Neil Young appears to have ‘lost’ more albums than most, and next month he will release another unreleased long-player from his incredible archive.
Recorded in 1977 Oceanside Countryside rather confusingly has the same name as CD 4 in last year’s Archives Vol III but while they are similar, they’re not exactly the same. The versions of the songs ‘Lost in Space’, ‘Captain Kennedy’ and ‘The Old Homestead’ are the versions that ended up on Hawks and Doves (in 1980) while ‘Sail Away’, ‘Goin’ Back’, ‘Human Highway’, ‘It Might Have Been’ and ‘Pocohontas’ are actually the same as on Archives Vol III. ‘Field of Opportunity’ and ‘Dance Dance Dance’ are slightly different to the versions of Archives Vol III, because on these versions Young is on backing vocals, rather than Nicolette Larson.
But NY stresses that “These songs are the original mixes done at the time of the recordings”. The Oceanside element (side one) was recorded in Florida and Malibu with NY singing and playing (most of) the instruments. Countryside (side two) features songs recorded in Nashville with Ben Keith, Joe Osborn and a few others.
Oceanside Countryside is being released as part of Neil’s newish Analog Originals Series (AOS). The 50th anniversary clear vinyl of On The Beach displayed ‘Analog Originals’ on the front, as did box number six in the “Official Release Series” (Discs 26, 27, 28 & 29). It’s a little hard keeping track of all these series, since in the past other ‘lost albums’ (e.g. Hitchhiker) have been issued via the Special Release Series (SRS) banner.
Oceanside Countryside will be issued on vinyl (mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering) on 7 March 2025 (was 14 February) via Reprise Records. A clear vinyl edition is available via selected retailers and a CD version will follow in April.
Still not exactly a massive bargain, but a decent discount on the Queen 1 collector’s edition box set which will probably end up going out of print in the not too distant future! SDE unboxed it, here.
Ludicrously great price for this numbered limited edition of Elton John’sDiamonds: The Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection. This Amazon-exclusive 2CD deluxe is limited to 2,000 units and comes complete with a silver holographic slipcase. This is the 34-track deluxe which starts with Your Song and ends with Circle of Life.
As 2024 draws to a close SDE takes its customary look back at some of the best box sets of the year. What follows are nine boxes, singled out for special praise, but listed in no particularly order, and then at the very end SDE’s overall Box Set of the Year for 2024.
David Bowie: Rock ’n’ Roll Star!(Parlophone)
The David Bowie Estate and Parlophone took years to finally get DB archive releases right. The ‘era’ box sets (which started with Five Years while Bowie was still with us, in 2015) mostly served up audio that fans had already bought many times over and what with the ‘random’ vinyl editions (where you might get black or a coloured vinyl pressing, depending on your luck), the Brilliant Live Adventuresfiasco and putting the brakes on the anniversary seven-inch picture discs before Scary Monsters (with no apology or explanation) there was always a feeling that what fans actually wanted was secondary to what the label (or the Estate) wanted to serve up. The change came in 2019 with the Conversation Piece box (reviewed here), an excellent 5CD set which documented the road to Bowie’s 1969 David Bowie/Space Oddity album. This was followed by Width of a Circle (for The Man Who Sold The World, also reviewed on SDE) and 2022’s Divine Symmetry (Hunky Dory). A bit more like it, even if the label still put out ridiculously overpriced vinyl product at the same time, such as the single LP Mercury Demos box which was £100, the series of seven-inch vinyl boxes that preceded Conversation Piece and a ludicrously overblown approach to the Toy album (6×10-inch box set anyone?). Rock ‘n’ Roll Star! is, in essence, a Ziggy Stardust super deluxe edition. Five CDs and a blu-ray, it’s hard to argue with the content – or the excellent packaging. The only grumble was the decision to omit the brand new Dolby Atmos mix, although that was at least made available separately.
Often, the artist being ‘closely involved’ in a box set or reissue can cast the hand of doom over the project as their own personal tastes and predilections inform what is and isn’t included. For example, they might dislike a certain B-side so it gets omitted, or it turns out that they always despised some remix, so that gets the chop, and/or they simple can’t understand why anyone would want to hear early demos, so they are not considered. Thankfully, none of that was true with February’s alliterative Religion, Revolution & RailwaysDream Academy 7CD set which delivered all manner of delights, including all three studio albums. Nick Laird-Clowes was very hands on and worked closely with mastering engineer Tony Dixon to make sure the sound was exactly how he wanted it to be (no brickwalling here) and personally helped search the Warners archive for unreleased rarities.
Ultravox: Lament (Chrysalis)
Chrysalis have been delivering superb Ultravox box sets on both vinyl and CD for a few years now and this year’s 40th anniversary reissue of 1984’s Lament is arguably their best yet. Beautifully packaged with spot varnishing on virtually every element (respecting the original design), the 7CD+DVD edition delivered almost everything you could possibly want. It included the original 1984 stereo mix, a new Steven Wilson remix, two discs of remixes and rarities, a further CD of brand new extended mixes (many by Steven Wilson) and then two CDs of a live concert from Hammersmith in ’84. On top of that was a DVD with album and B-sides in 5.1 Surround Sound and hi-res stereo. All this with a price tag between £50 and £60 left most SDE readers asking, if Chrysalis can do this, why can’t other labels?
John Lennon: Mind Games (UMR)
The Grammy-nominated £1350 super deluxe of John Lennon’sMind Games was a fantastic art piece but is ruled out of SDE’s best box sets of the year simply because it’s far too expensive to come recommended. However the 6CD + 2 x blu-ray ‘deluxe’ edition was still a superb product, with six kinds of mixes of the album available (Ultimate, Elemental, Elements, Evolution Documentary, Raw Studio and Outtakes) in stereo, 5.1 and Dolby Atmos. 72 tracks in total, with a few hidden tracks to boot (all the audio in the massive box). The book (complete with invisible ink, in places) was amazing and the only thing fans were left to ponder was whether a middling album such as Mind Games was worthy of such treatment, but it’s surely churlish to complain about ‘too much’ content, even if the price tag of these Lennon packages are creeping up.
Thin Lizzy / 1976 (Decca)
Since they were both released in 1976, what are probably Thin Lizzy’s two best albums (Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox) were brought together in this 5CD+blu-ray box set, called simply 1976. With the albums short enough to squeeze onto one CD there’s masses of content with original mixes on CD 1, new stereo mixes on CD 2 and then outtakes for both records on CDs 3 & 4. The CD audio is completed by Live in Cleveland, a radio Broadcast from 1976 and the included blu-ray offered Atmos, 5.1 and both stereo mixes of the two albums. Like the Ultravox Lament set, 1976 was very well priced and you were getting two album’s worth of content, not one. Both Lament and 1976 are now out-of-print, which shows that great box sets, well-priced, do sell!
Rusty Egan presents Blitzed! (Demon Music)
Demon Music are the kings of the themed compilation these days and there were some good ones this year, including Katie Puckrik’s Yacht Rock Odyssesy. That was fantastic but ultimately we preferred Rusty Egan presents Blitzed! Curated by Egan himself, the DJ at London’s celebrated Blitz Club in the late 1970s/early 80s, this goes well beyond the generic 80s compilations and offers a brilliant selection of tracks from the likes of the Tubeway Army, Fad Gadget, Magazine, Iggy Pop, Pretenders, John Foxx, Sparks, Kraftwerk, Japan, Blondie, Visage, The Cure and more. The only negative is the glaring omission of David Bowie songs, due to pesky licensing restrictions.
Lindsey Buckingham / 20th Century Lindsey (Rhino)
The Solo Anthology of 2018 was a real treat but Lindsey Buckingham’s health issues and then the COVID-19 pandemic delayed actual album reissues, remasters of which had been in the can for some time. These finally saw the light of day this year with the 20th Century Lindsey box set, available on vinyl and CD. The three albums included were Law and Order (1981), Go Insane (1984), and Out of the Cradle (1992) and they are all well worth owning. As a bonus disc is included with rare extended mixes and non-album tracks. How Lindsey Buckingham didn’t have enjoy more commercial success as a solo artist remains one of life’s great mysteries.
Retrospective / Bryan Ferry (BMG)
Over the years, Bryan Ferry compilations have mostly also included music from Roxy Music which admittedly makes sense commercially, but creatively meant that toes were only dipped in the shallow waters of Ferry’s solo oeuvre. In its 5CD form, this year’s Retrospective turns all that on it’s head with a deep dive into Bryan’s output starting with tracks from 1973’s These Foolish Things and bringing the story right up to date with a new track, ‘Star’, recorded with Amelia Baratt. The well-structured package starts off with a 20-track ‘best of’ before individual themed discs cover ‘Compositions’, ‘Interpretations’, tracks from the Bryan Ferry Orchestra and so on. The final CD features rarities and the whole thing is a near-perfect appreciation of the songwriter and musician’s 50-year output away from Roxy Music. The one much remarked upon negative was the £130 price point, but whole thing was beautifully presented and a bit of indulgence for Ferry doesn’t seem as foolish as the sigh of midnight trains in empty stations.
Bob Dylan and The Band / The 1974 Live Recordings (Sony)
An unbelievable 417 previously unreleased live performances were included in this Bob Dylan and The Band 27CD box set. This offering is what the compact disc was made for and at around £100 it seemed like an utter bargain. A mix of “every single surviving” soundboard recording and (later in the tour) multi-track recordings, this kind of forensic examination of a tour that used to be the domain of the bootleggers, but is now being officially released by Sony. It’s an amazing time to be a Bob Dylan fan.
Box set of the Year, 2024: The Police / Synchronicity (UMR)
With close to zero meaningful archival activity since The Police’s original albums were released over 40 years ago, fans were starting to give up. Finally, this year a Police long-player got the box set it deserved and the album in question is 1983’s Synchronicity. The content across six CDs was remarkable: a CD which rounded up every B-side, instrumental, edit and live tracks (content which originally peppered the various single releases back in the day); two discs of unreleased recordings including Sting’s original demos recorded in late Autumn 1982; and then a complete unreleased live concert. Fans could be forgiven for thinking they’d died and gone to heaven. At £80, it felt perhaps a tad more expensive than it should have been, although the large format hardcover book was nicely done. Disappointingly, there was close to zero promotion for this set. Having finally opened up his archive, Sting didn’t do any press and the other two musicians – Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers – wouldn’t talk to SDE despite the fact that we’d interviewed them for various personal projects in the past. With no companion Netflix documentary, no Sting on The One Show to talk about the box set (like he often does for his solo projects) the Synchronicity reissue didn’t get the spotlight it deserved. As a result, one suspects the super deluxe edition of rather underperformed, which, if true, is a massive shame. Those that did buy it will undoubtedly treasure it for years to come and hope that the other Police albums will get the same treatment.
We hope you enjoyed our selection. What were yours? Leave a comment below.
Elton John/Diamonds: The Ultimate Greatest Hits CollectionBlu-ray
Elton John’s best-selling, career-spanning compilation is released exclusively on blu-ray via SDE. It features 48 tracks mixed in immersive Dolby Atmos by Greg Penny, along with 51 tracks in hi-res stereo. Shipping this week, we now have some final stock due to cancellations/contingency. Order via the SDE shop.
If immersive audio isn’t your thing, there’s also a new version of the 34-track, 2CD edition of Diamonds, available only via Amazon in the UK, with an exclusive slipcase. This edition is limited to 2,000 units.
In the early 1990s, my friends and I used to always give each other CDs for birthday or Christmas presents. It was seen as a great gift, since everybody I knew loved music and CDs, being relatively new at the time, were seen as a premium item.
Also, we were all young – I was in my early 20s – and were still exploring the classic eras of the 1960s/70s/80s when it came to music, so someone might choose to buy me a Neil Young or Roxy Music album on CD that I simply didn’t know at all at the time and I would be delighted! I didn’t have much money and had only owned a CD player since early 1990, so I actively wanted people to buy me CDs and was disappointed when they didn’t!
Fast forward 30 years and the reputation and perception of the humble CD, as a gift, has been somewhat battered. What sort of a gift is music anyway, these days, for the average Joe, when it’s basically available free via streaming and YouTube? If music is perceived by many as having close to no value these days, then has music become the gift no one wants to receive, or for that matter, to give?
It has been a long time since anyone has bought me music as a present. The general consensus seems to be that it would be a fool’s errand trying to buy Paul Sinclair physical music. “You’ve got everything, already!” appears to the understandable, if inaccurate, consensus. Or it would be impossible to know what to get me (more reasonable, to be fair). It’s sad, in a way, but friends and family possibly also think it would be a bit of a busman’s holiday for me (“the last thing he’s going to want is music!”). This is also not accurate, I still enjoy music as much now as I ever have!
My two daughters are 17 and 22 and they probably have a greater than normal interest in physical music, in part, I guess, because of their dad’s day job and because there’s so much in the house they have access to! The eldest is into K-Pop, a genre known for flashy packaging and multiple editions of the same album, while the younger of the two is massively into Taylor Swift, an musician and songwriter who has perfected the art of selling the same album over and over again, with multiple variants, ‘anthology’ editions and ‘Taylor’s Version’ re-recordings of old albums (which aren’t actually very old, in the scheme of things).
I was in HMV just before Christmas and thought I’d pick up some releases as presents or stocking fillers. American singer and songwriter and new ‘big thing’, Chappell Roan, has become a favourite with my youngest and I knew she didn’t own it physically, so I thought I’d get that. Now I love CDs as much as the next man, but they aren’t much more expensive than they were 30 years ago, which is good if you’re buying for yourself, but not so good if it’s a gift. A compact disc that cost £13 in 1991 should be over £29 in today’s money but they are still around £13 (or less). To put it another way buying a CD for someone today is like spending less than £6 on them in the early 90s. Fine as a stocking filler, I suppose, but if it’s any kind of ‘main’ present you are going to look like a bit of a skinflint.
There is no deluxe CD of Chappell Roan’s debut, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, despite it now being over a year old, just the standard edition in a card sleeve that was as light as a feather, when I picked it up. It just felt so insubstantial. Labels, probably a little frustrated that consumers won’t pay any more for CDs than they did 30 years ago, have made them as cheap to produce as possible, presumably in order to maintain some kind of reasonable profit margin. So they often come in a flimsy card sleeves, no inner sleeve for the disc, often a thin, minimal booklet. Despite all this, they still sell in large numbers and I’m convinced that frustrated executives at labels, having done nothing to support the format or plan for its future in the last 15 years – quite the opposite, you could argue – must be wondering what they have to do to make, this “inferior sonic storage system” (in the words of Elvis Costello) crawl into a hole and die? You can no longer play them in your car, tick! The mastering is often awful, tick! The packaging is perfunctory, tick! You can get the same content free – or close to free – on streaming, tick! And yet, people (including yours truly) still just like CDs and we continue to buy them.
The vinyl edition of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess sitting next to the CD showed off the artwork beautifully, with a lovely embossed and die-cut outer sleeve, a gatefold package with printed inners and the two records pressed on ‘coke bottle green’ vinyl. To put it bluntly this vinyl edition was going to have a ‘wow’ factor when unwrapped which the CD definitely couldn’t replicate. I’m sure, with this album in particular, the two formats would sound fairly much the same, but because ‘young people’ primarily live in a world of streaming, the physical object has to feel worth owning, otherwise, what’s the point?
The price differential was massive. The 2LP set was £39.99, which on the face of it seems like a rip-off but is actually like spending £17.50 on someone in 1991. A single CD could sometimes edge towards that price, back then, believe it or not. In 2024 the CD of the Chappel Roan album was £13.99 in HMV. So this CD enthusiast ending up buying the vinyl. If I’d been purchasing for myself, I may have gone for the CD but for the reasons explained above, the vinyl seemed like a much nicer present. In fact, HMV had a CD sale upstairs so I did end up picking up various titles as a Christmas present to myself, including albums from The Pretenders, the Liam Gallagher and John Squire record, the ‘Careless Whisper’ CD single and a few others.
CD box sets or deluxe editions in hardcover book packaging and bonus discs still feel like decent packages for gifts but I’ll warrant that a single CD festively wrapped up with a bow on it, as a gift, didn’t change hands much over this holiday period. Or am I wrong? Do you still buy CDs as gifts? Leave a comment and let me know!
I’d like to wish every SDE reader a very Merry Christmas!
2024 has perhaps not been a classic, in terms of reissues and box sets, but here at SDE we have certainly been kept busy, with 18 titles in the SDE Surround Series announced in the last 12 months, with the last five yet to ship (Elton John, The Who, the two Simple Minds albums and Bryan Ferry). Your enthusiasm and passion for this series allows us to continue, so thank you to everyone who placed an order in 2024!
There are exciting plans for more exclusive blu-rays in 2025 and while it will be a tall order to match the level of product we’ve brought to the marketplace in 2024, I’ll do my best. I hope we can get to No 50 in the series next year, which would be an amazing achievement in a relatively short period, but let’s wait and see!
Later this week there will be an SDE review of the best box sets of 2024 and there’s the annual SDE Reissue Preview in the new year, but that aside, I’m looking forward to taking a few days off over this festive period and spend some time with the family and reflect on 2024. I’m sure many of you have had to say goodbye to a loved one this year and I’m no different: a close friend of mine died in early October and I heard yesterday that my sister’s father-in-law passed away on Saturday.
On a more positive note, a new year is an opportunity to turn the page and press ‘reset’. This site has been running since March 2011 and so next year will be SDE’s 14th birthday. Regardless of whenever you discovered this site – whether you are a occasional reader, or a regular; whether you leave messages regularly or are more of a ‘lurker’ in the discussion section – I’d like to say a heartfelt thanks for coming on the journey and I look forward to more adventures next year.
Happy Christmas! I wish you a healthy, prosperous and peaceful 2025.
Fourteen years ago I saw Paul McCartney play a Christmas gig at Hammersmith Odeon and I recall worrying beforehand about whether I’d enjoy the show (spoiler, I did) due to concerns around whether his voice was up to the job of singing all those great songs he wrote and performed with The Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist. I’d been lucky enough to see Macca in early 1990 on what was his Flowers in the Dirt tour and then again a few years later on his Off The Ground-promoting New World Tour, but by 2010 it had been 17 long years since I’d seen Paul up on stage and I had concerns, which turned out to be misplaced.
After that stupendously good show on a very snowy day in West London back in 2010, I thought I probably wouldn’t need to see Paul play again. After all, I’d experienced shows with his old band (Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh et al) and his new band (Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray etc.) and it hardly seemed feasible that in 2024, an 82-year-old Paul McCartney was going to improve on a concert his 68-year-old self did back in 2010. And yet…
Ever since Paul embraced playing The Beatles back catalogue properly in 1989, I think it’s fair to say that no Macca or Fab Four nut – or casual fan – is not going to enjoy a concert. Seeing McCartney play ‘Helter Skelter’, ‘Band on the Run’, the Abbey Road closing medley of ‘Golden Slumbers’ / ‘Carry That Weight’ / ‘The End’, or ‘Live and Let Die’ is never less than an amazing experience, but there are still micro peaks and troughs that exist within this excellence that perhaps the hardcore contingent can reflect on and analyse.
Yes, Paul played 18 or so Beatles songs to a live audience for the first time in 1989/90 and so a splendid time was guaranteed for all, but could you imagine Paul opening a show today with ‘Figure of Eight’, his forgotten fourth single from Flowers in the Dirt, as he did back then? Those shows were also the opposite of drinking Red Bull; they didn’t give you Wings – with just four songs from the bandThe Beatles could have been in what was normally a 33 song set.
Another quirk of the Paul McCartney gig-going experience is the fact that Paul always showed what you could call admirable loyalty to ‘the new album’ – great news when the long-player in question was the good-to-excellent Flowers in the Dirt (1989), not so good for must-try-harder Driving Rain (2001) or Off The Ground (1993). But that’s not the end of the story. This loyalty had a shelf life shorter than fresh cream and Paul had a pattern of dropping songs-from-the-new-album like a super-heated potato for subsequent tours – which had the same impact described above, just in reverse.
For example, in 1989/90 six tracks from Flowers in the Dirt were deemed good enough to displace Beatles, Wings and solo tracks, yet only three years later none of them were included in the New World Tour shows, not even ‘My Brave Face’. I’m convinced if Paul had kept ‘My Brave Face’ in the setlist for every subsequent tour, 25 years later it would be firmly established as the (relative) late period McCartney classic that it is. A halo track in his Costello sessions, all documentary evidence suggests Paul was very proud of this lead single from Flowers in the Dirt, so why doesn’t he ever play it? If I were to hazard a guess I’d say because it wasn’t a big enough hit (peaking at #18 in the UK and #25 in the USA). The showman in Paul wants to please the crowd and deliver a ‘hit-packed’ set and he tends to only make exceptions to this rule to debut new material which, notionally at least, is the reason he’s out on the road in the first place. Old songs that were not big hits occupy an airspace that Paul will not enter. That’s why he doesn’t play ‘The Back Seat of My Car’ from Ram, the title track or ‘I’ve Had Enough’ from London Town or ‘Old Siam, Sir’ from Back to the Egg and others like them. A more recent example of this was the Wingsy ‘Only Mama Knows’ – from 2007’s excellent Memory Almost Full. That song was an album highlight and superb live. Paul really should have kept it in the setlist going forward, but again, it was quietly retired never to be heard live on stage again!
What this means is that while going to see Paul McCartney is always brilliant, it’s a better experience if either he’s just released a pretty good album, or he doesn’t have a specific record to promote and is absolved of the responsibility of playing new songs. This week’s gigs in the UK, the end of his ‘Got Back’ tour, fall into the latter category and on Wednesday night at London’s O2 he played nothing from his most recent album (2020’s McCartney III) and remarkably only three songs recorded in this millennium: ‘Come On To Me’ (from 2018’s Egypt Station), ‘My Valentine’ (from 2012’s Kisses On The Bottom) and ‘Dance Tonight’ (from 2007’s Memory Almost Full).
Freed from the shackles of new album promotion Paul had fun bringing back previous favourites such as ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘Getting Better’, ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ while making sure not to omit stalwarts such as ‘Live and Let Die’, ‘Band on the Run’, ‘Jet’, ‘Get Back’, ‘Lady Madonna’, ‘Let It Be’, and the like. McCartney seems to have warmed to his Wings back catalogue a bit over the years and while no one can claim he ever plays any deep cuts (‘Morse Moose and the Grey Goose’, anyone?) it was great to hear classic 70s hits such as ‘Junior’s Farm’ (a song he only started playing in 2011), ‘Letting Go’ and ‘Let ‘Em In’, sitting alongside the expected ‘Live and Let Die’ and Band on the Run tracks.
Back to Macca’s voice – it held up well. He’s clearly lost a lot of power but mostly it’s a non-issue with singer and audience more than happy to live with some croaky bits here and there. There’s also a certain poignancy to the effort involved; you’re willing him through some trickier sections; he is 82! His brilliant band with three strong backing vocalists (drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., and aforementioned guitarists Rusty and Brian) give Paul a foundation where he doesn’t have to be perfect, although if I had to select one song that McCartney really should knock on the head it’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’. It’s an immensely hard song to sing for someone at the top of their game, and in my opinion it’s just one step to far, for his vocal chords these days. They’ve put in a 65 year shift after all….
The horn section on this tour was a wonderful addition, taking the pressure off the amazing talents of musical director and keyboard player Paul ‘Wix’ Wickens (outside Macca, the only musician common to all three iterations of Paul’s live band since 1989). Despite Wix working wonders on his keyboard rig, real horns on tracks like ‘Lady Madonna’ are always going to sound much better than a synthesised version and there was some fun showmanship in the O2 when, early on, the horn section were not on stage but up high in the crowd; a spotlight picking them up as they played along to ‘Letting Go’.
Big numbers dropped from tours of yonder for Got Back include ‘Penny Lane’, ‘The Long And Winding Road’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘Coming Up’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘Back in the USSR. It has to be said, that Paul continues to disappoint fans of his early 80s output by ignoring singles such as ‘Pipes of Peace’, ‘No More Lonely Nights’, ‘Take It Away’, ‘Tug of War’, and ‘Waterfalls’ none of which he has ever played live! Some artists make a good living out of building tours and set lists around one big hit single (or a number one, if they’re lucky). Such is the embarrassment of riches in Paul’s back catalogue, on Wednesday evening he LEFT OUT at least 20 singles that topped the chart either in the UK or America where he’s credited with writing or co-writing the song (either in The Beatles, in Wings or as a solo artist). That’s insane.
Other reflections on ‘Got Back’ at the O2 was that Paul has upped the ante on production values with his live shows. For ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Here Today’ McCartney plays acoustic guitar alone on an elevated platform and computer animations are projected onto the platform for some powerful moments and there was an amazing animation, that I hadn’t seen before, where Peter Blake’s Sgt. Pepper cover came to life and the famous figures run around in amusing fashion (this run during a rendition of the reprise of the title track).
Paul continues to perform the George Harrison-penned ‘Something’ (from Abbey Road) starting solo on ukelele before transitioning to an excellent full band, live reproduction of the studio recording. Paul tends to let the music do the talking and avoids engaging in any serious storytelling or scene setting when touching on emotional subjects (John, George) or when going back to the very early days of the Fab Four (‘In Spite of All the Danger’, ‘Love Me Do’). The musician tends to limit his chat to “Let’s hear it for George!” type crowd encouragements, which is a reminder that despite being an amazing live performer, all these years and decades later, Paul’s between song banter remains rather awkward and sometimes a bit hackneyed. He’s not a Springsteen-style storyteller, which is not a major revelation – or issue – but sometimes I think it would be good if he said a little bit about the song he’s about to play, beforehand.
One of the most moving parts of the show was Paul’s performance of The Beatles’ 2024 number one, ‘Now and Then’. It’s a sad song anyway, but something about hearing it played live with the video on the big screen was really affecting, as was Paul duetting with John on ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ (using isolated John vocals sync’d to footage of Lennon from Peter Jackson’s Get Back film).
If you are thinking of going to see Paul McCartney, the simple advice is do it! You will have an amazing time as I am sure everyone did who visited the O2 this week. I could not see one single empty seat in the packed 20,000 capacity arena and while Paul McCartney seems to work miracles by looking great and performing extremely well, it can’t last forever. The man is a national treasure of the highest order and we’ll miss him when he’s gone. Simply incredible.
Paul Sinclair was at the 18 December show at the O2. No, not the one where Ringo turned up…
Tracklisting
Live at London’s O2Paul McCartney/18 December 2024
Steven Wilson‘s 2018 concert film, Home Invasion: In Concert At The Royal Albert Hall, is being issued as a 4K blu-ray early next year.
This concert recording captures the last show of the three-night run in the historic London venue from March this year, as Steven Wilson was coming to the end of his European To The Bone tour.
Four years ago it was issued on various CD, DVD, blu-ray and vinyl formats but now Mercury Studios will put out this 4K release, which requires a 4K compatible blu-ray player and TV.
This new edition will be released on 21 February 2025 via Mercury Studios.
Michael Jackson’s 1979 album Off The Wall will soon be reissued as two new audiophile editions from Mobile Fidelity.
A 2LP Mobile Fidelity UltraDisc ‘One Step’ edition is pressed on 180g vinyl and cut at 45RPM. Audio is sourced from the original master and the vinyl is manufactured at Fidelity Record Pressing. This is limited to 6,000 copies.
The CD edition is a hybrid SACD (stereo-only, of course) and comes packaged in MoFi’s standard mini-LP CD / vinyl replica sleeve.
At £131.99, it’s worth noting that the vinyl is almost £42 more expensive than the Thriller UltraDisc One Step that was offered back in 2022, although Thriller was ‘limited’ to a massive 40,000 copies which is significantly more than Off The Wall this time around.
The 2016 reissue of Off The Wall
MoFi suffered reputational damage back in 2022 when revelations emerged that, despite their claims, they did not always use the original analogue master tapes for their ‘One-Step’ vinyl pressings, and sometimes used digital transfers of said master tapes for some releases. They’ve updated product descriptions and seem to have weathered that particular storm and clearly continue to put out these limited editions.
The last significant reissue of Off The Wall came back in 2016 with CD+DVD and CD+blu-ray sets that paired the original album with a Spike Lee documentary called Michael Jackson’s Journey From Motown To Off The Wall.
This new Mo-Fi Off The Wall will be released on 17 January 2025 and can be pre-ordered in the UK and Europe via the official Michael Jackson shop.
Following the box set release back in August, the blu-ray edition of The Alan Parsons Project’s 1978 album Pyramid is now available as a standalone release and features Alan Parson’s new Dolby Atmos Mix.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band / Still Barking (box set)
17CD+3DVD box set from Madfish features remastered albums, compiled singles, Two discs of demos, rehearsals & outtakes and a trio of DVDs with TV performances including the complete ‘Do Not Adjust Your Set’ shows, ‘Colour Me Pop’, ‘Beat Club’ & more.
Out today is the Thompson TwinsInto The Gap SDE exclusive blu-ray audio. Watch as SDEtv unboxes this new edition which features a David Kosten Dolby Atmos Mix amongst the content! There’s still a few left via the SDE shop.
Tracklisting
Into The GapThompson Twins/40th anniversary edition
Into The Gap in the following audio streams:
David Kosten 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix
David Kosten 2024 5.1 Mix
David Kosten 2024 Stereo Mix
David Kosten 2024 Dolby Atmos Instrumental Mix
David Kosten 2024 5.1 Instrumental Mix
2024 Stereo Remaster (by Frank Arkwright)
1984 Original Stereo Mix
Into The Gap
Doctor! Doctor!
You Take Me Up
Day After Day
Sister of Mercy
No Peace for the Wicked
The Gap
Hold Me Now
Storm on the Sea
Who Can Stop the Rain
Blu-ray bonus tracks in Stereo (B-sides, Cassette Mixes, Edit, Extended & 12″ versions)
Let Loving Start**
Nurse Shark (Instrumental)
Out Of The Gap**
Passion Planet
You Take Me Up (Instrumental Remix)
Doctor! Doctor! (Phil Thornalley Mix)
Leopard Ray
Doctor! Doctor! (Cassette Mix Version)
Panic Station (Day After Day)
Down Tools
Hold Me Now (Cassette Mix Version)
Funeral Dance (No Peace For The Wicked)
Compass Points (The Gap)
Still Water (Storm On The Sea) (Edit)
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Mix)**
Sister Of Mercy (Pete Hammond Mix)**
Doctor! Doctor! (Single Edit)**
Doctor! Doctor! (Edit)**
Sister Of Mercy (Single Mix)**
You Take Me Up (Single Edit)**
The Gap (Single Mix AKA AOR Mix)**
Hold Me Now (Phil Thornalley Extended)**
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)**
Let Loving Start (12″ Version)
Out Of The Gap (Megamix Extended Version)
Sister Of Mercy (12″ Version)
Sister Of Mercy (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)**
The Gap (Club Remix Version)**
You Take Me Up (Machines Take Me Over) (12″ Version)
You Take Me Up (High Plains Mixer) (US 12″ Remix)
** Denotes previously unreleased and/or new to CD
Side 1
Doctor! Doctor! (2024 Remaster)
You Take Me Up (2024 Remaster)
Hold Me Now (2024 Remaster)
Day After Day (2024 Remaster)
No Peace For The Wicked (2024 Remaster)
Side 2
The Gap (2024 Remaster)
Sister of Mercy (2024 Remaster)
Storm On The Sea (2024 Remaster)
Who Can Stop The Rain (2024 Remaster)
CD 1
Doctor! Doctor! (2024 Remaster)
You Take Me Up (2024
Remaster)
Hold Me Now (2024 Remaster)
Day After Day (2024 Remaster)
No Peace For The Wicked (2024 Remaster)
The Gap (2024 Remaster)
Sister of Mercy (2024 Remaster)
Storm On The Sea (2024 Remaster)
Who Can Stop The Rain (2024 Remaster)
Let Loving Start**
Nurse Shark (Instrumental)
Out Of The Gap**
Passion Planet
You Take Me Up (Instrumental Remix)
Doctor! Doctor! (Phil Thornalley Mix)
CD 2
Leopard Ray
Doctor! Doctor! (Cassette Mix Version)
Panic Station (Day After Day)
Down Tools
Hold Me Now (Cassette Mix Version)
Funeral Dance (No Peace For The Wicked)
Compass Points (The Gap)
Still Water (Storm On The Sea) (Edit)
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Mix)**
Sister Of Mercy (Pete Hammond Mix)**
Doctor! Doctor! (Single Edit)**
Doctor! Doctor! (Edit)**
Sister Of Mercy (Single Mix)**
You Take Me Up (Single Edit)**
The Gap (Single Mix AKA AOR Mix)**
CD 3
Hold Me Now (Phil Thornalley Extended)**
Hold Me Now (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)**
Let Loving Start (12″ Version)
Out Of The Gap (Megamix Extended Version)
Sister Of Mercy (12″ Version)
Sister Of Mercy (Pete Hammond Extended Mix)**
The Gap (Club Remix Version)**
You Take Me Up (Machines Take Me Over) (12″ Version)
Now That’s What I Call Music continue their year-based CD collections of 1980s twelve-inch mixes with a new 4CD set: NOW 12″ 80s: 1984 Part One
1984 was always going to be a great year for this series, even if we are by now very familiar with the songs of this spectacularly good 12-month period.
The compilation starts with the hard-to-get-on-CD 12-inch version of Queen’s ‘I Want To Break Free’ before celebrating all that was great about 1984 with extended selections from Tina Turner (‘What’s Love Got To Do With It)’, Duran Duran (‘New Moon On Monday’), Alison Moyet (the Love Injected Mix of ‘Love Resurrection’, Ray Parker Jr. (have a guess?), Mathew Wilder (‘Break My Stride’), Thompson Twins (‘Doctor! Doctor!’), Howard Jones (‘What Is Love?’) and more.
The second disc has more of an electro/disco vibe with artists such as Sister Sledge (‘Lost in Music’), The Pointer Sisters (‘Jump (For My Love)’, Dead Or Alive (‘That’s The Way (I Like It)’), Bronski Beat (‘Why?’), Hazell Dean (‘Whatever I Do’) and Divine (‘You Think You’re A Man’) before CD 3 delivers cuts from the likes of Tears For Fears (‘Mothers Talk’), Scritti Politti, Propaganda (‘Dr Mabuse’), Cocteau Twins (‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’), Echo and the Bunnymen (‘The Killing Moon’) and more.
It wouldn’t be ’84 without Frankie Goes To Hollywood and the final CD kicks off with the Annhilation Mix of ‘Two Tribes’, continuing with Duran’s ‘Wild Boys’, Paul Young’s nine-minute version of ‘I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down’, Simple Minds’ ‘Up On The Catwalk’, OMD’s ‘Tesla Girls’, Alphaville’s ‘Big in Japan’ and many more. This disc ends with the 12-inch version of Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas?’, the version inexplicably missing from the recent CD single.
NOW 12″80s: 1984 Part One will be released on 17 January 2025.
The pre-order window for the Bryan FerryRetrospective SDE exclusive blu-ray audio is about to close.
#34 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series, Retrospective is a ‘best of’ that offers the Roxy Music frontman’s classic solo output with Island Records, Polydor, Virgin/E.G., and BMG. It features eight top 40 UK hits including ‘A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall’, ‘Let’s Stick Together’, ‘Slave to Love’, ‘Don’t Stop The Dance’ and more.
Bob Clearmountain has mixed all 20 tracks in immersive Dolby Atmos and 5.1 Surround. Additionally, this blu-ray features bonus content in the form of the 16 ‘Rare and Unreleased’ songs from the fifth disc of the Retrospective: Selected Recordings 1973-2023 deluxe package, released in October (these are stereo only).
The blu-ray features the following audio streams
Bob Clearmountain Dolby Atmos Mix [exclusive physical release]
Bob Clearmountain 5.1 Mix (48/24) [exclusive]
Original Stereo Mix (48/24)
16 ‘Rare and Unreleased’ bonus tracks (stereo only) (48/24)
The SDE exclusive Bryan FerryRetrospective blu-ray audio
The release is presented in deluxe rigid board packaging, the same as used for Richard Wright’s Wet Dream blu-ray last year, and the imminent Thompson TwinsInto The Gap SDE blu-ray – not the usual amaray case. However, this will ship with a collectible SDE slipcase and the dimensions are virtually identical.
This Bryan Ferry Retrospective release is a region-free blu-ray audio and is exclusively available via SDE. You can secure your copy today by pre-ordering at the SDE shop, either directly via this link or using the special SDE shop buy button below. We ship worldwide.
This Bryan Ferry Retrospective blu-ray release is a collaboration between SDE and BMG and will be released on 31 January 2025.
TECHNICAL NOTES: This blu-ray audio requires a blu-ray player. Decoding the Dolby Atmos mix requires a Dolby Atmos-certified soundbar or a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV Receiver/Amp. The Dolby Atmos mix will ‘fold down’ to 5.1 or stereo if a Dolby Atmos decoder is not detected. This product contains no video.
Tracklisting
RetrospectiveBryan Ferry/SDE exclusive blu-ray audio
Dolby Atmos Mix (by Bob Clearmountain). 5.1 Mix (by Bob Clearmountain). Original Stereo Mix
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
These Foolish Things (2023 edit)
The “In” Crowd
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Casanova
Let’s Stick Together
Sign Of The Times
Slave To Love (7″ version)
Don’t Stop The Dance
Windswept
Kiss And Tell (2023 edit)
As Time Goes By
Your Painted Smile
I Put A Spell On You (single mix)
Which Way To Turn
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (2023 edit)
Make You Feel My Love
You Can Dance (2023 edit)
Love Letters
Johnny And Mary (2023 edit)
Rare and Unreleased bonus tracks (stereo only)
Feel The Need
Mother Of Pearl (Horoscope Version)
Don’t Be Cruel
I Don’t Want To Go On Without You
I Forgot More Than You’ll Ever Know
Crazy Love
Whatever Gets You Through The Night
Bob Dylan’s Dream
He’ll Have To Go
A Fool For Love**
Lowlands Low
Is Your Love Strong Enough
Sonnet 18
She Belongs To Me**
Oh Lonesome Me**
Star (with Amelia Baratt)**
**Previously unreleased
1 Tears For Fears / The Tipping Point
2 xPropaganda / The Heart is Strange
3 Gilbert O’Sullivan / Driven
4 Shakespears Sister / Hormonally Yours
5 Brian Eno / ForeverAndEverNoMore
6. Orbital / Optical Delusion
6.5 Various Artists / Concert For George
7 Ten Years After / A Space in Time
8 Bob Dylan / Time Out Of Mind (2022 Remix)
9 Tears For Fears / The Hurting
10 Mike Oldfield / Tubular Bells
11 Suede
12 ABC / The Lexicon of Love
13 Duran Duran / Danse Macabre
13a Duran Duran / Danse Macabre De Luxe
14 Trevor Horn / Echoes – Ancient and Modern
15 Soft Cell / Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
16 Def Leppard / Diamond Star Halos
17 Paul Young / No Parlez
18 Mark Knopfler / One Deep River
19 Wham! / Fantastic
20 Wham! / Make It Big
21 Keane / Hopes and Fears
22 Luther Vandross / Never Too Much
23 Crowded House / Gravity Stairs
24 Ultravox / Lament
25 Tori Amos / Unrepentant Geraldines
26 Bronski Beat / The Age of Consent
27 Thin Lizzy / 1976: Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox
The Cure’s new album, Songs of a Lost World, is set for a live release called Songs of a Live World Troxy London MMXXIV.
Released at the start of November, Songs of a Lost World is the band’s first album in 16 years, and their first number one album in the UK since 1992’s Wish. On the day of release, The Cure performed the album in full at London’s Troxy venue, and it’s this live performance which makes up Songs of a Live World. Whilst the performance on the night also saw The Cure play a number of hits and fan favourites, Songs of a Live World is limited to the tracks from the new album.
2LP version boasts alternate artwork and is pressed on black & white vinyl (click image to enlarge)
Songs of a Live World is released in a variety of formats. ‘Live album-only’ options are available on CD, vinyl LP and cassette, while 2LP clear vinyl, double cassette and 2CD sets, pair the studio album with the live performance.
To complicate matters further, Songs of a Lost World itself is reissued in two ‘Blood Red Moon’ vinyl editions: A single red vinyl (album only) and a 2LP red vinyl set, which features an instrumental version of the album for the first time on vinyl (these instrumentals were previously included on the 2CD+blu-ray deluxe).
The band will also be donating all royalties from this release to the charity War Child which is obviously a good cause. The 2LP vinyl is actually on Amazon now, when previously these were only available via The Cure’s online shop if you wish to purchase.
Songs of a Live World Troxy MMXXIV will be released on CD on 13 December 2024 via Polydor/Fiction. The vinyl version follows in February next year.
American rock band Wilco’s fifth studio album, A Ghost is Born, will be reissued early next year in multiple formats.
Released in 2004, A Ghost is Born saw Wilco develop the sound that had seen them garner much acclaim on 2002’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, resulting in another critical success for the band. The album also saw lead singer Jeff Tweedy take further creative control, assuming lead guitar duties after the departure of previous guitarist Jay Bennett. Recorded between New York and Chicago and co-produced by the band and Jim O’Rourke, A Ghost is Born was their first top ten US album and won the 2005 Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album.
9CD deluxe of the A Ghost is Born 20th anniversary reissue (click image to enlarge)
This new series of reissues ranges from an album-only 2LP set to a deluxe edition available in both 9LP+4CD and 9CD format. Both of those deluxe sets feature the same audio content: 38 bonus outtakes/alternates and 23 live tracks in the form of the complete 2004 concert recording from Boston’s Wang Centre. In other words, the nine vinyl records carry the same content is the first five CDs in the 9CD box. The extra four CDs common to both sets feature the bands “fundamentals” workshop sessions. Both deluxe editions also include a hardcover book featuring previously unreleased photos and sleeve notes from Bob Mehr. Mastering for the deluxe editions is by Bob Ludwig and vinyl has been pressed in Germany by Optimal Media.
If all that is more Wilco than you really want, there’s a 2CD edition which includes a second disc of outtakes and alternates. This additional CD isn’t actually a ‘highlights’ disc, it’s the same as CD 2 in the 9CD deluxe.
A Ghost is Born will be released on 7 February 2025 via Nonesuch Records.
The SDE exclusive blu-ray of Into The Gap is released this week. It features seven versions of the album (Atmos, 5.1, new stereo, Atmos Instrumentals, 5.1 Instrumentals, remastered stereo and original stereo) and 30 bonus tracks in stereo. There should be some availability again later this week on the SDE shop due to cancellations/contingency stock.
Steven Wilson’s festive number was originally written at very short notice as an experiment after a friend challenged him to create a Christmas song. The AI-assisted lyrics suggest an element of detachment but the final product embodies all that is good about the classic tradition of the ‘Christmas Song’.
Last year this was a YouTube-only affair, but for 2024 this is made available on seven-inch vinyl and CD single via Burning Shed.
19CD box set featuring 10 original studio albums, six live albums, Laura’s original demo tape from 1966 and a bonus disc of rarities, including mono versions, alternative versions & live tracks
The pre-order window for the two Simple Minds SDE-exclusive blu-rays – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and Sparkle in the Rain – is about to close.
The New Gold Dream blu-ray features a brand new Dolby Atmos Mix of the album by legendary mixer Bob Clearmountain, in addition to new 5. 1 mixes, new stereo mixes and instrumental mixes, also by Clearmountain. The full list of audio streams is below
New Gold Dream Bob Clearmountain 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)*
New Gold Dream Bob Clearmountain 2024 5.1 Mix (48/24)*
New Gold Dream Bob Clearmountain 2024 Stereo Mix (48/24)*
New Gold Dream Bob Clearmountain 2024 Instrumental Mix (96/24)*
New Gold Dream Ronald Prent & Charlie Burchill 2005 5.1 Mix (96/24)
New Gold Dream Original Stereo mix (96/24)
*Previously unreleased
It’s worth highlighting that the 2005 mix 5.1 mix is lossless on the blu-ray and features unique longer versions of many of the songs. It also exclusively includes a bonus track: ‘In Every Heaven’. Note: The original 5.1 mix features up-mixes of ‘Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel’ and ‘Promised You A Miracle’ because the multi-track tapes could not be found (they have since been located for the 2024 mixes).
The SDE blu-ray of Sparkle in the Rain also features a brand new Dolby Atmos Mix of the album by Bob Clearmountain, as well as new 5. 1 mixes, new stereo mixes and instrumental mixes, also by Clearmountain.
Sparkle in the Rain Bob Clearmountain 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)*
Sparkle in the Rain Bob Clearmountain 2024 5.1 Mix (48/24)*
Sparkle in the Rain Bob Clearmountain 2024 Stereo Mix (48/24)*
Sparkle in the Rain Bob Clearmountain 2024 Instrumental Mix (96/24)*
Sparkle in the Rain Steven Wilson 2014 5.1 Mix – remastered (96/24)
Sparkle in the Rain Steven Wilson 2014 Stereo Mix – remastered (96/24)
Sparkle in the Rain Steven Wilson 2014 Instrumental Mix – remastered (96/24)*
Original 1984 Stereo Mix (48/24)
*Previously unreleased
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and Sparkle in the Rain are numbers 32 and 33 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series of blu-ray audios with Atmos Mixes and both will ship with the free, collectible SDEslipcase
Both Simple Minds blu-rays are region-free and limited editions. They come with booklets and Sparkle inthe Rain includes Jim Kerr’s track-by-track guide. These are only available via the SDE shop, either directly via this link or using the special SDE shop buy button below. A two-blu-ray bundle is available. We ship worldwide. The Bryan FerryRetrospective blu-ray is available to pre-order at this point in time.
The New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) and Sparkle in the Rain blu-rays are a collaboration between SDE and UMR and will be released on 7 February 2025.
Tracklisting
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)Simple Minds/SDE exclusive blu-ray
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) in the following audio streams:
– Bob Clearmountain 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24) – Bob Clearmountain 2024 5.1 Mix (48/24) – Bob Clearmountain 2024 Stereo Mix (48/24) – Bob Clearmountain 2024 Instrumental Mix (96/24) – Original Stereo mix (96/24)
Someone Somewhere in Summertime 4:36
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel 3:49
Promised You a Miracle 4:28
Big Sleep 5:00
Somebody Up There Likes You 5:02
New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) 5.39
Glittering Prize 4.33
Hunter and the Hunted 5.55
King is White and in the Crowd 7.00
Ronald Prent & Charlie Burchill 2005 5.1 Mix (96/24)
Someone Somewhere in Summertime 5:22
Colours Fly and Catherine Wheel* 3:49
Promised You a Miracle*4:28
Big Sleep 5:27
Somebody Up There Likes You 5:45
New Gold Dream (81–82–83–84) 6:08
Glittering Prize 4:40
Hunter and the Hunted 6:09
King is White and in the Crowd 7:31
In Every Heaven✝︎ 4:46
*Up-mixes on 2005 5.1 mix ONLY
✝︎Appears only on 2005 5.1 mix
Tracklisting
Sparkle in the RainSimple Minds/SDE exclusive blu-ray
Sparkle in the Rain in the following audio streams:
– Bob Clearmountain 2024 Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
– Bob Clearmountain 2024 5.1 Mix (48/24)
– Bob Clearmountain 2024 Stereo Mix (48/24)
– Bob Clearmountain 2024 Instrumental Mix (96/24)
– Steven Wilson 2014 5.1 Mix (96/24)
– Steven Wilson 2014 Stereo Mix (96/24)
– Steven Wilson 2014 Instrumental Mix (96/24)
– Original 1984 Stereo Mix (48/24)
Up On the Catwalk
Book Of Brilliant Things
Speed Your Love to Me
Waterfront
East At Easter
Street Hassle
White Hot Day
“C” Moon Cry Like a Baby
The Kick Inside of Me
Shake Off the Ghosts
1 Tears For Fears / The Tipping Point
2 xPropaganda / The Heart is Strange
3 Gilbert O’Sullivan / Driven
4 Shakespears Sister / Hormonally Yours
5 Brian Eno / ForeverAndEverNoMore
6. Orbital / Optical Delusion
6.5 Various Artists / Concert For George
7 Ten Years After / A Space in Time
8 Bob Dylan / Time Out Of Mind (2022 Remix)
9 Tears For Fears / The Hurting
10 Mike Oldfield / Tubular Bells
11 Suede
12 ABC / The Lexicon of Love
13 Duran Duran / Danse Macabre
13a Duran Duran / Danse Macabre De Luxe
14 Trevor Horn / Echoes – Ancient and Modern
15 Soft Cell / Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
16 Def Leppard / Diamond Star Halos
17 Paul Young / No Parlez
18 Mark Knopfler / One Deep River
19 Wham! / Fantastic
20 Wham! / Make It Big
21 Keane / Hopes and Fears
22 Luther Vandross / Never Too Much
23 Crowded House / Gravity Stairs
24 Ultravox / Lament
25 Tori Amos / Unrepentant Geraldines
26 Bronski Beat / The Age of Consent
27 Thin Lizzy / 1976: Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox
28 Tears For Fears / Songs For A Nervous Planet
29 Thompson Twins / Into The Gap
30 The Who / Who’s Next
31 Elton John / Diamonds
32 Simple Minds / New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
33 Simple Minds / Sparke in the Rain
34 Bryan Ferry / Retrospective: The Best of Bryan Ferry
The super deluxe edition reissue of The Lilac Time’s 1991 album Astronauts is a handsome thing. It expands the original release to three times its initial length: it’s now a triple album, with 21 additional tracks made up of demos and live recordings. It comes in a foil-blocked gatefold sleeve, with each of the albums inside it given new artwork. There is a beautifully designed booklet, which recounts the story of Astronauts’ making in exhaustive detail over 10,000 words of oral history, and comes with an additional essay about the album, set amid reproductions of handwritten lyrics and contemporary photographs. It is lavishness on a scale that even the label who commissioned it seem to realise is faintly demented. Needle Mythology’s co-founder, writer Pete Paphides, recently penned a lengthy essay on Medium, explaining how, even with The Lilac Time’s frontman and chief songwriter Stephen Duffy forfeiting all royalty payments and the vinyl edition priced at £70, it’s almost certainly doomed to make a loss. “If a job’s worth doing at all,” Paphides wrote defiantly, “it’s worth doing properly” even if doing it properly constitutes “a heroic folly”.
It seems more demented still when you consider the album at its centre. “It has yet to receive its 18-page Mojo retrospective,” wrote Paphides, dryly, which is certainly one way of putting it. Astronauts was an apparently final, doomed roll of the dice from a band who had resolutely failed to set the world on fire over the preceding five years. It failed entirely in reversing the commercial fortunes of The Lilac Time, who were probably condemned to failure from the start. Of all the things a mainstream, Top Of The Pops-friendly pop star could do in the mid-80s, forming a folk-rock band was among the most foolhardy. This was, after all, an era in which the only other public figure who admitted to liking the kind of artists the former Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy claimed as influences on his new project – Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band, Donovan, the Grateful Dead of American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead – was Neil from The Young Ones. In fairness, there were hints at that direction on both the albums he released in his teen idol era: ‘The World At Large Alone’ and ‘The Darkest Blues’ on 1985’s The Ups And Downs; ‘Sunday Supplement’ and ‘Julie Christie’ on 1986’s Because We Love You. But even so, when Duffy announced his intention in the pages of Smash Hits the interviewer reacted with horror, proclaiming the idea “incredibly boring”.
The 3CD super deluxe of Astronauts
Accordingly, no one seems to have known what to make of The Lilac Time. When Duffy submitted the first fruits of his new acoustic musical direction to the label that had released his solo hits ‘Kiss Me’ and ‘Icing On The Cake’, they immediately dropped him. Another major eventually picked the band up, then applied the kind of shiny production lacquer that major labels were wont to apply to anything leftfield in the late 80s, to no commercial avail. Duffy’s songs were strong enough to withstand the coating of unnecessary gloss, but chart success proved elusive – their biggest single, 1990’s ‘All For And Love For All’, made it all the way to Number 77 – and the band were dropped again. Offered a lifeline by Alan McGee of Creation, they embarked on making Astronauts, at which point things started to go really wrong.
Weary of touring, Duffy’s chief musical foil, his multi-instrumentalist brother Nick, quit the band as recording commenced. Spotting a potential link between the band’s laid back, gently psychedelic sound and the indie-dance scene that had finally made stars of Primal Scream, McGee felt The Lilac Time should pursue a modish dance-influenced direction, but – wary of the over-production of previous albums – Duffy demurred, pulling the plug on that idea after one song, ‘Dreaming’, was remixed by Hypnotone. Recording began at Duffy’s home in Malvern, but when they decamped to London, sessions were hampered by their studio of choice’s engineer, who it transpired was a drug addict. After further sessions in London left him unable to complete the tracks to his satisfaction, Duffy essentially gave up, submitting Astronauts unfinished, before embarking on a desultory tour, breaking the band up and attempting, unsuccessfully, to prevent the album from being released.
Astronauts may well be the best album The Lilac Time ever made
Alexis Petridis
As catalogues of disasters go, it’s not unimpressive, but the really striking thing was the end result. Despite it all, Astronauts may well be the best album The Lilac Time ever made. With Nick Duffy’s multi-instrumentalism replaced by new guitarist , their sound was simplified: what you lose in colour you gain in room for the songs to breathe. Despite its lo-fi home-recorded origins (you can hear a plane passing overhead during ‘Grey Skies And Work Things’), and whoever was behind the mixing desk – and whatever their extra-curricular proclivities – the production was more sympathetic to Duffy’s songs than that of any Lilac Time album since their eponymous debut, or rather the original version of their debut that came out on a tiny Birmingham indie label, before their deal with Fontana required it to be sonically buffed-up, to detrimental effect. Everyone else The Lilac Time worked with imposed a sound on them, for commercial or artistic reasons, and that sometimes worked – the swirling Beatle-y psychedelia XTC’s Andy Partridge conjured on 1988’s ‘And Love For All’ was pretty effective – but Astronauts suggested the lighter the touch, the better. For all Duffy’s reservations, Hypnotone’s remix of ‘Dreaming’ deployed a similarly subtle approach: introduced with the same steal from Joni Mitchell’s ‘Free Man In Paris’ as the album’s opening track, ‘In Iverna Gardens’, it’s an oddly delicate example of early 90s post-baggy alt-rock, a pattering drum machine and muted synths chattering around Duffy’s breathy, heavy-lidded vocal.
Ultimately, however, its greatness rests on the songs themselves. Their mood is split between lovestruck euphoria – ‘Hats Off Here Comes The Girl’, ‘In Iverna Gardens’, ‘A Taste Of Honey’ – and tracks where something of the weariness that surrounded The Lilac Time as the 80s turned into the 90s seemed to have seeped into their bones, where regrets and shattered dreams prevail: ‘Grey Skies And Work Things’, ‘Fortunes’, ‘The Darkness Of Her Eyes’. All of them are quite extraordinarily beautiful: the lyrics filled with hauntingly evocative imagery, the melodies uniformly exquisite. You can see why it wasn’t a hit – it was painted in muted watercolours in an era when neon-bright hues were hip – but the idea that an album that seems to be this well-crafted is unfinished boggles the mind slightly.
You can see why it wasn’t a hit – it was painted in muted watercolours in an era when neon-bright hues were hip
Alexis Petridis
It ends with the acoustic ‘Madresfield’, originally dashed off for a limited-edition single on a friend’s tiny label, that turned out to be one of the most poignant and affecting songs Stephen Duffy has ever written: filled with memories, images of encroaching winter and intimations of death, it was the perfect way for The Lilac Time to end their career.
Of course, neither Duffy, nor The Lilac Time’s career ended with Astronauts: there was subsequently a sequence of solo albums, 1995’s Duffy chiming with the Britpop era, a Lilac Time reformation that continues, sporadically, to this day, and, unexpectedly, vast international success – at least by proxy – as the co-author of Robbie Williams’ 6m-selling album Intensive Care, number one in 15 countries in 2005.
If it isn’t entirely clear from the sleeve notes what Duffy makes of Astronauts today, it still sounds incredible, particularly in this version: I’ve no idea what the original vinyl sounds like – a copy is hard to find, there currently isn’t a single one for sale in the UK on Discogs – but this remaster is rich and full; and besides, it comes garlanded with previously-unreleased tracks. LP2 has spoken-work, hissy bedroom recordings of sketched-out works-in-progress, complete with birds twittering in the background – the demo of ‘Dreaming’ has a far more doleful mood than the finished version – and five unreleased songs: the staccato, Beatle-y ‘She Is All Colour’ might be the pick. Whatever the mood in the band when the album of live tracks were recorded – in Derby in 1990, and in London and Manchester a few weeks before they split – they sound pretty great: the songs from their previous albums are stripped back to considerable effect; ‘Dreaming’ is recast again, drenched in feedback-laden, impressively unbound guitar; Duffy’s second mid-80s solo hit ‘Icing On The Cake’ is given a very bold jazzy makeover.
You could say the extra material is very much fans-only, but then, who else is this reissue for? It would be lovely to think it might lead to a more widespread re-assessment of Astronauts, but that seems unlikely to happen. It appears destined to remain one of the great if-you-know-you-know albums: a disaster waiting to happen that carved out its own little cult. Said cult’s followers are likely to be overjoyed with Needle Mythology’s reissue, which sounds fantastic and has evidently been put together by people who love Astronauts as much as they do: a heroic folly, with the emphasis on the word heroic.
Review by Alexis Petridis. The Astronauts super deluxe editions are released today – 29 November 2024 – on 3CD and 3LP vinyl.
