News 07 Apr 2015

Lloyd Cole and the Commotions / Collected Recordings 1983-1989

By Paul Sinclair

As previously reported, Universal Music will release a Lloyd Cole and the Commotions box set in June.

Collected Recordings 1983-1989 is a 5CD+DVD box set that contains newly remastered versions of the three studio albums (Rattlesnakes, Easy Pieces and Mainstream), a disc of B-sides/remixes, a further CD of largely previously unreleased demos and to finish the set off, a DVD featuring all 10 promo videos and eight TV performances (Top Of The Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test & Wogan).

The 1984 debut Rattlesnakes has been remastered from the original tapes by Ian Jones at Abbey Road and Lloyd himself has commented at how much better this sounds and has demonstrated on Facebook that he is all too aware of the so-called ‘loudness wars’ and is making sure these remasters are not compressed to hell. The original master tapes for Easy Pieces didn’t survive, so that album has been remastered via back-up quarter-inch tapes, which was the best available source. As LC pointed out “not ideal, but much better than tweaking existing digital files”.

Full track listing to come, but disc four will feature two previously unreleased versions of From Grace and Brand New Friend. 16 of the 18 tracks on disc five are previously unreleased and amongst those are six never-before-heard tracks: Down At The Mission, Eat My Words, Poons, You Win, Old Wants Never Gets and Another Dry Day. Two previously unreleased tracks produced by Chris Thomas and two by Stewart Copeland also feature.

The discs will come in replica vinyl slipcases with printed inner sleeves and included in the box set is a 48-page hardback book by Pete Paphides which recounts the story of the band based on interviews with Lloyd Cole, Neil Clark, Blair Cowan, Stephen Irvine and Lawrence Donegan, the band’s manager Derek MacKillop, Polydor A&R man Malcolm Dunbar and producers Paul Hardiman and Alan Winstanley.

Collected Recordings 1983-1989 will be released in June 2015.

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