4AD 1999 / His Name Is Alive / Red House Painters / Brendan Perry / The Hope Blister

1999


CAD 9002 - His Name Is Alive / Always Stay Sweet
Released February 23 1999

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A 21-song compilation spanning the group's first five albums, Always Stay Sweet emphasizes the darker undercurrents of the band's sound. Many tracks, like "How Ghosts Affect Relationships" and "Are We Still Married?" come from Livonia and Home Is in Your Head. A previously unreleased song, "Underwater," is a different take of "Honey Babe, My Blue Eyed Babe" from King of Sweet, and "Sitting Still Moving Still Staring Out," (featured on the Jerry Maguire soundtrack) is also included. Though it doesn't paint a complete portrait of His Name Is Alive, Always Stay Sweet presents many aspects of the band in a compelling, well-edited collection. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

DAD 9011 - Red House Painters / Retrospective
Released May 18 1999

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Retrospective collects some of the finest moments from the Red House Painters' albums for 4AD as well as some previously unreleased work. Compiled by Mark Kozelek and Ivo Watts-Russell, this two-CD set features one disc spanning Kozelek's four-album output for the label. Kozelek's cover of Kiss' "Shock Me," which was previously available only on a UK single, opens the first disc; tracks like "Katy Song," "Medicine Bottle," "San Geronimo," "New Jersey," "Mistress," and "Drop" are also included. Demos, outtakes, and live recordings are included on the second disc, including two songs, "Waterkill" and "Instrumental" that were previously unreleased. Alternate versions of Painters favorites like "Japanese to English," "Funhouse," "Dragonflies," and "Brockwell Park" also appear on the second disc, making Retrospective an affordable starting point for newcomers, and a welcome addition for collectors. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

CAD 9015 - Brendan Perry / Eye of the Hunter
Released October 05 1999

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Brendan Perry's solo debut, Eye of the Hunter, builds on his reputation as Dead Can Dance's meditative, baritone singer/songwriter. Perry's rich vocals and the songs' orchestral-folk arrangements and somber titles give the album an intriguing Gothic/easy listening feel, similar to Scott Walker's darkest Baroque pop. Along with seven original tracks like "Medusa," "Saturday's Child," and "Archangel," Eye of the Hunter also includes a thoughtful cover of Tim Buckley's "I Must Have Been Blind." Though the stately pace of the songs becomes monotonous at times, Perry's first solo effort is a mature work worthy of his reputation. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide

CAD 2517 - The Hope Blister / Underarms and Sideways
Released April 06 1999

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Released as part of 4AD's mail order/Internet-only series, Underarms is an engaging and largely instrumental collection of outtakes from the ...smile's ok sessions. Though the debut consisted solely of covers, five of the seven tracks here were written by Hope Blister creator Ivo Watts-Russell, engineer John Fryer, bassist Laurence O'Keefe, and cellist Audrey Riley. The disc provides a darkly ambient companion to ...smile's ok. The gorgeous, minimalist drone to both parts of "Sweet Medicine" provides a cyclical lean, and a couple tracks are downright sinister, on par with any of Main's harrowing soundscapes. "Strings" versions of Neil Halstead's (Slowdive) "Dagger" and David Sylvian's "Let the Happiness In" fill out the disc. Underarms is a small gem -- it's a shame it didn't become more widely available. - Andy Kellman, All Music Guide

4AD's reissue campaign reaches into the slightly obscure territory of the label's catalog with Underarms & Sideways, a luxe, two-disc repackaging of the Hope Blister's 1998 collection of outtakes and reinterpretations of the group's album ...smile's ok that comes with a set of Underarms remixes by Kompakt's Markus Guentner. Originally, Underarms was available as a mail-order-only release from 4AD, so in a way Underarms & Sideways is both its first official release and a reissue. Either way, the album is still striking: while its pieces are undeniably ambient, they're also commanding, with a surprising amount of body and presence. While "Friday Afternoon" is relatively (and beautifully) wispy, it shares the intense cello drones, distant, understated drums, and fleeting melodic figures that thread through the rest of the album. On the other hand, "Iota" -- which opens with a strange sound that falls somewhere between scratching and screaming -- and "White on White" are dark and almost threatening, reflecting Underarms' ability to conjure vivid imagery despite (or perhaps because of) its abstractness. While only "Happiness Strings" and "Dagger Strings" have any literal ties to ...smile's ok, tracks like "Sweet Medicine" share that album's emotional pull. Sideways, meanwhile, does indeed offer a different perspective on the Hope Blister's music. Guentner is an inspired choice to continue the project's metamorphosis, and with his expansive touch, he manages to make tracks that are even more ethereal and ambient than their source material. Pieces such as "Sideways Three," which begins with a jittery, mechanical edge and eventually overflows with lush, aquatic sounds, keep the ebb and flow of Underarms and have their own distinctive feel. "Sideways Four," meanwhile, surrounds warm, soothing, "Sweet Medicine"-like drones with chillier electronic textures. While it might be expected that breaking down the Hope Blister's original concepts into smaller and smaller pieces would bring diminishing returns, Underarms & Sideways shows that their music just keeps taking on new and interesting life instead. - Heather Phares, All Music Guide