Track 1 – “Never”
I’d not long been writing songs (1994) so anything that looked odd lyrically, interested me. Ian had written a lyric which had two words per line – it put me in the mind of ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ by Abba. The demo for this never got a full version recorded, until now of course.
(Lyrics : Ian Forbes, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 2 – “In Extremis”
The story goes, Ian was writing lyrics with a friend from school who suggested a song title : “In Extremis”. They both wrote their own version of how that might look. I didn’t get to see the other set of lyrics, only Ian’s. I didn’t know what the phrase meant at the time and neither did I know how to pronounce it on the original demo in 1994. It got a full version in 2010 with a better structure but it was still sonically poor. This reimagined update captures the thing perfectly.
(Lyrics : Ian Forbes, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 3 – “Silent”
These lyrics were written during an A-Level study lesson in 1992. They remained in an exercise book for three years until I was searching for something to go with a melancholy synth motif I’d come up with and the two locked together. The May 1995 demo was never re-recorded but the synth motif was reappropriated and used as the intro to 2001’s “Catherine Wheel”. This re-imagining really augments the atmosphere intended in the original demo.
(Lyrics and Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 4 – “Light a Fire”
Written around April 1995, I didn’t think much of it so didn’t bother recording a demo. I found it again a few months later and thought it was worth at least recording for posterity sake. This full version kinda justifies the original shelving – it’s not great but it’s here for whatever reason its here.
(Lyrics : Douglas Hunter, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 5 – “Honest Man”
I wrote this on the piano and then crossed it over to keyboard. The second part of the page the lyrics were written on got detached and lost somehow so the second verse is the first verse again.
(Lyrics : Douglas Hunter, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 6 – “If There’s a God in Heaven”
I liked the big synth intro on this but not so much the rest of the song so it was left in its original Mid-1995 form until 2023 when it was re-imagined here. It’s a B-side, quite definitely a B-side.
(Lyrics : Douglas Hunter, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 7 – “Shame”
I wrote the lyrics for this in a museum in Sunderland in October 1995. I was between lectures and had time to fill so I went to the natural history bit of the museum and lyrics were popping in my head. I had my Uni books with me so I grabbed a bit of paper and scribbled some ideas down. Out of all the songs selected for the B-side album, this re-imagining could stand on its own as an A-side – better than some of those already on the A-sides collection.
(Lyrics and Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 8 – “Found”
December 1995 and a melancholy time for me. I was in a lab at Sunderland University one dark snowy afternoon doing some chemistry. While I waited for whatever was supposed to be happening in the test tube, I wrote the lyrics to this down. Another B-side which, on re-imagining, has been upgraded to quite an exciting A-side.
(Lyrics and Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 9 – “Remember Me”
One of the songs I can’t remember writing, and there are a few. It’s as if it just appeared on a tape one day. My muddy memory tells me it was something that didn’t take long to cobble together and I spent probably less than ten minutes recording t he vocal guide. I’ve tried to elevate an embryo of an idea in the demo into a full song here but it barely gets out of the blocks. It’s interesting though so I kept it on the album.
(Music : Peter Nuttall, Lyrics : Douglas Hunter)
Track 10 – “Cry”
I regarded this as a bit of a nothing song at the time. Written and recorded in about an hour and stuffed away on a cassette somewhere. I chose it for the re-imagined project because it felt dark and moody and I’ve included a church choir on the reimagining which gives it an edge it didn’t possess previously. It’s got a bit of gravitas now, I think. There’s a lovely ‘Japan’ inspired Asian-flavoured keyboard part at the end which I like a lot.
(Lyrics : Ian Forbes, Music : Peter Nuttall)
Track 11 – “I Ran”
Ian sent me the lyrics with a note on the bottom : “Don’t use these because I might, probably”. I ignored that and added them to a looped bass and drum thing I’d written on the PSR-90. This song was included on the “Magic” album and, because I was never sure the original lyrics fitted, I rewrote them and included ‘I Ran (Version 2)’ on the next album ‘Foxygen’. This re-imagining combines Verse 1 of Version 1 with Verse 2 of Version 2 with two speeds. Sort of works.
The Magic album always had an atmosphere of its own. This re-imagining really does capture that uniqueness with the use of reverbed storm drums and muted pianos.
(Lyrics : Ian Forbes, Music : Peter Nuttall)