Originally released on A&M Records in July 1989, Waking Hours was Del Amitri's commercial breakthrough reaching No 6 in the UK charts and spawning four Top 60 singles. This LP re-issue is released on 12 July 2024, pressed on high quality blue vinyl and faithfully replicates the original 1989 "blue background" artwork.
After beginning in the mid 80s as a leftfield indie-jangle band, Del Amitri were now developing into a west-coast influenced classic pop act. The group, led by bassist-vocalist-writer Justin Currie and writer-guitarist Iain Harvie, worked with producer Gil Norton on demos in 1987 that led to them being signed to A&M Records. Working further with Hugh Jones and Mark Freegard, they made an album that chimed with the times, offering an antidote to Madchester with its beguiling selection of grown-up pop. Opening track and first single Kiss This Thing Goodbye set the scene perfectly, a record that sounded like it should be played loud on a sunlit freeway, but it was the album's third single, the affecting ballad Nothing Ever Happens, released as single at the start of 1990, that established the group in the UK while making significant inroads in the US.
Released 12 July 2024
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Side 1:
1. Kiss This Thing Goodbye
2. Opposite View
3. Move Away Jimmy Blue
4. Stone Cold Sober
5. You're Gone
Side 2:
1. When I Want You
2. This Side of the Morning
3. Empty
4. Hatful of Rain
5. Nothing Ever Happens