Beloved British pop group Thompson Twins will revisit their seminal fourth album, 1984's Into the Gap, in a new deluxe edition from BMG this fall.

Newly remastered by Frank Arkwright, the triple-disc set will include the original album - including U.K. Top 10s "Hold Me Now," "Doctor! Doctor!" and "You Take Me Up" - alongside 30 bonus tracks, including all the extras from the original British cassette edition of the album, nine B-sides and single edits making their CD/digital debuts, and several unreleased mixes of "Hold Me Now" and fourth single "Sister of Mercy" by acclaimed PWL/Stock Aitken Waterman remixer Pete Hammond. The accompanying booklet features rare photos and liner notes featuring all three members of the band at the time: Tom Bailey, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway. A limited edition pressing of the original album on red vinyl will also be issued; all formats release on November 8.

Distinctly not a duo, the three-member Thompson Twins in 1984 marked a radical departure from their previous work; 1982's Set, their sophomore album, featured a seven-piece line-up (including guitarist Matthew Seligman, recently of Bruce Woolley and The Camera Club). They'd shorn down to a trio for 1983's Quick Step & Side Kick (issued in America as Side Kicks), finally achieving some U.K. chart success with "Love on Your Side" and "We Are Detective."

Into the Gap found the trio reuniting with Quick Step & Side Kick producer Alex Sadkin at Compass Point Studios in The Bahamas. The shift to a trio made them, as Bailey notes in the package, "singers of pop music" rather than a band; Bailey focused on music, Currie on lyrics and Leeway on arrangements and presentation. This enabled them to experiment more in the studio, particularly with synthesizers and electronic instruments, for a different sound than what was done previously. "Marrying traditional instruments and percussion with big synth sounds to get the human warmth with cool machines was what we aimed for," Bailey says in the notes. "We were constantly accused of it not being 'real music', especially in America, because we rejected the who concept of rock and roll and guitars in favour of synthesizers and percussion."

Indeed, while some contemporary reviews of Into the Gap were muted, it was hard to deny, at the very least, the power of emotional single "Hold Me Now." Featuring a lush arrangement accented by Latin percussion, piano and even xylophone, the track not only reached No. 4 on the U.K. charts but placed a slot higher in America - still their biggest hit on these shores. (Follow-up "Doctor! Doctor!" was a U.K. No. 3, just missing the Top 10 in the States.) The album earned a platinum disc from the Recording Industry Association of America and positioned the Thompson Twins (who'd record one more album as a trio with producer Nile Rodgers in 1985) as a pop band to watch; the group performed the following summer at Live Aid in Philadelphia, with Madonna offering backing vocals to their short set (as the group did for hers).

The Into the Gap reissue supersedes a previous double-disc reissue from Edsel in 2008, offering rare B-sides and single versions for the first time on CD (including instrumental "Let Loving Start" and edits and mixes of "You Take Me Up," "Sister of Mercy" and "Doctor! Doctor!"). The set's second disc offers the same eight tracks included on one side of the original Into the Gap cassette release, opposite the complete original album. Nine remixes and 12" versions complete the set.

The reissue is available November 8 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Into the Gap (40th Anniversary Edition) (BMG BMGCAT859TCD, 2024)

3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

* previously unreleased
** previously unreleased on CD

CD 1: Original Album (2024 Remaster) & B-Sides

1. Doctor! Doctor!
2. You Take Me Up
3. Hold Me Now
4. Day After Day
5. No Peace for the Wicked
6. The Gap
7. Sister of Mercy
8. Storm on the Sea
9. Who Can Stop the Rain
10. Let Loving Start **
11. Nurse Shark
12. Out of the Gap **
13. Passion Planet
14. You Take Me Up (Instrumental Remix)
15. Doctor! Doctor! (Phil Thornalley Mix)

CD 2: Cassette Mixes & Edits

1. Leopard Ray
2. Doctor! Doctor! (Cassette Mix Version)
3. Panic Station (Day After Day)
4. Down Tools
5. Hold Me Now (Cassette Mix Version)
6. Funeral Dance (No Peace for the Wicked)
7. Compass Points (The Gap)
8. Still Water (Storm on the Sea) (Edit)
9. Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Mix) *
10. Sister of Mercy (Pete Hammond Mix) *
11. Doctor! Doctor! (Single Edit) **
12. Doctor! Doctor! (Edit) **
13. Sister of Mercy (Single Mix) **
14. You Take Me Up (Single Edit) **
15. The Gap (Single/AOR Mix) **

CD 3: Extended & 12" Versions

1. Hold Me Now (Phil Thornalley Extended Mix) **
2. Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Extended Mix) *
3. Let Loving Start (12" Version)
4. Out of the Gap (Megamix Extended Version)
5. Sister of Mercy (12" Version)
6. Sister of Mercy (Pete Hammond Extended Mix) *
7. The Gap (Club Remix Version) **
8. You Take Me Up (Machines Take Over - 12" Version)
9. You Take Me Up (High Plains Mixer - U.S. 12" Remix)

CD 1, Tracks 1-9 released as Arista 205 971 (U.K.)/AL8-8200 (U.S.), 1984
CD 1, Track 10 released on "Hold Me Now" U.K. single - Arista TWINS 2, 1984
CD 1, Track 11 and CD 2, Track 11 released on "Doctor! Doctor!" U.K. single - Arista TWINS 3, 1984
CD 1, Track 12 and CD 2, Track 13 released as Arista U.K. single TWINS 5, 1984
CD 1, Track 13 and CD 2, Track 14 released as Arista U.K. single TWINS 4, 1984
CD 1, Track 14 and CD 3, Track 9 released on Arista U.K. 12" TWINS 224, 1984
CD 1, Track 15 from The Best of Thompson Twins: Greatest Mixes - Arista ARCD-8542 (U.S.), 1988
CD 2, Tracks 1-8 released on Arista U.K. cassette 405 971, 1984
CD 2, Track 12 released on Arista U.S. promo single AS1-9209, 1984
CD 2, Track 15 and CD 3, Track 7 released as Arista U.S. 12" promo ADP-9289, 1984
CD 3, Tracks 1 and 3 released as Arista U.K. 12" TWINS 122, 1984
CD 3, Tracks 4-5 released as Arista U.K. 12" TWINS 125, 1984
CD 3, Track 8 released on Arista U.K. 12" TWINS 124, 1984