Although Julian Cope was largely a social hermit during the mid-'80s, his darkest years personally, he remained a friend and favorite of BBC DJs Janice Long and John Peel, who regularly coaxed him from his Tamworth home into their studios for sessions. (In keeping with his craving for solitude, the majority of the mid-'80s recordings feature Cope strumming away at a guitar with only a cheap and clattery drum machine for accompaniment.) The results are startling for those familiar with the more polished studio recordings; stripped of its relatively lush orchestration, "Reynard the Fox" sounds like Roky Erickson at his most paranoid. The full-band sessions recorded just before and during the recording of 1991's Peggy Suicide find Cope utterly revitalized, off drugs, happily married, and, happily, even weirder than before. The throbbing "Soul Medley" jams together Funkadelic's "Free Your Mind & Your Ass Will Follow," the Mothers of Invention's "Are You Hung Up," and Cope's own Krautrock-inspired meltdown, "Hanging out and Hung up on the Line," for a mind-melter that no mere drug could provide. Although it's no substitute for the albums Julian Cope was recording in these years, The Best of the BBC Sessions: Floored Genius, Vol. 2 is essential for fans.

TRACKLIST

01. Friend, Lover, Wife (Album Version)
02. Armed And Crazy
03. Mainline
04. Thanks To The Cathouse (I'm In The Doghouse With You)
05. Leave It To Me
06. Me and the I.R.S.
07. Let's Have A Hand For The Little Lady
08. Just Makin' Love Don't Make It Love
09. Look What The Dog Drug In
10. The Outlaw's Prayer (Album Version)
11. Johnny Paycheck with Merle Haggard - I Can't Hold Myself in Line
12. Yesterday's News Just Hit Home Today
13. Johnny Paycheck with Merle Haggard - You Don't Have Very Far to Go
14. Johnny Paycheck with Merle Haggard - No More You and Me
15. Someone Told My Story