Communards

Remastered audio. 2 x CD in gatefold sleeve with new sleeve notes. 30 tracks including rarities, remixes and live sessions.

The Communards seminal debut album is to be reissued on its 35th Anniversary this autumn by London Records.

Mixing pop and politics wasn't exactly a revolutionary act in itself in 1985, but no mainstream chart pop act had ever done so with the fervency, purpose and personal passion as The Communards. From the message laid down in songs such as Reprise (acidly dedicated to Margaret Hilda Thatcher on release) or Breadline Britain's condemnation of life under the Conservative government, right down to their stark, tongue in cheek, Soviet-styled artwork. Even the band's name was taken from a group of 19th century Parisian revolutionaries.

To revisit the duo's debut LP today is a wonderful reminder of just how special and transformative pop music can be. Take Disenchanted's melancholic pulse; the delicate, moonlit flourishes of La Dolora; the clear message in their reading of jazz standard Loverman and of course, the soaring, evergreen rush of their cover of Gamble and Huff's Don't Leave Me This Way - number one in the UK for six weeks, the biggest selling single of 1986 and still a song that can send joy pulsing through the veins of generations not even born when the pair first stormed the charts.

The CD and digital formats have been expanded to include some rarities, fan favourites and previously unreleased material. These include Don't Leave Me This Way (Gotham City mix part two) which Coles calls "my favourite thing that Jimmy and I did" and fan favourite Disenchanted (dance) remixed here by Mike Thorne. Also included is the only radio session the duo ever recorded with Janice Long in October 1985 on which they debuted previously unpublished tracks and the demo version of Summertime, the only recording in existence of this collaboration with Sarah Jane Morris.