Some forty years after a fan letter from Nebraska resulted in Independent Project Records commencing a decades-long collaboration with post-punk cult favorites turned dream pop visionaries For Against, Piqued is the last album from For Against chief songwriter, lead singer, bass player and only constant member Jeffrey Runnings.

Piqued is a celebration of the artist’s lifelong quest for a sound that, stripped to the bones, is all the more powerful and cathartic for its restraint. Recorded by Runnings at home on an old 8-track cassette machine, the album plays just like a late ‘80s mixtape, lovingly compiled to showcase the beautiful emptiness of post-punk’s more eloquently quiet peaks.

The favorites of a life-time — from Section 25 to The Comsat Angels, from Young Marble Giants to early 4AD singles — are all conjured in Runnings’ final songs. Stark and deadpan on the surface, this is electric guitar music in its most human and vulnerable form.

Piqued is available on vinyl (Black or Transparent Magenta), Special Edition CD and digital, and comes with a 4-track EP of rare recordings from the late 80’s — two of them previously unreleased. This bonus EP comes on Clear Silver 12” for the color vinyl edition and as bonus tracks on the CD.

Side A:
1. Batman Forever
2. Just Before Nothing
3. Threadbare
4. Mayfair
5. Bloom
6. The Courage of Voluntary Trees

Pulling the vinyl record from its luxurious, and expertly crafted sleeve, putting it on the turntable, dropping the needle, this recording - which was finalized shortly before the artist passed away at 61 due to Stage 4 cancer - opens first with the veritably shimmering nuances shown guiding Batman Forever and then we get a joyful indie reverb that propels Just Before Nothing, the Cure-esque Threadbare, a haunting Mayfair, and both the free-flowing musical majesties of Bloom and the emotively cultured The Courage of Voluntary Trees.

Side B:
7. Heretofore
8. Failed Rescue Attempt
9. Glorious Grey
10. Value
11. Elegy

Flipping the vinyl LP over on this lovingly-crafted posthumous release and we next get the 90’s indie rocker sound of Heretofore and the spacial Failed Rescue Attempt, which are in turn followed by the all-embracing Glorious Grey, some jangling, synth-driven rock in the form of Value, the original album coming to a close on the effervescent nature of the luxuriant Elegy.

Bonus EP Track Listing:
1. Follow
2. Light of My Life
3. Watch
4. Demolition Blast

The bonus EP - with tracks recorded in the late 80’s by Jeffrey that he rediscovered the master tape for - opens on the quietly industrial feel of Follow and then we get the shimmering reverb of both instruments and vocals on Light of My Life, the melodically effective Watch, the rambunctious Demolition Blast closing things down.

Since the 1980s, Independent Project Records has released or co-released no less than five full-length albums and one 7” EP with For Against. Within the last decade, labels such as Captured Tracks and Saint Marie Records have released box set compilations featuring portions of the For Against catalog, with Saint Marie releasing Jeffrey’s first solo album, Primitives and Smalls, in 2016.

Official Purchase Link

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