Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children

'Devotion: Songs About Rivers and Spirits and Children' is a limited-edition deluxe box set which includes remastered reissues of the classic Hiss' albums 'Bad Debt', 'Poor Moon', and 'Haw'; as well as 'Virgo Fool' a rarities compilation that will only be available physically as part of this collection.

Both the 4-CD and 4-LP sets are housed in a cloth-wrapped, foil-stamped slipcase and feature original iconographic artwork by Sam Smith, an exclusive foldout poster, full lyrics, and new liner notes by New Yorker writer Amanda Petrusich and MOJO editor John Mulvey.

"What struck me about Hiss Golden Messenger—and my absorption in these early records was instantaneous—is that Taylor’s songs are completely and unfailingly honest about how stupid and frustrating it is to be a person. But then, of course, he finds magnificence anyway: “Hallelujah anyhow” is how he put it later." - Amanda Petrusich.

“Even on his most raw and unadorned album, 'Bad Debt', or on his most troubled, 'Haw', Taylor is still striving for that next level. Sometimes the epiphanies arrive through lyrical graft; “I’m trying to learn,” he vows, emblematically, on “Sufferer (Love My Conqueror).” Sometimes, they manifest musically, as if the collective endeavour of a band can provide consolation, for both the participants and the listeners, in even the darkest of times. It’s these imperatives, I think, that have made me turn to Hiss Golden Messenger records more than any others over the past decade; Taylor’s issues are all too understandable, but his creative solutions to them are almost mystically uplifting to a non-musician like myself. His music articulates an untethered spiritual meaning, one which can make sense to those of us who have no coherent system of belief. On these albums, you can hear a mission, a compassionate vision, being improvised and fleshed out exponentially, as Taylor’s sense of community and his place in it grows with every release. Also, they really fucking swing”. - John Mulvey.

- 4CD set is cloth-wrapped slipcase box with matte foil stamping. CDs in LP-style debossed wallets + lyric inserts + foldout poster.

Box sets are each limited to 2,200 worldwide.

TRACKLIST:

Bad Debt 
1. Balthazar's Song / 2. No Lord Is Free / 3. Bad Debt / 4. O Little Light / 5. Straw Man Red Sun River Gold / 6. Far Bright Star / 7. The Serpent Is Kind (Compared to Man) / 8. Call Him Daylight / 9. Jesus Shot Me in the Head / 10. Super Blue (Two Days Clean) / 11. Roll River Roll / 12. Drum

Poor Moon
1. Blue Country Mystic / 2. Call Him Daylight / 3. Drummer Down / 4. Under All the Land / 5. Westering / 6. Pittsboro Farewell (Two Monarchs) / 7. Super Blue (Two Days Clean) / 8. Jesus Shot Me in the Head / 9. O Little Light / 10. A Working Man Can't Make It No Way /11. Dreamwood / 12. Balthazar's Song

Haw
1. Red Rose Nantahala / 2. Sufferer (Love My Conqueror) / 3. I've Got a Name for the Newborn Child / 4. Hat of Rain / 5. Devotion / 6. The Serpent Is Kind (Compared to Man) / 7. Sweet as John Hurt / 8. Cheerwine Easter / 9. Hark Maker (Glory Rag) / 10. Busted Note / 11. What Shall Be (Shall Be Enough)

Virgo Fool 
1. Rock Holy / 2. Black Country Woman / 3. Joyce & Joel / 4. Lion/Lamb / 5. Father Sky / 6. Issa / 7. Back to the River Again / 8. Tell Everyone / 9. Karen's Blues / 10. The Revenant