This is one release I'm really pulling for. In August of 2003, The Vessel was quietly released in the UK on the home label of The Go! Team, Memphis Recordings, to a modest but supportive critical applause both there (NME, Jockey Slut) and in North America (Popmatters, TMT). But the original pressing of the mournfully symphonic sophomore LP never received a US release, and until now was a pricey import. Marking the first stateside Daniel Berridge outing since the 2001 BP debut Compassion, improvements have been made to an already spectacular product. Four new tracks have been polished and placed throughout the album, while "For The One" was dropped, more than likely because it was a reworking of a song from Compassion that, while richer and better produced, didn't really add much beyond the original. One of the new cuts, "The South Coast" borrows the hard chugging trip-hop beat of Portishead and coasts it with the classic Broadway Project atmosphere of baroque orchestration and vinyl pops, which brings me to another slight but significant improvement. The whole album is covered with these record pops and white noise, but with the UK version, there used to be a few seconds of complete silence between tracks that kind of knocks you out of serious listening mode, especially in headphones. The US version has been remastered and cleaned up. The remaining nine songs have all been trimmed, by as many as 16 seconds in the case of "Unborn," or mixed and cross-faded. Even with the four newbies, The Vessel now is a much tighter release which, from a person who happily owns both, I would highly recommend as the definitive version; though the highlight for me remains to be James White's gloomy guitar styled after Robin Trower live in concert on "Beaten Dog," which is available on either version (solo Trower, not with Procal Harum). To think, if Berridge never developed chronic fatigue syndrome and bought a sampler to help recuperation, none of this would've happened. Instead, you'll be hearing a lot more about the Broadway Project from now on.
1. Beauty
2. I Believe In Superman
3. Coming Back
4. The South Coast
5. Beaten Dog
6. Darkling
7. Linear 7's
8. Unborn
9. Sufi
10. Angel Heart
11. From Treetops
12. Revolution Waltz
13. Manifesto (Stand Up)