The Maccabees are celebrating their reunion by re-releasing two of their albums: ‘Colour It In’ and ‘Given To The Wild’. Check out the details below.
It comes as the indie band recently reunited for a huge show at this year’s edition of Glastonbury, and are also gearing up to headline All Points East later this summer.
The band broke up in 2017 but announced their return last October. They played their first gig back on June 20 at London’s The Dome for a charity gig in aid of MS Society.
To celebrate the reunion, they have now confirmed that both their debut album and their third album will be reissued in new variants. The first is 2007’s ‘Colour It In’ – the band that put The Maccabees on the map and saw them establish themselves with a blend of art-rock and classic indie-pop.
It featured their chart breakthrough ‘First Love’ and the live staple ‘Precious Time’, as well as fan favourites ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ and ‘Latchmere’. For 2025, it will be pressed on a two-sided zoetrope vinyl that was designed in collaboration with singer Orlando Weeks. It features the original tracklist, alongside the seven bonus tracks that were added to the Special Edition in 2008 – one of which is their take on Richard Hawley’s ‘Just Like The Rain’.
For their third album, 2012’s ‘Given To The Wild’, the band had evolved sonically and were exploring new genre touchpoints. It saw them take home an Ivor Novello for ‘Pelican’ and also helped them secure both their first UK Top Five album and a Mercury Prize nomination.
The new edition of the record will be pressed on double orange translucent vinyl, complete with new gatefold packaging. It is the first vinyl press since the original run sold-out shortly after the 2012 release, and before now, secondhand copies had been selling for up to £190.
“One of the things we are most proud of in the history of our music is how different each Maccabees album is,” guitarist Felix White said. “‘Colour It In’ was full of songs we had built as teenagers: the sound of a band racing each other to the finish line, all the attention on manic playing together in a room, with almost no effects.
“‘Given To The Wild’ is almost the exact opposite: all about atmosphere, limitless layers and reaching for beauty. It’s the sound of two completely different bands, but somehow, with perspective, both are as ‘Maccabees’ as each other. I love that.”
Both vinyl rereleases are out on August 22 and available for pre-order here.
For their Glasto set, NME performed a full five stars and praised it as “their most euphoric show to date”.
“It’s only when finale ‘Pelican’ rolls around that the bliss that covers The Park stage starts to slowly fade,” it read. “It feels too soon for The Maccabees to be leaving after living without them for so long, but the hour they spend on stage is perfect and not to be taken for granted.
“Now, their reunion rolls on to more UK dates and their big day out at All Points East. Start praying now that they decide to continue beyond that, too.”
Weeks and White also shared how they were feeling with NME before the show.
“I don’t know about on the larger scale, but it’s the first time my son’s going to see me sing, on a stage anyway. So that’s exciting for me,” Weeks said. “We’ve been on tour in the last week, just some shows in northern Europe and it’s been so good, I think. Also Glastonbury is such another world that it feels like you don’t have to connect it too much to anything else. It can just be this standalone, bizarre moment.”
White added: “That’s really true. I think we just feel like we want to really appreciate what it is – not that we didn’t before, but it just feels like it’s not a given. So we’re just going to try and really grasp it and live inside it.”
The Maccabees were joined onstage at Glastonbury 2025 by Florence Welch, who provided guest vocals on ‘Love You Better’ before performing Florence + The Machine‘s ‘Dog Days Are Over’.
