limited retail exclusive remastered clear "blood red" 2lp in gatefold sleeve + 20pp booklet described by nicky wire as “our most estranged album of all” the record came at a time when the band were reflecting on what they had become and what they could be.the band looked to the music they had liked when they were young for inspiration, new order circa ‘low life’, prefab sprout ‘steve mcqueen’, thomas dolby ‘the flat earth’, early simple minds, and the kind of cerebral electronic pop that dominated the early-to-mid 1980s. wire said at the time "the main lyrical themes are death and solitude and ghosts. being haunted by history and being haunted by your own past.” james dean bradfield commented “i loved making lifeblood, because it was interesting. i loved chasing these other versions of what we were trying to do.”
