Joined Up Talking (25th Anniversary Edition) – Double Coloured Vinyl

Twenty-five years since the millennium, My Life Story’s third album is being celebrated with fresh perspective. Far from a relic, Joined Up Talking feels like an essential document of a unique time in history: witty, ambitious, and unmistakably MLS.

Over the past year, frontman Jake Shillingford has been sharing a personal archive from the album’s original 2000 release via Patreon — digitised cassette tapes, DATs, press cuttings, and photo contact sheets — with fans joining the journey in anticipation of this re-release.

The story of Joined Up Talking

In 1998, after their Glastonbury main stage debut, the band were navigating the demise of Britpop, years after inspiring the era’s orchestral identity.

Reinvention beckoned. They signed to It Records, run by A&R man Tris Penna (formerly EMI), who had worked with the band on a Marc Almond collaboration for PJ Proby’s Legend. The label was backed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who once told Jake he had considered investing his money into Action Man: The Musical before thinking better of it!

As the millennium approached, Shillingford envisioned an album capturing the language, anxieties, and optimism of the year 2000. Strings and orchestral flourishes remained, with new live favourites like Neverland. But lyrical hooks and vocal melodies now led the charge. Core members Simon Wray (drums), Paul “The Crow” Siepel (bass), and Dan Turner (keys) forged a sound fit for the digital age.

Recorded in 1999 at Parkgate Studios, Joined Up Talking fused timeless songwriting with experimentation. Drum loops and programming layered with live performances echoed records of the era such as Madonna’s Ray of Light and Beck’s genre-bending albums. Singles like Top 40 hit, It’s a Girl Thing, Empire Line and Walk/Don’t Walk epitomised this hybrid style.

Lyrically, the album became a time capsule: Monica Lewinsky, Tamagotchis, Pret A Manger, the dot-com boom. The New New Yorker stitched together topical headlines into surreal narratives, while I Don’t Believe in Love — written when Shillingford was 17 — showed roots in classic songcraft.

On 23 August 1999, If You Can’t Live Without Me Then Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? became the first-ever download-only single, released as a WMV file before mp3s became standard.

Shillingford recalls:
“There was a rumour Britney Spears claimed the record, but I dispute that! I remember Steve Lamacq playing it on the Evening Session, baffled that you couldn’t buy it in shops. That DIY spirit shaped our path — and amazingly many fans from that first mailing list are still with us.”

The sleeve art also carried symbolic weight. Inspired by childhood tin-can telephones, it shows two paper cups joined by string — a metaphor for communication at the dawn of the digital age. The imagery echoed Shillingford’s fascination with miniature figures and model worlds, influenced by his first job painting toy characters for Matchbox cars.

On release, Joined Up Talking stood apart from Britpop’s curtain call, showcasing a band unafraid to evolve. With its eclectic mix of Motown brass, country balladry, loop-driven experimentation, and wry lyrical snapshots, the record has only grown in stature.

Side 1:

1. Empire Line
2. If You Can’t Live Without Me Then Why Aren’t You Dead Yet?
3. It’s A Girl Thing
4. Sunday Tongue
5. Yes To Everything
6. Walk/Don’t Walk

Side 2:

1. There’s Nothing For Nobody And Everybody Wants To Be Someone
2. The New New Yorker
3. Neverland
4. Stalemate
5. I Don’t Believe In Love
6. Two Stars

Side 3:

1. Cherries
2. Holy Deadlock
3. Emerald Green Blah Blah Blah
4. My Sweet Little Death
5. The History of the World On Ice
6. I’m a Statistic
7. Sleep

Side 4:

1. Florence’s Theme
2. Self-Defence Mechanism
3. Paint It Emerald Green
4. It’s a Boy Thing
5. E.G.M.C.M.X.C.I.X

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*please note the B-side Walk / Don’t Walk (Part 2) is not on the vinyl due to capacity, however it is available on the accompanying digital download.