Piano is a 10-track compilation album by the English neo-psychedelic band The Teardrop Explodes, released in 1990 by Document Records. Rather than featuring piano-driven music, the album serves as a historical archive of the band's earliest creative output. It brings together rare singles, B-sides, and compilation appearances originally recorded for the independent Zoo Records label between 1979 and 1980. Because the original master tapes were lost over time, the tracks on this compilation had to be transferred and mastered directly from original vinyl pressings, giving the release a distinct, raw, audio character.
The tracklist captures the embryonic stages of frontman Julian Cope's songwriting, featuring early versions of future live favorites like "Sleeping Gas", "Bouncing Babies", and "Treason". These rough, energetic recordings offer an insightful look at the post-punk band before they found mainstream UK chart success and polished their sound for their iconic debut album, Kilimanjaro. Notably, the collection excludes their biggest commercial pop hit, "Reward", which was recorded later in their career, making Piano a specialized time capsule specifically dedicated to the band's formative, independent roots.
Released in 1990, Piano by The Teardrop Explodes functions as an essential, albeit rough-around-the-edges, historical document of the post-punk movement. Rather than presenting a cohesive artistic statement or a traditional "greatest hits" package, this 10-track compilation gathers the band’s earliest independent output for Zoo Records between 1979 and 1980. For listeners accustomed to the sleek, brass-inflected pop that later defined their mainstream success, Piano offers a jarring but fascinating detour into the band's embryonic, neo-psychedelic roots.
The sonic landscape of the album is defined by its raw, unfiltered energy, though it comes with a major technical caveat. Because the original master tapes were lost to time, Document Records was forced to transfer the audio directly from original vinyl pressings. This results in a persistent, lo-fi crackle and a murky mix that might deter audiophiles, but simultaneously lends the record an undeniable time-capsule authenticity. Far from the polished sheen of their debut album Kilimanjaro, these tracks possess a jittery, primitive urgency where Julian Cope’s wide-eyed, frantic vocal style dominates over driving basslines and scratching guitars.
Musically, the compilation excels at highlighting the raw DNA of the band's songwriting before studio indulgence took over. Early iterations of "Sleeping Gas" and "Bouncing Babies" sound leaner and arguably more dangerous here than their final album counterparts, trading pop precision for a hypnotic, Velvet Underground-inspired atmosphere. The inclusion of the frantic "Camera Camera" and the brooding, minor-key dirge "All I Am Is Loving You" shows a band heavily indebted to the stark minimalism of Joy Division and the jagged rhythms of the early post-punk scene. A standout inclusion is "Books"—a brilliant track co-written by Cope and Echo & the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch—which captures the fertile, collaborative spirit of the Liverpool scene at the turn of the decade.
Ultimately, Piano is a release strictly tailored for historical excavation rather than casual listening. The omission of their signature anthem "Reward" means it will never serve as a proper introduction to the band, and the inclusion of a closing track performed by the joke spin-off group "Whopper" breaks what little thematic consistency the album has. However, as a preservation project of rare Zoo Records singles, it is an indispensable piece of the puzzle for dedicated fans of Julian Cope. It successfully captures the thrilling, unstable moment right before The Teardrop Explodes stumbled into mainstream pop stardom.
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1. Sleeping Gas
2. Camera Camera
3. Kirkby Workers Dream Fades
4. Bouncing Babies
5. All I Am Is Loving You
6. Treason
7. Books
8. Take A Chance
9. When I Dream
10. Kwalo Klobinsky's Lullaby (performed by Whopper)
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