Big reduction on the newly released ‘lost’ Prince album in box set form. Features 2LP vinyl, CD and blu-ray of a live show with a 5.1 mix and Dolby Atmos. Also comes with a book and other ‘bits’.
Level 42/The Complete Polydor Years 1985-198910CD box set
Great price for the recently reissued Trojan Story set. 50 tracks across three vinyl records and this comes with an illustrated 50-page booklet with stories behind the release and the 50 tracks featured on the compilation. If you’re in the USA this set is also reduced to $46.
The Beatles/The Beatles: Get Back240 page hardcover book
The Beatles: Get Back is the official book that tells the story of the infamous recording sessions through transcripts of the band’s candid conversations.
The Sisters of Mercy‘s BBC Sessions 1982-1984 were recently issued as a special Record Store Day 2LP set pressed on ‘limited edition smokey 180g vinyl’. The good news, if you don’t buy vinyl, is that the very same collection of radio sessions will be available on CD edition next month.
This release contains three sessions, all recorded at the BBC’s Maida Vale studios. The first is a 1982 John Peel Session, recorded on 25 August 1982 and broadcast a couple of week’s later on 7 September that same year.
The second session follows around seven months after the first and was a David ‘Kid’ Jensen Session recorded on 4 March 1983 and broadcast just four days later on 10 March. The first two sessions feature the same band line-up: Andrew Eldritch (vocals), Gary Marx (guitar), Craig Adams (bass), Ben Gunn (rhythm guitar) and Doktor Avalanche (drums).
The third and final session sees the band back with John Peel. By this time it’s 19 June 1984 and Wayne Hussey has joined the band to replace Ben Gunn. This session was broadcast almost a month later on 13 July 1984.
All three sessions feature four songs, so this is a 12-track CD edition (see full track listing, below). BBC Sessions 1982-1984 will be released on 27 August 2021 via Rhino and it’s priced rather attractively.
Donald Fagen‘s classic 1982 album The Nightfly is being released as a live album in September.
Produced by Gary Katz (who worked on all of the original era Steely Dan records), The Nightfly was a critical and commercial success with popular singles like ‘New Frontier’ and ‘I.G.Y.’
The original studio version of ‘New Frontier’
This new live release sees the whole of The Nightfly performed in its entirety, in order, by Steely Dan, or ‘The Steely Dan Band’ as they tend to be referred post Walter Becker’s 2017 death. Donald Fagen remains part of this band, in case that wasn’t clear! This is a performance from 2019.
Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly Live (to give it its full title) will be released on 1 October 2021.
Remix album of last year’s Erasure album The Neon. Double coloured vinyl is 12-track while the and gatefold CD is 18-track. Both packaged in a mirror board sleeve.
The Analogue Productions SACD of Pink Floyd‘s The Dark Side of the Moon is finally shipping after a long wait.
This release was originally announced in late 2019 and fans have been waiting patiently ever since. It is now showing as ‘in stock’ on the Acoustic Sounds website in the USA and can be pre-ordered in the UK via Rough Trade with a 27 August shipping/delivery date.
Evidence that the product actually exists!
Let’s be clear about the different versions that have been available (and in most cases are still available). In 2003 a 30th anniversary hybrid SACD was released which features the album mixed for 5.1 surround sound by James Guthrie and a stereo version on the stereo layer. This came in a standard jewel case.
Then in 2011 the same 5.1 mix was available on both blu-ray and DVD in the Immersion box set.
Analogue Productions have confirmed that the CD layer of the new SACD has “improved mastering” and of course the SACD is sonically superior then the DVD in the Immersion box set. Also, unlike the blu-ray in the box set the SACD holds the advantage of not requiring being connected to a TV screen.
The 2003 SACD came in a jewel case and updated the artwork
The surround layer on the new and old SACD are identical, although of course the packaging is far superior with the new set, with the hardcover book and slipcase, and as the video above shows is similar to the Wish You WereHere SACD which was also released by Analogue Productions back in 2011 (when the box sets came out). Unlike the 2003 SACD, this new edition reverts to the ‘classic’ cover design.
Bear in mind this is a US-only release, so availability outside America will be at ‘import’ prices, which is why it’s £59.99 at Rough Trade. This should eventually filter through to other sites like Amazon, JPC etc. but no sign of that yet. Update: It is now orderable via Amazon in the UK and various other territories – see below.
Out tomorrow is Paul McCartney‘s McCartney IIIImagined. This is the re-working of last year’s McCartney III with other artists remixing and in some cases re-recording tracks from the album.
Beck in one such artist and he was remixed ‘Find My Way’ and a stunning, and slightly freaky, new video has been created (co-produced by Hyperreal Digital) to accompany it. Watch it below.
The album has been available on streaming services for ages, but McCartney III Imagined is finally released physically on 23 July 2021. No, I’m not sure how many different versions there are!
The Definitive Singles 1980-1987 is a forthcoming Sheena Easton three-CD set that includes (for the first time) every UK and US single A-side from her EMI era.
The triple-disc package includes her 1980s pop hits such as ‘Morning Train (9 To 5)’, ‘For Your Eyes Only’, ‘Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)’, ‘We’ve Got Tonight’, ‘Strut’, ‘Sugar Walls’ and more.
‘For Your Eyes Only’ saw Sheena Easton appear in the opening credits of the Bond film
Even better, as well as seven-inch edits, The Definitive Singles offers original extended versions, rare dub mixes many of which are new to CD and eight of which are completely unreleased including the ‘lost’ 1986 singles ‘Anything Can Happen’ and ‘Sweet Talker’ in their seven-inch and 12-inch versions.
This collection comes with a 24-page colour booklet includes rare photos, discography and a new intro from Sheena herself.
The Definitive Singles 1980-1987 will be released on 17 September via Cherry Red and is produced in collaboration with US label RT Industries. This kicks off a wider reissue campaign regarding Easton’s EMI catalogue, so there’s more to come! Rate this release at the top of the page.
Sony will release the latest chapter in Columbia’s acclaimed Bob DylanBootleg Series in September. Volume 16 will be known as Springtime in New York and covers the period 1980-1985.
This new set focuses on the three albums of the era: Shot of Love (1981) Infidels and Empire Burlesque and contains previously unreleased outtakes, alternate takes, rehearsal recordings, live performances and more.
The deluxe 5CD edition of the album presents 57 rare Bob Dylan recordings, 54 of them previously unreleased in any format
The 5CD deluxe edition looks consistent with previous volumes in the Bootleg Series (click image to enlarge)
The previously released cuts include two Shot of Love outtakes: ‘Let It Be Me’ (first released as B-side to “Heart of Mine” International 7″ single) and ‘Don’t Ever Take Yourself Away’ (first released on Hawaii Five-O: Original Songs from the Television Series). A third previously released recording, ‘Death Is Not The End’ (an Infidels outtake featuring Full Force) first appeared in an edited version on Down In The Groove but can now be heard for the first time in full on Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16 / 1980-1985.
CD 1 of the five-disc set features material recorded in 1980 and 1981 and finds Dylan rehearsing a variety of his own catalog compositions (‘Señor (Tales of Yankee Power),’ ‘To Ramona’), rearranging some traditional folk tunes (‘Jesus Met the Woman at the Well,’ ‘Mary of the Wild Moor’) and revving up a selection of surprising covers (‘Mystery Train’ featuring Ringo Starr, ‘Sweet Caroline,’ ‘Fever,’ ‘Abraham, Martin and John’) with a group of musicians including Fred Tackett (guitar), David Mansfield (mandolin), Willie Smith (keyboards), Tim Drummond (bass), Jim Keltner (drums) and background vocals by Clydie King, Carolyn Dennis, Gwen Evans, and Regina McCrary.
CD 2 is devoted to outtakes and alternate takes of recordings produced by Chuck Plotkin for Shot of Love, while CDs 3 & 4 are centred on the material Dylan wrote for Infidels, performed by the all-star band assembled for the album which featured Mark Knopfler (guitar), Mick Taylor (guitar), Alan Clark (keyboards), Robbie Shakespeare (bass) and Sly Dunbar (drums). The Infidels sessions include previously unreleased versions of ‘Blind Willie McTell’ and ‘Jokerman’.
‘Too Late (Band Version)’ is on CD 3 of the new box set.
CD 5 includes live tracks (‘Enough Is Enough’ from Slane Castle, Ireland, and ‘License to Kill’ from Late Night with David Letterman, March 22, 1984) alongside alternate takes and outtakes from the Empire Burlesque sessions, produced by Bob Dylan, including premieres of new songs (‘Straight A’s in Love’ and ‘New Danville Girl’, an early draft of ‘Brownsville Girl’) and a previously unreleased performance of ‘Dark Eyes’.
According to the ‘Producer’s Note’ in the album: “The alternate takes selected for this set are different than the ones released on previous volumes of The Bootleg Series. They are included here to illustrate the musical journey Bob Dylan undertook during these years.”
As well as the five-CD set there is a cut-down two-CD edition with 25 tracks and an even more cut-down 2LP vinyl set with 11-tracks. Jack White’s Third Man Records are pressing and retailing an exclusive 4LP version, too.
Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 16 / 1980-1985 will be released on 17 September 2021. Rate the 5CD set at the top of the page.
Rings Around The World, the fifth studio album from Welsh quintet Super Furry Animals, has been remastered and will be reissued and expanded in September for its 20th anniversary.
The 2001 album was the band’s major label debut (released on Epic) and was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize in that same year.
The singles were ‘(Drawing) Rings Around The World’, ‘It’s Not The End of the World?’ and ‘Juxtapozed with U’. Paul McCartney and John Cale make cameo appearances on the album too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmCZ4f8NhOk
‘Juxtapozed with U’ was the first single taken from the album
The 20th anniversary release sees the album remastered from the original tapes and re-released on 2LP vinyl (there’s no bonus seven-inch as per the original vinyl first pressing). The three-CD deluxe edition should be of great interest since this is where all the bonus material resides, and there’s a lot of it; 33 previously unreleased tracks including remixes, demos, and outtakes (full track listing, below).
The 3CD deluxe edition (click image to enlarge)
This reissue includes sleeve notes by Keith Cameron with new band interviews. Rings Around The World is released on 3 September 2021, via BMG. Leave your initial feedback on the three-CD set by rating this release at the top of this post.
The 3CD set includes 40 previously unreleased tracks (click image to enlarge)Double vinyl version of the Rings Around The World 20th anniversary reissue (click image to enlarge)
Depeche Mode continue their 12-inch box set series with Ultra: The 12″ Singles box set, an eight-record package due for release in September.
The box set contains two 12-inch records for each of the four singles: ‘Barrel of a Gun’, ‘It’s No Good’, ‘Home’ and ‘Useless’. Because the album was issued in 1997, this was were deep into the era where CD singles were becoming the dominant commercial format in the UK for remixes. For this reason Sony have announced that three of the 12-inches in this new set “are comprised of tracks first released on CD singles”, with artwork expanded to reflect this.
Ultra: The 12″ Singles features eight vinyl records (click image to enlarge)
The first ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ 12-inch (12BONG25) comes in a gatefold sleeve and includes a large six-panel poster. The rest are single sleeve and don’t have posters. As with previous boxes, this set includes a download code
The audio is “mastered from the original tapes” and the vinyl sleeves feature the original single artwork.
Ultra: The 12″ Singles box set will be released on 10 September 2021.
The Killers will release their seventh studio album, Pressure Machine, next month.
The album follows less than a year after 2020’s Imploding the Mirage and sees frontman Brandon Flowers write some personal songs about the small town of Nephi, Utah where he spent his youth.
The album was co-produced by the band, Shawn Everett, and Jonathan Rado, all of whom worked together on the last record. Pressure Machine will also include a collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers on one track (the track listing hasn’t been revealed).
There appears to be no special deluxe edition or box set although CDs with different coloured sleeves and cassettes with different coloured inlays are available via the band’s UK store and Rough Trade have the black vinyl with an ‘exclusive slipcase’.
Pressure Machine will be released on 13 August 2021.
Ronnie Wood let slip over the weekend that a reissue of The Rolling Stones‘ 1981 album, Tattoo You, is in the works.
The album features the hit singles ‘Start Me Up’ and ‘Waiting For A Friend’ and was originally issued on 24 August 1981.
Speaking to The Times about his life, and his recovery from cancer, the guitarist said “Me and Mick have done nine new tracks for the re-release of Tattoo You“.
These ‘new’ tracks Wood speaks of will not be totally new. He is referring to the concept of augmenting old material (outtakes) with new vocals and instrumentation, a mildly controversial practice.
From the band’s point of view this offers them the chance to actively participate in a reissue campaign by ‘finishing off’ old recordings and not release something that [to their ears] sounds subpar, but some fans argue that this is re-writing history and old material should be released as is. The Rolling Stones have already done this a number of times before, including for the 2010 reissue of Exile On Main St. and the 2011 re-release of Some Girls.
‘Start Me Up’ was the lead single from Tattoo You and was a transatlantic top 10 hit
Last year’s Goats Head Soupreissue broke new ground by including a 5.1 surround mix of the album. We will await details of the Tattoo You box set with interest. There’s have a chance Universal Music could announce it in a month’s time, on the exact 40th anniversary of the UK release.
The most recent Rolling Stones release was A Bigger Bang: Live on Capacabana Beach which was issued 10 days ago.
Paul McCartney/Various Artists/McCartney III ImaginedCD, Vinyl
So long ago was the pre-order that you may have forgotten about Paul McCartney‘s McCartney III Imagined. I honestly can’t remember which versions I pre-ordered so I’m going to wait and see what turns up on this coming weekend!
Another great value ‘Essential’ release from Universal. This triple-CD Heaven 17 set features hits, album cuts and a disc of remixes, all for less than £6 (in the UK).
SDE previews some great releases from ‘drop day 2’ of this year’s Record Store Day, which is today, 17 July! Look out for Cat Stevens, Art of Noise, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Lou Reed, The Waterboys, Aretha Franklin, Jone Prine and many more. If you are out and about today, good luck – we’d love to hear about your purchases! Leave a comment.
Rory Gallagher‘s eponymous 1971 debut solo album is being re-released for its 50th anniversary and is getting the ‘full fat’ reissue treatment across a number of formats, including a 4CD+DVD box set.
A new stereo mix of the album features across all formats while the box set includes 30 previously unreleased outtakes and alternate takes, a six-song 1971 BBC Radio John Peel Sunday concert, four BBC Radio session tracks, and a previously unreleased 50-minute DVD of Rory’s first-ever solo concert which was filmed in Paris for the Pop Deux television show.
The box includes a 32-page hardback book with rare/unseen photos from British rock photographer Barrie Wentzell and exclusive sleeve notes written by his Rory’s brother and manager Donal Gallagher, his long-time bass guitarist Gerry McAvoy (1970-1991). The book has images of memorabilia from the album recording and hand-written song lyrics by Rory.
Two-CD and 3LP vinyl editions are cut-down versions of the box, with (the same) 18 bonus tracks in addition to the album.
The 50th anniversary edition of Rory Gallagher is released on 3 September 2021.
When Paul Weller announced his latest album, Fat Pop, he let slip that there was a 12-minute Pet Shop Boys remix of album track ‘Cosmic Fringes’.
That remix will be available on a special limited 12-inch single backed with a further remix by Primal Scream‘s Andrew Innes.
The heavyweight 12-inch black vinyl is release NEXT WEEK and the SDE shop has a small allocation (limited to one per customer). We also have a few copies left of the album on yellow vinyl.
Tracklisting
Cosmic Fringes RemixesPaul Weller/12-inch single
Cosmic Fringes – Triad Remix – Pet Shop Boys
Cosmic Fringes – Marching Off To Bedlam Remix – Andrew Innes & Jagz Kooner
Supergrass will reissue their 1997 album In It For The Money next month. The band’s second album will be available as a remastered, expanded 3CD set or on vinyl which comes with a bonus 12-inch single.
The album was of course the follow-up to the band’s debut album I Should Coco (which was reissued in 2015) and features the singles ‘Going Out’, ‘Richard III’, ‘Sun Hits the Sky’ and ‘Late In The Day’. All of those were top ten hits, save for ‘Late In The Day’ which peaked at number 18. In America, ‘Cheapskate’ was the only single from the album.
Going Out was the first single from ‘In It For The Money’
The three-CD edition includes the remastered album on CD 1 and then two further CDs with 43 tracks of B-Sides, rarities, outtakes and live tracks, many of which are previously unreleased
There are two vinyl editions. A 180g black vinyl version which comes with a 140g white vinyl 12-inch single. That single features has ‘Sun Hits The Sky (Bentley Rhythm Ace Remix)’ on one side and ‘The Animal’ on the other.
In It For The Money is reissued as a great value 3CD set (click on image to enlarge)
The second vinyl version offers exactly the same audio but the album is pressed on limited edition 140g turquoise vinyl and comes with the same white 12-inch single.
This release includes imagery from photographer Kevin Westenberg, and sleevenotes from Charles Shaar Murray. The album has been remastered by Supergrass (“from analogue tape”) and all formats have been compiled by the band.
The limited turqoise vinyl. Like the black vinyl this comes with a 2-track white 12-inch single (click image to enlarge)
In It For The Money will be reissued on 27 August 2021, via BMG.
Garbage will see their first two albums reissued (again) next month.
The band’s self titled debut album, whose hits include ‘I’m Only Happy When It Rains’, ‘Stupd Girl’ and ‘Queer’, was originally reissued in 2015 for its 20th anniversary, while Version 2.0 – home to Push It, ‘I Think I’m Paranoid’ and ‘Special’, to name but a few) – was celebrating the same anniversary just three years ago in 2018.
The formats for both of these were album tracks-only on 2LP coloured vinyl, or 2CD and 3LP editions expanded with some bonus tracks. The triple vinyl editions were the box sets and saw the records pressed on black vinyl not the coloured wax of the cheaper editions, which seemed a strange thing to do at the time. So overpriced and under-spec’d was the Version 2.0 box that SDE described it as ‘ludicrous’ at the time.
The Garbage album is reissued on 2LP black vinyl and 2CD in August (click image to enlarge)
Despite being stingy with bonus material (probably to be ‘consistent’ with the 3LP sets) the two-CD editions were at least cheap. You may remember the controversial 41-track ‘digital super deluxe’ of the Garbage album which suggests band/label were not aligned with their physical-loving audience.
Anyway, the 2LP vinyl sets and the two-CD editions are reissued again next month, probably because Garbage are now on BMG rather than PIAS in the UK. The content is the same, although the standard vinyl editions are now black. The exception is a coloured vinyl edition of the first album (thought to be pink) will be released (again, again) in October for National Album Day.
The first two albums are both being reissued as two-CD sets with G/B-sides (click image to enlarge)
The box sets aren’t being reissued, even though they are both now out of print (Version 2.0 will be the easier/cheaper one to acquire via Discogs or eBay).
Garbage and Version 2.0 are re-reissued on 2LP vinyl and two-CD on 20 August 2021.
