release date: Dec. 1982
format: vinyl (Z RED 41) / digital (2000 reissue)
[album rate: 3 / 5]
producer: various
label: Cherry Red Records - nationality: England, UK
Track highlights: A) 1. Five or Six "Portrait" - 2. The Monochrome Set "Eine Symphonie Des Grauens" - 4. Tracey Thorn "Plain Sailing" - 5. Ben Watt "Some Things Don't Matter" - - B) 1. Marine Girls "Lazy Ways" - 2. Felt "My Face Is on Fire" - 3. Eyeless in Gaza "No Noise" - 4. The Passage "XOYO" - 5. Everything but the Girl "On My Mind" - 6. Attila the Stockbroker "A Bang and a Wimpey" - 9. Quentin Crisp "Stop the Music for a Minute"
Compilation album released on Cherry Red Records as a collection of the label's artists. The album was quite well-known, perhaps mostly due to a sticker on the front cover reading "Pay no more than 99p", which ensured good promotional sales. I believe I came across the album around '85 or there about, and bought it because it features Felt, Tracey Thorn, Ben Watt, Marine Girls, and Everything but the Girl, and because the music I associated with Cherry Red were basically interesting artists.
The music is simply too diverse to make a great album, but it has its moments and mostly functions as a fine historical document. In 1984, a sequel Pillows & Prayers 2 was released in Japan only, and in 2000 both albums was issued together as Pillows & Prayers (Cherry Red 1982-1984), and with that title an award-winning 4-disc package of 3 cds and 1 dvd was released in 2007, which went on to win the 2008 MOJO Award for Catalogue Release of the Year.
[ allmusic.com 4 / 5 stars ]
