Scritti Politti - Cupid & Psyche 85 (Deluxe Edition)

Scritti Politti’s modern masterpiece Cupid & Psyche 85 is to be celebrated with a new edition that brings a much-prized version of the record together & a host of handpicked cuts from the group’s archive. Released on 10 July, the Deluxe Edition will feature a remastered version the original album, plus a series of extra tracks and remixes, on double vinyl

For the first time ever, the 13-track version of the album which was created for the then brand new CD format on the record’s release in June 1985, will be pressed on vinyl.

Overseen by Green Gartside, this running order has been remastered by Chris Athens, who has also worked with the likes of Drake and Beastie Boys.

In addition, three extra tracks have been selected from the Scritti Politti archive and will be released for the first time ever with this edition.

Perfect Way (Version), Lover To Fall (12" Dance Mix) and Perfect Way (Perfect Way Mix) offer an insight into Scritti Politti’s creative processes at the time of the album’s creation and highlight the band’s embracement of music and culture beyond the indie scene from which they emerged from at the start of the 1980s.

Green alongside David Gamson, who joined Scritti Politti ahead of making Cupid & Psyche 85 and helped to create the album, have both contributed to the sleeve notes for this release.

Visionary, far reaching, influential and acclaimed, yet filled with songs that make hearts beat, Cupid & Psyche 85 is beloved by listeners and fellow musicians alike.

While the band’s pop sensibility was hinted at on their debut album, 1982’s Songs To Remember (which was also recently remastered and reissued), Scritti Politti exploded into technicolour with their 1985 album, uniquely marrying soul-stirring melodies, classic arrangements, progressive lyrical ideas with a production process that pushed the tape-led technology of its day to its very limits, prefiguring the creative foundations of how much of the world’s most exciting and cutting edge music is made today.

A heady mix of ideas and experimentation, allied to Green and Gamson’s meticulous studio work which saw them collaborate with the likes of acclaimed producer Arif Mardin, The Average White Band and Tom Petty's Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone and vocalist Tawatha Agee, the album embraced both the pop maximalism of the 1980s yet took cues from the production, attitude and delivery of the nascent hip hop scene, beautifully channelling this artistic openness into a sound and vision that was truly Scritti Politti’s own.

The 1985 CD version of the album reflected this approach, as the band engaged with the latest technology of the day, creating extra mixes and versions for the release – an approach adopted by rap artists and beyond – while still making a coherent and affecting artistic statement with this extended form, one that has been absent from vinyl until now.