SDE Reissue Preview for 2017

Farewell to 2016 – you won’t be missed. Now we can now look forward to another 12 months of reissues and box sets and this SDE preview will give you a taste of what’s to come…

If I’m honest, there’s a little bit of ‘deja vu’ about some of 2017, since a fair few releases in 2016 – either scheduled or hoped for – in didn’t materialise. These include Lloyd Cole‘s solo box (Lloyd Cole in New York), Paul McCartney‘s now controversial Flowers in the Dirt box set and reissues from the Pet Shop Boys.

Let’s look ahead to the next year and see what lies ahead, including releases we know about and some more speculative suggestions…

JANUARY

January is always a bit of a weird month, but there’s normally at least one or two fairly big hitters. In 2017, this is probably Cream‘s Fresh Cream SDE and the Bob Dylan vinyl reissue of The Bootleg Series vol 1-3. Those Paul Weller vinyl reissues (his solo debut and Wild Wood) that were supposed to come out in November, finally see the light of day this month. Nothing has changed… except the price which has gone from sub-£20 to more than £30. If you pre-ordered on Amazon, don’t cancel it because the original price should be honoured. Finally, January is a ‘perfect’ month to reissue Fairground Attraction‘s debut…

Reissues, box sets and albums of interest in January include:

• • St Etienne / Foxbase Alpha (vinyl box)
• • The Move / Best Of The Move (CD+DVD)
• • Bob Dylan / The Bootleg Series Vols 1-3 (5LP vinyl box)
• • Mike Oldfield / Return to Ommadawn (new album)
• • Fairground Attraction / First Of A Million Kisses (2CD deluxe)
• • Cream / Fresh Cream (super deluxe box)
• • Paul Weller / self-titled debut and Wild Wood (vinyl reissues)
• • Bert Jansch / Living In The Shadows (box set)

FEBRUARY

This month sees the sizeable Vangelis Delectus box hit ‘the shops’. If you took advantage of the SDE deal alert, then well done, as it’s looking like it will be honoured! After years in development Hidden Masters’ Chris Wood box is out and plenty of vinyl on the way; Paul Weller (Stanley Road and Heavy Soul), Budgie, Status Quo and Bon Jovi just some of the artists with reissues. 

Reissues, box sets and albums of interest in February include:

• • David Bowie / Vinyl reissues
• • Matthew Sweet / Girlfriend (vinyl reissue)
• • Jethro Tull / Stand Up (Steven Wilson Remix)
• • Alex Harvey / Last Of The Teenage Idols (4CD)
• • Paul Weller / Stanley Road and Heavy Soul (vinyl reissues)
• • David Bowie / Sound and Vision (seven-inch pic disc)
• • Chris Wood / Evening Blue (box set)
• • Judas Priest / Turbo 30 (deluxe edition)
• • Deee-Lite / World Clique (deluxe edition)
• • Status Quo / The Vinyl Collection 1981-1996
• • Falco / Falco 60 (multiple formats)
• • Budgie / Vinyl reissues
• • Roy Orbison / Black & White Night 30 (CD+blu-ray)
• • Golden Earring / Complete Studio Albums (29CD box)
• • Vangelis / Delectus (box set)
• • Bon Jovi / The Albums (vinyl box set)
• • Spin Doctors / Pocket Full of Kryptonite (vinyl reissue)
• • Wheatus / vinyl reissue
• • Carole King / The Living Room Tour (2LP vinyl reissue)
• • George Harrison / The Vinyl Collection (18LP vinyl box)

MARCH

It will be very sad to see Listen Without Prejudice reissued without George Michael around to witness it, but assuming it doesn’t get pushed back (again) then that is what will happen in March. It would be great if some kind of Wham! rarities set (think Paul Young‘s The CBS Years box) was issued in the next year or two. It will be interesting to see whether George’s estate/management will allow Sony to release something like that. Lloyd Cole‘s groovily designed Lloyd Cole in New York box will be out (another set that was due last year) this month as well as Paul McCartney‘s Flowers in the Dirt deluxe, with a hefty price tag and a ‘missing’ CD.

Reissues, box sets and albums of interest in March include:

• • George Michael / Listen Without Prejudice
• • Lloyd Cole / Lloyd Cole in New York (box set)
  
• • Fleetwood Mac / Tango in the Night (reissue)
• • The Doors / 50th anniversary super deluxe
• • Paul McCartney / Flowers in the Dirt
• • Brett Anderson / Collected Solo Work (vinyl and CD box sets)
• • Elvis Presley / A Platinum Life in Music (4CD repack)
• • A Flock Of Seagulls / Remixes & Rarities (2CD)
• • David Bowie / Heathen (vinyl reissue)
• • Gary Moore / Still Got The Blues For You (vinyl reissue)
• • T’Pau / The Virgin Anthology (4CD deluxe set)
• • Soundgarden / Ultramega OK (remixed and expanded)
• • Kitchens of Distinction / Watch Our Planet Circle (box set)

APRIL & Beyond

Let’s talk about trends for the year. Expect to see even more vinyl reissues as the revival goes from strength to strength. Universal ended last year with a series of vinyl deluxe editions which (Marvin Gaye, Amy Winehouse) which contained bonus tracks. My prediction is that we’ll see a lot more of those releases in 2017.

The Beatles

It’s the 50th anniversary of The Beatles‘ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band this year. Will Universal/Apple dare ignore this momentous event? You’d think not, but on the other hand Revolver was ignored last year… There’s almost certainly going to be a Beatles project later in the year (there always is) but it’s just a question of what it will be. The Let It Be film on blu-ray is high on fans’ wish-lists but I rather doubt that we’ll see that. There has been no super deluxe for an individual album, so perhaps they will kick off that process with Billy Shears and his friends…Alternatively, The Beatles Anthology on blu-ray is another possibility.

Tears For Fears

As some of you will know I was involved in both The Hurting and Songs From The Big Chair Tears For Fears reissues. After consecutive box sets in 2013 and 2014, it looked like we’d see The Seeds Of Love in 2015 but that never happened and the TFF cupboard was bare in 2016, also. I do get asked about this reissue a lot and all I can say is that hopefully those seeds will germinate in 2017. The work is largely done and Steven Wilson created his 5.1 mix ages ago (he announced this on his site, so that’s not really a secret). A potential spanner in the works is that Roland and Curt have been promising a new album for the last three years and if they deliver it in 2017 they won’t want the reissue out at the same time. Watch this space.

Prince

What we know is that a Purple Rain deluxe with a “a second album of previously unreleased material” has been promised for ‘early’ 2017. Since we’ve had no announcement and we’re nearly halfway through January, I think March or April is a good bet for this release. If we ‘just’ get album and one single bonus CD I’m not sure how happy Prince fans will be, but let’s just wait and see!

Paul McCartney

For the first time in six years Macca didn’t issue a Archive Collection reissue in a calendar year last year. This was probably because Pure McCartney came out in the summer and he changed record labels, when he signed to Capitol late in the year. Although Paul has reissued two albums at the same time on a number of occasions, he has never delivered two reissues separately within a year. So with Flowers in the Dirt due in March, there is only a very slight chance we may see whatever the next reissue will be in the autumn (I think he might go for Flaming Pie). It’s more likely that we won’t and some other McCartney project will take precedence.

Pet Shop Boys

It was February 2015 that Neil Tennant told fans (via a “Pet Text’ on the PSB website) that he was “Surrounded by old tapes, DATs, CDs etc for a forthcoming reissues project.”. Nearly two years on and nothing has been released or even announced. It was disappointing that the 30th anniversary of an album as important as the Pet Shop Boys‘ Please was ignored last year, but I think we can conclude that Chris and Neil prefer to look forward and they had the small matter of a new album (SUPER) and a tour. The good news is Neil has made reference to reissues in his New Year message on the website. He says they “expect to be announcing full details of a new batch of reissued and remastered albums with accompanying Further Listening albums” in 2017. It looks like Please is off the agenda (if it was ever on it) since SDE expects these PSB reissues to start with 1999’s Nightlife and be concerned with the four or five albums that follow.

R.E.M.

It’s almost a dead cert that following last year’s Out Of Time reissue, we will see similar treatment for R.E.M.‘s 1992 album Automatic For The People. Expect formats and presentation to be very similar to what was issued back in November, with a 5.1 mix to be included in the super deluxe version.

David Bowie

The minimum we can expect from this year is a third major David Bowie box set that will include all three album from the so-called Berlin Trilogy – Low, Heroes and Lodger – as well as the 1978 live album Stage and probably Scary Monsters. I do hope Scary Monsters is part of this box, since while being an ‘eighties’ album it really closes the book on the ‘classic’ 1970s RCA era and I’d hate to see it included with Let’s Dance, Tonight etc. Expect a Heroes 40th anniversary picture disc in September.

Miscellaneous

Deep Purple‘s delayed Made in Europe box set should have seen the light of day in 2016, but didn’t, so let’s be optimistic and hope for a release this year.

I’ve given up on waiting for the deluxe edition of Roxy Music‘s first album. Steven Wilson has confirmed that the 5.1 mix is done and Bryan Ferry keeps saying it will be out, but it never materialises. Who knows?!

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this preview. The list isn’t meant to be totally exhaustive, so if you know of something not featured why not leave a comment and let us and fellow SDE readers know!