this record comes out 12/11/2026. Release dates are set by the label and can move. If you order it with in-stock items, we’ll hold the whole order until everything arrives. If we can’t fill your pre-order, we’ll let you know and refund you in full.

This is the limited oxblood vinyl edition of the 40th anniversary reissue of Throwing Muses’ 1986 debut, an indie record store exclusive. It’s newly remastered by Kevin Vanbergen, with the original artwork by Chris Bigg at v23.

In August 1986, 4AD released the self-titled debut from Rhode Island’s Throwing Muses, and the reviews were astonishing, as if music writers could scarcely believe what they were hearing. Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, Leslie Langston and David Narcizo made it while they were still in their teens, and it’s been out of print for years.

Possession is a loaded word, but these songs were a direct result of a car accident Hersh suffered as a teenager that left her with serious injuries and ‘a lightning rod to the skull’ that caused her to hear music no one else heard: music with jagged edges and unexpected melodic leaps. Hersh recorded the album while eight months pregnant, her child and child-songs merging in the studio.

4AD label chief Ivo Watts-Russell funded the record after hearing the band’s self-released cassette while stuck in traffic: ‘I listened three or four times in a row. There was something so exciting about them, reminded me of The Birthday Party, the energy, the lyrics. The music was hard and aggressive, but the more you lived with it, the more their beauty came through.’

That mix of aggression and beauty, intricate and primal, complex and intensely melodic, still hits 40 years on. It shaped the alt rock, grunge and riot grrrl scenes that followed, and Throwing Muses still record and tour today. This is the record where it all started.

Tracklist:

Call Me
Green
Hate My Way
Vicky’s Box
Rabbits Dying
America (She Can’t Say No)
Fear
Stand Up
Soul Soldier
Delicate Cutters
*** Indie Exclusive ***
UPC: 191400093805