Existential White Soul or Prog Pop?

 

Sad Lovers & Giants are a rock band from Watford, England who formed in 1980. Their sound blends post-punk, atmospheric keyboards, & psychedelia.

Sad Lovers & Giants are the quintessential on-again, off-again band, having earned a strong following despite having broken up & re-formed multiple times since debuting in the early 80s.

They first called it quits after the release of their second album, Feeding the Flame in 1983.

 

Yet the drive to create new music led to their reuniting in 1986 on their old label Midnight Music, who were glad to have them back. The new line-up has remained steady since reforming: driven by Simon (Garce) Allard's sublime vocals; Tony McGuinness' exquisitely anxiously beautiful guitars; Will Hicks' artful keyboard shading; the synergetic drive of the rhythm section of bassist Ian Gibson & drummer Nigel Pollard. They released four more albums: Total Sound (1986); The Mirror Test (1987); Headland (1990); & Treehouse Poetry (1991). Then Midnight Music went belly up & they were off again.

However, that was not to be the end. Cherry Red had purchased Midnight Music's back catalogue & wanted the band to help with the release of E-Mail from Eternity (The Best of...) in 1996 on Cherry Red's subsidiary Anagram.

When the bandmates reunited for the project, they realized that old drive to create new music was still alive & kicking.

Since then they have released three more albums to date: La Dolce Vita (1999); Melting in the Fullness of Time (2002); & Mission Creep (2018).

In the past I have presented In the Breeze; Epic Garden Music (as well as Feeding the Flame,Seven Kinds of Sin, Headland, & their very first 7“ Clé all in the comments section of this post); & E-mail from Eternity  so you can figure I like this band a lot. This time I'll try to fill in the few remaining holes in their story.

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - Treehouse Poetry, Midnight Music CHIME 01 20 CD, 1991.
all decryption codes in comments

Toy Planes in a Southern Sky    
Lizard King    
Still Restless    
Parachute of Love    
Christmas on Easter Island    
Criminally Sane    
Jungle of Lies    
The Sky is a Glove

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - La Dolce Vita (Live in Lausanne), Voight-Kampff Records VKR001CD, 1999.

Close to the Sea    
In Flux    
Alaska    
Cowboys    
Like Thieves    
Sleep    
Echoplay
One Man's Hell    
Imagination    
Colourless Dream    
Return to Clocktower Lodge
Clint

 

 

 

 

 

Sad Lovers & Giants - Melting in the Fullness of Time, Voight-Kampff Records VKR003CD, 

2002.

A Daughter
German Cars
Submarine Girl
I'm Not in Love
Learn
Melting in the Fullness of Time
Red Sky
Black Crow

Enjoy,
NØ