In Ribbons [Expanded 30th Anniversary Reissue]

by Pale Saints

Overview

Meriel Barham was thanked for extra guitar and vocals on Half-Life, an EP released by Pale Saints eight months after the band made their full-length debut with The Comforts of Madness. An original member of Lush, Barham soon became indispensable to Pale Saints. She most obviously fronted the band's 1991 single "Kinky Love" (a cover of a song originally recorded by Nancy Sinatra), strangely their highest entry on the U.K. pop chart. That song and its parent EP, Flesh Balloon, matched the band with Hugh Jones, a producer with whom guitarist Graeme Naysmith and drummer Chris Cooper were particularly eager to work due to an eye-popping CV that included mutual favorites by the likes of Echo & the Bunnymen and That Petrol Emotion. With Barham a fixture and Jones still in the fold, Pale Saints delivered a second standout album of the era with In Ribbons. Just as he had recently done for the second LPs by Ultra Vivid Scene and Kitchens of Distinction, Jones aided in presenting the material with a richness and clarity separating it from the band's first album. The difference is heard from the start with "Throwing Back the Apple," a storming and not-quite-manic pop thrill with Ian Masters' lead vocal supported by his and Barham's enlivening background harmonies. "It hurts so much, but you're close enough to step outside again" indicates a sanguine outlook, but the remainder of the album's occasional buoyancy is conveyed with the odd charged rhythm and profusion of deceptively sugared vocals more often than the lyrics. Fragmentary and suggestive of fever dreams ridden with loss and sickness, the words leave more to the imagination than those of the debut. Barham's gentle and expressive voice powers "Thread of Light," "Liquid," and "Featherframe," alluring ballads scattered across both sides. In hindsight, Masters' handful of unorthodox slow numbers -- the vortex-like "Hair Shoes" and Robert Fripp-tinged "Shell" especially -- seem to have helped clear a path for his exit. [Three years after 4AD remastered and expanded The Comforts of Madness for its 30th anniversary, the label gave In Ribbons similar treatment. Added to the album are the three songs from the bonus 7" packaged with the original vinyl edition -- brass band versions of "A Thousand Stars Burst Open" and Half-Life track "A Revelation," plus a jammy Pale Saints instrumental -- and a set of nine demos. The demos document the songs in various states of development, from a tear through an almost fully formed "Babymaker" to a lazing "Throwing Back the Apple" with a provisional wordless Masters vocal.] ~ Andy Kellman

Product Details

Release Date:	10/13/2023
Label:	4Ad
UPC:	0191400040731

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Pale Saints   Primary Artist
The Tintwistle Brass Band   Primary Artist
Caroline LaVelle   Guest Artist

Technical Credits

Hugh Jones   Producer,Arranger
Slapp Happy   Engineer
Pale Saints   Arranger
Dave Ellingson   Composer
Anthony Moore   Composer
Nancy Sinatra   Engineer
Meriel Barham   Composer
Peter Blegvad   Composer
Ian Masters   Composer
Chris Cooper   Composer
Moore   Composer
Graeme Naysmith   Composer