The Clientele: The Violet Hour Vinyl LP

“The Clienteles debut album The Violet Hour reissued on Merge vinyl for the very first time. Long out of print and highly sought after since its initial 2003 UK issue on Pointy, this LP pressing marks the first time The Violet Hour has been widely available on the format in North America. Following the breakthrough success of Suburban Light, the 2001 collection of The Clienteles initial singles and EPs, tastemakers and aficionados were (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 Londons 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. It is a shimmering jewel of a record, its languid melodies and reverb-drenched choruses at once sublime and tragic, its hazy, dreamlike discursions at once recalling the warmth of a favorite record played over a midsummer rainstorm while yearning for the mist-veiled future of a yet unwritten night. The Clientele were, and remain, one of the genres most important figures, and The Violet Hour was, and remains, one of their most vital statements: a lush invitation to their underground.” – Merge

• black vinyl pressing
• first-ever US vinyl pressing
• original release year: 2003
• music label: Merge 2025