While She Sleeps are giving their universally-lauded, Top 10 album ‘You Are We’ an expansion with the release of ‘You Are We Special Edition’ on 20th July. It includes the 11 original album tracks along with an additional 8 unheard tracks.
“We feel that ‘You Are We’ demonstrated such a special connection between us and our fans so we wanted to give them the chance to receive as much content as possible from the campaign,” says guitarist Sean Long. “We, even as a “heavy” band, have always had a strong love for acoustic and stripped backed songs so it made sense to finally realise some of our songs in this way. The St Pancras show was so much out of our comfort zone that it made the night electric.
‘Lost Ideas’ is something people never get to hear yet I think it’s so pure and interesting. It’s from the absolute beginning of the writing process and you get to hear the essence of some of our biggest songs in their simplest and most organic form. It also includes some natural ideas that never made it into any of the songs on ‘You Are We’ itself. This is something I would have loved to hear from my favourite artists over the years so I’m happy we are giving our fans this chance.”
Set for release via the band’s own Sleeps Brothers label, the new edition of the record will feature demos of album tracks, as well as the lost ideas from its writing and recording in their self-converted Sheffield warehouse space. It also features those spine-tingling alternative versions of ‘Feel’, ‘Silence Speaks’ and ‘Hurricane’, which were recorded at While She Sleeps’ gig at St Pancras Old Church in London last September. The setting inspired bold, creative and emotive re-imaginings of the songs with a stripped-down feel. These versions sound totally fresh and different to the originals yet still retain their essence, as well as conveying While She Sleeps’ fervent live energy.
‘YOU ARE WE SPECIAL EDITION’ TRACKLISTING:
1. You Are We
2. Steal The Sun
3. Feel
4. Empire Of Silence
5. Wide Awake
6. Silence Speaks
7. Settle Down Society
8. Hurricane
9. Revolt
10. Civil Isolation
11. In Another Now
12. Feel (Alternative Version)
13. Silence Speaks (Alternative Version)
14. Hurricane (Alternative Version)
15. Civil Isolation (Demo)
16. Feel (Demo)
17. Fear In Change (Instrumental Demo)
18. I Am While She Sleeps
19. Lost Ideas