The Chords UK ‘But Then Again: The Best Of’, and more out on 2LP + CD and 3CD in April.
The Chords UK, the alt-rock heroes helmed by Chris Pope, will release the mammoth 44-track ‘But Then Again: The Best of The Chords UK’ on 2LP [plus bonus CD], 3CD and digital formats on 4 April 2025 on EPOP Records. The collection’s full release will be preceded by the single / video for new track ‘World Gone Crazy’ out today, 24 January 2025. The band will also tour extensively in 2025. Chris was described by Paul Weller as “the best songwriter of his generation”, by Uncut as “savage as Townshend with a toothache” and Vive Le Rock as creating, “timeless song writing and understated brilliance!” This collection underlines all that.
Designed to truly tell the tale of The Chords UK, ‘But Then Again’ is an ambitious and inventive collection, featuring new and previously unreleased tracks, remastered / remixed / remade versions of favourites, unashamedly obscure B-sides, and even live recordings. The main album features 26 tracks – culminating with an acoustic re-working of Top 40 hit ‘Maybe Tomorrow’- with additional bonus material making a total of 44 songs. This is a set of songs that draw on what has gone before – and the fans will find all their favourites – but they have all been revisited and taken to another place!
Chris Pope himself said, “I decided a few years ago to start work on a ‘compilation/ best of’, of sorts. But simply to add 20 plus songs from six albums onto Vinyl/CD and put it out there: that would be far too easy and wouldn’t interest me one bit! Instead, I looked back at songs from the three Pope albums ‘Grace of God’, ‘Tall Tales’, ‘Peace of Mind’ and the Hat-trick of Chords UK albums ‘Take on Life’, ‘Nowhere Land’ and ‘Big City Dreams’, then picked the ones we knew we could ‘dream up’ again or re-imagine. The new tracks are renderings of unrecorded songs written between 1982 up to 2024. Finally, we hit the acoustic guitars, and some old original Chords tunes got laid down too”.
The Chords UK were formed over a decade ago to continue playing classic Chords tunes such as ‘Maybe Tomorrow’, ‘The British Way of Life’ and ‘So Far Away’. But Chris isn’t interested in remaining frozen in time and his aim has always been to push forward, ‘But Then Again: The Best of The Chords UK’ does just that. This album is a milestone, sure, but also a statement of intent – Chris Pope and The Chords UK have plenty to celebrate, but also plenty more to achieve along the way.
