Art Brut have shared their newest CD box set, ‘Set Sorry, That It Doesn’t Sound Like It’s Planned! Battling Satan, 2009 – 2020’.
Out now here via Edsel Records, the indie veteran’s latest release marks the second and final box set in a two-part career-spanning compilation series, following 2024’s ‘A Record Collection, Reduced To A Mixtape’.
Featuring five CDs worth of material recorded between 2009 and 2020 – which range from unreleased home demos, rarities and B sides – frontman Eddie Argos said the box set contained “lots of treasures we’ve hoarded for years”. He added: “This is a box of fantastic music, with a long essay about that fantastic music by me, and you’d be an idiot not to grab a copy immediately.”
Compiled in direct collaboration with the band, the set spans several releases: ‘Art Brut vs Satan’ (2009), ‘Art Brut vs Satan Brutlegs and B Sides’, ‘Brilliant! Tragic!’ (2011), ‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’ (2018), as well as a bonus disc of ‘Brutlegs, Rare Live Cuts and B Sides’.
Per a press release, the five-CD fold-out is set in deluxe 7” packaging, accompanied by a 24-page illustrated zine with a liner note Argos, archival photography, and an original signed Art Brut print.
Check out the tracklistings below.
The ‘Sorry, That It Doesn’t Sound Like It’s Planned! Battling Satan, 2009 – 2020’ tracklist is:
DISC ONE: Art Brut vs Satan
1) ‘Alcoholics Unanimous’
2) ‘DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake’
3) ‘The Passenger’
4) ‘Am I Normal’
5) ‘What A Rush’
6) ‘Demons Out!’
7) ‘Slap Dash For No Cash’
8) ‘The Replacements’
9) ‘Twist & Shout’
10) ‘Summer Job’
11) ‘Mysterious Bruises’
DISC TWO: Art Brut Vs Satan Brutlegs and B Sides
1) ‘Just Deserts’
2) ‘Positively 5th Street’
3) ‘Moved To L.A.’
4) ‘Weird Science’
5) ‘Catch’ (Cure Cover)
6) ‘The Price You Pay For Waiting’
7) ‘Art Brut 0 Satan 1’ (Early Demo of Demons Out!)
8) ‘Art Brut vs Satan’ (Another Early Demo of Demons Out!)
9) ‘Science Fiction’ (Original Home Demo of Weird Science)
10) ‘Summer Job’ (Early Demo)
11) ‘Rough of Love’ (Home Demo of What A Rush)
12) ‘Am I Normal?’ (Early Demo)
13) ‘Public Transportation Please’ (Early Demo Of The Passenger)
14) ‘Day Off Work’ (Early Alcoholics Unanimous Demo)
15) ‘I Could Live Here’ (early Demo of Moved to L.A.)
16) ‘Am I Normal?’ (Mikey B Brings The Drama)
17) ‘Rush Of Love’ (Mikey Brings The Drama)
18) ‘Richard, Where Is My Record Deal’
DISC THREE: Brilliant! Tragic! (Expanded)
1) ‘Clever Clever Jazz’
2) ‘Lost Weekend’
3) ‘Bad Comedian’
4) ‘Sexy Sometimes’
5) ‘Is Dog Eared’
6) ‘Martin Kemp Welch 5 Aside Rules’
7) ‘Axl Rose’
8) ‘I Am The Psychic’
9) ‘Ice Hockey’
10) ‘Sealand’
11) ‘Unprofessional Wrestling’
12) ‘Atlanta Girl’ (Frank Black Version)
13) ‘Arizona Bay’ (Frank Black Version)
14) ‘Her Majesty’ (Beatles Cover)
15) ‘Arizona Bay’
16) ‘We Make Pop Music’
17) ‘Lost Weekend’ (Home Demo)
DISC FOUR: Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!
1) ‘Hooray!’
2) ‘I Hope You’re Very Happy Together’
3) ‘Good Morning Berlin’
4) ‘She Kissed Me (And It Felt Like A Hit!)’
5) ‘Schwarzfahrer’
6) ‘Hospital’
7) ‘Too Clever’
8) ‘Kultfigur’
9) ‘Veronica Falls’
10) ‘Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out!’
11) ‘Awkward Breakfast’
12) ‘Your Enemies Are My Enemies Too’
13) ‘Hooray!’ (Alternate Version)
14) ‘I Hope You’re Very Happy Together’ (Home Demo)
15) ‘Keep It Juvenile’ (Unreleased Writing Session)
16) ‘Kultfigur’ (Demo)
17) ‘Veronica Falls’ (Demo Version)
18) ‘She Kissed Me And It Felt Like A Hit’ (Home Demo)
DISC Five: Brutlegs , B Sides & Rare Live Cuts
1) ‘Modern Art’ (Berlinische Version)
2) ‘Mein Kleiner Bruder’ (My Little Brother)
3) ‘Post Soothing Out’ (early John Fortis Demo)
4) ‘The Nearest Exit Is Behind You’
5) ‘Started Smoking Again’
6) ‘Let’s Get Drunk About It’
7) ‘Record Store Day’
8) ‘Handle Me With Care’
9) ‘Properties Of Perception’ (We Are Scientists Cover)
10) ‘The Great Escape / Freebird’ (We Are Scientists / Lynyrd Skynrd Covers)
11) ‘Modern Art’ (Berlin Live)
12) ‘Post Soothing Out’ (Berlin Live)
Sitting down with NME last year, Argos touched on the band’s compilation box sets, the various spats and breakthroughs of the indie sleaze years, and how the band fit into the genre.
“I stood next to that at the urinal, but I don’t think we were part of that really,” Argos said of the indie sleaze label. “I’m just out of that picture. I’m in the bar over the road. It was quite careerist for a lot of those people but it was exciting to be in a band.
“We were quite a weird one really. We were singing about forming a band or about modern art. I was obsessed with Jonathan Richman, we didn’t quite fit in. We weren’t straight ahead rocky enough to be like The Libertines guys and we weren’t art school enough to be with the Franz Ferdinand guys, so we were kind of in the middle trying to make friends with the Franz Ferdinand guys and running away from the Libertines guys.”
