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    Scritti Politti – Cupid & Psyche 85 Reissue

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    THE EIGHTIES ARCHIVE – REISSUE NEWS

    Reissued on 10th July 2026 on ROUGH TRADE.

    n the mid-1980s, pop music was undergoing a glossy, high-tech transformation. Drum machines were getting crisper, synthesizers warmer, and production budgets astronomical. Yet, no one weaponised this era of sonic luxury quite like Green Gartside and his project, Scritti Politti. With the definitive Deluxe Edition reissue via Rough Trade Records, listeners are invited to revisit an album that is simultaneously a flawless pop jewel and a radical piece of sonic subversion.

    To understand the genius of Cupid & Psyche 85, you have to look at where Scritti Politti started. In the late 1970s, Gartside was living in London squats, releasing scratchy, DIY post-punk records influenced by Marxist theory and Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionism. Then, Gartside had a revelation: instead of fighting the system from the margins, why not subvert it from the inside? He decided to make the most perfect, commercial pop music imaginable.
     
    Cupid & Psyche 85 was the culmination of that dream. Recorded with a massive budget in New York and London, Gartside collaborated with veteran producer Arif Mardin and absolute masters of the studio.

    The result was an album of staggering precision. Every single element—from the Fairlight CMI sampler sequences to the crisp LinnDrum patterns—was micro-edited to perfection. Tracks like “Perfect Way,” “Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin),” and “Hypnotize” crackle with an obsessive, mathematical energy. It is sugary, hyper-produced pop, but it feels incredibly alive.

    Overseen entirely by Green Gartside alongside bandmate David Gamson, this newly remastered edition by Chris Athens features exclusive, comprehensive sleeve notes. For the first time ever on vinyl, the fabled 13-track CD tracklist makes its debut layout on an expanded 2LP set, sitting right alongside the CD and Digital formats with three completely unreleased archival vault tracks.

    Scritti Politti Reissue Image 1
    Scritti Politti Reissue Image 2
    Available Formats
     
    The reissue is available in the following physical and digital configurations:
    • Expanded CD & Digital Edition. A continuous, immaculate single disc/streaming layout containing 16 tracks
    • Deluxe 2LP Vinyl Edition. The complete remastered 1985 CD sequence spread across two discs for optimum audio fidelity, plus 3 rare archive cuts. (16 tracks).

    Tracklisting (on all formats)

    • The Word Girl
    • Small Talk
    • Absolute
    • A Little Knowledge
    • Don’t Work That Hard
    • Perfect Way
    • Lover To Fall
    • Wood Beez
    • Hypnotize
    • Flesh and Blood
    • Absolute (Version)
    • Wood Beez (Version)
    • Hypnotize (Version)
    • Perfect Way (Version)
    • Lover To Fall (12″ Dance Mix)
    • Perfect Way (12″ Mix)
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