Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

In their short lifetime, Young Marble Giants (Alison Statton and brothers Stuart and Phil Moxham) released one album, a handful of singles and a Peel Session; the album, 1980's acclaimed Colossal Youth, is one of the most definitive records of the post-punk era. Taking the unprecedented step of making their first ever release a long player certainly paid off. Colossal Youth became a parallel soundtrack to the unsteady stabs of the post punk early eighties, and quickly became one of (the then nascent) Rough Trade Records best sellers. Becalmed, resigned and a little tense, it created a new vocabulary for song.

Since its release the sound of Colossal Youth has seeped into the vocabulary of personal music. Young Marble Giants made the abstract immediate and the introspective warm and natural. Their influence can be heard in every generation of indie and post-punk music that followed, and there is something almost canonical about the album's use of voice, muted instruments and space. Colossal Youth's attention to sparse detail is now a modus operandi for haunted electronica auteurs and spectral singer-songwriters alike, but ultimately, only the Young Marble Giants sound like Young Marble Giants.

TRACKLIST:

Colossal Youth

1. Searching for Mr. Right

2. Include Me Out

3. The Taxi

4. Eating Noddemix

5. Constantly Changing

6. N.I.T.A.

7. Colossal Youth

8. Music for Evenings

9. The Man Amplifier

10. Choci Loni

11. Wurlitzer Jukebox

12. Salad Days

13. Credit in the Straight World

14. Brand - New - Life

15. Wind in the Rigging
    
    

Collected Works (CD only)

1. THIS WAY

2. POSED BY MODELS

3. THE CLOCK

4. CLICKTALK

5. ZEBRA TRUCKS

6. SPORTING LIFE

7. FINAL DAY

8. RADIO SILENTS

9. CAKEWALKING

10. ODE TO BOOKER T

11. HAVE YOUR TOUPEE READY

12. N.I.T.A.

13. BRAND - NEW - LIFE

14. ZEBRA TRUCKS

15. CHOCI LONI

16. WIND IN THE RIGGING

17. THE MAN SHARES HIS MEAL WITH HIS BEAST

18. THE TAXI

19. CONSTANTLY CHANGING

20. MUSIC FOR EVENINGS

21. CREDIT IN THE STRAIGHT WORLD

22. EATING NODDEMIX

23. ODE TO BOOKER T

24. RADIO SILENTS

25. HAYMAN

26. LOOP THE LOOP

LP pressed on heavyweight vinyl; double-CD includes the original album plus the Final Days single, Testcard EP and Salad Days album; both formats include extensive liner notes by Simon Reynolds.

Also available:
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth / Loose Ends And Sharp Cuts: 40th Anniversary Edition   2LP+DVD (clear vinyl) | 2LP+DVD | 2CD+DVD
Michael Blair & Joe Bucciero - Young Marble Giants' Colossal Youth   BOOK