Out This Week / on 27 July 2018

A strange, but welcome two-CD set that features previously released live recordings from 1962 – 1966 to mark Dylan’s 2018 tour of Australia. It “shines a light on some great performances that were initially overlooked, with most of the recordings now near impossible to find.” The bargain price adds to the overall appeal.

One box set to rule them all… Well actually, this is the second of three planned box sets. First time of vinyl (and it’s a 5LP blue vinyl pressing) for Howard Shore’s ‘complete recordings’ and the old CD/DVD box also gets an upgrade to 3CD+blu-ray, with the 5.1 surround mix. Worth ordering the vinyl box from the USA to save around £50.

A double LP edition of the brilliant Achtung Baby is issued along with 1993’s Zooropa and The Best of 1980-1990 (both also 2LP vinyl packages).

Cherry Red present another of their always interesting indie-pop collections. C89 follows C86 (2014), C87 (2016) and C88 (2017) and is a three-CD set vaguely themed around 1989. Artists represented include Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, The La’s, Milltown Brothers, The Family Cat and The Telescopes.

Dimitri From Paris Presents Le Chic Remix is a new two-CD set featuring reworks of Chic, Sister Sledge and other artists produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards.

This new vinyl edition of The Time‘s third album continues Rhino’s ‘Back to the 80s‘ series. It is pressed on a mix of pink, white and brown vinyl – hence ‘Neapolitan’ – although let’s hope the colours look better than the ones on Yes‘ 90125, which looked awful.

Delayed from last week. The Complete Jan Akkerman is a new 26 CD box set which brings together all the studio albums (and more) of Dutch guitar legend Jan Akkerman, who found international success with the band Focus.

Not the longest (10-tracks) nor the most inspired ’80s ‘New Wave’ compilation you will have come across, but in some ways brevity makes a change from ‘100-tracks from the 1980s over five CDs’. This is an LP pressed on red/blue swirl vinyl and part of Rhino’s ‘Back to the ’80s‘ campaign.