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What’s in a name? The world didn’t know Sananda Maitreya as such in the ’80s and ’90s, but his arresting early works will finally be remastered and reissued on vinyl next year under the moniker he is now known by.

Juvenilia: The Columbia Years, available February 6, offers on six LPs the four albums Maitreya released in the U.S. and the U.K. under the name Terence Trent D’Arby: Introducing the Hardline According to… (1987), Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope and Destruction (1989), Symphony or Damn (Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness) (1993) and Vibrator (1995). The discs are pressed on 180-gram colored vinyl, with restored artwork (each now featuring his current name) plus “newly written liner notes and visual material from Sananda’s personal archive.” The box will only be available on vinyl (with a signed print available at an online store set up for this release) and will not include any B-sides or bonus tracks, many of which are unavailable on CD or digitally. (In 2021, after much negotiation, Maitreya got the rights holders at Sony Music Entertainment in the U.K. to digitally redistribute these four albums under his name; a Dolby Atmos mix of Introducing the Hardline… was released the following year.)

Even without the name change, Sananda Maitreya cut an intriguing figure. Born in Manhattan as Terence Trent Howard (he later took his stepfather’s surname), he was a Golden Gloves lightweight champion and dishonorably discharged member of the U.S. Army before making his way as a musician in Europe. CBS Records signed him to a deal, resulting in Introducing the Hardline According to…, produced mostly by the artist with Martyn Ware of Heaven 17. Maitreya’s arresting aural vision of pop, rock and soul – a stage presence that recalled Michael Jackson’s dance moves, Prince’s instrumental prowess and Sam Cooke’s smooth-to-grit vocal style – made for an intoxicating debut. Single “Wishing Well” topped the U.S. charts, while the scintillating “Sign Your Name” hit the Top 10. (Maitreya, then 25 at the time, stoked his popularity by claiming in the British press that he felt the album was pop’s most important since The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band two decades earlier.)

Maitreya boldly followed his own muse as the years went on: 1989’s Neither Fish Nor Flesh took cues from psychedelia and even gospel, but found little support from Columbia or radio promoters; the album failed to crack the American Top 40. After moving to Los Angeles, he found his fortunes bouncing back in the U.K. with the rock-aligned Symphony or Damn in 1993, spawning four Top 20 hits there (including “Delicate,” a duet with “You Gotta Be” singer Des’ree, “Let Her Down Easy” and “She Kissed Me”) and returning him to the Top 10 of the British albums chart. Vibrator, released two years later, sharply divided critics and proved to be his softest seller (almost unceremoniously dumped in America on Sony’s alternative label Work). He’d re-emerge in 2001 with WIldcard – the first on his own Treehouse Publishing label – and, after changing his name in 2001 and moving to Italy, found a comfortable groove as a still-working solo artist making what he calls “post-millennium rock.” (His most recent studio work was 2024’s The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan, which was supported by his first U.K. dates in years.)

It might not be the deep dive fans have waited for, but Juvenilia finally re-connects Sananda Maitreya to classic material long thought left behind. It’s available February 6 and can be pre-ordered below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

Juvenilia: The Columbia Years (Treehouse Publishing/Sony Music/Music on Vinyl, 2026) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Site (with signed print))

LP 1: Introducing the Hardline According to Sananda Maitreya (translucent green vinyl – released as CBS 450911 (U.K.)/Columbia FC 40964 (U.S.), 1987)

Side A

1. If You All Get to Heaven
2. If You Let Me Stay
3. Wishing Well
4. I’ll Never Turn My Back on You (Father’s Words)
5. Dance Little Sister
6. Seven More Days

Side B

1. Let’s Go Forward
2. Rain
3. Sign Your Name
4. As Yet Untitled
5. Who’s Loving You

LP 2: Sananda Maitreya’s Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope and Destruction (red vinyl – released as CBS 465809 (U.K.)/Columbia C 45351 (U.S.), 1989)

Side A

1. Declaration: Neither Fish Nor Flesh
2. I Have Fate in These Desolate Times
3. It Feels Good to Love Someone Like You
4. To Know Someone Deeply is to Know Someone Softly
5. I’ll Be Alright
6. Billy Don’t Fall

Side B

1. This Side of Love
2. Attracted to You
3. Roly Poly
4. You Will Pay Tomorrow
5. I Don’t Want to Bring Your Gods Down
6. …And I Need to Be with Someone Tonight

LP 3-4: Sananda Maitreya’s Symphony or Damn (Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness) (gold vinyl – released as Columbia 473561 (U.K.)/CK 53616 (U.S.), 1993)

Side A

1. Welcome to My Monasteryo
2. She Kissed Me
3. Do You Love Me Like You Say?
4. Baby Let Me Share My Love
5. Delicate

Side B

1. Neon Messiah
2. Penelope Please
3. Wet Your Lips
4. Turn the Page

Side C

1. Castilian Blue
2. T.I.T.S./F&J
3. Are You Happy?

Side D

1. Succumb To Me
2. I Still Love You
3. Seasons
4. Let Her Down Easy

LP 5-6: Sananda Maitreya’s Vibrator (blue vinyl – released as Columbia 478505 (U.K.)/Work OK 67070 (U.S.), 1995)

Side A

1. Vibrator
2. Supermodel Sandwich
3. Holding On to You

Side B

1. Read My Lips (I Dig Your Scene)
2. Undeniably
3. We Don’t Have That Much Time Together

Side C

1. C.Y.F.M.L.A.Y?
2. If You Go Before Me
3. Surrender
4. TTD’s Recurring Dream

Side D

1. Supermodel Sandwich w/Cheese
2. Ressurection
3. It’s Been Said