aaamusic | On 30, Jun 2011

On the 25th anniversary of Throwing Muses debut album release, 4AD are issuing the first ever compilation of the band’s work, simply entitled Anthology, on September 5th 2011.

Founded by half-sisters Kristin Hersh and Tanya Donelly and featuring the unconventional drumming of David Narcizo, Throwing Muses have consistently created challenging music. Compiled by the band, the first American act to sign to 4AD, the twenty-one track selection eschews most of the singles in favour of personal favourites, and enjoys a non-chronological sequence which makes for interesting juxtapositions and encourages a reassessment of the music. The initial limited release comes in a hardback book with a bonus twenty-two track CD of B-sides and rarities.

‘Hillbilly’ is a previously unreleased track and ‘If’ and ‘Heel Toe’ were only released in the USA. Additionally ‘Back Road (Matter Of Degrees)’ is an early version used in the movie and featuring Tanya while ‘Amazing Grace’, ‘Manic Depression’, ‘Ride Into The Sun’, ‘Crayon Sun’, one version of ‘Cry Baby Cry’, ‘Jak’ and ‘If’ are all covers. This is also probably the only release which features two different songs with the same name (‘Cry Baby Cry’).

In light of the release of Anthology, Kristin Hersh had this to say:
”It’s beautiful and substantial, thanks to awesome David Narcizo / Lakuna Design – a chunky, 28 page hardcover booklet and two CDs – one CD consisting of a hand-selected retrospective track-list by Kristin, David and Bernard, and on the other the collected B-sides, including the original Lonely is an Eyesore version of ‘Fish’, the long-lost ‘Hillbilly’ and the original version of ‘Back Road (Matter of Degrees)’. And yes, the release will be supported by Throwing Muses live dates.”