Throwing Muses Reissue Self-Titled Debut Album for 40th Anniversary

Rhode Island indie rock legends Throwing Muses will reissue their long-out-of-print (and off streaming) self-titled debut this December, in honor of its 40th anniversary. The new edition of Throwing Muses, due December 11 on 4AD, celebrates the first full-length album by the first American band ever signed by the label, a major inflection point in its history.

The quartet of of vocalist Kristin Hersh, guitarist-vocalist Tanya Donelly, bassist Leslie Langston and drummer David Narcizo were still teenagers when they released Throwing Muses in 1986. The album largely drew inspiration from a car accident that left a 16-year-old Hersh, the band’s primary lyricist, with a rod in her skull. In the aftermath, she says she began hallucinating songs like the snarling tracks Throwing Muses would eventually release.

“I can’t even remember what it was like to hear a song that didn’t grab my face and shout at it,” Hersh wrote in her 2010 memoir Rat Girl. “Must’ve been soothing. But this is electrifying.”

After 4AD signed Throwing Muses, the label’s direction shifted towards American alternative rock, exemplified by their signing of the Pixies in 1987. Throwing Muses went on to release seven albums and two EPs on 4AD. Their most LP was 2025’s Moonlight Concessions. The group has also spawned multiple side projects, including 50FootWave and Lakuna.

Revisit Katherine St. Asaph’s Sunday Review of Throwing Muses.

Throwing Muses: Throwing Muses

Throwing Muses:
01 Call Me
02 Green
03 Hate My Way
04 Vicky’s Box
05 Rabbits Dying
06 America (She Can’t Say No)
07 Fear
08 Stand Up
09 Soul Soldier
10 Delicate Cutters

Hattie Lindert is an associate staff writer at Pitchfork. A former editor at Resident Advisor, she has written for Rolling Stone, The FACE and The A.V. Club, among others. She’s based in New York, and born and raised in Vermont. ... Read More