The lost gems of Liverpool pop continue to be re-issued. This time it's the very wonderful Wild Swans, who in their first incarnation managed one single and a Peel session and in their second trotted out two whole albums for Sire. The second of these has been available on CD in North America, but the first has been vinyl-only until this 2 April 2007. (I guess they wouldn't want to announce this on April Fool's Day or no-one would believe them.)
Titled Magnitude, the double CD release contains all sorts of extra goodies. The disc of Bringing Home the Ashes is supplemented by the b-sides of the two singles, "Young Manhood" and "Bible Dreams". This is a must for any fans of winsome elegaic chiming guitar music, perhaps especially Echo and the Bunnymen fans. The one-note guitar solo in "Young Manhood" is a high point. (Does anyone else remember the video?)
The second album, Space Flower sees them drifting off-path into a faux bubblegum psychedelia, something Paul Simpson has made a bit of a career out of since, albeit in a more ambient vein. It's all lovely melodies, silly lyrics and phased guitar.
The ten original tracks are here supplemented by five demos of tracks that never made the album, plus a Bill Drummond remix (calling KLF fans!) of "Melting Blue Delicious" (the same one that appeared on a US promo disk?) and a session that never made the album ("Tastes Like Tuesday")
Support this site by buying this very generous two-disk set (31 tracks!) from Amazon through the following links.
Or, start with those links and buy anything at all from Amazon. Your purchases are at the same discounted rates, but a portion of Amazon's profits instead go to help this site. Thank you.
You can visit The Wild Swans, Jem Kelly or Paul Simpson on MySpace.
And please don't forget the compilation of earlier Wild Swans material, Incandescent, which contains the massive song "God Forbid" and many other searing testaments to misspent youth.
"One day all this will be yours."
The second album, Space Flower sees them drifting off-path into a faux bubblegum psychedelia, something Paul Simpson has made a bit of a career out of since, albeit in a more ambient vein. It's all lovely melodies, silly lyrics and phased guitar.
The ten original tracks are here supplemented by five demos of tracks that never made the album, plus a Bill Drummond remix (calling KLF fans!) of "Melting Blue Delicious" (the same one that appeared on a US promo disk?) and a session that never made the album ("Tastes Like Tuesday")
Support this site by buying this very generous two-disk set (31 tracks!) from Amazon through the following links.
Or, start with those links and buy anything at all from Amazon. Your purchases are at the same discounted rates, but a portion of Amazon's profits instead go to help this site. Thank you.
You can visit The Wild Swans, Jem Kelly or Paul Simpson on MySpace.
And please don't forget the compilation of earlier Wild Swans material, Incandescent, which contains the massive song "God Forbid" and many other searing testaments to misspent youth.
"One day all this will be yours."