Saturday Deluxe / 21 Nov 2015

Bowie’s back!

David Bowie returns with a new album Blackstar in January. Above is an image from the newly released video and you have to say it’s the scariest he’s looked since the cover of the Never Let Me Down album.

Opinion has been divided (the video was described, not inaccurately, as “cobblers” by one SDE reader) although the majority welcomed Bowie taking risks and doing something that goes beyond the three-minute pop song. The first four and a half minutes of Blackstar are certainly quite immersive and meditative but the more melodic middle section (“something happened on the day he died…”) is really quite sweet and actually reminded me a bit of his work on Labyrinth!

The working-with-jazz-musicians thing is actually a bit of a red herring. The production is more like sophisticated/experimental pop to me – it doesn’t actually sound that ‘jazzy’. Anyway, I now love this new song and can’t wait for the album which is due in early January. Apart from a clear vinyl pressing, there’s nothing which boasts special packaging and no deluxe edition at all. I can all but guarantee a Blackstar deluxe will be issued in the latter part of 2016, but who’s going to wait for that!?

Read more about David Bowie’s Blackstar here.

SDE in The Big Apple!

I will be in New York City during the second half of next week, blogging ‘live’ from the Big Apple! It will be a busy week with loads ‘Black Friday’ deals on offer via Amazon, PopMarket, the Demon Music Store and more. On top of that there is Record Store Day on the Friday so I’ll be out and about checking out some of the few remaining independent Record Stores in Manhattan . I’ll be in town for a few days so I’m looking for recommendations for places to eat, drink and perhaps see some live music. Leave a comment if you can help :)

Great Offer Store

Talking of deals, you could do better than to head over to the ‘Great Offer Store’ for some early Christmas shopping. Many of you have been in touch to highlight some crazy prices on this Universal Music-run site. Examples include the INXS All The Voices 10LP vinyl box for £71, the Roxy Music Complete Studio Albums 8LP box for £60 and The Jam Setting Sons super deluxe for £25.

Check out the Great Offer Store.

Peter Gabriel competition

As promised last week, there is a fantastic competition now live on SDE where one of you will win a massive 12LP bundle of Peter Gabriel vinyl. These are the new reissues with each album pressed on 2LP 45RPM vinyl and they all come with hi-res downloads. A really great prize, I think you’ll agree, so if you haven’t entered yet, then what are you waiting for!

Enter the Peter Gabriel’s competition.

SDE ChartWatch

The brand new UK charts were announced yesterday. SDE takes a look at the movers and shakers with regards to reissues and box sets.

Elvis has his third consecutive week at number one on the physical UK albums chart, holding off One Direction’s Made In The AM (although the boys to depose him on the combined chart). This is all but guaranteed to be Elvis’ last week at the top, since a certain Adele will probably outsell the whole of the top 40 combined in this coming week with her predictably-titled 25 album.

Jeff Lynne’s ELO‘s Alone In The Universe debut’s at an impressive number three on sales while The Essential ELO slips back into the top 100 (just) at no. 99. Beatles and Dylan both drop on the physical chart, the latter stone-like, going from number nine to number 41.

Not a whole lot of action this week if I’m honest. The Kurt Cobain Montage of Heck demos set is a new entry at no. 44 while Led Zeppelin‘s remastered version of Mothership is a re-entry at 57, probably because it was only a fiver on Amazon.