Superconnected: 4AD Offers Up 30th Anniversary Reissues Of Belly, Lisa Germano, And Pale Saints For RSD 2025

Reissues like these make me happy but also make me feel old; has it really been 30 years since I drove to Best Buy to get Belly's second album, King, the day it was released? I came to Lisa Germano's Geek the Girl a bit later, the fact that the musician was on the imprint being the first draw for me, and for the 1994 Pale Saints record, Slow Buildings, I'm pretty sure I got that CD at Kemp Mill, a record store I used to manage.

In 1995, Belly had had radio hits in America, Lisa Germano was known mainly for her work with John Cougar Mellencamp, and Pale Saints had had a few songs on MTV's "120 Minutes" but was still a fairly underground act in terms of what was ruling the realms of alt-rock at the time. Still, in 1995, with these three releases, 4AD was bridging their own legacy with the ongoing changes in styles and tastes in the mid-Nineties.

These three albums have never sounded better than they do now here, and whatever format you choose, on Record Store Day 2025, these reissues should be at the top of your list!

For this Throwing Muses fan, it was wonderful to see the band's Tanya Donelly blossom away from her step-sister Kristin Hersh. Donelly's work with The Breeders on 1990's Pod suggested she certainly had more songs up her sleeve than the one or two which had been showing up on Muses records, and by 1993, that was more than apparent with the release of Star by her band Belly.

With new bassist Gail Greenwood, 1995's King was another matter. More direct, more in-sync with the metal leanings of their new bassist, this record was a big, punchy alt-rock machine. If not as nuanced and comlex as Star, King was at least just as listenable, with plenty of tunes that should have been huge hits in the college rock world and beyond. "Now They'll Sleep", a moody choice for first single, was not bad, but "Superconnected" was even better. The big chorus on this one and the lilt of "Seal My Fate" are elements which made King such a great record in 1995. The album still holds up well, especially for those who always hoped that the performer behind "Not Too Soon" by Throwing Muses would one day lead a band who'd attempt to put out nearly a whole record's worth of that kind of thing.

King still sounds great, as crisp and crunchy as ever, with numbers like the title cut and the lyrical "Judas My Heart" holding up very, very well. I understand why Star was the one Belly album so many owned, but there's room on your shelves for King too. Especially this new 2025 edition of the second Belly album.

Lisa Germano's career remains sort of amazing to me. How can you go from John Cougar's band to the moody styles of this label so easily? Geek the Girl, Germano's second record for 4AD, is now here, reissued in fine form and paired with her Inconsiderate Bitch EP.

Decades later, Germano's art seems very much like what Kristin Hersh was doing in her own solo career in those years. Germano favors more of an atmospheric approach at times, with numbers like "Sexy Little Princess Girl" very nearly veering into goth lanes. At her best, like on the title cut, Germano serves up intimate, personal, and neatly complex portraits of her own vision. When played now, it makes perfect sense that this was on 4AD. More personal and less abstract than efforts by some label-mates, Lisa Germano's record occupies a similarly-minded space, where shade and feeling and considerable nuance matter as much as the hooks and lyrics.

Lisa Germano would keep recording for the label, but this was sort of her near-breakthrough, given the good press this record received in the era. Geek the Girl really deserves a new audience, and hopefully this RSD 2025 reissue will do the trick.

By 1994, Ian Masters had departed Pale Saints. The band, still going strong, was largely centered around the efforts of the late Graeme Naysmith and vocalist Meriel Barham. With Colleen Browne and Chris Cooper rounding out the group, Pale Saints were still a formidable outfit, one carrying on the earlier traditions of the 4AD sound too. In an era where the legacy of Nirvana loomed over everything, an effort like Slow Buildings was far more complicated in sound and approach, with more nuance and maybe more mood than anything else being put forth in those days of the alt-rock boom.

Slow Buildings was in some ways far more direct than In Ribbons (1992) had been, though there was still mystery in the Pale Saints approach, thankfully. "Angel (Will You Be My)", one of the better singles pulled from the release, is bright and crunchy. That it sounds like what label-mates Lush were doing in the era is another plus. Elsewhere, "One Blue Hill" harks back to the dreamy sound of earlier Pale Saints efforts, Meriel's vocals as enticingly sweet as they can be. Pale Saints had a way of mixing that sweetness with dark undercurrents that set them apart, and the push-and-pull between light and dark is what gives Slow Buildings some enduring weight. The meandering "Henry" is offset by the sharp "Under Your Nose", and "Sugggestion", another real gem here.

This 2025 edition of Slow Buildings is generously stuffed with the "Fine Friend" EP, and a whole clutch of demo recordings, including an elegant and lovely demo of "Marimba" from that aforementioned EP. The overall presentation makes a strong case for this album being, if not quite the equal to The Comforts of Madness (1990) or In Ribbons (1992), then at least a solid runner-up.

King by Belly is available from 4AD.

Geek the Girl by Lisa Germano ia available from 4AD.

Slow Buildings by Pale Saints is available from 4AD.

[Photo of Pale Saints: David Tonge; Photo of Belly: Stephen Dirado]