Sweet / Strung Up / 2LP purple vinyl and two-CD ‘restored’ editions

Glam up for Sony Music’s expanded, digitally remastered reissue of Sweet’s 1975 studio/live compilation Strung Up in double LP colour vinyl and 2CD formats.

Sweet albums generally failed to achieve quite the level of chart success as the band’s singles, but Strung Up might never have been released if it hadn’t been for career-best sales of their 1974 studio album Desolation Boulevard in North America. It peaked at number 25 in the US and number five in Canada, eventually achieving gold status in both countries. In an attempt to capitalise on their growing popularity Stateside, the band had 50 headline gigs lined up across the pond and it was decided to delay the release of Sweet’s fourth studio album Give Us A Wink until 1976 lest they cannibalise sales of Desolation Boulevard.

To keep Sweet’s hordes of non-US fans happy in the meantime, RCA issued Strung Up in November 1975 instead. It featured one disc with seven songs recorded live during the band’s 1973 gig at the Rainbow Theatre on 21 December. The other disc had ten studio tracks recorded since 1973, including the previously unreleased I Wanna Be Committed, plus two songs that had never appeared on an album before – Miss Demeanour and Burn On the Flame.

The mix of live and studio recordings proved popular, reaching number nine in the UK, spending 16 weeks in the German charts (peaking at number 17), and achieving high chart positions across Scandanavia and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand.

This attractively presented double-LP reissue of Strung Up is pressed on 180g purple vinyl and is expanded to include three bonus tracks on the ‘Live Album’ (The Ballroom Blitz, Blockbuster and Teenage Rampage) and four on the ‘Studio Album’ (The Lies In Your Eyes, Fever Of Love, Teenage Rampage and Hell Raiser).

As for the two-CD edition, the PR machine talks of this being the ‘first-ever CD’ of this album, but there have in fact been three previous CD releases (in Japan 1992 and 1998 under the title Anthology, and in the USA in 1997). The difference is that those reissues each featured only 17 tracks, whereas the expanded 2016 CD reboot, will feature the same 24 tracks as the new two-LP format. This means that if you want to hear all 14 songs played at Sweet’s 1973 Christmas gig, including an eight-and-a-half-minute Rock ’N’ Roll Medley, you’ll have to try to get hold of RCA’s 1999 Sweet – Live At The Rainbow 1973 release.

The Strung Up double LP edition is out now, with the CD version to follow on 27 May 2016.

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Sweet

Strung Up 2LP coloured vinyl

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Track Listing

2LP edition

LP 1: Live Album

Side A

1. Hell Raiser (Strung Up Live Edit)
2. Burning/Someone Else Will
3. Rock ’n’ Roll Disgrace
4. Need A Lot Of Loving
5. The Ballroom Blitz (Bonus track)
6. Blockbuster (Bonus track)

Side B

1. Done Me Wrong All Right
2. You’re Not Wrong For Loving Me
3. The Man With The Golden Arm
4. Teenage Rampage (Bonus Track)

LP 2: Studio Album

Side A

1. Action (Strung Up Mix)
2. Fox On The Run
3. The Lies In Your Eyes (Bonus Track)
4. Fever Of Love (Bonus Track)
5. Set Me Free
6. Miss Demeanour
7. The Ballroom Blitz

Side B

1. Teenage Rampage (Bonus Track)
2. Burn On The Flame
3. Solid Gold Brass
4. The Six Teens
5. I Wanna Be Committed
6. Blockbuster
7. Hell Raiser (Bonus Track)

CD edition

Disc: 1
1. Hell Raiser
2. Burning/Someone Else Will
3. Rock’n Roll Disgrace
4. Need A Lot Of Loving
5. The Ballroom Blitz
6. Done Me Wrong All Right
7. You’re Not Wrong for Loving Me
8. The Man with the Golden Arm
9. Teenage Rampage
10. Blockbuster

Disc: 2
1. Action
2. Fox on the Run
3. The Lies in Your Eyes
4. Fever of Love
5. Set Me Free
6. Miss Demeanor
7. The Ballroom Blitz
8. Teenage Rampage
9. Burn on the Flame
10. Solid Gold Brass
11. The Six Teens
12. I Wanna Be Committed
13. Blockbuster
14. Hell Raiser