Love and Rockets vinyl reissues, “The Albums 1985-1996” box set announced

Beggars Arkive this week announced the reissue of Love and Rockets’ first six albums on remastered vinyl — plus two as-yet-unveiled “bonus titles” — as well as The Albums 1985-1996 colored-vinyl box set, collecting those first half-dozen releases by the legendary alt-rock trio.

The box set is limited to 1,000 copies worldwide and will only be sold through the Beggars Arkive webstore — preorder here — and comes with an exclusive slipmat. It’ll be released Dec. 9.

The collection includes 1985’s Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven on dark cyan vinyl, 1986’s Express on red vinyl, 1987’s Earth, Sun, Moon on white vinyl, 1989’s Love and Rockets on black-and-white quad vinyl, 1994’s Hot Trip to Heaven on blue vinyl with black marble and grey splatter, and 1996’s Sweet F.A. on smoky marble vinyl.

The latter two titles are double-vinyl pressings. Hot Trip to Heaven has been out of print for more than 25 years and will be expanded with three extra tracks. Sweet F.A. has never been pressed on vinyl, and will be expanded with four previously unreleased songs. See full tracklists on the reissues below.

All six of the albums have been remastered by Sean McGee at Abbey Road Studios, according to the label, and will be reissued individually on standard black vinyl in 2023, along with two bonus titles that will be announced next year. (The band’s seventh and final album, 1998’s Lift, was not released by Beggars like the others.)

The first two individual vinyl reissues are available for pre-order as well: Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven (Amazon, Beggars) and Express (Amazon, Beggars), both due out Jan. 13. Earth, Sun, Moon and Love and Rockets will follow on April 28, with Hot Trip to Heaven and Sweet F.A. due out June 9. The yet-to-be announced bonus titles are due in October.

Love and Rockets features former Bauhaus members Daniel Ash, David J and Kevin Haskins, who came back together in 1985 after Ash and Haskins spent time in the post-Bauhaus band Tones Opn Tail. The band released seven albums before splitting in the late 1990s, but reunited to play a couple festivals in 2008.

The following year, Ash told Slicing Up Eyeballs that he didn’t foresee ever working with Love and Rockets again (“It’s boring for me to do those songs that are so old”), but more recently he formed Poptone with Haskins and Haskins’ daughter to play Tones on Tail, Bauhaus and Love and Rockets songs, then got back together with his Bauhaus bandmates in late 2019 for what became a pandemic-interrupted reunion that ultimately ended when frontman Peter Murphy entered rehab this past summer.

The Beggars Arkive press release announcing the new vinyl reissues and box set notes that “the recent unexpected cancellation of the Bauhaus U.S. dates has spurred legions of fans to beg Love and Rockets to perform again. Only time will tell if there will be any more chapters to their intriguing tale.” Is that a hint?

Here are the tracklists for the vinyl reissues:

SEVENTH DREAM OF TEENAGE HEAVEN
A1. If There’s A Heaven Above
A2. A Private Future
A3. The Dog End Of A Day Gone By
A4. The Game
B1. Seventh Dream Of Teenage Heaven
B2. Haunted When The Minutes Drag
B3. Saudade

EXPRESS
A1. It Could Be Sunshine
A2. Kundalini Express
A3. All In My Mind
A4. Life In Laralay
B1. Yin And Yang (The Flower Pot Man)
B2. Love Me
B3. All In My Mind (Acoustic Version)
B4. An American Dream

EARTH, SUN, MOON
A1. Mirror People
A2. The Light
A3. Welcome Tomorrow
A4. No New Tale To Tell
A5. Here On Earth
A6. Lazy
B1. Waiting For The Flood
B2. Rain Bird
B3. The Telephone Is Empty
B4. Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven
B5. Earth, Sun, Moon
B6. Youth

LOVE AND ROCKETS
A1. **** (Jungle Law)
A2. No Big Deal
A3. The Purest Blue
A4. Motorcycle
A5. I Feel Speed
B1. Bound For Hell
B2. The Teardrop Collector
B3. So Alive
B4. Rock And Roll Babylon
B5. No Words No More

HOT TRIP TO HEAVEN
A1. Body And Soul (Part 1)
A2. Body And Soul (Part 2)
A3. Ugly
B1. Trip And Glide
B2. This Heaven
B3. No Worries
C1. Hot Trip To Heaven
C2. Eclipse
C3. Voodoo Baby
C4. Be The Revolution
C5. Set Me Free
D1. Firewater (Unreleased early version of This Heaven)
D2. This Heaven (Experience Remix: Flying Vocal Mix) (Previously unreleased mix)
D3. Coyote (From the Body and Soul U.S. 12″ vinyl and CD single)

SWEET F.A.
A1. Sweet F.A
A2. Judgement Day
A3. Use Me
A4. Fever
A5. Sweet Lover Hangover
B1. Pearl
B2. Shelf Life
B3. Sad And Beautiful World
B4. Natacha
C1. Words Of A Fool
C2. Clean
C3. Here Come The Comedown
C4. Spiked
C5. Sweet F.A. (Reprise)
D1. My Dark Twin (Previously unreleased)
D2. Butterfly (Previously unreleased)
D3. Venus Child (Previously unreleased)
D4. Pick Yourself Up (Previously unreleased)

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Bauhaus debuts new single “Drink the New Wine” — first new music in 14 years
• Daniel Ash reveals new band and album, says Bauhaus reunion likely to resume in 2022
• Vintage Video: Love and Rockets’ amazing low-budget TV commercial for ‘Express’
• Vintage Video: Love and Rockets bridge old and new in 1996 set at Chilean festival
• Daniel Ash closes door on Love and Rockets: ‘It’s boring for me to do those songs’