A quarter of a century ago, Modesty Blaise released a self titled album full of retro pop gems that took cues from various touchstones from the past, including The Beach Boys and The Zombies, and recycled them with love. A second record, ‘Melancholia’ improved on the formula, and at its best, the record flaunted a huge budget and equally big hooks. In terms of that kind of musical pilfering, Jellyfish became absolutely worshipped in the power pop community, and by comparison, Modesty Blaise have sort of become also-rans. That deserves to change.

To celebrate its anniversary, ‘Melancholia’ will be reissued as a 3CD set on April 24th 2026, featuring a wealth of outtakes and demos.

A perfect showcase for the reissue, ‘Carol Mountain’ captures the band in full flight, when they hit the listener almost immediately with a late 60s melody, a wall of vocals, some sleigh bells and chiming guitars. The use of harmonies is key to the track’s brilliance, but would still sound a little small without the massively orchestrated backdrop, where Brian Wilson’s sense of melody is left to collide with a Ph*l Sp*ctor “wall of sound” production. Throwing everything in bar the kitchen sink, there’s even time for unaccompanied vocals that appear to drop a barber shop choir-like melody into something designed for a surf pop record, a round of flutes and eventually a huge orchestral coda. There’s nothing held back; this is the sound of a band going all out for a hit with an AM radio pop sound when the music press was dominated by Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Audioslave and Doves.

‘Coral Mountain’ is absolutely glorious, and it’s certainly time that this song and its parent album gained the kind of praise that has been heaped upon the similarly complex Jellyfish over the past two decades.

Watch the video below.