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Lloyd Cole and the Commotions / Collected Recordings 1983-1989

lloyd
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”.

rattlesnakes
Posted on Lloyd Cole’s FB page: Top shows the new ‘flat transfer’ of Rattlesnakes, bottom shows 2004 Rattlesnakes remaster (for the deluxe edition) which had “NASTY” EQ according to LC.

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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[…] Recordings 1983-1989 box set is being released on vinyl at the end of this month. Issued on CD in 2015, this new vinyl package contains the same audio content as the previous set, but not the postcards […]

[…] forthcoming Lloyd Cole and the Commotions box set was exclusively revealed via this blog a few weeks back, but now we can bring you the full track listing of the six-disc set. To recap, […]

Darrell

Good news, love LC&TC, but will wait to see if price comes down as a little high for a 6 box set

[…] Full details of the six disc box set can be found here. […]

Eric

Sounds like a fantastic day!

trash

Ordered straight away.
Have been waiting for this since it was first mentioned here.
The Lloyd Cole and the Commotions (+Lloyds first sole album) are amongst the few vinyl albums that survived my Vinyl cull due to space a couple of years back.

Incidentally the first time I heard a Lloyd Cole track was when Nick Heyward ( of HC100 fame) played a friend and I ‘Perfect Skin’ on the cassette player in his car. I was (and am) a huge fan of Nick’s first solo album (North of a Miracle) and so I was very excited when a friend saw him drive past sometime circa 1984 in South Kensington London. We caught up with his car at some traffic lights (we were on foot) and he pulled over to talk to us. He was very polite and full of enthusiasm. We got talking about music and he said we had to listen to this new single which was his current fave. He put on a cassette and we listened to the track through his car window.
I think both went out and bought the single the next day and Rattlesnakes as soon as it came out…

Thomas Braun

I have a question belong to rattlesnakes will Forest Fire be the long version or the shorter as it is on the deluxe edition?

I ordered my boxset, too

Arno

Do you plan to release it in France, or can Amazon.UK can send it to France ? The box set seems to be wonderful !

Eric

I bought the budget compilation yesterday for 2.99, so once I’ve heard how the tracks are likely to sound for the boxset I can decide whether to bite or not. It is a very tempting package!

Barry Whiting

it’s a nice looking set plus great to see Pete Paphides has done the sleeve notes. The pricing is too high for me; Amazon often tend to start high and come down so here’s hoping. I’ll preorder but likely cancel if not. A shame to say it but I’d happily wait to see what happens post release if needs be.

omar

Wondering if all these albums will also be made individually? The boxset price is a little steep.

Charles

Great news indeed, gonna’ wait a bit to see if a screaming deal comes around but will be purchasing this for sure. As fans, we are lucky to get this one.

Charles

Thank you Paul, you were the voice of reason I needed, picked it up from Amazon Spain for what ended up being a great deal. Looking forward to this one!

Will

Three of my favourite albums of all time. I would pay double for this and not think twice about it.
There is no way this will be released without Lloyd going over it with a fine tooth comb.

Dana

Any indication if this will be released as well in the US (via Lloyd’s site, etc.) or is £50.99 via the UK looking like the winning option? Thanks

Matthew

Order placed. So excited for this!

Robert

Excellent.
Rattlesnakes is one of my all time favorite albums.
Im looking forward to this whole box set.

Michael Pendlebury

Looks amazing! Got my order in!

Leemer

Looking forward to this! I just picked up mint condition original ’80’s versions of Rattlesankes and Easy Pieces over the weekend. Not to sound ungrateful, or to sound grateful as the case may be, I hope that Paul can keep on the lookout for an international discount in one of the locales he’s been coming up with. Tears For Fears was fantastic!!!

chdx

With this price tag, and since I already bought the “NASTY” EQ one and am still waiting for Universal to deliver on the Simple Minds fiasco, I’ ll wait for the first reviews…

Paul H

LLoyd Cole & the Commotions – three albums in four years every one a winner.

eric

Heavy artist involvement usually works out for the best

Echo

Haha, I would say: mostly not.

Many musicians are close to deaf and love to remaster their music at a loud way.

DJ Control

Ordered!

sennj

Absolutely wonderful news. Looks like this is one set where some care has been taken with regards to sound quality, content, etc. Hopefully, we’ll get through without the dreaded defective disc syndrome… Thanks for doing what you do, Paul. Very informative as usual…

Michael

Excellent! Have placed my pre-order.
Now I’m chomping at the bit. Can’t wait, but will have to.

Paul

It’s all very well the EQ being corrected on the new remasters – but after a recent spate of problematic box sets, what’s the chance that the wrong version of some of the tracks will be used and replacement discs need to be posted out by the record label?