The Prisoners – In From The Cold TAPE

The Prisoners anticipated the visceral energy of the Hives and the White Stripes and anticipated the baggy shuffle of the Charlatans and Inspiral Carpets. The searing, Hendrix-influenced guitar riffs of lead singer Graham Day and the hypnotizing Hammond swirls and irresistible go-go rhythms of organist James Taylor changed not only my life, but far more influential genres of music.

In From The Cold, their fourth LP, originally released on Stiff subsidiary Countdown, was the band's swan song. It's not hard to see why. The live performances were already a fiery affair. At one gig at the Clarendon in London, Graham picked up his guitar amp and speakers and threw them at James. Another time, he slammed his guitar down and stormed off stage while the rest of the band twiddled their thumbs at the Escape Club in Brighton. The fact that he barricaded himself in a studio with producer Troy Tate for a whole five months, which was an extremely long time by Prisoners standards (previous albums had only lasted three days), only led to further outbreaks of internal tension and rivalry.

At the time of the album's release, Stiff were on the verge of bankruptcy. The LP was only available for two weeks. After the first pressing sold out, there was no money to repress more. As a result, few got to hear what was hailed in many circles as the Prisoners' finest moment. Until now, because now there's this fabulous reissue of the original LP plus five bonus tracks. Along with Dean Rudland's informative notes on the cover and photos from the era, we get tracks like Mourn My Health, Deceiving Eye and Wish The Rain, which showcase Day's whisky-soaked lyrical intensity. Infused with melancholy, despair and sheer hopelessness, they tug at the heartstrings. The conclusion of the album: Main Title Theme (The Lesser Evil) is a sombre, brooding instrumental to rival John Barry's Ipcress File soundtrack and a hint at where James Taylor would take his quartet after the band's demise, while the infectious All You Gotta Do Is Say, co-written with Graham's girlfriend Fay Hallam (of fellow Countdown band Makin' Time), could have given the Prisoners the hit single they so richly deserved.