2-CD: 3433362
RELEASED: 2006
LABEL: EMI

Disc: 1
01. Jacket Hangs
02. World View Blue
03. Weightless
04. …And Stones
05. Love Come Round
06. Your Ages
07. The Applicant
08. What It Is
09. Anti-Pretty
10. Careful Boy
11. Picture Framed
12. Cat-Scan Hist’ry

Disc: 2
01. s-t-r-a-n-g-e (previously unreleased)
02. Love Come Round (hurdy-gurdy version) (previously unreleased)
03. Razorwalk
04. Different Now
05. Big Sky
06. 88 Out (live) (previously unreleased)
07. I Wanna Be Your Lover (live) (previously unreleased)
08. Careful Boy (Nicky Campbell Radio 1 session version) (previously unreleased)
09. What It Is (Michael Stipe version)
10. …And Stones (DJ Bootleg)
11. You Are Loved
12. You’re Going To Need Somebody
13. Sweet Jane
14. World View Blue (acoustic version)

Swagger Deluxe is a re-release of The Blue Aeroplanes' 1990 Gil Norton produced Swagger album. Deluxe signifies that it's an expanded edition including a 14 track CD of B-side, demos, live and previously unreleased material. The camp, the angry, the sad and the beautiful Blue Aeroplanes never really quite made the mainstream. Truth is they sort of fell between several camps at the time - not quite indie enough to be indie, not quite pop enough to be pop and not rock enough to be rock. They were a fusion of guitar pop/rock and Gerrard Langley's spoken word poetry. Live they performed with a four-guitar line-up, backing tapes, dancers and slide shows. To fans, they were Gods and Swagger is widely regarded as one of their highlights. Even fifteen years on, Swagger is good, bloody good. The guitar playing of Angelo Bruschini, Rodney Allen and Alex Lee reminds of a plethora of great guitarists / bands. World View Blue has flourishes of REM as do many of the backing vocals. … And Stones is a real stand-out five and a half minutes of blistering guitar work. That's not to say Swagger is derivative - The Blues Aeroplanes take all these ingredients and serve up a veritable banquet of an album. It's unmistakably British, it's remarkably classy and it's timeles. As for the bonus disc, well it doesn't measure up to Swagger. Bonus discs seldom do. But for fans it's a veritable treasure chest - a 'hurdy-gurdy' version of Love Comes Around, an original demo of What Is It, unreleased material (s.t.r.a.n.g.e.) and crowd-pleasers such as Razorwalk and 88 Out. Plus a bagful of b-sides.

Influences / Similar Artists:
Serenes, Simmer, House Of Love, 1.000 Violins