| Release Date | 29/11/2024 |
| Format | 3LP Black/ LP Black/ 3CD |
| Label | Needle Mythology |
| Catalogue Number | NEMYLP017/ NEMYLPS017/ NEMYCD017 |
Over three years in the making, Needle Mythology Records is delighted to announce a super deluxe, expanded remastered reissue of The Lilac Time’s 1991 masterpiece, Astronauts. Released as a triple vinyl, triple CD or single vinyl, only 1000 copies of each format will be produced, there will be no further pressings. Both the 3LP and 3CD editions will come with an extensive 11,000 word oral history of Astronauts and liner notes by Needle Mythology co-founder and longtime Stephen Duffy fan, Pete Paphides. All three albums including a 2024 remaster, a collection of works in progress entitled ‘Softened By Rain The Making Of Astronauts’ and a live compilation ‘Any Road Up The Lilac Time Live 1990/91’ have been mastered for vinyl by Miles Showell at Abbey Roadand will be housed in a triple gatefold sleeve with a colour inner sleeve and new artwork for each disc, which has been especially created by designer Mike Storey. The main sleeve for Astronauts itself will replicate the original artwork but with the four distinctive “blobs” rendered in a red “foil” texture. In addition to these three disc sets, 1000 single vinyl remastered copies of Astronauts will also be made available, in a
cherry red vinyl edition to match the outer sleeve. With the shoegaze and baggy movements at their zenith, The Lilac Time’s fourth album was released at a moment when the left-field music zeitgeist was shaped by the nascent shoegaze, baggy and grunge movements.
Tracklist:
Disc: 1
1. In Iverna Gardens
2. Dreaming
3. The Whisper Of Your Mind
4. Hats Off Here Comes The Girl
5. The Darkness Of Her Eyes
6. Fortunes
7. Sunshines Daughter
8. A Taste For Honey
9. North Kensington
10. Grey Skies And Work Things
11. Madresfield
12. Finistère
Disc: 2
1. In Iverna Dreaming
2. Astronauts Meditation
3. Writing Dreaming
4. Hat’s Off #1
5. Writing The Whisper
6. We Came From Anywhere
7. You Come By
8. She Is All Colour
9. Writing Finistére
10. North Kensington Idea
11. This Immortal Promise
12. Madresfield Demo
Disc: 3
1. Fields (Sunday 28th October
1990 Derby College of Higher
Education)
2. Dreaming (Manchester)
3. The Road To Happiness
(Thursday 16th May 1991
London, Underworld)
4. Icing On The Cake (Derby)
5. Lost Girl In The Midnight Sun
(Underworld)
6. Black Velvet (Underworld)
7. Julie Christie (Saturday 18th
May 1991 Manchester University)
8. If The Stars Shine Tonight
(Manchester)
9. And On We Go (Derby)