At the point The Lilac Time’s fourth LP was released, Stephen Duffy’s post-Dr Calculus project couldn’t have been less fashionable. Landing the same month as Blur’s Leisure, Spin Doctors’ Pocket Full Of Kryptonite and Cypress Hill’s self-titled debut, Astronauts was wilfully out of step from the dominant sounds of the time.
While that may have been a disadvantage when it failed to chart in August 1991, it does mean that, 33 years on, Astronauts is less of a timepiece than the year’s shoegaze, baggy and grunge. That’s clearly the opinion of Needle Mythology co-founder Pete Paphides, the author of a satisfyingly immense booklet which comes with this expanded 3LP/3CD reissue.