There was no Top 10 hit in 1985 quite like "Life in a Northern Town," a gentle-then-thundering folk-pop tune by British trio The Dream Academy. The gentle tribute to Nick Drake, counterpointed by an African-inspired, nearly wordless chorus, hit No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 15 in their native U.K. - but there was much more to their story. Cherry Red will tell that story - with input from the band's frontman, Nick Laird-Clowes - in a new deluxe box set to be released in February.

Religion, Revolution & Railways (The Complete Recordings) indeed offers everything you could want from the trio, consisting of singer/guitarist Laird-Clowes, keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel and singer/instrumentalist Kate St. John. In addition to remastered versions of their studio albums for the Blanco y Negro and Warner Bros. labels - The Dream Academy (1985), Remembrance Days (1987) and A Different Kind of Weather (1990) - there's four bonus discs of material: two collections of B-sides and demos, a disc of instrumentals and all the group's 12" mixes. Laird-Clowes has been intimately involved in the set's creation: not only did he write liner notes for the box and approved the mastering and artwork, but he also helped comb the Warner vault to include more than a dozen unreleased tracks on the bonus disc, diving even further than the double-disc collection The Morning Lasted All Day - A Retrospective, issued nearly a decade ago.

Laird-Clowes, a onetime member of U.K. power pop group The Act, and Gabriel had known each other since the late '70s and were intrigued in meshing traditional pop, rock and folk styles with unexpected instrumental arrangements. The addition of St. John in 1983 made that dream a reality; she played oboe, cor anglais, saxophone and piano, among others, and added special texture to the trio's songs (usually featuring synth string suites from Gabriel and gentle acoustic guitar from Laird-Clowes). While it took a few years for The Dream Academy to be signed, that time also netted them a crucial ally: Laird-Clowed befriended David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who would co-produce most of their debut and play guitar on tracks "Bound to Be" and "The Party." (Their debut also included contributions from bassists Pino Palladino and Guy Pratt, percussionists Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention and Luis Jardim, plus more guitar on "The Party" by future labelmate Peter Buck of R.E.M.)

While follow-up Remembrance Days, featuring production by Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and longtime associate Richard Dashut, failed to match the success of its predecessor (missing the U.K. charts entirely and only denting the lower reaches of the U.S. survey), it would be a key example of the group's other lasting legacy: the group's cinematic sound was championed and used to great effect by pop enthusiast and writer/director John Hughes. An instrumental of the group's cover of The Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" scored a key sequence in Hughes' 1986 hit Ferris Bueller's Day Off, while an instrumental of Remembrance Days cut "Power to Believe" was featured in his 1987 holiday classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Despite production from a returning Gilmour and an interesting cover of John Lennon's "Love," the trio's third album, A Different Kind of Weather, would be their last. In the decades since The Dream Academy's 1991 split, Laird-Clowes and Gabriel parlayed The Dream Academy's movie-ready musicianship into actual scoring for narrative and documentary film, while St. John played with Van Morrison, The Waterboys and others, becoming an in-demand music director for live events in Europe.

Religion, Revolution & Railways is due out February 23 from Cherry Red. Pre-orders are available below (including signed options from the label's official site) as well as the full track list.

Religion, Revolution & Railways (The Complete Recordings) (Cherry Red QCRCDBOX136 (U.K.), 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Cherry Red U.K.)

Disc 1: The Dream Academy (Blanco y Negro BYN 6 (U.K.)/Warner Bros. 25265 (U.S.), 1985)

1. Life in a Northern Town
2. The Edge of Forever
3. (Johnny) New Light
4. In Places on the Run
5. This World
6. Bound to Be
7. Moving On
8. The Love Parade
9. The Party
10. One Dream

Disc 2: Remembrance Days (Blanco y Negro BYN 12 (U.K.)/Reprise 25625 (U.S.), 1987)

1. Indian Summer
2. The Lesson of Love
3. Humdrum
4. Power to Believe
5. Hampstead Girl
6. Here
7. In the Hands of Love
8. Ballad in 4/4
9. Doubleminded
10. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime
11. In Exile (For Rodrigo Rojas)

Disc 3: A Different Kind of Weather (Blanco y Negro BYN 23 (U.K.)/Reprise 26307 (U.S.), 1990)

1. Love
2. Mercy Killing
3. Lucy September
4. Gaby Says
5. Waterloo
6. Twelve-Eight Angel
7. St. Valentine's Day
8. It'll Never Happen Again
9. Forest Fire
10. Lowlands
11. Not for Second Prize

Disc 4-5: B-sides and extras (* previously unreleased)

1. The Love Parade (Remix)
2. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
3. Girl in a Million (For Edie Sedgwick)
4. In Places on the Run (Edit)
5. In the Heart
6. The Chosen Few
7. Indian Summer (Single Version)
8. Hampstead Girl (B/V Mix) *
9. Sunrising
10. The Demonstration
11. The Last Day of the War (Pt. 1) *
12. The Last Day of the War

1. The Day It Rained Forever *
2. Poised on the Edge of Forever
3. Test Tape No. 3
4. Bound to Be (Demo) *
5. Things We Said Today
6. Doubleminded (Demo) *
7. These Walls *
8. The Party (Acoustic Version)
9. Living in a War
10. Immaculate Heartache
11. House of Heartbreak *

Disc 4, Track 1 from Reprise U.S. single 7-28750, 1986
Disc 4, Tracks 2 and 4 released as Blanco y Negro single NEG 20, 1985
Disc 4, Track 3 from "The Love Parade" single - Blanco y Negro NEG 16, 1985
Disc 4, Track 5 from Reprise Japanese single P-2406, 1988
Disc 4, Tracks 6, 9 and 12 and Disc 5, Track 9 from The Morning Lasted All Day - A Retrospective - Real Gone Music RGM-0245 (U.S.)/Edsel EDSK 7074 (U.K.), 2014
Disc 4, Track 7 from Blanco y Negro single NEG 27, 1987
Disc 4, Track 10 from "Love" CD single - Blanco y Negro NEG 46CD, 1990
Disc 5, Tracks 2-3 from "Life in a Northern Town" 12" - Blanco y Negro NEG 10T, 1985
Disc 5, Track 5 from "The Love Parade" double 7" single - Blanco y Negro NEG 16F, 1985
Disc 5, Track 8 from "Please Please Please" 12" - Blanco y Negro NEG 20T, 1985
Disc 5, Track 10 from "Angel of Mercy" single - Blanco y Negro NEG 50, 1991

Disc 6: Instrumentals (* previously unreleased)

1. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want (Instrumental)
2. The Love Parade (Instrumental)
3. Humdrum (Instrumental) *
4. Power to Believe (Instrumental)
5. Hampstead Girl (Instrumental) *
6. Here (Instrumental) *
7. In the Hands of Love (B/V Mix) *
8. Ballad in 4/4 (Instrumental) *
9. Doubleminded (Instrumental) *
10. Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime (Instrumental) *
11. In Exile (for Rodrigo Rojas) (Instrumental) *
12. The Demonstration (Instrumental) *
13. In Suspendium

Disc 6, Track 1 from "Please Please Please" 12" - Blanco y Negro NEG 20T, 1985
Disc 6, Track 2 from "The Love Parade" double 7" single - Blanco y Negro NEG 16F, 1985
Disc 6, Track 4 from The Morning Lasted All Day - A Retrospective - Real Gone Music RGM-0245 (U.S.)/Edsel EDSK 7074 (U.K.), 2014
Disc 6, Track 13 from "Angel of Mercy" CD single - Blanco y Negro NEG 50CD, 1990

Disc 7: 12" mixes and more (* previously unreleased)

1. Life in a Northern Town (Extended)
2. The Love Parade (12" Mix)
3. Indian Summer (Extended Version)
4. Angel of Mercy (12/8 Mix)
5. Mordechai Vanunu
6. Love (Love is 7)
7. Love (Dreamstrumental)
8. Love (Dream House)
9. Love (Love is 12)
10. Love (Whales in Love)
11. Love (Hare Krishna Mix)
12. Heaven (Pts. 1/2) *

Disc 7, Track 1 from Blanco y Negro 12" NEG 10T, 1985
Disc 7, Track 2 from Blanco y Negro 12" NEG 16T, 1985
Disc 7, Track 3 from Blanco y Negro 12" NEG 27T, 1987
Disc 7, Track 4 from Blanco y Negro 12" NEG 50T, 1990
Disc 7, Track 5 from B-side to "Love" single - Blanco y Negro NEG 46, 1990
Disc 7, Tracks 6-11 from "Love" U.S. CD single - Reprise 21738, 1990