Review: Sananda Maitreya / Juvenilia: The Columbia Years

There used to be a joke in the music industry that went like this:

“Knock knock!”

“Who’s there?”

“Terence!”

“Terence who?”

“That’s showbusiness!”

Show business, particularly the popular music side of it, is both ruthless and fickle. Ruthless, because if you don’t have a hit, you’re done (and you are, as the cliché goes, only as good as your last hit). And fickle, because for millions of reasons, audiences are always keen to move on to the next new and shiny thing. Ever since the dawn of pop, talented artists have produced brilliant work, only to see it fail in the charts because the fans have moved on to someone younger, or prettier, or just sounding different. 

Success is hard to maintain because audiences want everything an artist does to be the same only different. Huge artistic leaps or changes in direction are not welcome (unless you’re famous for your huge artistic leaps or changes in direction, like David Bowie or The Beatles). Most artists therefore stick with the tried and tested while throwing in the odd new twist, like a new haircut or a slightly different sound. Those who don’t, suffer.

Terence Trent D’Arby, born Terence Howard in New York in 1962 (he took the “D’Arby” from his stepfather) now known as Sananda Maitreya, was a teenage boxing champion who joined the US Army and found himself stationed in Europe with Elvis Presley’s old army division, the Third Armoured. He joined a local funk band, Touch, as singer, and after leaving the Army, began his own career, working with Heaven 17 and BEF’s Martyn Ware, who’d assisted Tina Turner into worldwide success a few years before.

D’Arby entered the world of popular music like a meteor entering the Earth’s atmosphere. His first album, Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D’Arby, came out in 1987 and was an instant worldwide hit, selling a million copies in three days.  The Hardline’s accompanying singles – ‘If You Let Me Stay’, ‘Wishing Well’ and ‘Dance Little Sister’ – were also enormous hits, showcasing D’Arby’s powerful voice (he was a huge Sam Cooke fan), his flair for hooks and melody, and his by-no-means unattractive looks and personality. The music referenced classic soul as well as the contemporary pop of Prince and Michael Jackson, and managed to be both spectacularly energising and MTV-friendly at the same time.

The success overwhelmed D’Arby. Despite a penchant for memorable quotes like “I’m a genius. Point fucking blank!”, he found himself borne along on a terrifying tide. Feeling unsupported by his record company, D’Arby tried to do things his way: he was not rewarded for this. His second album, Neither Fish Nor Flesh, released two years later, wasn’t just a comparative flop (it sold 300,000 copies as opposed to Hardline’s nine million) but also the subject of general mockery, from its title (“I will not be defined ’cause I’m neither fish nor flesh”, is how the album opens) to its perceived musical wilfulness. D’Arby, much like his near-contemporary Prince was seen as being on the wrong side of eccentric, making difficult music that was somehow deliberately anti-pop, an insult to the industry that had made him a star.

The follow-up, 1993’s Symphony Or Damn, was received less aggressively. It contained several hit singles and was seen by many as that old industry standby, a “return to form”  – a phrase which generally means “an attempt to regain lost ground by sounding like something from when the artist was popular.” Symphony Or Damn was itself followed up with 1995’s somewhat bluntly-named Vibrator, whose sleeve showed D’Arby with a dramatic new short blond haircut. It too received favourable reviews.

And that was it for Terence Trent D’Arby. In 2001, he changed his name to Sananda Maitreya, the name under which he has been known ever since, and he has continued to write music and perform. Maitreya has released several solo albums, including The Rise of the Zugebrian Time Lords, The Sphinx, Pandora’s Playhouse, and in 2024, his 13th LP, The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan. His back catalogue as D’Arby has also been re-released, now credited to Sananda Maitreya – and now, in 2026, comes this latest release, a boxed set of the four Sony albums. The set is called Juvenilia: The Columbia Years and features all four albums remastered and pressed on 180g coloured vinyl.  There’s the usual restored artwork and so forth – restored and reworked, that is, as the records remain recredited to Sananda Maitreya – and none of the albums are available on CD.

Maitreya says of the boxed set that “These albums represent the journey of a young artist finding his voice: bold, vulnerable, and unafraid to challenge the form. It feels beautiful to finally present them together, in the spirit they were born.”

So a classy reissue with only the mildest revisionism: have the contents weathered the years? It would appear so. Introducing The Hardline certainly has: the years melt away the moment the needle hits the (green) vinyl and the listener is blown away in a tempest of youthful talent and energy. This is a pop record crammed with hooky singles, memorable riffs and songs which fulfil classic pop’s brief of sounding both brand-new and entirely familiar all at the same time – with the appearance of a new voice making its presence felt through sheer bravado, talent and presence (and application: producer Martyn Ware recalls the singer sitting up late in the studio and playing Sam Cooke live recordings over and over again to get the vibe).          

Many artists would have been happy to use this as a template for an entire career, but D’Arby did not. The next album, Neither Fish Nor Flesh (now released on angry red vinyl), was something of a change of direction and, as has been noted, such things are risky, especially when reactive. But the odd thing is, this record is nowhere near as style-wretchingly different as some have made out. Certainly not when you compare it to Prince’s ‘Black Album’, ABC’s ‘Beauty Stab’, The Stone Roses’ The Second Coming and other commercial career-chokers. ‘I’ll Be Alright’ is a banger. ‘Billy Don’t Fall’ is a natural descendant of ‘Wishing Well’. ‘This Side of Love’ is a great Stonesy song. And so on. Admittedly, there are some production choices that differ from those on The Hardline – the reverse drum track on ‘Roly Poly’, for example, but there’s nothing that peculiar, wilful or weird about Neither Fish Nor Flesh, and the contemporary listener is left to wonder if perhaps D’Arby was being punished for not staying in his lane.

1993’s Symphony Or Damn (now on splendid gold vinyl) is an aggressive sort of album, filled with the kind of funky metallic rock-pop that INXS had recently made their own. It does not however lack variety. Opening song ‘Welcome To My Monasteryo’ is operatic and grand like Jim Steinman. ‘Delicate’ is a duet with Des’ree. ‘Penelope Please’ is sunshine pop. And so on. The album went to number 4 in the UK, slightly out-performing its successor.

1995’s Vibrator (blue vinyl) was the last record released under the name of Terence Trent D’Arby, and is the rockiest of the albums collected in Juvenilia. With songs like the title track and ‘Supermodel Sandwich’, Vibrator takes a more Prince-like direction at times – see also C.Y.F.M.L.A.Y?’s line “I need my soul for the next world but I need my body for this one” – but also contains moments of reflection like ‘TTD’s Recurring Dream’ and ‘Resurrection’. It’s a powerful mix of extreme emotion and sound experiments, and a fitting end to an era in one man’s career. But only one era: a life as Sananda Maitreya was imminent, and with it more and newer music. Terence Trent D’Arby may be gone, but the unique and extraordinary artist who once had that name goes on.

Review by David Quantick. Juvenilia: The Columbia Years is released on Friday 13 March 2025, via Sony.

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Tracklisting

Juvenilia: The Columbia Years Sananda Maitreya / 6LP vinyl

• • LP 1: Introducing The Hardline (translucent green vinyl)

    SIDE A

    1. IF YOU ALL GET TO HEAVEN
    2. IF YOU LET ME STAY
    3. WISHING WELL
    4. I’LL NEVER TURN MY BACK ON YOU (FATHER’S WORDS)
    5. DANCE LITTLE SISTER
    6. SEVEN MORE DAYS

    SIDE B

    1. LET’S GO FORWARD
    2. RAIN
    3. SIGN YOUR NAME
    4. AS YET UNTITLED
    5. WHO’S LOVING YOU
  • LP 2: Neither Fish Nor Flesh (red vinyl)

    SIDE A

    1. DECLARATION: NEITHER FISH NOR FLESH
    2. I HAVE FATE IN THESE DESOLATE TIMES
    3. IT FEELS GOOD TO LOVE SOMEONE LIKE YOU
    4. TO KNOW SOMEONE DEEPLY IS TO KNOW SOMEONE SOFTLY
    5. I’LL BE ALRIGHT
    6. BILLY DON’T FALL

    SIDE B

    1. THIS SIDE OF LOVE
    2. ATTRACTED TO YOU
    3. ROLY POLY
    4. YOU WILL PAY TOMORROW
    5. I DON’T WANT TO BRING YOUR GODS DOWN
    6.  …AND I NEED TO BE WITH SOMEONE TONIGHT

    SIDE B
    1. THIS SIDE OF LOVE
    2. ATTRACTED TO YOU
    3. ROLY POLY
    4. YOU WILL PAY TOMORROW
    5. I DON’T WANT TO BRING YOUR GODS DOWN
    6. …AND I NEED TO BE WITH SOMEONE TONIGHT

  • LP 3 & 4: Symphony Or Damn (gold vinyl)

    SIDE A

    1. WELCOME TO MY MONASTERYO
    2. SHE KISSED ME
    3. DO YOU LOVE ME LIKE YOU SAY?
    4. BABY LET ME SHARE MY LOVE
    5. DELICATE

    SIDE B

    1. NEON MESSIAH
    2. PENELOPE PLEASE
    3. WET YOUR LIPS
    4. TURN THE PAGE

    SIDE C

    1. CASTILIAN BLUE
    2. T.I.T.S./F&J
    3. ARE YOU HAPPY?

    SIDE D

    1. SUCCUMB TO ME
    2. I STILL LOVE YOU
    3. SEASONS
    4. LET HER DOWN EASY
  • LP 5 & 6: Vibrator (blue vinyl)

    SIDE A

    1. VIBRATOR
    2. SUPERMODEL SANDWICH
    3. HOLDING ON TO YOU

    SIDE B

    1. READ MY LIPS (I DIG YOUR SCENE)
    2. UNDENIABLY
    3. WE DON’T HAVE THAT MUCH TIME TOGETHER

    SIDE C

    1. C.Y.F.M.L.A.Y?
    2. IF YOU GO BEFORE ME
    3. SURRENDER
    4. TTD’S RECURRING DREAM

    SIDE D

    1. SUPERMODEL SANDWICH W/CHEESE
    2. RESSURECTION
    3. IT’S BEEN SAID