Pale Saints – The Comforts Of Madness

Purchased for the bonus LP. I'm always cautious of both coloured vinyl and the dreaded 'remastering' (by who, from what and why?!). Anyway, my copy of this re-issue sounds indistinguishable from my OG copy.

Still available at the 4AD USA site for $14.43 and shipping.

In response to dj_stosh below . . . I do like this Comfort of Madness cover artwork. It is dreamy, obscure, you can get lost in the artwork as you can with the music – the music and cover art therefore reflect each other. The main point with type is to communicate and convey the relevant info. Because the 30 years anniversary has given the Pale Saints album time to become an iconic album we already know, by the artwork, what the album and group is, the cut-off type for the band name on the front cover becomes less important, more decorative (but does give enough hints). For those who don’t know the group or music, the ‘mistake’ should arouse curiosity and the layered and cut-up artwork is pretty, placing the album into the non-conforming side of art culture.

Vaughan Oliver / 23 Envelope, the design side of 4AD vinyl covers and packaging, is renowned for a particular aesthetic. You can recognise an album as 4AD just by looking at it –artwork and type.

TYPE. The 4AD album catalogue visually reveals a complete historical knowledge of typography through its clever use of type. This type knowledge goes to the extent of using actual images of typesetting tools and metal letter punches in some of the artwork. The 4AD aesthetic includes what dj_stosh has pointed out regarding the type of the band name on the front cover. No, the partial band name on the front cover is not a mistake (I could be wrong!). As long as it is attractive, typography on 4AD artwork can be deliberately obscured, hard to read, up-side-down, sideways or even blotted out by heavy ink (as in the Pixies’ retrospective).

The 4AD approach to design is carefully planned and considered, with layered images and varied / beautiful / expressive typography. Though it is all carefully considered, subversion is a key element. One of the general rules of type is clarity over aesthetics. Vaughan flips that and was always prioritising beauty or expression (not always beauty, ugliness was sometimes used) over clarity, art over function. An influence would have been David Carson, “The End of Print”. It also fits in with the cut-up technique and aesthetics of chance (Arp brothers, Brion Gysin, Burroughs etc). Using this approach to expression fits the artwork in perfectly with the post-punk music scene, again: fittingly appropriate.

As for whether we like the design or not, that is individual. I personally think most of the classic 4AD design (and music) is the earlier 80’s work. Boringly, I have always said this. Also, some of the obliteration of text, as in the Pixies artwork, went too far for me – I genuinely wanted the lyrics, and didn’t want them obliterated. However, whether I liked it or not, I always admire the work and was excited and curious to see more.

pale saints is SO good, little hammer is my favourite song of theirs.

Shonky pressing, to be honest. Warped. Stop using MPO for clear pressings because they're obviously doing something wrong which is a shame. Disc 2 is fine, just about. The sleeve looks poor compared to the original. I'm not sure 4AD are good for reissues to be honest. They naused up In Camera a few years ago as well. They need a design manager, ironically.

Really dislike clear pressings but this sounds surprisingly quiet/clear. Love this album to bits, the jacket and inserts have top notch design echoing Vaughn Oliver's iconic art direction. Must have.

What a great album, what a beautiful repressing! I've nothing to compare it to, b/c I missed them back in the day and never picked up an OG disc or LP. But this is absolutely delicious shoegaze served up on a perfect pressing (to my ears, anyway).

Does anyone have any idea why they split the band's name on the front of the LP jacket? It almost looks like a typesetting error. Everything else about this release reflects care and quality, so I'm not sure why they would decide to do that if it was intentional. Other than that, the jacket looks more or less identical to the original. Also, the image used for the digital files and the CD version has the band's name in the bottom right corner, not split across the bottom right and the bottom left.

Record sounds wonderful. Bought this from an old radio station and still sounds great. Too bad the cover is plagued with station stickers

Runout etchings seem very similar to the original UK pressing, did they reuse the old metal stampers for this?