Back catalogue: Post Rock/Experimental

Review: The Virgin Prunes were everything a post-punk band should be - brilliant, bold, idiosyncratic and short-lived, bursting their creativity out in a short sharp attack augmented by their infamous live shows. Their debut album remains a vital document of the goth rock explosion, more maniacal and playful than Sisters Of Mercy et al, but absolutely in allegiance with the night. At times you can hear PiL's jeering, angular funk, at others the chant-along hooks of Midnight Oil, but they also knew how to push their music to the edge of sanity when it counted. The Virgin Prunes were their own beast, and this 2CD anniversary edition of If I Die, I Die comes loaded with additional musical material to take you into the heart of one of Ireland's greatest ever groups.

Review: Virgin Prunes' If I Die, I Die album turns a remarkable 40 years old this year and as such it gets a special anniversary re-release. The original music has all been fully remastered and now included alongside it on the 2 x CD version is a selection of never before heard rarities and remixes which take in some unheard rough mixes of tracks such as 'Ballad.' This clear vinyl press has one of the band's best-known tunes in 'Baby Turns Blue' which was produced by Wire's Colin Newman and is an examination of purity and beauty. A real rock classic.

Review: The Virgin Prunes were masters of the uncanny, juxtaposing nightmares with lullabies, beauty with cruelty; combining gentle vocals and the spoken word with anguished wailing from purgatory itself. Their first album, A New Form Of Beauty (1981), powerfully laid out this terrain. Its themes ranged from mournful tales of unrequited love, frustrated sexuality, morbid eroticism and wasted youth, to yearnings for distant dreamlands, all of which were juxtaposed with macabre visions of dystopian societies, overpowered by dark forces and where demons run amok. Guggi's art work for A New Form of Beauty, which intimates a heartless transaction within a domestic setting, is in keeping with this sensibility. Now reissued by BMG, this 2024 deluxe edition features all four parts of the album remastered from the original tape, plus a trifold reverse board sleeve and a 16-page, 11-inch artbook with brand new sleevenotes.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***


The Virgin Prunes were masters of the uncanny, juxtaposing nightmares with lullabies, beauty with cruelty; combining gentle vocals and the spoken word with anguished wailing from purgatory itself. Their first album, A New Form Of Beauty (1981), powerfully laid out this terrain. Its themes ranged from mournful tales of unrequited love, frustrated sexuality, morbid eroticism and wasted youth, to yearnings for distant dreamlands, all of which were juxtaposed with macabre visions of dystopian societies, overpowered by dark forces and where demons run amok. Guggi's art work for A New Form of Beauty, which intimates a heartless transaction within a domestic setting, is in keeping with this sensibility. Now reissued by BMG, this 2024 deluxe edition features all four parts of the album remastered from the original tape, plus a trifold reverse board sleeve and a 16-page, 11-inch artbook with brand new sleevenotes.