Holding the Music in Your Hands ®
XL Recordings are set to reissue The Prodigy‘s 1997 album The Fat Of The Land on 3 December, and amongst the formats released will be the original double LP, CD and download, plus deluxe double CD and deluxe digital editions.
Continue reading “The Prodigy / The Fat Of The Land 15th Anniversary Reissue”
The Who are already releasing some signficant archival material in November 2012, including a two-CD issue of their 1970 Live In Hull gig, the debut (outside Japan) of their the My Generation album on CD in mono, and an 11LP vinyl box set containing all their official studio albums.
Apparently, there is room for one more collectible, with the 19 November release of a limited edition blue vinyl 12-inch record of their performance at the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Cermony. That performance featured the following songs: Baba O’ Riley, See Me Feel Me / Listening To You and My Generation.
Previously only available on the official soundtrack album to the ceremony, The Who – ‘Music For The Closing Ceremony Of The London 2012 Olympic Games’ (to give it its official title) comes backed with Early Morning Cold Taxi and will be limited to 1,000 copies and available exclusively through www.uvinyl.co.uk.
The Sony/RCA repackage of the Elvis Presley The Complete 50’s Masters box set was released last week, and like previous ‘bookset’ reissues from the same label, there appear to be all ‘pros’ and very few ‘cons’ with this release.
Back in 1992 when it was first issued, UK fans would have paid well over £50 for this package. Today, the five-CD set is available for the incredible price of £12.99. The content hasn’t changed, simply reconfigured into the shelf-friendly DVD-sized ‘bookset’. You still get every studio master released by Elvis in the 1950s, as well as rare recordings (My Happiness and That’s When Your Heartaches Begin from 1953) and various alternate takes / outtakes and live cuts. In total, 140 tracks tell the story from the early Sun Records recordings, and the RCA signing, until Elvis put his recording career on hold when joined the army in 1958.
The 44-page booklet contains the same Peter Guralnick essay as the original, guiding us through Presley’s career-defining early years in an informative and entertaining manner. There is also a ‘sessionograhy’ detailing all the recording sessions, as well as a discography. An abundance of photos including album covers, posters, ticket stubs and record labels evoke the era perfectly.
A minor quibble is the rather fiddly way the CDs are held in place with plastic sprung clips sitting below each disc, requiring a firm downwards tug at the top of each disc to release and re-seat each CD, but overall, this superb package just got a whole lot more attractive thanks to the excellent packaging and cheap price point.
UK Order: The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Complete 50’s Masters
Ian Brown Collected is a new career-spanning box set from Fiction Records that focuses on the solo career of the Stone Roses frontman.
Available from 3 December, the set features 10 CDs, a heavyweight 12-inch vinyl record, a DVD, a 60-page book and a numbered certificate of authenticity signed by Ian Brown.
Continue reading “Ian Brown Collected / 10CD box set”
Having recently mused on the fact that Robert Palmer has been somewhat forgotten by the music industry, it was a pleasant surprise only days later to learn of some new reissues coming from Edsel Records in November.
Continue reading “Robert Palmer: Expanded EMI period albums coming from Edsel”
If you shop online for your reissues and box sets, it’s quite likely that you purchase regularly from Amazon. It is by far the most popular place to order, and amongst the attractions in terms of buyer experience is the excellent pre-order price guarantee which means you only ever pay the lowest price advertised for your item before release, regardless of the price listed when you made the order.
Continue reading “The price is right? How shopping globally can save you money”
Mark King and Level 42 are this year celebrating the 25th Anniversary of their 1987 album Running In The Family. A massive commercial success, the album contained the hit singles Lessons In Love and Running In The Family, and would be the last record put out by the original line up formed in the late 1970s. The line-up was Mark King (on bass, of course), Phil Gould (drums), ‘Boon’ Gould (guitar, saxophone) and Mike Lindup (Keyboards). Wally Badarou was the unofficial ‘fifth’ member of the band with a significant contribution in terms of keyboard playing, songwriting and production.
Continue reading “Mark King interview / Level 42 and Running In The Family”
In the modern world where everything is seemingly a click away, it can be very exciting to find out about something that is truly difficult to get hold of.
Continue reading “The Beatles / Italy-only box set”
The Smashing Pumpkins Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is reissued on 3 December 2012 with two deluxe box sets being available, as well as a standard 2CD remastering. Below are the latest pictures of these sets. which look fabulous. Click on the images to enlarge. Full track listings and further details here.
Six disc set (CD/DVD)
Four LP set (Vinyl)
Universal will release In Motion Pictures, a new compilation of music by Elvis Costello on 26 November 2012 (earlier in some territories).
Continue reading “Elvis Costello / In Motion Pictures”
Having been released on CD in the summer, Mute and Spoon are have announced that, German experimental band Can’s The Lost Tapes will be issued as a five-LP box set on 3 December 2012.
Continue reading “Can / The Lost Tapes vinyl box”
Peter Gabriel visits Google HQ, and in front of an audience of fans, talks about the So reissue, the ‘Back To Front’ tour and answers questions about his career.
Edsel Records will release a vinyl box set collecting The Beat‘s studio albums on 19 November 2012.
Continue reading “The Beat / The Vinyl Collection box”
We’ve had a few questions about the mastering of forthcoming issue of The Who‘s My Generation Mono CD.
As some of you will be aware the original UK mono mix is previously unissued on CD outside of Japan, where it was included on a pricey box set and as a standalone CD with bonus tracks back in 2008. The mastering used in Japan was by Jon Astley, from Shel Talmy’s original mono tapes.
Universal Music have confirmed that this is NOT Jon Astley’s remaster and so will be different to what appeared on those Japanese releases. This new release appears to be a new remaster, with the tapes from Universal’s tape library ‘baked’ recently for the playback and mastering process. We can exclusively reveal that the image above is one of the actual tapes used for this new mono CD, although it is not yet clear who did the new remastering.
From the image we can see that this tape was created 32 years ago (almost to the day!) and is a copy, rather than the very original master tape.
The Who / My Generation mono CD is out on 19 November 2012 and is available to pre-order (in the UK) for only £5.00.
While die-hard Jam fans will be debating whether to pick up the super deluxe edition box set of The Gift, anyone new to the band, or only familiar with the hits, might be interested in this Classic Album Selection box set that comes complete with all six of their studio albums.
The set is due for release on 3 December 2012, and the attractively designed box will contain the six CDs housed in vinyl replica card wallets. The albums themselves will not come with any bonus tracks.
Albums within the box:
Congratulations to Magnus Goethe who has been randomly selected as the winner of the 20CD Atlantic Soul box set. Magnus, we will be in touch to send your prize to you.
Thanks to everyone who entered and look out for more competitions coming soon!
Robert Palmer’s back catalogue has been shamefully out of print for many years, and only recently have US specialist Culture Factory sought to do something about this, with a few select reissues.
However, Island Years 1974-1985 is a rather special box set released only in Japan in 2007, with an exclusive (and excellent) remastering that has never been used anywhere else. It includes all Robert Palmer’s albums originally released on the Island label between 1974 and 1985: Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley (1974), Pressure Drop (1975), Some People Can Do What They Like (1976), Double Fun (1978), Secrets (1979), Clues (1980), Maybe It’s Live (1982 – with original cover), Pride (1983) and Riptide (1985). Each disc is presented in an exquisitely detailed mini LP-style vinyl replica sleeve.
Unfortunately, for the collector, these sets are now horribly expensive on the used market, but should you ever be tempted you will not be disappointed! Check out the prices below to see what I mean, but also read the reviews!
Above, is a new image detailing the forthcoming 10cc five-disc box set Tenology.
This set is out on 19 November. More details and track listings here.
Elvis Presley’s New York City shows at Madison Square Garden in June 1972 are celebrated in a new 40th anniversary 2CD+DVD deluxe ‘Legacy’ edition release from RCA/Sony Music.
Continue reading “Elvis / Prince From Another Planet”
