08 September 2022
Newsdesk
A Place To Bury Strangers have announced details of an expanded and remastered reissue of their 2009 album, Exploding Head, out on Mute / BMG on 21 October 2022. Available on limited edition transparent double vinyl, transparent red single vinyl and as a deluxe 2CD package, the original album has been newly remastered double vinyl, CD and digital formats include rarities, unreleased material and three blistering cover versions of tracks by Love & Rockets, 13th Floor Elevators and David Bowie.
Exploding Head was the band’s first release for Mute and followed their eponymous debut. The album was awarded Best New Music at Pitchfork but, where that was a patchwork of old and new tracks, Exploding Head was a direct statement. Recorded by Oliver Ackermann (vocals / guitar), Jono MOFO (bass) and Jay Space (drums) at Death By Audio, the infamous arts and music venue / rehearsal and recording studio, and living space that Ackermann helped build in Williamsburg, the album was engineered by Andy Smith who took the band, according to Ackermann at the time, to “a whole other level”. Ackermann, the only remaining member from this line up, went on to talk about the album’s contrasts "I love the interplay between something that's pretty and something that's scary.”, which Drowned in Sound echoed in their review at the time, calling it “a perfect balance between noise and tune”.
“Cranked up, you'll hear no more thrilling record this year”, stated The Quietus and Ackermann’s newly remastered edition of the album, featuring the singles ‘In Your Heart’ and ‘Keep Slipping Away’ as well as the incendiary finale to many of the live shows in their relentless touring schedule, ‘I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart’, has only built in potency. The ten rarities, covers, and unreleased tracks consist of fascinating detours, roads not taken, and in a few cases, tantalising hints about where the band would go next.
Exploding Head tracklisting
Side A:
It is Nothing
In Your Heart
Lost Feeling
Deadbeat
Keep Sipping Away
Side B:
Ego Death
Smile When You Smile
Everything Always Goes Wrong
Exploding Head
I Lived By Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart
Exploding Head rarities tracklisting
Side C:
Hit The Ground
Girlfriend
It's A Fast Driving Rave Up With A Place To Bury Strangers
Alive
I Lived My Life To Stand In The Shadow Of Your Heart (Demo, previously unreleased)
Side D:
Don't Save Your Love
Take It All (previously unreleased)
The Light (Love and Rockets Cover)
Tried To Hide (13th Floor Elevators Cover)
Suffragette City (David Bowie Cover)
