dEUS - In A Bar, Under The Sea (30th Anniversary Edition) (1996/2026) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

Belgium’s finest alt-rock stalwarts dEUS are set to release 30th Anniversary editions of their first two albums, Worst Case Scenario (1994) and In A Bar Under The Sea (1996) to coincide with their major European tour this spring.

In 1994 and 1996, dEUS released Worst Case Scenario and In a Bar Under the Sea, two albums that didn’t just introduce a band, but quietly rewired the possibilities of European alternative rock. Worst Case Scenario arrived fully formed yet thrillingly unstable: wiry guitars, fractured rhythms, and Tom Barman’s half-spoken, half-sung narratives drifting between paranoia and pop. Songs like “Suds & Soda” and “Via” felt less like singles than dispatches from a band inventing its own internal logic in real time.

In a Bar Under the Sea pushed that logic to its breaking point. Looser, stranger, and more communal in spirit, the album folded jazz phrasing, off-kilter pop hooks, and moments of near-chaos into something that still somehow cohered. It captured a band refusing to settle, embracing excess and experimentation at a moment when European guitar music rarely dared to sound this restless or this alive.

Now, widely regarded as Belgium’s most influential rock band, dEUS & [PIAS] Recordings will rerelease both albums as 3LP and 2CD expanded 30th Anniversary sets, including long lost B-Sides and rarities.

AllMusic Review by Ned Raggett:
Producing the opening track "I Don't Mind Whatever Happens" to sound like a scratchy blues track from 1930 may well be the little joke of either the band or producer Eric Drew Feldman in homage to his former boss Captain Beefheart. The results work pretty well anyway, though, and that characterizes the same "try it, let's see what happens" spirit through In a Bar. Having established its own sense of savvy white boy urban blues on Worst Case Scenario, the band explores more ways around it on its second effort, generally favoring a quieter, calmer result throughout. New guitarist Craig Ward fits into the lineup well, business carrying along as usual in its striking way. Feldman proves to be an excellent guy to have behind the boards; whether it's he or the band who figures out some of the fantastic stop on a dime shifts and arrangements throughout, all work together with great results. Clever sampling once again crops up: Mingus' "Far Wells, Mill Valley" gets a nod on the smoky snarl "Theme From Turnpike." "Fell Off the Floor, Man" is another high-point, so accomplished and sly in its genre shifting and moods that Beck could be envious. Scott McCloud of Girls Against Boys, a perfectly appropriate guest, takes a bow with some spoken word philosophy, but it's the band's blend of low, spoken vocals, weird harmonies, and sudden shifts between tight rhythms and slabs of feedback that make it all work. Another American takes a bow as well – Dana Colley, saxophonist for Morphine, on the brief "Supermarketsong" – but mostly it's all dEUS proving that Belgians can indeed rock. Whether it's the gentle strum and swing (then much more intense break) of "Little Arithmetics," the Built to Spill five years before its time pace and delivery of "Gimme the Heat," or the lovely piano-into-guitar anthem "Disappointed in the Sun," In a Bar is worth the finding.

Tracklist:
01. I Don't Mind What Ever Happens
02. Fell Off the Floor, Man
03. Opening Night
04. Theme from Turnpike
05. Little Arithmetics
06. Gimme The Heat
07. Serpentine
08. A Shocking Lack Thereof
09. Supermarketsong
10. Memory Of A Festival
11. Guilty Pleasures
12. Nine Threads
13. Disappointed in the Sun
14. Roses
15. Wake Me Up Before I Sleep
16. Worried About Satan
17. Overflow
18. My Little Contessa
19. My Wife Jan
20. The Tugboat
21. Everything Is The Same (Except No One Believes Me)
22. I Suffer Rock
23. Difficult Day
24. Me And Your Mother
25. Opening Night (Live, 'Basta' at Studio Brussel)
26. Roses (Vermeersch Version)
27. A Shocking Lack Thereof (Demo Version)
28. Nine Threads (Demo Version)


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