Play It Again Sam
1985
Lovers
About This Album
In 1984, British experimental rockers the Legendary Pink Dots relocated from London to Amsterdam; core duo Edward Ka-Spel and Phil Knight (aka the Silverman) remain based in Holland to this day. Their first release after the move was The Lovers, an album of all-new material that was recorded live: side one was a September 1984 performance at an Amsterdam nightclub, while the suite of four interconnected songs on side two was originally recorded for the Dutch public radio station VPRO the same year. As with all of the early Legendary Pink Dots releases, the original press run on the miniscule Ding Dong label was extremely limited, but in 1985, The Lovers was the first Legendary Pink Dots album to be reissued through the band's ongoing association with the Belgian label Play It Again Sam, making it the band's most visible release up to that point. It's an unusual introduction to the group, but then, that could be said of almost any of this idiosyncratic band's releases. The four live tracks on side one are interspersed with clanking, near-industrial tape loops that hark back to the band's noisy synth roots, but the songs themselves are straightforward synth rock powered by Roland Calloway's fluid, danceable basslines and Ka-Spel's elegant vocals: Japan circa Quiet Life and Gentlemen Take Polaroids is a fair point of comparison.
Track List

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