NewsEddi Reader / The Blanco y Negro Years / five-CD box set
The three albums Eddi Reader recorded for Geoff Travis’ Blanco y Negro label in the late nineties, have been collected with extensive bonus tracks for a new five-CD box set.
The Blanco y Negro Years features the Scottish singer-songwriter’s second solo album Eddi Reader from 1994, follow-up Candyfloss And Medicine (1996) and Angels & Electricity from 1998. The first two albums come with companion bonus discs featuring many non-album singles b-sides, including covers of songs by Paul Buchanan (of The Blue Nile), Ray Davies, Ivor Cutler and the Trash Can Sinatras, as a well as a collaboration with Jools Holland and his orchestra. Angels & Electricity is appended with three bonus tracks.
This is packaged as a clamshell box and comes complete with a booklet with all the credits and lyrics as well as some words by Colin Irwin.
The Blanco y Negro Years is released on 15 June 2015.
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Track listing
DISC ONE
EDDI READER
- 1. The Right Place
- 2. Patience Of Angels
- 3. Dear John
- 4. Scarecrow
- 5. East Of Us
- 6. Joke (I’m Laughing)
- 7. The Exception
- 8. Red Face Big Sky
- 9. Howling In Ojai
- 10. When I Watch
- You Sleeping
- 11. Wonderful Lie
- 12. Siren
DISC TWO
BONUS TRACKS
- 1. Shirt And Comb
- 2. Saturday Night
- 3. Wonderboy
- 4. Three Crosses
- 5. Go And Sit Upon The Grass
- 6. Battersea Moon
- 7. When I Watch You Sleeping [demo version]
- 8. What You Do With What You’ve Got
- 9. That’s Fair
- 10. Nobody Lives Without Love
DISC THREE
CANDYFLOSS AND MEDICINE
- 1. Glasgow Star
- 2. Town Without Pity
- 3. Medicine
- 4. Rebel Angel
- 5. Semi-Precious
- 6. Lazy Heart
- 7. I Loved A Lad
- 8. Butterfly Jar
- 9. Candyfloss
- 10. Darkhouse
DISC FOUR
BONUS TRACKS
- 1. Leave The Light On
- 2. Shall I Be Mother
- 3. If You’ve Got A Minute, Baby
- 4. Sex Lives
- 5. Earlies
- 6. Sugar On The Pill
- 7. Nameless
- 8. John Anderson My Joe
- 9. Green Grow The Rashes
- 10. Who Knows Where The Time Goes
- 11. Waiting Game [Jools Holland & Eddi Reader & The Rhythm & Blues Orchestra]
DISC FIVE
ANGELS & ELECTRICITY
- 1. Kiteflyer’s Hill
- 2. Prayer Wheel
- 3. Postcard
- 4. Wings On My Heels
- 5. On A Whim
- 6. Hummingbird
- 7. Barcelona Window
- 8. Bell, Book And Candle
- 9. California
- 10. Follow My Tears
- 11. Psychic Reader
- 12. Please Don’t Ask Me To Dance
- 13. Clear
BONUS TRACKS
- 14. Homesick Son
- 15. St. Christopher
- 16. Buckets Of Rain
- • UK Pre-order: The Blanco y Negro Years
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- • GERMANY Pre-order: The Blanco Y Negro Years
- • FRANCE Pre-order: Blanco Y Negro Years
- • ITALY Pre-order: The Blanco Y Negro Years
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I think your version of “C & M” was a probably an import (perhaps Japanese?) “Town Without Pity” was the lead off single from the album in the UK and it would be strange to remove it from future re-issues. The version thats on sale now is the 10 track version of the album.
Just done some research and the copy of “C & M” you have is the American version.
Wish I’d pre-ordered straight away, the price shot up by £7 over the weekend to almost 24 quid.
This looks like the first version of Candyfloss and Medicine, Eddie re-did the track listing and the version I have is 12 tracks including three not listed above but minus ‘Town without Pity’ – I thought the second version was the official one and I’m surprised by them releasing the original.
First-time buyers won’t put a foot wrong with this box. Most of her finest collaborations with Boo are on these sets, and inclusion of her cover of ‘Earlies’ is, frankly, cockle-warming. A version neck-and-neck for splendid loveliness with the mighty Trashcans’ original, surely?
Would love her to have a crack at a few more Blue Nile covers, too. She inhabits Paul Buchanan’s world with ease, where most other attempts at covering his songs have stuffed it right up.
Her version of The Blue Nile’s “Saturday Night” is one of her best performances. One of the best cover versions ever….and relegated to an afterthought!
The quite curious things is the inclusion of What You Do With What You’ve Got and That’s Fair. These are both just the album vesions from Mirmama which appeared onthe Dear John CD single. Bizarrely Warner licensed them to include as extra B-Sides. they’re not re-recorded or alternate.
It seems bizarre to isolate them from their parent album as they actually do not belong to the Blanco y Negro years other than appearing as repeated B-Sides from that CD single. shame the label couldn’t have licensed Mirmama and chucked that into this box set and make it EDDI READER 1992-1998.
The demo of When I Watch You Sleeping is definitely a demo, again it appeared on the Dear John CD single.
Funnily enough, the other day I was thinking about tracking down some of Eddi’s CD singles (particularly those from the ‘Candyfloss & Medicine’ era, an album that has fond memories for me) for the extra tracks on them, so will hold off and buy this instead!
Indeed not much here for Eddi avid collectors, but i should point out that this is the first time “Battersea Moon” makes an appearance on CD (it was the 7″ B- side on the ‘Dear John’ single but did not appear on the CD singles [ a very confusing regular Cd and limited digipak were released often marketed as “part 1 and part 2” but both having the same exact track list in an era where the 2 part cd single money making machine was at it’s peak )
The Only other track here making this worth picking up is “Buckets of Rain”
They mostly stuck to the singles B-sides, and some great collaborations and compilation/soundtrack rarities from this era are left out such as:
The Glasgow Barrowlands [released on “The tree and the bird and the fish and the bell” compilation]
Oceanlove [” Help i’m a Fish ! soundtrack]
Big Country and Eddi- Fragile thing [single released at this era]
Thomas Dolby and Eddi – Cruel
Liberty Horses featuring Eddi Reader This town [ 7 ” Single,The Rough Trade Singles Club]
Little tempo feat Eddi – Beautiful Rain [ on the Usual things E.P]
Jimmy Nail & Eddi – W.L.T.M.
Savourna Stevenson Feat Eddi – Touch me Like The Sun
…. to name a few
as other mentioned before Eddi is very very prolific.
I see what you did there….
It’s Eddi Reader, so it’s got to be perfect. Too many people take second best.
I have to echo Steve’s comments above…OMG…haha…I’d actually begun the process of tracking down all the CD-singles Eddi released during her Blanco Y Negro days, and putting them together with film songs and collaborations to create an anthology. Looks like I need not trouble myself now, I can buy this!
if you want to create an ‘all embracing’ eddi anthology beginning in ’81 with jools’ millionaires through flirtations with disconnection, matt fretton, outbar (with and without the squeak), fairground [incl. the polydor demos] and more, then on through eddi’s solo years, drawing on singles, soundtracks and compilations etc. from the usa, japan and the uk, then you’re facing (financial ruin and) a mountainous task that runs to some 250 separate tracks.
as for this forthcoming 5cd set, apart from the curious demo tag on “when I watch you sleeping,” the only (saliva inducing) oddity is as has already been said “buckets of rain.” let’s hope that colin irwin’s liner notes are up to snuff……………………
an afterthought…….and if you add “visible vocal” contributions to albums by other artists – solo, duo or bands, then make the total a rounder 300 tracks.
Polydor Demos? Would love to hear them!
absolutely delicious! i’m a completist with Eddi Reader (which is dangerous and costly, considering how prolific she is). only one or two new tracks here for me, but having them all nicely compiled will be sweet. and making more room in one’s drawers is never a bad thing. ahem…
OMG! OMG! OMG!!!! This is amazing! Eddi is my favorite singer of all time. I have most of the bonus tracks on here, but there’s a few I don’t have. Plus, it will be nice to have them all in one place. Great news!!! THANK YOU!!!!