''Express'' is the second studio album by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band Love and Rockets. It was released on 15 September 1986 on

Beggars Banquet Records Beggars Banquet Records is a British independent record label. Beggars Banquet started as a chain of record shops owned by Martin Mills and Nick Austin and is part of the Beggars Group of labels. History In 1977, spurred by the prevailing D ...

. An even greater departure from the band members' previous work as

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...

, the album's fusion of underground rock with pop stylings can be seen as an early example of

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

music, a genre that reached mainstream popularity in the early 1990s. "Kundalini Express" was featured in the 1986 Italian horror film '' Demons 2'' and appeared on an episode of the T.V. show ''

Miami Vice ''Miami Vice'' is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC. The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo Tubbs, Ricardo "Rico" Tub ...

''.

Reception

In their retrospective review,

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

gave the album four-and-a-half stars out of five, writing, "rich in sonic detail, the

neo-psychedelic Neo-psychedelia is a genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the music production approaches and songwriting of 1960s psychedelia, either exploring emulations of the sounds of the era or applying its ethos to new styles of music ...

''Express'' offers a listening experience like no other album – guitars spiral to dizzying heights from beds of sound, arrangements swirl, songs change and mutate."

Release history

In 2001, the album was remastered and expanded to include two single remixes and several contemporaneous

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

, including a cover of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

's "Lucifer Sam". Two short experimental pieces that had been found on the studio tape masters labelled as "B Side #1" and "B Side #2" were also added. " Ball of Confusion" was released before ''Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven'', but since the USA mix could not be fit on the reissue of that album, it was appended to the ''Express'' reissue.

Track listings

Personnel

; Love and Rockets *

Daniel Ash Daniel Gaston Ash (born 31 July 1957) is an English musician, songwriter and singer. He became prominent in the late 1970s as the guitarist for the goth rock band Bauhaus (band), Bauhaus, which spawned two related bands led by Ash: Tones on Ta ...

– guitar, saxophone, vocals *

David J David John Haskins (born 24 April 1957, Northampton, Northamptonshire, England), better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician, producer, and writer. He is the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus (band), Bauhaus and for ...

– bass guitar, vocals * Kevin Haskins – drums, synthesizer ; Additional personnel * Allan Baker – choir master * Alan Brookes – choir vocalist on "An American Dream" * James Lowry – choir vocalist on "An American Dream" * John A. Rivers – additional keyboards * Robert Willey – choir vocalist on "An American Dream" ; Production * Love and Rockets – sleeve design * Mitch Jenkins – sleeve photography

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1986 albums Love and Rockets (band) albums Beggars Banquet Records albums Neo-psychedelia albums