Low Life [Definitive Edition]

Product Information

By May 1985, to be British was to live in a tough, troubled country. The miners’ strike had just ended. Fifty-six people died at Bradford City stadium fire…” It was at least partly inspired by [Kenny Rogers And The First Edition’s] Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love To Town, a song we all loved,” Stephen Morris wrote in Fast Forward. “Love Vigilantes is a great song, and like all the best songs it’s also very simple. But Bernard’s lyrics and guitar and Hooky’s bass make it fantastic. One of my favourites.” Peter Saville says of “Sub-Culture,” " LABEL ONLY was specified in 1985 due to time pressure around the original release, and as a consequence, a sleeve design for the re-release has no actual precedent. However, exploring the principle 'the solution is in the problem’ has led to the subliminal evocation of a sleeve that is still LABEL ONLY”.

CD 2 contains 12 previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions, including Love Vigilantes and Sub-Culture instrumentals, plus Sooner Than You Think Full Length Unedited. Elsewhere within the bundle: CD-2 holds previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions (including instrumentals) of “Love Vigilantes” and “Sub-Culture,” along with the Album Session Unedited Version of “Sooner Than You Think.” The album version of Elegia is moving; a tight and perfectly captured piece of heaven, you don't get bored. 17:30 minutes, ummmmm. Tedious. in NME's list of the "Greatest Albums Of All Time" and #346 in "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" (2013)

Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Photography By [Box Set] – Geoff Campbell, Jill Furmanovsky, Jon Sievert, Kevin Cummins, Michael Shamberg Saville adds of “Sub-Culture”: “LABEL ONLY was specified in 1985 due to time pressure around the original release, and as a consequence, a sleeve design for the re-release has no actual precedent. However, exploring the principle ‘the solution is in the problem’ has led to the subliminal evocation of a sleeve that is still LABEL ONLY.” The vinyl and CD copies of the album are housed in reproductions of the original tracing-paper sleeve they came in.

July 2009: LP (cat# 2564-68879-8) - 180 gram remaster in original artwork, with repressings in 2015. CD-2 contains previously unreleased mixes and alternative versions, including instrumentals of “Love Vigilantes” and “Sub-Culture," along with the “Album Session Unedited Version” of “Sooner Than You Think.”In 2008 the album was re-released as 2×CD Collector's Edition set, with the bonus disc containing non-album singles, 12" mixes and b-sides. The title is inconsistently written as Low-life, Low-Life, or Low Life, sometimes in single quotes. It's unclear if the quotation marks are meant to be part of the title; it's either a reference to British journalist Jeffrey Bernard's weekly "Low Life" column in The Spectator magazine or a quotation of Jeffrey's voice saying "I'm one of the few people who live what's called 'the low life'", which is on this album at the beginning of "This Time of Night".

The vinyl album and CD are both wrapped in the original tracing-paper sleeve – not available since the very first pressing, and the first time ever for the CD The bonus CD includes the original 17-minute version of instrumental “Elegia,” as well as previously unreleased mixes and demos and a full-length version of “Sooner Than You Think.” You can listen to the “Writing Session Recording” demo of single “The Perfect Kiss” below.