The Chords UK, the alt-rock heroes helmed by Chris Pope, will release the mammoth 44-track 'But Then Again: The Best of The Chords UK' on 3CD on 4 April 20205 on EPOP Records. Chris was described by Paul Weller as "the best songwriter of his generation", by Uncut as "savage as Townshend with a toothache" and Vive Le Rock as creating, "timeless song writing and understated brilliance!" This collection underlines all that.
Designed to truly tell the tale of The Chords UK, 'But Then Again' is an ambitious and inventive collection, featuring new and previously unreleased tracks, remastered / remixed / remade versions of favourites, unashamedly obscure B-sides, and even live recordings. This is a set of songs that draw on what has gone before - and the fans will find all their favourites - but they have been revisited and taken to another place!
Chris Pope himself said, "I decided a few years ago to start work on a 'compilation/ best of', of sorts.But simply to add 20 plus songs from six albums onto Vinyl/CD and put it out there: that would be far too easy and wouldn't interest me one bit!Instead, I looked back at songs from the three Pope albums 'Grace of God', 'Tall Tales', 'Peace of Mind'and the Hat-trick of Chords UK albums 'Take on Life', 'Nowhere Land' and 'Big City Dreams', then picked the ones we knew we could 'dream up' again, or re-imagine. The new tracks are renderings of unrecorded songs written between 1982 up to 2024. Finally, we hit the acoustic guitars and some old original Chords tunes got laid down too".
The Chords UK were formed over a decade ago to continue playing classic Chordstunes such as 'Maybe Tomorrow', 'The British Way Of Life' and 'So Far Away'. But Chris isn't interested in remaining frozen in time and his aim has always been to push forward, 'But Then Again: The Best of The Chords UK' does just that. This album is a milestone, sure, but also a statement of intent - Chris Pope and The Chords UK have plenty to celebrate, but also plenty more to achieve along the way.
Disc: 1
1 British Way Of Life
2 Brave New World
3 Get Me To Saturday Night
4 Love's Still Here
5 White Van Man
6 Mutiny On The Thames
7 One Happy Man
8 Hipsters Of London
9 Man On The Northern Line
10 Gentrified The Elephant
11 Any Fool Knows
12 Analogy Of Life
Disc: 2
1 Hey Kids! Come The Revolution
2 Somewhere Beyond The Rainbow
3 Twenty First Century Girl
4 Another Thing Coming
5 Nine To Five And Me
6 Dreams Of Yesterday
7 Leave It All Behind
8 World Gone Crazy
9 Indie Disco Friday Night
10 Eat Sleep Work Repeat
11 Two Weeks In Heaven
12 Land Of Milk & Honey
13 But Then Again
14 Maybe Tomorrow
Disc: 3
1 Get On In Life
2 All I Ever Wanted ( Was To Be Wanted By You)
3 Bitter Sweet
4 Heart Of The Matter
5 Veronica Jones
6 Take On Life
7 Three Minute Pop Song
8 One Horse Town
9 One More Minute (Acoustic)
10 Turn Away Again (Acoustic)
11 Twenty First Century Blues
12 Running On Dreams
13 Welcome To My World
14 Before Elvis
15 Always Quit While Your Still Ahead ( Pope -Live)
16 The Last Thing I Ever Do ( Pope - Live)
17 Making Mountains
18 Last Man Standing
