We should embrace the difficulty of Felt

For a band which had gained a reputation for tuneful indie pop with strong choruses it made perfect sense for Lawrence to release albums with very little, or even no vocal at all, removing himself as the focus point of the band, whilst remaining very much that.

Albums have been renamed, artwork re-thought; he even arranged for 1985’s excellent Ignite The Seven Cannons to be reproduced to remove the trademark sounds of original producer, Robin Guthrie.

The introduction of organist Martin Duffy (who went on to join Primal Scream after Felt folded) heralded a more orthodox approach to albums. Forever Breathes the Lonely Word (1986), one of two highlights of this second set of reissues covering the final five albums by the band is very much Duffy’s moment to shine, his organ work prevalent throughout and his face adoring the sleeve. The likes of "Rain of Crystal Spires" is as poppy as Lawrence has ever been, while the country-esque twang of "A Wave Crashed On The Rocks" looks to sun drenched Americana but from the perspective of a rain drenched Tuesday in Thatcher’s Britain.

Although the band visited many other genres of music, when you listen back to these albums they can’t be by any other band, "Stained Glass Windows" from Poem of the River (1987) is vivid, pastoral and psychedelic, "Declaration" from the same album is as prowling and menacing as anything Nick Cave produced at the time to much higher acclaim. The Pictorial Jackson Review (1988), is the band at their poppiest, albeit ramshackle jangle pop which sounds as though it’s about to fall apart and cost a week’s giro payment to record. Just as things were taking a conventional route, Train Above The City doesn’t feature Lawrence at all, Duffy and percussionist Gary Ainge collaborate in a jazzy lounge album which is equal parts ridiculous and genius, but ultimately only needs revisiting once.

The band's final album, Me & A Monkey on the Moon (1989) is rightly regarded as one of their best, working well as a summary of what they’d done during that decade executed with the vigour of a band knowing they’d achieved what they’d set out to. There’s country-tinged pop with the steel guitar led gorgeousness of “I Can’t Make Love To You Anymore”, "She Deals in Crosses" is surprisingly guitar heavy (and one of their very best tracks) while the epic "Budgie Jacket" and "Down An August Path" both deserve a place alongside "I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have” for primetime eighties indie tearjerkers, while in the synthy "Mobile Shack" you pretty much have the first track from Lawrence’s next project, Denim.

Lawrence continues to go against the grain; instead of rebooting Felt for a celebratory run of gigs to coincide with these albums, he released an album as Go Kart Mozart, the excellent Mozart Mini-Mart from earlier this year. Even after all these years he continues to be contrary and difficult, and we should embrace this with all our might.