Small Black: 10 Years of Limits of Desire

Small Black celebrates ten years of their beloved record, Limits of Desire, with a deluxe 2xLP reissue that brings this iconic album back into print with the full original Limits LP, five unreleased b-sides from the era, and the companion Real People EP. The band is also headed out on tour in the US in October to play the record in full, along with other favorites from the catalog.

After starting off in their Long Island attic, Small Black left the Brooklyn warehouse scene & toured the world extensively. Written, recorded, and mixed by Small Black at their home studio in Brooklyn over the whole of 2012, Limits of Desire is a more widescreen shot of the intimate synth-pop of Small Black’s first few releases. “We went on a real vision quest for this LP, making double-digit versions of some tracks, a few you’ll hear on the reissue,” adds singer Josh Kolenik.

Limits of Desire has become the quintessential Small Black LP over the decade since its release, accruing 100m+ streams and fueling hundreds of concert dates across the world. The iconic cover art of a couple on a ladder above an alligator, taken by artist Scarlet Hooft Graafland, has become the source material for many fan tattoos. Bolstered by the success of singles “No Stranger” and “Breathless”, Limits of Desire laid the road map for celestial, sophisticated pop: for Small Black, for their contemporaries, and for many bands that followed.

The additional material for the reissue is highlighted by “Collections”, a song the band has been sitting on for the full decade since Limits of Desire came out. Inspired by the same suburban sadness that runs through the band’s later releases, “Collections” sends both a wink and a sigh to the collecting mania of the 1990s, pre-Ebay. “It seemed every one of my friends and family was finding satisfaction in ‘finishing the set,’” says Kolenik. “All of us collected in the same fences and lawns of a community that had only really been there for a few generations.”

Limits of Desire – 10th Anniversary Deluxe Reissue comes out on Jagjaguwar on August 11th. Small Black hits the road on 10/13 in Pittsburgh, playing the Limits of Desire LP in full, ending in Portland on 11/18.

Small Black is Ryan Heyner, Josh Kolenik, Juan Pieczanski, Jeff Curtin.