Top 10 Reissues of 2024
The “Top 10 Vinyl Finds of 2024” is here.
The “Top 10 Irish Albums of 2024” is here.
The third and final Top 10 of 2024. This one is a countdown of my favourite reissues from 2024, including three collections of previously unreleased songs. Three of these releases featured on episodes of my podcast To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited. Notes on the Top 10 are below along with an episode of Songs to Learn and Sing with tunes from all ten releases!
Songs To Learn And Sing EP 993
11pm Wednesday, 01 January 2025
Top 10 Reissues of 2024
The Hedge Schools – Sleeping Song (At the End of a Winding Day)
A Lazarus Soul – Metal Railings (The D They Put Between the R & L)
Dean & Britta – Night Nurse (L’Avventura)
The Sound – New Dark Age (From the Lion’s Mouth)
The Dream Syndicate – That’s What You Always Say (Sketches For The Days of Wine and Roses)
Julian Cope – Upwards at 45 Degrees (Cope’s Notes #6 – Jehovahkill)
Spacemen 3 – Walkin’ With Jesus (The Perfect Prescription)
The Blue Aeroplanes – Colour Me (Beatsongs)
Galaxie 500 – Here She Comes Now (Uncollected)
The High Llamas – The Sun Beats Down (Cold and Bouncy)
10.
The Hedge Schools
At the End of a Winding Day
The Hedge Schools were Pat Barrett and Joe Chester and At the End of a Winding Day was the duo’s second album originally released in 2014. In early 2024 Dublin Vinyl announced that they intended to reissue this beautiful album on vinyl. They unfortunately went into receivership but the album’s reissue was thankfully rescued by MusicZone, the Cork record shop, and a gorgeous sounding pressing was released.
Pat Barrett joined me for Episode 45 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited. We chatted about the writing and recording of of this album and a whole lot more. If you like late-period Talk Talk and The Blue Nile I think you’d really love this album. In recent years Pat has released two albums under the name Arrivalists, the most recent of which is It’s Own Time from 2023.
For Further Reading…
by Paul McDermott
The Goo - Issue 31 (January 2025)
9. A Lazarus Soul
The D They Put Between the R & L
2024 was a huge year for A Lazarus Soul. They supported The The at Collins Barracks, headlined their own gig in Vicar Street, and released No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens (my favourite Irish album of 2024). Christy Moore also covered two songs (‘Black & Amber’ and ‘Lemon 7s’) from The D They Put Between the R & L on his latest album A Terrible Beauty.
If all that wasn’t enough they also reissued The D on beautiful black and amber coloured vinyl. Brian Brannigan joined me on Episode 49 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited. We chatted about the whole history of A Lazarus Soul, the band’s amazing 2024, the reissue of The D on vinyl and loads more. We even tell stories about The Fall.
8. Dean & Britta
L’Avventura
Between Luna’s last two albums - 2002’s Romantica and 2004’s Rendevzous - the band’s Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips released the Tony Visconti produced L’Avventura. The original 11-track album contained three Wareham originals, two Phillips originals and six covers.
Both Galaxie 500 and Luna were known for their eclectic choice of cover versions and L’Avventura continued the trend. The duo gave us songs by Madonna, The Doors, Silver Jews, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Opal and Angel Corpus Christi. It’s a broad-ranging list of artists but all the songs are given the scrumptious Dean and Britta treatment. This Record Store Day expanded reissue contains a bonus disc: Side C features 2003’s Sonic Souvenirs EP (the duo’s collaboration with Sonic Boom) and Side 4 features 2006’s Words You Used to Say EP. A fantastic reissue. I picked this up discounted a few months after RSD.
7. The Sound
From the Lion’s Mouth
I’ve been after a vinyl copy of this album for years but originals go for stupid money, so thankfully it got a nice affordable reissue. From the Lion’s Mouth, the band’s second album, was originally released in 1981. The cover is a detail from Briton Rivière’s Daniel in the Lions’ Den. The Sound were signed to Korova Records, a division of WEA Records. Korova is probably best remembered as the label that signed Echo & the Bunnymen.
A dark post-punk masterpiece, From the Lion’s Mouth was produced by Hugh Jones at Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, Wales. Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, a 2020 BBC Four music documentary, told the story of this legendary studio. Unfortunately it didn’t feature The Sound or Hugh Jones or most of the bands he produced there including: Simple Minds, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Icicle Works, The Teardrop Explodes, James and Stump.
The Sound broke up in 1988 after the release of their fifth and final album Thunder Up. Adrian Borland, the band’s frontman, went on to produce Felt’s final album Me and a Monkey on the Moon (1988). On Episode 5 of To Here Knows When - Great Irish Albums Revisited, Dave Long from Into Paradise chats about working with Borland on the band’s first two albums Under the Water and Churchtown. Adrian Borland sadly died by suicide in 1999.
Daniel in the Lions’ Den by Briton Rivière (1872).
6. The Dream Syndicate
(Sketches For) The Days of Wine and Roses
Another Record Store Day purchase. I’m mostly agnostic about RSD. I don’t queue but a friend does and for the last few years I’ve given him the name of one or two titles just in case he’s lucky enough to find them. And so, two titles on this Top 10 list are the two RSD 2024 releases I had on my RSD wantlist (the other title makes No. 3 on this Top 10).
I love The Dream Syndicate so when I saw Fire Records announce this album it went straight onto my list. These are rough sketches - demos and taped rehearsals - of songs taped between the band’s formation and recording of their amazing debut album The Days of Wine and Roses.
5. Julian Cope
Cope's Notes #6 - Jehovahkill
In April 2024 I wrote in a blog post (Julian Cope’s Postcards) that, “it’s impossible to pick my favourite Cope album, but his trio of albums in the early 90s - Peggy Suicide (1991), Jehovahkill (1992) and Autogeddon (1994) - are high points in a long career.” In recent years Cope has released a series of beautifully designed A5 books with cover mounted CDs looking back at specific projects and periods. Like all of his output the attention to detail with these releases is incredible.
Cope’s Notes #6 focuses on Jehovahkill. The 48 page book contains, “The Jehovahkill Story: An Occult Kraut-Punk Album Written & Recorded at Great Speed But Never With Haste”, rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten lyrics and a whole lot more. The accompanying CD contains over 40 minutes of rare demos and unreleased music. An essential purchase for any fan of this album.
The SydArthur Festival (2017) and Cope’s Notes #1-#5. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
4. Spacemen 3
The Perfect Prescription
I’ve written previously about how not many cassettes survived my early 2000’s tape cull (My #CassetteTape Top 10). Three tapes that did survive the cull were: Spacemen 3’s The Perfect Prescription and Recurring, and Spectrum’s Soul Kiss (Glide Divine). All three are pictured below.
My 1989 Fire Records cassette copy of the album adds two extra tracks - ‘Soul 1’ and ‘That’s Just Fine’ (B-Sides from the ‘Walkin’ With Jesus’ single) - but this new Fire Records reissue restores the album to its original tracklisting. To confuse matters further the download that came with the LP does include ‘Soul 1’ and ‘That’s Just Fine’. I adore all four Spacemen 3 albums but I’ve always thought that The Perfect Prescription is the perfect distillation of Sonic Boom and Jason Spaceman’s vision. It a perfect album and it’s lovely to finally have it on vinyl.
Photograph by Paul McDermott.
Photograph by Paul McDermott.
3. The Blue Aeroplanes
Beatsongs (Deluxe)
I’m of the belief that The Blue Aeroplanes’ four albums - Spitting out Miracles (1987), Swagger (1990), Beatsongs (1991) and Life Model (1994) - is possibly one the greatest four album run by any band EVER.
For many familiar with the band it will be Swagger that stands out from those four but for me Beatsongs is head and shoulders above the rest and remains the band’s towering artistic achievement. This beautiful reissue spread the original album over three sides and contained four B-Sides on Side 4. I don’t have many albums in multiple formats but somehow have now ended up with three copies of Beatsongs.
Angelo Bruschini, who played guitar on Swagger, Beatsongs and Life Model sadly passed away in 2023.
The painting on the cover of Beatsongs is by Ann Sheldon who designed many of The Blue Aeroplanes’ sleeves. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
2. Galaxie 500
Uncollected
The hype-sticker laid it out: “The complete Noise New York studio recordings of Galaxie 500. A chronological journey through rarities and outtakes, including never-before-heard songs from the start of their incendiary career to their final studio session.”
Galaxie 500: Dean Wareham, Naomi Yang and Damon Krukowski.
The second appearance from Dean Wareham in this Top 10. Uncollected compiled 24 tracks (including eight never-before-heard studio tracks) culled from all the sessions throughout Galaxie 500’s career, chronologically sequenced. Uncollected fleshed out the fourth CD that came with the Galaxie 500 boxset. Who could have imagined when Rykodisc released that boxset back in 1996 that Galaxie 500 would become one of the biggest cult bands on the 00s? An absolutely beautiful release befitting this amazing band.
Photograph by Paul McDermott.
1. The High Llamas
Santa Barbara, Gideon Gaye, Hawaii, Cold And Bouncy, Lollo Rosso and Snowbug
Episode 37 of To Here Know When - Great Irish Albums Revisited focused on The High Llamas’ Hawaii. During our chat Sean O’Hagan mentioned that reissues of The High Llamas early albums were imminent. In December Drag City didn’t disappoint and reissued the first six albums by the band on vinyl.
This six LP reissue bundle contains four of my favourite Llamas’ albums: Gideon Gaye (1994), Hawaii (1996), Cold And Bouncy (1997), and Snowbug (1999). The other two LPs in the bundle are Santa Barbara and Lollo Rossa. Santa Barbara, the first High Llamas’ album, was originally released in 1992 and this reissue marks the album’s first appearance on vinyl. Lollo Rossa was released in 1998 and contains remixes of Llama’s songs by Jim O’Rourke, Cornelius, Mouse on Mars, Schneider TM, Kid Loco and others.
The High Llamas - the first 6 LPs. Photograph by Paul McDermott.
I’ve been listening to these albums on repeat over the Christmas period and it’s been fantastic getting reacquainted with them. I hope Drag City continue the reissue of the Llama’s back catalogue in 2025, I’m after vinyl copies of Beet, Maize & Corn and Talahomi Way to complete the collection.
For Further Reading…
by Paul McDermott
Learn & Sing (August 2017)
Photograph by Paul McDermott.