Love and Rockets (album)
Love and Rockets is the fourth studio album by English alternative rock band Love and Rockets; released in 1989 by Beggar's Banquet Records on cassette, vinyl, and compact disc. Background. "Love and Rockets" dismissed "Earth, Sun, Moon"<nowiki>'</nowiki>s folk sound in favour of a stronger rock sound. Hints of the band's former psychedelic and gothic rock sound remain. Chief songwriters Daniel Ash and David J had begun concentrating strictly on their own material (rather than writing together) on "Earth, Sun, Moon". The album featured Love and Rockets' biggest hit, the Ash-penned "So  Alive". The song was a surprising number 3 hit on the "Billboard" Hot 100, and stayed at number 1 for five weeks on the US Modern Rock chart. Because of the popularity of the single in the US, "Love and Rockets" became the band's best-selling album in America. It did very well in Canada as well, being certified platinum there in 1989, largely on the strength of "So Alive" which was a #1 single. After the release of the album, the band embarked on a long worldwide tour. Afterward, instead of recording a new album and a follow -up single to "So Alive", J and Ash both focused on their solo careers, continuing in the directions represented on this album. They each released two solo albums after the break (with drummer Kevin Haskins working primarily with Ash) before returning as a band to record "Hot Trip to Heaven" in 1994. In 2002, the album was remastered and expanded into a double album. The bonus tracks featured a single remix, three b-sides, all five songs from the aborted "Swing!" EP, and a radio session. The "Swing!" project was to be an outlet for some of the band's  eccentric output, but the material was never released, except for "Bad Monkey", which ended up on the "Glittering Darkness" EP in 1996. "The Purest Blue" is a radical reworking of "Waiting for the Flood" from "Earth, Sun, Moon", and "**** (Jungle Law)" was later reworked as "Bad Monkey", recorded as part of the "Swing!" project.