SCRITTI POLITTI Vinyl & CDs

Review: Scritti Politti made three albums for Virgin and all of them are now being reissued by band leader Green Gartside's current record label, Rough Trade, this year. Cupid & Psyche 85 first came in 1985 and is now presented with new sleeve notes that reunite Gartside with keyboardist and co-producer David Gamson. These are the first reissues of any kind from Scritti Politti, and it coincides with a forthcoming tour that runs in autumn and celebrates 35 years of Cupid & Psyche 85. Politti's brand of alternative indie is close to as sweet as it gets on this record, with plenty of sensuality and sweet but never sickly pop tropes.

Review: If you've never been to Leeds then let's put it like this i Scritti Politti make a lot of sense if you know the city well enough. Long before 'the first Harvey Nichols outside London' and the refurbishment of the historic arcades there was dereliction and squats. If you look hard enough, you'll still find them, but it's out of that 1970s economic woe that Scritti Politti emerged, kicking, screaming and squatting while blending various spheres of influence into a punk framework.

Within a decade, though, they would leave that rough and ready remit behind, at least in part, and adopt a more mainstream pop approach. Anomie & Bonhomie, released in 1999 after no less than an 11 year hiatus, marries both chart friendliness with an alternative edge, in moments sounding like Let Loose, at other times the forgotten Kid Rock demos.