#20: Expressly EP : Edwyn Collins (Setanta Records, ZOP 001, 1994)
I’ll need to ask for your patience over the next three Sundays as the series goes back and forth, thanks to a series of releases and re-releases just a matter of months apart. There will also be loads of music to take on board as it was the era of the CD single across multi-formats.
But firstly, we need to take a quick step back in time.
The commercial failure of Hope and Despair in 1989 hadn’t put Demon Records off Edwyn Collins, and they provided funding for his second solo album, which was released as Hellbent on Compromise in October 1990. It was a more expensive production, recorded at the Power Plant studios in London, with a cast of no fewer than 14 other musicians credited across its eleven songs, two of which were covers. It proved to be a mis-step, and while there are some decent moments on the album, it suffers from overly-fussy production and a lack of cohesion to make it a fully enjoyable listen. Nor did it have, certainly in the minds of those at the record label, any potential singles on it. It sold very poorly, and not long afterwards, Demon told Edwyn he was being dropped.
It would be another four years before he released any new music. Between 1990 and 1994, he found work as a producer, and in particular for a number of bands from Ireland such as A House and The Frank and Walters who were on Setanta Records, a London-based independent label. He also used this enforced period of absence from making his own records to build a studio in his London home.
The latest set of demos, allied to him just more or less being the label’s in-house producer, led Setanta to offer a deal for a new album. Gorgeous George was self-produced by Edwyn and utilised the talents of Paul Cook, formerly with the Sex Pistols on drums and Claire Kenny, formerly with Amazulu, as the bassist. The album was released on 5 September 1994, with little fanfare and consequently met with a number of really poor reviews. Sian Pattenden in giving it 2/5 in Select wrote ‘inimitable note-battling singing….all that engages is the hit! hit! hit! that is ‘If You Could Love Me which is more Orange Juice than Orange Juice.’ The Guardian newspaper was worse – 1 star and the advice to Edwyn that he should give up music. The album did not make the Top 100 in 1994.
A couple of months later, Setanta decided to issue the Expressly EP, largely on the basis that its lead track had been picking up a fair amount of airtime on radio stations across mainland Europe. The EP was issued on 2 x CDs, and on 12″ vinyl (copies of which now go for silly money on the second hand market).
CD1
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You (Macramé Remix By Youth)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Out Of This World (I Hear A New World) (remixed by St.Etienne)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Occupy Your Mind
CD2
mp3: Edwyn Collins – A Girl Like You
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Don’t Shilly Shally (Spotter’s ’86 Demo Version)
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Something’s Brewing
mp3: Edwyn Collins – Bring It On Back
The EP entered the UK charts at #42 on 13 November 1994, dropping to #48 and then #64 before disappearing. It was a different story on the continent, with A Girl Like You hitting many Top 10s and being #1 in Belgium.
I’ll return to A Girl Like You in due course, as it’s no secret it became a massive hit second time around. The additional tracks across the 2 CDs actually made them worthwhile purchases, albeit not everything works, not least Youth‘s take on the lead song which drops Edwyn’s vocal a long way back in the mix and gives it a sort of electronic feel.
The St Etienne mix of one of the Gorgeous George album tracks is rather lovely to begin with as there’s a very extended instrumental opening of 1:45 during which it wouldn’t have been a surprise if Sarah Cracknell had started singing. The latter half of the tune contains a lot of studio trickery which takes the tune in all sorts of strange directions, and Edwyn’s vocal often seems to be on the verge of breaking. But as remixes go, it’s a decent listen.
It was also an enjoyable experience to hear the studio demo of Don’t Shilly Shally, the debut solo single from back in 1986. This, if you recall, was one in which the final mix came via a Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) production, and as you might expect the demo version is very much simpler and very much the way Edwyn would play it in the live setting.
Occupy Your Mind, Something’s Brewing and Bring It On Back were three new songs. There’s no info offered within the liner notes of either CD, but it can be assumed these were worked up at the same time as the tracks that eventually made the cut for the Gorgeous George album. They are decent enough to satisfy the completists among us without being essential.
#42 might not have been all that great, but it was the first time Edwyn had made the Top 50 since What Presence?! more than ten years previously. The time soon beckoned to offer the public an opportunity to offer its opinion on the song that Sian Pattenden had described as ‘hit!, hit!, hit!’.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 