Suicide’s A Way of Life Gets 35th Anniversary Reissue

Suicide’s third studio album, A Way of Life, is getting a 35th anniversary reissue. The record, originally released by the duo of Alan Vega and Martin Rev in 1988, has been completely remastered by Denis Blackham of Skye Mastering, who worked on the recent Suicide compilation Surrender, as well as the recent remastered reissues of the band’s first and second albums. The deluxe edition of A Way of Life will include five bonus tracks, discovered by Jared Artaud while he was working on the Vega Vault archives. The reissue lands May 26 (via Mute/BMG). Check out Suicide’s previously-unreleased live cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” below.

In addition to bonus tracks, the reissue will feature all-new cover art designed by Artaud and Michael Handis, the art direction team behind the Surrender artwork. The new edition will be available on transparent blue vinyl (with an art card and two bonus tracks), CD (with a four-page booklet and five bonus tracks), and digitally.

Suicide’s cover of “Born in the U.S.A.” was recorded live in Paris in 1988. Springsteen would later cover the duo’s “Dream Baby Dream.” A Way of Life was produced by the Cars’ frontman Ric Ocasek. Of the process, surviving Suicide member Martin Rev wrote in press materials:

The first session was scheduled for about 2 p.m. Ric [Ocasek] wasn’t there yet, only the engineers, so Alan and I just started to warm up and, in the process, started writing some new songs. The engineers decided among themselves to set the recorder rolling and when Ric came in an hour or two later ready to work, he asked the engineers if we had already sound checked. They said, “Yeah, and they basically recorded the whole album.” Ric was amazed and started immediately to listen to what became the first mixes of A Way of Life.