I’ve been a ball of fire in your arms desireAnd I’ve been wondering, where it is you’re hiding
Gene Loves Jezebel will celebrate the 40th anniversary of their breakthrough third studio album, Discover, with a newly remastered and expanded double-LP reissue arriving July 24 through Beggars Banquet.
The collection pairs the original 10-song album with Glad To Be Alive, a concert recording captured in Nottingham in 1986, included as a bonus LP with initial copies of Discover. The live set returns to vinyl here for the first time since that original pressing, while an expanded digital edition will present the complete 17-song performance.
The label has offered an early preview with “Desire — Live in Nottingham,” a particularly charged performance of the single that became Gene Loves Jezebel’s calling card. James Stevenson’s familiar guitar introduction quickly gives way to a faster, rougher reading, with Jay and Michael Aston trading and tangling their voices over the band’s relentless momentum.
Listen to “Desire — Live in Nottingham” here.
And watch the official music video for Desire below:
Originally released in 1986, Discover found the Welsh band Gene Loves Jezebel widening their reach of the gothic rock and post-punk heard across Promise and Immigrant. Chiming guitars, forceful rhythms and the Aston twins’ competing voices gave the record a sharper melodic profile, carrying the band from the independent underground toward an international audience.
“Desire (Come and Get It)” stood at the center of that advance, joined by “Heartache,” “Sweetest Thing,” “Over the Rooftops” and “Beyond Doubt.” The record retained the tension and theatricality of the band’s earlier work while opening the songs into larger, increasingly direct forms.
“This is the album where it all came together for me as a singer & a songwriter,” Jay Aston says. “I discovered myself.”
Michael Aston adds: “Feelings with no ceilings, and the thinnest things are a joy forever.”
The Aston twins began making music together in 1980, initially working as Slav Arian with guitarist Ian Hudson and a drum machine. Raised in Porthcawl, South Wales, they relocated to London the following year, where the project developed into Gene Loves Jezebel and signed with Beggars Banquet imprint Situation Two.
The anniversary edition has been remastered by Henry Rudkins and will be issued on double black vinyl with updated artwork. The first 200 orders placed through the Beggars Banquet store and Bandcamp will include two postcards signed by Jay and Michael Aston, while supplies last.
Discover/Glad To Be Alive: 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition arrives July 24 through Beggars Banquet.
Discover tracklist:
- Heartache
- Over the Rooftops
- Kick
- A White Horse
- Wait and See
- Desire (Come and Get It)
- Beyond Doubt
- Sweetest Thing
- Maid of Sker
- Brand New Moon
Glad To Be Alive vinyl tracklist:
- Upstairs — Live in Nottingham
- Over the Rooftops — Live in Nottingham
- The Rhino Plasty — Live in Nottingham
- Worth Waiting For — Live in Nottingham
- The Immigrant — Live in Nottingham
- Cow — Live in Nottingham
- Shower Me With Brittle Punches — Live in Nottingham
- Pop Tarantula — Live in Nottingham
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