Somewhere In The Sun... Best Of The Dream Academy is a compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

 released by The Dream Academy

The Dream Academy

The Dream Academy was a folk rock band from England, comprising singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes; multi-instrumentalist Kate St John; plus keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. They are most noted for their hit single, "Life in a Northern Town".-History:Laird-Clowes and Gabriel met each other in the late...

 in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 in 2000. The compilation album contains the extended version of Life In A Northern Town

Life in a Northern Town

"Life in a Northern Town" is a pop song by The Dream Academy, an English dream pop group. The song is the first single from their 1985 self-titled debut, The Dream Academy. Reaching #7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986, it is also their highest-peaking chart single in the US...

and an acoustic version of The Party rather than the more common versions. At the time of its release, Nick Laird-Clowes

Nick Laird-Clowes

Nick Laird-Clowes is a musician, most famous for his membership as the lead singer and one of the principal songwriters for the band called The Dream Academy...

 revealed that the band actually had no involvement with the album, and he went on further to say that they weren’t even informed by Warners that a compilation album was being made. His former label boss, Alan McGee, then of Creation Records, was the one who actually brought him home a copy when he was visiting Japan on business. According to Kate St John

Kate St John

Katharine Elinor Margaret St John is an English musician, vocalist, composer, record producer, and arranger. She plays the oboe, saxophone, accordion, piano and cor anglais.-1980s:...

, around the same time that this album was being made, Warner Brothers

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 were considering a US compilation album, but they and the band decided to re-issue their first album, The Dream Academy

The Dream Academy (album)

The Dream Academy is The Dream Academy's eponymous debut album, released in 1985. It was mainly produced by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Nick Laird-Clowes. The most notable track from the album is "Life in a Northern Town", which was written as a tribute to Nick Drake...

http://theacf.com/dreamac/ksjqa.html. Because of its somewhat limited availability, it is one of the more sought after Dream Academy albums.

Track listing

1. Life In A Northern Town (Extended) – 5:20
2. Ballad in 4/4 – 3:59
3. Power To Believe – 5:15
4. Lucy September – 3:08
5. Twelve-Eight Angel – 4:20
6. One Dream – 2:33
7. Hampstead Girl – 3:41
8. This World – 5:07
9. The Love Parade – 3:46
10. It'll Never Happen Again – 3:32
11. Love (Hare Krishna Mix) – 7:02
12. Indian Summer – 4:55
13. In Places On The Run – 4:28
14. (Johnny) New Light – 4:23
15. The Party (Acoustic Version) – 3:32
16. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want – 3:07
17. Waterloo – 5:03
18. Lowlands – 3:46