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SCRITTI POLITTI

Scritti Politti

Songs To Remember - 2026 Remaster

Remastered at Abbey Road, with original embossed artwork.

The debut album of one of Britain's most acclaimed and influential bands, 'Songs to Remember' takes us back to the beginnings of Scritti Politti. Having emerged out of the DIY Camden bedsit scene of the late 70s, yet with a musical vision to match the likes of Miles Davis (who they later worked with), the Green Gartside-led group established themselves as one of the early 80s' true innovators as 'Songs To Remember' channelled both the fiery politics of the era with a burgeoning pop sensibility. Described as “witty and ingenious” by NME on its release in 1982, 'Songs to Remember' has been fully remastered for this long overdue vinyl repressing, which has been personally overseen by Gartside himself.

"Mark E Smith a Rough Trade artist at the time once said to me,”Scritti have the best rhythm section in rock music.” He didn’t mention Green Gartside, so I don’t know what he thought of him. I do know that at Rough Trade we were all in thrall to Green’s honeyed voice and his brilliant lyric writing. These were heady days when the amount of sheer talent walking into the Rough Trade universe was simply overwhelming. None more so than Green who epitomised the intelligent assault on the citadel of pop music perfection. I remember being very proud of 'Songs To Remember' during a time when it was still a fairly new experience for us to be releasing full albums into the world." - Geoff Travis

TRACK LISTING

1. Asylums In Jerusalem
2. A Slow Soul
3. Jacques Derrida
4. Lions After Slumber
5. Faithless
6. Sex
7. Rock-A-Boy Blue
8. Gettin' Havin' & Holdin'
9. The Sweetest Girl

Scritti Politti

Early

Early brought together a series of formative recordings from the late 70s and early 80s, for an America-only vinyl release in 2005. The collection, accompanied by sleeve notes from Green Gartside, included the band's debut single Skank Bloc Bologna, along with seminal tracks including The "Sweetest Girl", 28/8/78 and Lions After Slumber, and offered a stunning chance to enjoy the long-overlooked musical foundations of Scritti Politti again.

Emerging from the scene around Leeds Art School, with fellow travellers The Mekons and The Gang Of Four, and recorded while the band were residing in a Camden squat organised along Marxist principles, these post-punk rallying cries which prefigured Green and co's pop-leaning rebirth several years later, were the songs that grab the attention of John Peel, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis and a generation of music fans who helped bring the indie music scene – and the labels that accompanied it – into existence. A musical community in which Scritti Politti played an influential and formative role.

TRACK LISTING

Skank Bloc Bologna
Is And Ought The Western World
28/8/78
Messthetics
Hegemony
Scritlocks Door
Opec - Immac
Bibbly-o-tek
Doubt Beat
Confidence
P.A.s
The "Sweetest Girl"
Lions After Slumber

Scritti Politti

White Bread Black Beer - 2023 Reissue

Fittingly, for the release of White Bread, Black Beer, which was a beautiful expression of the creative energy Gartside had sustained over two decades at that point, Scritti Politti returned to Rough Trade for the first time since the mid-1980s.

Humbly described by Green on release as "an album of me playing around in the back room... just me alone at home", White Bread, Black Beer was universally acclaimed. Described as "a return to the top" by The Guardian, "the best record of this restlessly self-critical career" by Uncut and "a sophisticated, gloriously gentle thing" by Pitchfork, the record was duly nominated for the 2006 Mercury Prize (and was only pipped by Arctic Monkeys' debut).

TRACK LISTING

The Boom Boom Bap
No Fine Lines
Snow In Sun
Cooking
Throw
Dr. Abernathy
After Six
Petrococadollar
E Eleventh Nuts
Window Wide Open
Road To No Regret
Locked
Mrs. Hughes
Robin Hood

Scritti Politti

Anomie & Bonhomie - Reissue

11 years after the release of previous album Provision, Scritti Politti erupted back into life with 1999’s Anomie & Bonhomie. Recalibrated, re-evaluated, re-imagined and, eventually, rewarded. Anomie & Bonhomie is the heady results of this artistic rebirth. Illuminated by the band’s stylish pure pop spotlight, collaborations with Mos Def, Lee Majors and Wendy Melvoin give the record a neon-lit, nocturnal shimmer. Hip hop flourishes sit side-by-side with heart-hitting balladry, as truly touching melodies match moments of uncompromising musical grit with their emotional impact.

TRACK LISTING

Umm
Tinseltown
First Goodbye
Die Alone
Mystic Handyman
Smith ’N’ Slappy
Born To Be
The World You Understand (Is Over & Over & Over)
Here Comes July
Prince Among Men
Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder

Scritti Politti

Cupid & Psyche 85 - Reissue

From a bedsit in London to New York recording studios… Alternative acclaim to mainstream adulation… Indie label hopefuls to major signings… Despite the series of radical shifts that underpinned its creation, Scritti Politti's second album Cupid & Psyche 85 achieved the virtually impossible. While everything was scaled up – the ambition, the sound, the audience – the singular artistic vision that drove the group not only remained intact and undiluted in these bigger surroundings, but became more inventive, more adventurous and, ultimately, more beloved. Introduced to pianist and programmer David Gamson while making of the band's debut album Songs To Remember, Green Gartside realised he had found a creative foil to help him achieve the ambitions he had for Scritti Politti.

Partially recorded in New York, with several tracks produced by Arif Mardin (who had worked on Aretha Franklin's I Say A Little Prayer, a track Green beautifully commemorates on this record) and partially in the UK, with Green and Gamson directly overseeing the process, Cupid & Psyche 85 is infused shimmering synths and the heat of classic funk. Yet weaved together by Green's intoxicating melodies, it is also embroidered with ideas from philosophical writings, while taking cues from myths and fables.

TRACK LISTING

The Word Girl
Small Talk
Absolute
A Little Knowledge
Don't Work That Hard
Perfect Way
Lover To Fall
Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin)
Hypnotize


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