''Fiction'' is

the Comsat Angels The Comsat Angels were an English post-punk band (music), band from Sheffield, England, initially active from 1978 to 1995. Their music has been described as "abstract pop songs with sparse instrumentation, many of which were bleak and filled w ...

' third album, released in August 1982 on

Polydor Records Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

. The album has been reissued on CD three times: in 1995 by RPM Records, in 2006 by Renascent and in 2015 by Edsel Records, with different track listings (see below). The album peaked at No. 94 in the UK charts in September 1982.Liner notes from Renascent reissue of ''Fiction'' ''Fiction'' was less gloomy than the Comsats' previous album, '' Sleep No More''. Frontman

Stephen Fellows Stephen Fellows is an English singer, songwriter and musician. From 1978 to 1995, he was frontman for the band The Comsat Angels. He also managed the band Gomez and helped guide the band the Little Glitches Little Glitches are a folktronic ...

said of the change: "I certainly didn't want to make another record as intense as ''Sleep No More'' — at least not immediately. ''Sleep No More'' was so dark that I felt it skewed things a bit — possibly even mentally for me. I just felt if we carried on in that direction it'd lead to madness or maybe even something worse". Fellows was satisfied with many of the songs on ''Fiction'', including "What Else!?", "Pictures" and "After the Rain", but felt that the album as a whole could have been better. "We were a bit short of tunes when we recorded it", he said. "We were touring quite a bit after ''Sleep No More'' and there wasn't as much time to write as I would have liked".

Track listing (1982)

All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake. #"After the Rain" #"Zinger" #"Now I Know" #"Not a Word" #"Ju Ju Money" #"More" #"Pictures" #"Birdman" #"Don't Look Now" #"What Else!?"

Track listing (1995)

Track listing (2006)

All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake. #"After the Rain" #"Zinger" #"Now I Know" #"Not a Word" #"Ju Ju Money" #"More" #"Pictures" #"Birdman" #"Don't Look Now" #"What Else!?" #"(Do The) Empty House" #"Red Planet Revisited" #"It's History" #"Private Party" #"For Your Information" #"After the Rain" (Remix) #"(Do The) Empty House" (Live) #"What Else!?" (Live)

Track listing (2015)

All tracks written by Fellows/Glaisher/Bacon/Peake. Disc 1 #"After the Rain" #"Zinger" #"Now I Know" #"Not a Word" #"Ju Ju Money" #"More" #"Pictures" #"Birdman" #"Don't Look Now" #"What Else!?" Disc 2 – bonus tracks #"(Do The) Empty House" #"Red Planet Revisited" #"It's History" #"Private Party" #"For Your Information" #"After the Rain" (Remix)

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

Session #"Now I Know" #"Ju Ju Money" #"Our Secret" #"Goat of the West"

Personnel

;The Comsat Angels *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

, artwork *Andy Peake –

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

, vocals *

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Mik Glaisher –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

{{Authority control 1982 albums The Comsat Angels albums Polydor Records albums