A beloved album from Big Country is about to get a lot bigger.  Tomorrow, Cherry Red Records will expand the Scottish band's 1996 album Why the Long Face into a 4-CD edition also including their live album from the same year, Eclectic, and two discs of bonus material.

Last year, TSD described Big Country: "The story of Big Country goes like this: the quartet, featuring ex-Skids guitarist Stuart Adamson on vocals and guitar, guitarist Bruce Watson, bassist Tony Butler and drummer Mark Brzezicki, hit the U.K. Top 10 with singles like 'Fields of Fire,' 'Chance,' 'Wonderland' and 'Look Away' during the early-to-mid-'80s; the hopeful, ringing guitars of 'In a Big Country' gave the band a taste of American success, too. But by the late '80s, consistent hits were harder to come by, with the Peter Wolf-produced Peace In Our Time (1988) a particular misstep, overly reliant on middle-of-the-road pop production. Brzezicki left the group at decade's end, but served in a session capacity on the fraught 1991 follow-up, No Place Like Home, which turned out to be the band's last major-label effort. 1993's The Buffalo Skinners saw the trio go back to basics - effective, guitar-driven melodies coupled with fiery lyrics in praise of the hopes and dreams of the working class - and the ensuing tour found the classic lineup whole once more. The full band continued for two more albums [including Why the Long Face] and a final tour in 2000, one year before Adamson took his own life after a prolonged battle with alcohol abuse and depression."

This underrated effort for Big Country, originally released on the Transatlantic label, has been generously expanded by Cherry Red.  Disc Two of the new box adds seventeen bonus tracks, all plucked from period CD singles and EPs.  The third disc reissues Eclectic, which lived up to its name with covers of songs by Joni Mitchell ("Big Yellow Taxi"), The Band ("The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"), The Beatles ("Eleanor Rigby"), The Rolling Stones ("Ruby Tuesday"), Bruce Springsteen ("I'm on Fire"), and even George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward ("Summertime" from Porgy and Bess).  Five bonus tracks have been added to Eclectic, including covers of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Down on the Corner," Alice Cooper's "Teenage Lament," and Neil Young's "Hey Hey, My My."  Finally, Disc Four has sixteen previously unreleased demos to offer a window into the creation of Why the Long Face.  These are sequenced in the order of the album to, in essence, create an alternate version of the album.

The affordably-priced 4-CD deluxe box set edition of Big Country's Why the Long Face is due on Friday from Cherry Red.  It will also be available digitally, and both formats can be pre-ordered at the links below!

Big Country, Why The Long Face: Deluxe Edition (Cherry Red (U.K.) 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Disc 1: Remastered original album (released as Transatlantic TRACD 109 (U.K.), 1995)

1. You Dreamer
2. Message Of Love
3. I'm Not Ashamed
4. Sail Into Nothing
5. Thunder & Lightning
6. Send You
7. One In a Million
8. God's Great Mistake
9. Wildland In My Heart
10. Take You To The Moon
11. Far From Me To You
12. Charlotte
13. Post Nuclear Talking Blues
14. Blue On a Green Planet

Disc 2: Bonus tracks

1. I'm Not Ashamed (Single Edit)
2. One In a Million (1st Visit)
3. Monday Tuesday Girl
4. In a Big Country (Acoustic Version)
5. Crazytimes
6. Blue On a Green Planet (Cool Version)
7. You Dreamer (Single Edit)
8. Ice Cream Smile
9. Magic In Your Eyes
10. Bianca
11. Hardly a Mountain (HITW Tapes)
12. Golden Boy Loves Golden Girl (HITW Tapes)
13. Can You Feel The Winter (HITW Tapes)
14. I'm Eighteen
15. Vicious
16. On The Road Again
17. All Go Together (Acoustic Version)

Disc 2, Tracks 1-6 from "I'm Not Ashamed" U.K. CD singles - Transatlantic TRAX 1009 (1-3) and TRAX 1010 (4-6), 1995
Disc 2, Tracks 7-10 from "You Dreamer" U.K. CD single - Transatlantic TRAX 1012, 1995
Disc 2, Tracks 11-13 from "You Dreamer" U.K. 12" - Transatlantic TRAT 1012, 1995
Disc 2, Tracks 14-16 from "You Dreamer" U.K. limited CD single - Transatlantic TRAD 1012, 1995
Disc 2, Track 17 from Non! U.K. EP - Transatlantic TRAX 1016, 1995

Disc 3: Eclectic (released as Transatlantic TRACD 234 (U.K.) 1996) and bonus tracks (14-18)

1. River of Hope
2. King Of Emotion
3. Big Yellow Taxi
4. The Buffalo Skinners
5. Summertime
6. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
7. Eleanor Rigby
8. Winter Sky
9. Sling It
10. I'm On Fire
11. Where The Rose Is Sown
12. Come Back To Me
13. Ruby Tuesday
14. Teenage Lament
15. Down On The Corner
16. Hey Hey My My
17. You Dreamer (Acoustic Version)
18. I'm Not Ashamed (Acoustic Version)

Disc 4: Demos (previously unreleased)

1. You Dreamer
2. Message of Love
3. I'm Not Ashamed
4. Sail Into Nothing
5. Thunder & Lightning
6. Send You
7. God's Great Mistake
8. Wildland In My Heart
9. Take You To The Moon
10. Far From Me To You
11. Charlotte
12. Post Nuclear Talking Blues
13. Crazytimes
14. What About Peace
15. Normal
16. God's Great Mistake (Alternate Version)