Release Date: November 07, 2025
Label: Merge

Long out of print and highly sought after since it's initial 2003 UK issue on Pointy, this vinyl reissue marks the first time The Violet Hour by The Clientele has been available on the format in North America. Following the breakthrough success of Suburban Light, the 2001 collection of singles and EPs, tastemakers and aficionados were eager to hear what the trio of Alasdair MacLean (guitars, vocals), Mark Keen (drums, piano), and James Hornsey (bass) could make if set loose inside a studio to record a full-length album. What they emerged with from London's Medina Road Studios in the fall of 2002 was tantalizing: Their already sharply realized motif of '60s psychedelia and modern fuzz-pop took on inflections of jazz, particularly in how the space afforded by the LP format allowed for a keener articulation of atmosphere. The Violet Hour has endured decades later as a signature album in The Clientele's catalog, not only perfecting the sound that made the band a message-board phenomenon but revealing entirely new depth to it. The Clientele remains one of the genre's most important figures, and The Violet Hour was, and remains, one of their most vital statements: a lush invitation to their underground.

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Tracklist

1. The Violet Hour
2. Voices in the Mall
3. When You and I Were Young
4. Missing
5. Jamaican Rum Rhumba
6. House on Fire
7. Everybody's Gone
8. Porcelain
9. Haunted Melody
10. Prelude
11. Lamplight
12. The House Always Wins
13. Policeman Getting Lost