To celebrate its 25th anniversary, XL Recordings today announce a special, expanded version of Leila’s acclaimed second album Courtesy Of Choice. Originally released on 11th September 2000, the album followed the success of her Rephlex Records debut Like Weather and felt like a broadcast from a futuristic radio station no one else could tune into. Twenty-five years on, alongside collaborations with the likes of Bjork, Aphex Twin and Terry Hall and iconic performances at the likes of the V&A and Venice Biennale, more and more listeners have found the frequency. While Courtesy of Choice‘s influence continues to transmit through contemporary culture. the Iranian-born, London-raised producer remains utterly singular:
“I realised very early on that people don’t really belong anywhere. That’s what gives me the freedom to do any kind of music…I don’t feel any commitment or loyalty to anything. My commitment is to noise.” – Leila
Richard Russell, who originally signed Leila to XL, wrote the following email to Leila‘s product manager who’d sent him the new masters to hear (which Leila heard about and asked to use): “Leila is so expressive in every moment of it. The stylistic breadth is incredible — funky, beautiful, cinematic, eerie, ravey. As nakedly human as any electronic music ever made. The album was always great but probably twenty-five years ahead of its time, so this is the right moment for people to catch up.”
This new version, Courtesy Of Choice… asides and besides, re-presents the original 14 track album — including the previously vinyl-only “Relax the Pleasuredome” — alongside a wealth of unreleased material. Leila chose to re-edit rather than remake the album (she has all the original data… midi and audio), choosing to set the parameters of only recovering buried details while preserving its spirit. “I wanted this reissue to be honest,” she explains. “Nothing added, just making sure the performances came through as they were meant to.” Among the twenty unheard tracks are Roya Arab’s striking collaboration on Cabaret classic ‘Mein Herr,’ the surrealist collage ‘A Reasoning’ with a sample of Max Ernst, the hypnotic ‘Acid Frog Fave,’ the digi rave blowout ‘Birdie Rave,’ and ‘techyarr’’s future forever funk from the realm of primetime Neptunes. Together they reveal both the breadth of Leila’s vision and the enduring power of an album that continues to sound ahead of its time.
Courtesy of Choice… asides and besides will be available on 3xLP vinyl and double CD and is available to pre-order HERE. Meanwhile, a double a-sided single is available to stream now featuring the original album’s ‘To Win Her Love’ and exclusive new song ‘The Gamble Room’
LISTEN TO ‘To Win Her Love’/ ‘The Gamble Room’ HERE
PRAISE FOR COURTESY OF CHOICE
“If Bjork worked with a teenage tenor. If dolphins were monkeys. If ambience rode a chopper. If…
The best poetry, and the best use of beats, croons, melodies and oppressive industrial effects, are to be found on loopy Leila’s second. Promise fulfilled, and then some.” – The Face
“Leila’s 1998 album, “Like Weather”, was by common critical consent a masterpiece (although Leila herself disagrees). “Courtesy of Choice” is even better.” – Sunday Times
“As alluring as “Like Weather”, “Courtesy Of Choice” proves once again that Leila orbits a planet very different to our own… We’ll expect another masterpiece in 2003.” – NME
“In the post-trip hop / rave / remix / MTV blipvert culture, the coinage of avant-garde electronica has been devalued through overuse; synthesisers and samplers are no longer the prerogative of a handful of pioneers. On the fringes of Rock are gathered ambient / techno merchants, fake krautrock bands, all doing their twiddly thing. Sonic unorthodoxy is the new orthodoxy — but who the hell are the true geniuses? Well, Leila is undoubtedly one of them.” – Uncut
Leila
Courtesy Of Choice … asides and besides
14th November 2025
XL RECORDINGS
PRE-ORDER DIGITAL, 3LP AND 2CD HERE
Tracklisting:
- Brave
- Work
- rom Before… What?
- Relax The Pleasuredome
- Sodastream
- Gush Goog
- To Win Her Love
- Thanks mr jones
- To Tell a Lie
- I Won’t Forget
- Be Clowns
- Different Time
- Different Time (Reprise)
- young ones
- track 5
- existential megamix
- METHODOLOGIES – tim giles live drum takes
- Lush Nova Elec
- old dat biz 1 #46 (wakey wakey)
- acid frog fave
- techyarr
- a reasoning
- old tech 38
- sweets (bring u back)
- new guardmeter
- to win her love s&g asides – Extended 2025
- cowboy situation
- what i offer
- birdie rave
- mein herr
- some curious joy (cute tough beat)
- the cuban situation
- odds – live trans musicales festival 2000
- The Gamble Room
