Fried

Julian Cope's second album of 1984 was never re-pressed in its original format. This re-issue faithfully replicates the original Mercury Records UK release with a poster and is pressed onto high-quality 180g vinyl.

Fried is one of Julian Cope's boldest albums. It made many think that after teetering on the edge for a while, he had finally tipped over into artistic madness. This was amplified by his wearing a turtle shell and staring at a toy van on a landscaped spoil tip in Warwickshire on the album's sleeve.

The opening track "Reynard The Fox" added to it all, a six-minute psychedelic garage rock tour-de-force. It breaks down to a Julian Cope monologue where he gravely intones English folk tales from his vantage point, referring also to an onstage stomach-slashing incident from 1983.

Sunspots, the sole single taken from the album, is one of his greatest recordings in a career that spans over 40 years. Fried is up there with some of the very best works of the singular British eccentric.