More Felt deluxe reissues on CD & vinyl

The final five albums • More CD box sets and gatefold vinyl
Cherry Red continue their reissue campaign for British indie band Felt as the band’s final five albums scheduled to be reissued as CD box sets and on vinyl in September.
The albums in question are Forever Breathes The Lonely Word (1986), Poem of the River (1987), The Pictorial Jackson Review (1988), Train Above The City (1988) and Me And A Monkey On The Moon (1989).
As before, each long-player comes in two physical formats: A CD version – which comes in a bespoke seven-inch box, with a bonus seven-inch vinyl single, repro gig flyers, posters and badges – and a gatefold vinyl edition.
SDE reader feedback from the last phase would suggest that this approach is rather flawed, since CD fans don’t necessarily want a seven-inch vinyl record which would likely be more appreciated by those choosing to buy the vinyl version of the album. The single and the ‘bits’ certainly add to the overall cost of what is ultimately one remastered album on CD.
All five Felt reissues are released on 21 September 2018.
Forever Breathes The Lonely Word
1. Rain Of Crystal Spires
2. Down But Not Yet Out
3. September Lady
4. Grey Streets
5. All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead
6. Gather Up Your Wings And Fly
7. A Wave Crashed On Rocks
8. Hours Of Darkness Have Changed My Mind
Remastered by Kevin Metcalfe and Lawrence
seven-inch in CD box
Primitive Painters / Cathedral
Poem of the River
1. Declaration
2. Silver Plane
3. She Lives By The Castle
4. Stained Glass Windows In The Sky
5. Riding On The Equator
6. Dark Red Birds
Remastered by Kevin Metcalfe and Lawrence
seven-inch in CD box:
Ballad Of The Band / I Didn’t Mean To Hurt You
The Pictorial Jackson Review
1. Apple Boutique
2. Ivory Past
3. Until The Fools Get Wise
4. How Spook Got Her Man
5. Bitter End
6. Tuesday’s Secret
7. Christopher Street
8. Jewels Are Set In Crowns
9. Under A Pale Light
10. Don’t Die On My Doorstep
Remastered by Kevin Metcalfe and Lawrence
seven-inch in CD box:
Rain Of Crystal Spires / I Will Die With My Head In Flames
Train Above The City
1. Train Above The City
2. On Weegee’s Sidewalk
3. Run Chico Run
4. Press Softly On The Brakes Holly
5. Spectral Morning
6. Teargardens
7. Book Of Swords
8. Seahorses On Broadway
Remastered by Kevin Metcalfe and Lawrence
seven-inch in CD box:
The Final Resting Of The Ark / There’s No Such Thing As Victory
Me And A Monkey On The Moon
1. I Can’t Make Love To You Anymore
2. Mobile Shack
3. Free
4. Budgie Jacket
5. Cartoon Sky
6. New Day Dawning
7. Down An August Path
8. Never Let You Go
9. She Deals In Crosses
10. Get Out Of My Mirror
Remastered by Kevin Metcalfe and Lawrence
seven-inch in CD box:
Space Blues / Tuesday’s Secret
This is a major rip-off. On the bright side, perhaps I’ll finally be able to score a reasonably-priced copy of Train Above The City on CD once the people who *do* buy this start dumping their old CDs.
Dirk,
Back in ’88 there was a great 2-on-1 CD of ‘Train Above the City’ and ‘The Pictorial Jackson Review’. Through all of the re-releases over the years I’ve kept this in my collection. Maybe ‘Train…’ would have been better paired with ‘Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death’ since they’re both instrumental and were kind of ‘loungecore’ a good ten years before anyone else thought to release anything like them. Good luck hunting. Discogs might be a good place, but I’ve seen ‘Train…’ come up occasionally on eBay…
Anyone know about any remixing this time around? The email I got from Cherry Red talks about the whole of Train Above The City being remixed and I’m sure I’ve seen something that mentions a single track being remixed on another album but I can’t find it right now.
Someone has commented that these vinyl reissues are overpriced. They represent good value compared to what you will have to pay to get hold of original vinyl copies in “like new” condition which are averaging £50 a pop, even for 1980’s pressings.
These look great but with a price tag of $320.00 I will pass. That does not even include shipping. I own all this stuff already as does every other Felt fan. Why would anyone shell out that much for product already owned.
The news here is not the CD boxes – Cherry Red released these in card sleeves a few years back anyway, and the new packaging is unnecessarily bulky and not particularly attractive. Rather, it’s having this catalog on vinyl again. While the new sleeves don’t match the originals, they’re a reasonable facsimile. If you’ve ever tried to purchase any of the original vinyls on eBay then you know that they’re pricey. It would have been great to see the 12″ singles in their original sleeves. But what the hell – eventually EVERYTHING gets re-released…
I concede that these sets are overpriced but I did break down and get the first five sets and I thought they were beautifully packaged with some great music. Would have preferred a box set with all the albums but I’m going to get these next five…
Fantastic albums all but the most redundant reissues of the year, this has Lawrence’s frustrating ecentricities written all over it sadly.
For what it’s worth, the copy and paste artwork is a real let down. All albums with the same poor artwork and packaging? It took me a while to realise what these actually were. Bizarre decision considering how great the original artwork is.
A box set with all the albums and a singles/b-sides compilation is all I want, looks like I’m going to try and find the original versions in the meantime.
Agreed with the other commenters. Without the vinyl albeit with the singles included somewhere I would have been happy to spend up to £150 for these ten albums but as it is …. A single box with them all in original packaging (and ideally separate cd singles) would have been lovely.
Never understood (beyond any cynical reasoning) why the bonus 45 couldn’t be packaged with the vinyl reissues, which are already ridiculously overpriced.
Agree with Jakob; these are way overpriced for very short albums. No bonus tracks, demos, radio sessions, etc. To buy all ten Felt albums on CD like this works out at around the £250 mark! Ouch. You don’t even get the original artwork replicated on CD. And why does each box look exactly the same? All in all this is a poorly thought out reissue campaign that shows little to no respect for fans of Felt.
Hi Paul… spotted a typo… reissiues . Great site btw, keep up the good work!
Oops. Cheers for pointing that out. Thanks :)
All I wanted was a couple volumes of budget-priced 5-CD clamshell sets like Cherry Red did with the Vibrators and every other band they handle’s reissues.
Hey, it’s Cherry Red, they are serial repackagers – only Demon/Edsel are more adept at squeezing a catalogue…I think something of the type you describe will emerge eventually…
That said, I admire CR’s innovative approach to these reissues (whilst agreeing that the attempt to straddle the vinyl/CD “divide” hasn’t really come off)
It’s quite possible. Until then, they do not get my money (for Felt albums, I probably buy something CR put out every month. Ha!).