Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings

Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings
Compilation album by All About Eve
Released	November 5, 2002
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	65:50
Label	JamTart
All About Eve chronology
Live and Electric at the Union Chapel (2001) Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings (2002) Iceland (2002)

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Return to Eden, Vol. 1: The Early Recordings (though as yet there has been no volume two) is a compilation by All About Eve put out in early 2002 on their own JamTart label and widely sold at gigs at that time, though also it was (and still is) available to buy in shops and online. It was the fourth album released since the band's reformation in 1999.

As the title suggests, this compilation concerns itself with the songs which the band produced under its own Eden label prior to being signed by Mercury in 1987. As well as some unreleased demos, it includes all the A-sides and B-sides of their Eden label 7" and 12" singles, and the track "Suppertime": prior to the release of Return to Eden, this last track had only ever been released on a 'various artists' compilation entitled Gunfire And Pianos, put out in 1985 by ZigZag magazine and the record label Situation Two. As such, Return to Eden is of huge significance to All About Eve fans as it is the only place where all of these early (1985–87) works may be found, short of finding then buying each single individually (a vastly expensive undertaking as they are all collectors' items today). Most of the tracks had never before been released on CD.

Track listing

1. "D for Desire" - 4:16
2. "Don't Follow Me (March Hare)" - 4:05
3. "Suppertime" - 3:10
4. "End of the Day" - 3:59
5. "Love Leads Nowhere" - 3:50
6. "In the Clouds" - 3:11
7. "Apple Tree Man" (demo version) - 4:04
8. "Shelter from the Rain" - 5:18
9. "Every Angel" (demo version) - 3:37
10. "In the Meadow" (demo version) - 4:32
11. "Our Summer" - 3:23
12. "Lady Moonlight" - 4:28
13. "Our Summer" (extended) - 4:28
14. "Flowers In Our Hair" - 4:07
15. "Paradise" - 3:52
16. "Devil Woman" - 2:58
17. "Flowers In Our Hair" (extended) - 5:12

Notes

The vast majority of these tracks feature a drum machine rather than a live drummer as original drummer Manuela Zwingmann left the band immediately after "D For Desire" and was not replaced full-time (by Mark Price) until their first big-label album was nearly complete in 1988.

Most of these tracks also feature the band's "classic" line-up of Julianne Regan (voice), Tim Bricheno (guitars) and Andy Cousin (bass). While this album was being put together in 2002 Tim Bricheno was recalled by the band in order to write the sleeve-notes, his first involvement with All About Eve since Scarlet and Other Stories in 1989 - although it would be another four years before he actually played for them again (on Keepsakes).

A limited number of the CDs - on sale at the gigs - were signed by Regan, Cousin and Bricheno.

Whilst many of these song titles also appear on their first studio album, these early versions are, for the most part, very different in arrangement and style from the renditions which would eventually appear on the Mercury Records studio album. All About Eve were, at the time, influenced by Siouxsie and the Banshees and the Cocteau Twins, as well as other punk and gothic rock elements, and this clearly shows in the style then adopted - the more moderating influence of bands such as Trees had not yet been brought to bear.