Modern English & 4AD

Ass for the rest of early 4AD, Rema Rema are just tops. Words fail me. Future member(s) of Renegade Soundwave & if I remember correctly Wolfgang Press. See the Rema Rema thread. Probably nothing left to say about the Birthday Party...

I also like the In Camera EP I have, which is minimal echo-ey Factory Records/post-PiL style dirge. Teenbeat did a CD of all their releases...

I'll stop the world and melt with you.

would just like to point out that I have personally laid eyes on the original 3-dimensional cover art for the After the Snow LP & it is kinda the holy grail for anybody who dug the v23 aesthetic of that period

hahah. John, break it out, man. People who owned big sets of V23 4AD design posters need not fear, here. I had them, I swear.

i nearly bought one of those but the set i saw didn't have much in the way of cocteau twins posters. later a flat i looked at buying had a bunch of them framed on the walls, impressive but sadly weren't part of the chattels

no Bimble I don't have it or anything - the designer himself showed me the original. you & I would have a rare Bimble-and-JD-as-twin-drooling-fanboys moments about it. it was freaking awesome - like, two inches thick. that layered effect? it's actually layered.

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when I was a teenager I wrote to 4AD and they sent me a gorgeous big booklet of their discography. John, you must feel very honored to have released music on that label.

dude you ain't kiddin' - when the call first came I was like "are you joking? somebody's pulling my leg, right?"

John, will you follow me to the Durutti Column thread? <3 <3

Anyway, never mind, that was kindof out-of-line.

haha john, is that a rite of passage for signings? I heard the same thing from Xian w/r/t meeting VO.

Ah I'd love a buncha framed 23envelope artworks on my walls!!!

How sad would it be to admit that three of the four framed pictures in my bedroom are 4AD artwork?

And the fourth one is Kate Bush, on the ceiling above my bed.

love this album so much. top ten 4ad for me for real. maybe. shit. i think there is actually a thread for that too. i'll have to check.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIWiZ6Xaq84&feature=related

haha john, is that a rite of passage for signings? I heard the same thing from Xian w/r/t meeting VO.

late on this, but ha - actually, Xian & I were both having drinks @ VO's house that night - we saw it at the same time!

missed that but that is funny.

how are modern english these days? because they are playing....the santa cruz beach boardwalk in mid-July. Original lineup is back. Mesh and Lace doesn't really strike me as good beach music, you know. I think I will go to it.

I still get out "After the Snow" quite often and give it a play at work, as I am doing right now, while I'm working. Cracking good album this - the pinnacle of that early 80s 4AD sound.

God only knows why they became such a big US success with the later stuff.

Having only heard their one big hit, I could never wrap my head around the 'Melt With You' band being an early 4AD signing and putting out stuff alongside Bauhaus and the Birthday Party, but I'm finally listening to their pre-'Melt With You' stuff and not only do I get it now...but it also turns out that these releases are pretty much the top of the early 4AD heap and I've totally been missing out this whole time because of my dumb preconceived notions. Life is weird!

Same with Simple Minds - if you only know "Don't You Forget About Me", you'll be shocked at their earlier post-punk greatness.

I love both weird and mainstream Modern English but it does make for a weird playlist.

I listen to Ricochet Days a lot lately, new old stock to my ears. I've still never heard Stop Start from 1986.

"Stop Start" was loved by my teenage self but it hasn't aged well. It's not terrible but it doesn't scale the heights of "Ricochet Days", it's more calculated as they were searching for another 'hit'. I still have a soft spot for it but purely out of nostalgia

...and apparently the CD is worth $100+! Small print run, I guess.

Oh, and "Pillow Lips" was awful.

Like OL, I dismissed them for a long time based on not liking "I Melt with You" very much... until I got the Natures Mortes comp in '98 and heard "Gathering Dust", then I quickly bought the Mesh and Lace and After the Snow reissues with all the bonus tracks.

First three Modern English albums are personal classics in my house.

Their two more recent albums are also very good, if not quite as great as the early stuff. 2010's Soundtrack even reunites them with the mighty Hugh Jones.

I dismissed them for a long time based on reading that they didn’t have other songs like “melt with you”

But now I like After The Snow a lot

I dismissed them for a long time based on reading that they didn’t have other songs like “melt with you”

hahaha, check out "Blue Waves" from Ricochet Days