Reunited Scottish indie-pop favorites Close Lobsters — immortalized on the NME’s genre-defining C86 compilation cassette — next week will release their first new album in 31 years, a 10-song collection that’s preceded by the release of two tracks: “Godless” and “All Compasses Go Wild.”
The band’s third album, its full title is Post Neo Anti: Arte Povera In the Forest of Symbols, is set to be released by Shelflife Records on CD and vinyl, and in digital formats, on Feb. 21.
The group — original members Andrew Burnett, Bob Burnett, Tom Donnelly and Stewart McFayden — reunited in 2012 for a handful of international festival dates and has spent the last five years working on the record, which is produced by John Rivers, who also produced their debut album.
During their original 1985-to-1989 run, the Close Lobsters put out a number of singles and two albums, 1987′s Foxheads Stalk This Land and 1989′s Headache Rhetoric. In 2009, the group released a best-of set called Forever, Until Victory! The Singles Collection, featuring, among other standouts, “Firestation Towers,” the group’s inclusion on the C86 tape.
In 2012, the band released a super-limited 7-inch single featuring a pair of previously unreleased cut: a 1990 demo called “Steel Love” and a 1989 live recording of a song called “Head Above Water.” Then, in 2014, they released their first new music in 25 years, the 5-track Kuntswerk in Spacetime EP that included two new songs — “Now Time” and “New York City in Space” — both of which are included on Post Neo Anti.
Below, you can check out two of the record’s songs and see the full tracklist.
Close Lobsters, Post Neo Anti
1. “All Compasses Go Wild”
2. “The Absent Guest (No Thing No There)”
3. “Johnnie”
4. “Bird Free”
5. “Godless”
6. “Let The Days Drift Away”
7. “Now Time”
8. “New York City In Space”
9. “Under London Skies”
10. “Wander, Pts 1-2”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Video premiere: Close Lobsters, ‘New York City in Space’ — C86 vets’ first new music in 25 years
- Close Lobsters, The Bats, The Monochrome Set, The Wolfhounds playing NYC Popfest
- Close Lobsters celebrate reunion with new 7-inch featuring 2 previously unreleased tracks
- Video: Close Lobsters at Madrid Popfest — first show with original lineup since 1989
- Close Lobsters reunite for ‘People of Europe Rise Up’ shows in Madrid, Glasgow, Berlin
- C86 vets Close Lobsters to reissue singles on ‘Forever, Until Victory!’ compilation
I love this band! The NYC reunion show was a dream come true. Yay for a new album!
One of my all-time favorite bands, what else can I say?
Richard: I always enjoy hearing things that Cherry Red released before I was involved, actually, so things like Little Red Schoolhouse (“When I Find You”), Avo-8 (“Out of My Mind”) and Horse Latitudes (“What is More Important Than Life”) were nice to include. And 1990 was something of a watershed year for me personally, in terms of moving away from music I’d grown up with and into discovering things for myself. So things Like Spacemen 3 (“Big City (Waves of Joy demo”), Slowdive (“Avalyn I”) and so on are particular favourites, and being born and raised in the south east I’ll always have a soft spot for Flowered Up’s ‘It’s On’, which was something of an anthem. Daft as it sounds in hindsight, they were perceived as ‘our Happy Mondays’ at the time by my circle of friends. It was much more achievable to get up to New Cross Venue and see them play than it was to get to the Hacienda or G-Mex.