The Unicorns - Unicorns From The Future (2-Disc Set)

Happy New Year and here we go again with hopefully a fruitful amount of posts!  With this new slew of conceptual bootlegs, I may focus on more recent artists, but if you are not familiar with these artists, this is an excellent way to do so.

The Unicorns recorded the cult-classic and incredibly valid indie-rock album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone in 2003, and released it in 2004, being their only heavily produced album.  Earlier this year, it was reissued and is readily available at most record stores, so sample on youtube if you must, but it is an album I consider a masterpiece; not many of those.

The reason for only one album is the strenuous recording sessions with the two singers seemingly always fighting or upset with each other.  The music they were able to make has some strange charm to it that is not present in many other indie or post-alternative (lol) rock album.  Something like a nostalgically innocent feeling of being a kid and for the first time acknowledging what death is.

Of the hard to find and/or out of print material, there is their other semi-official album Unicorns Are People Too, two much rarer EPs called All Parts and Collision and Three Inches of Blood, and a slew of loose songs leaked via the internet. The only release after the 2004 Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone, was a 4-track EP entitled, simply, 2014.

Well to celebrate the last 365 days (happy new year! by the way), and our transition into 2015, I have a special 2-disc set entitled Unicorns From The Future.  Disc one is an album entitled simply 2014 including the entire EP of the same name along with songs from solo work and the aforementioned rare releases.  Disc two is entitled Return To The Sea, and is nearly the entire WWCOHWWG album in demo form, with three unreleased songs to fill the gaps.

The Unicorns - Unicorns From The Future

Disc One: 2014

Side A
1. #ORANGE ***
2. The Unicorns: 2014 *
3.  I Do It **
4.  Thunder & Lightning **
5.  Piste 21 ***
6. Do The Knife Fight ***

 Side B
7.  Ruff Gem
8.  Emasculate The Masculine *
9.  Bayou Billy ***
10.  Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby
11.  Big Kind Death ***
12.  Evacuate The Vacuous *
13.  Ebb Tide, Azure Sky *
14.  Bonus: 2014 (Demo) *

Disc Two:  Return To The Sea

Side Not Ready:
1.  I Don't Wanna Die ***
2.  Tuff Ghost ***
3.  Sea Ghost ***
4.  Ghost Mountain **
5.  Jellybones **
6.  Child Star **

Side Ready:
7.  Let's Get Known ***
8.  I Was Born A Unicorn **
9.  Let Me Sleep
10.  Innoculate The Innoculous **
11.  Les Os **
12.  Peach Moon *
13.  Let It Go ***

* From 2014 EP
** From an "official" release (see above)
*** Leaked via internet

The first disc is a collection of songs from Unicorns Are People Too that aren't from their recently reissued LP, the songs from the EP 2014, two songs from their rarer EPs and two songs from the solo project Islands debut album Return To The Sea.  These songs are Ruff Gem and Don't Call Me Whitney, Bobby; both of these songs were recorded in demo or live form during The Unicorns existence.

The second disc is an attempt at an early-draft version of the epic Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone.  The entire first half of the album (Side Not Ready on the official album) is available in early form, except for The Clap.  The opening I Don't Want To Die was leaked via the internet and to my knowledge does not exist on any actual release.  Tuff Ghost is from a radio sessions, as no demo was available.  Sea Ghost was also leaked online.

Ghost Mountain is the last song from Unicorns Are People Too, and the demo/early version of Jelly Bones is from Three Inches of Blood EP.  Child Star is also from Unicorns Are People Too, ending side not ready.

Side Ready has a few more absent songs, where there just simply wasn't an existing alternate version I could find.  Let's Get Known is present, being leaked online in a very rough demo form.  There are also radio sessions of this song but they are so similar to the actual version that this lo-fi track will do.  I Was Born A Unicorn is the definitive version from Unicorns Are People Too.

The first track to be missing is  The Clap from the first side, which is simply omitted.  Tuff Luff sadly does not exist either, so Let Me Sleep is added in here, a bonus track from the deluxe edition of the remaster.  Innoculate The Innoculous is from Unicorns Are People Too and Les Os is from All Parts And Collisions EP.  A track entitled Peach Moon is placed after Les Os. Originally I had Big Kind Death here, but Peach Moon seems to be more befitting of this album.

The final song on the album, Ready To Die, had no alternate take that I could find, although there was an interesting leaked track called Let It Go.  When I added it to my iTunes, it had the album Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?, leading me to believe at one point it was to be included on the LP.  It works perfectly as a closing track, though much more somber than the official release.