Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$10USD or more
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
In 2019 Modern English asked Vaughan Oliver, the famed 23 Envelope designer, to re-imagine artwork for their music.
Having designed every piece of art for the band since their very first single, Vaughan was thrilled to create new designs for I Melt With You, Mesh & Lace and After The Snow.
Includes unlimited streaming of After the Snow
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 5 days
$12USDor more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
In 2019 Modern English asked Vaughan Oliver, the famed 23 Envelope designer, to re-imagine artwork for their music.
Having designed every piece of art for the band since their very first single, Vaughan was thrilled to create new designs for I Melt With You, Mesh & Lace and After The Snow.
Includes unlimited streaming of After the Snow
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Digitally remastered edition including bonus tracks and featuring re-imagined artwork from Vaughan Oliver, the genius artist behind the original Modern English album covers on 4AD. After the Snow is the second album by Modern English, originally released in May 1982. The album spawned three singles, including the worldwide hit "I Melt with You".
Simply put, “I Melt With You” by Modern English is one of the most iconic songs of the New Wave-era. It garnered heavy rotation on the then-thriving Modern Rock radio format, MTV and dance clubs across the globe, and was featured prominently in the classic 1983 film Valley Girl, staring a young Nicholas Cage.
Yet Modern English was no mere one-hit wonder. Mesh & Lace, the band’s 1981 full-length debut, reveals that long before the band conquered the airwaves, it was churning out dark, moody and challenging post-punk that rivalled such peers as The Cure, Echo & the Bunnymen and their then-4AD labelmates Bauhaus. On 1982’s After the Snow, the band’s sound evolved into a more commercial and radio-friendly mix of synthesizers, guitars, catchy drumbeats and singer Robbie Grey’s unmistakable vocals. That album spawned “I Melt With You” and brought Modern English up from the underground to the mainstream.
The huge success of “I Melt With You” often over shadows that fact the Modern English were pioneers of the British post-punk scene. Formed in 1979 in Colchester, England, the band self-released its first single on its own Limp Records label, prior to signing to the legendary 4AD label, home to such like-minded acts as Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. The band also gained the attention of renowned BBC DJ John Peel, who featured the band twice on his program. Mesh & Lace, released in 1981 by 4AD, showed the band to be uncompromising experimentalists, leaving some to dismiss them as pretentious, but those who hung in there discovered a groundbreaking act, laying the foundation for such future musical movements as goth and industrial.
For 1982’s After the Snow, the Modern English inked a U.S. deal with Sire Records, the influential label that also had such acts The Pretenders, Echo & the Bunnymen and Madonna on its roster. As the title suggests, the icy sound featured on Mesh & Lace melted away on After the Snow to reveal more concise and potent songs, highlighted by the classic “I Melt With You,” a song so good that the band opted to record it again in 1990, but the original remains the ultimate and definitive version. It’s a song so popular that the band was honored with Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 BMI Awards for 3 million plays on radio. Then again, “I Melt With You” is just the tip of the Modern English iceberg. Check out these two classic albums. To quote the lyrics from the band’s most iconic song – they’re “getting better all the time.” Best of all, Modern English is still alive and kicking, and plan to tour in 2020.
credits
released May 13, 2021
All songs written by: Robbie Grey, Gary McDowell, Stephen Walker, Michael Conroy, Richard Brown
All songs performed by: Robbie Grey - Lead Vocals
Gary McDowel - Guitar Richard Brown - Percussion/Drums Michael Conroy - Bass Guitar Stephen Walker - Electric Keyboard
Formed in Colchester, England, the band self-released its first single on its own Limp Records label prior to signing to
4AD, home to such like-minded acts as Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance. Laying the foundation for future musical movements such as goth and industrial, Modern English would gain the attention of renowned BBC DJ John Peel, who featured the band twice on his program....more
supported by 13 fans who also own “After the Snow”
I bought the 12 inch single for Bela Lugosi’s Dead at Fred’s records in St. John’s, Newfoundland in the eighties and it remained a treasured item in my collection until it was lost, left behind, stolen, loaned out, whatever. I accepted that that item was lost to time and likely irreplaceable. Hence my utter shock to see that I will once again hear this evocative masterwork on vinyl along with an extra three tracks. I recall Boys was included on the B-side of that long list single. Thank you! skritti
“Strangers” is packed with wonderfully menacing electro-goth—late-night horror movie music for vampire dance parties. Bandcamp New & Notable May 8, 2023