning to stage together.
A brilliant record, Trompe Le Monde sounds just as fresh 30 years on with outlets such as Pitchfork concurring, retrospectively scoring it 9.3, they called it “more aggressive than anything in their catalog but also more confident. They can handle this now, and they do.”
4AD
LP
Pre-Order
Gene Clark
No Other
Gene Clark’s 1974 masterpiece gets the reappraisal it’s long overdue.
“One of the greatest albums ever made. Initially celebrated for its obscurity, No Other is now celebrated for its magnificence. It was in every way a magnum opus: epic, sprawling, poetic, choral, rococo.” The Guardian
On the eve of what would have been American singer-songwriter and Byrds founding member Gene Clark’s 75th birthday comes the reissue of one of his finest works, No Other. Released in 1974 on Asylum Records, a year after the Byrds shortlived reunion, Gene reached for the stars with No Other; a psychedelic rock, folk, country and soul record that famously cost a small fortune to make. Although received warmly by critics, it flopped and was soon deleted, a failure Gene never came to terms with.
However, as The New York Times wrote around the record’s 40th anniversary in 2014, “hindsight has burnished No Other, as it has redeemed other albums that went on to be reconstructed as rock repertory, like Big Star’s Third/Sister Lovers and Lou Reed’s Berlin,” with the album now being increasingly recognised as one of the greatest of its time, if not all time.
45 years on and recently remastered at Abbey Road, 4AD are giving No Other the reappraisal it deserves. The original eight track album is being released on both CD and LP, while a limited run double CD edition in a hardbound book cover is also coming which includes a bonus disc of alternate studio versions of each track plus a recording of ‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’ (an Eagles hit in 1972, written by Gene and Eagles founding member Bernie Leadon).
Excitingly, the deluxe boxset edition fans have been waiting decades for has also been lovingly curated. An extremely limited item, the box contains the LP, three SACDs (the original album in an authentic Japanese vinyl replica sleeve plus two more discs of session mixes), an exclusive 7”, a comprehensive Blu-Ray disc which includes HD versions of all tracks, a stunning 5.1 surround mix of the album, the original 1974 vinyl master and an exclusive documentary by Paul Kendall (the director responsible for the acclaimed 2013 film, The Byrd Who Flew Alone: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Gene Clark), and a hardbound 80 page book which features essays, extensive liner notes and previously unseen photos.
4AD
CD | LP
Tune-Yards
W H O K I L L [RSD21]
This is an exclusive release for Record Store Day 2021 - Drop 1. Available from Saturday 12th June over the counter (if we're open), with online sales from 6:00pm on the same day. Click notify me above to be kept up to date. Tune-Yards’ 2011 breakthrough second album whokill will receive a limited edition pressing on splatter vinyl to celebrate its 10th anniversary on Record Store Day. Upon its original release the album received accolades from The Guardian, Pitchfork, NPR, The New York Times, and it won the Village Voice's prestigious Paz & Jop critic's prize. The brainchild of Merrill Garbus, tUnE-yArDs began life as dictaphone recordings which were then painstakingly mixed down on GarageBand to create her opening gambit, the debut album BiRd-BrAiNs. Initially released on a limited LP run with screen printed sleeves recycled from thrift store bargain bins, the album was formally released in late 2009. Alongside the record, she also started to build quite a reputation for her live performances. Using loop pedals, two mics, a snare drum, a ukelele, her distinctive voice (she's spent time teaching singing in Kenya) and crucially, a second band member, Nate Brenner on bass. The album, w h o k i l l, marks a time when everything came together in to one cohesive whole. Recorded in a studio and influenced heavily by her moving to Oakland, California, she and Nate made an album that delivered on her early promise. Lyrically Garbus explores constructs of femininity and sexuality with the threat of violence that lurks on the streets where she now lives, while the energy of their show has been translated perfectly to record. Tracklisting: Side A 1. My Country 2. Es-so 3. Gangsta 4. Powa 5. Riotriot Side B 1. Bizness 2. Doorstep 3. You Yes You 5. Wooly Wolly Gong 5. Killa
4AD
LP
RSD 2021
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