CHRYSALIS
★★★★
Recently given a new audience via Billie Eilish’s patronage, the debut by Luke Haines’ pop offshoot is reissued for its 25th anniversary on vinyl, a bonus 10” adding six B-sides. Designed to mock Britpop’s bombast, only to arrive when Blur and Pulp were howling into the void, Haines and John Moore’s sinister minimalism was perfectly offset by Sarah Nixey’s mordant vocals, all classically English hauteur and pitch black humour. Come for the chilling cover of Uptown Top Ranking, stay for Kidnapping An Heiress and Child Psychology’s wintry charms.
JE