East Village - Drop Out (Vinyl LP 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)(Heavenly Recordings)

Format:  Vinyl LP 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Cat No:  HVNLP3X

 An autumnal treasure, East Village’s ‘Drop Out’ has spent the past thirty years finding new ears to bewitch and new hearts to melt. The only album from this British four-piece, recorded and released in the early Nineties, it’s long been considered one of the hidden jewels of its time, and is talked of with hushed reverence by people who know. Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne once called it “an elegy for a particular brand of Eighties guitar music, sweet minor chords and Dylan-esque lyrics,” which captures what makes it so special; in summarising its era, though, it also effortlessly transcends it. 

Like all great guitar gangs, East Village fell together as a four-piece; having relocated from High Wycombe to London in the mid-1980s, brothers Martin and Paul Kelly - on bass and guitar, and set on forming a group together - were joined by John Wood (guitar) and Spencer Smith (drums). Wood and the Kellys shared writing and vocal duties; it was an ideal combination, and one of the many charms of East Village is their various song writing voices, a tip of the hat, seemingly, to the 1960s folk-rock groups who influenced them.

It’s an album that’s slowly accrued its own legend. From its stunning cover art, photographed by Juergen Teller originally for a Katherine Hammett campaign, to the ten perfectly formed songs within, ‘Drop Out’’s significance in the scheme of things is such that, a decade ago, it was given a rare 10/10 rating in Uncut magazine, who called the album “the lost classic of its era.

The 30th anniversary edition of ‘Drop Out’ LP has a tip-on style jacket and four-page insert (plus 24-track digital download) and features new, typically eloquent liner notes from writer Jon Savage.

TRACKLISTING:

Silver Train
Shipwrecked
Here It Comes
Freeze Out
Circles
When I Wake Tomorrow
Way Back Home
What Kind of Friend Is This
Black Autumn
Everybody Knows