Author: Paul Sinclair

Japanese CD of the Day: Paul McCartney / Tug of War

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Between August 1999 and April 2000 EMI-Toshiba Japan issued all of Paul McCartney‘s post Beatles albums as vinyl replica mini-LP CDs. These started with McCartney from 1970 and ended with 1986’s Press To Play. Why Flowers In The Dirt, Off The Ground and Flaming Pie were excluded is anyone’s guess.

These are extremely high quality, in terms of the packaging, with VERY thick card for the jackets and appropriate finishes for the front covers. Inner sleeves are reproduced, as are posters and other elements from the original vinyl. The Wings Over America set is probably the most desirable because it is the only place you’ll find the record as a three CD set, with the track listing echoing the three-LP release.
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DEAL OF THE DAY: The Who / Quadrophenia Super Deluxe Edition

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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The Who‘s Quadrophenia Super Deluxe Edition (technically the “Director’s Cut”) came out in Autumn 2011, a period of time which it could be argued was the first season of the really big Super Deluxe Edition box set. Pink Floyd‘s Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here were both released as ‘Immersion’ boxes around the same time, and U2‘s Achtung Baby and The Rolling Stones‘ Some Girls also got the big box treatment.
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The Velvet Underground: White Light / White Heat super deluxe

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As most music collectors will attest, there is nothing more annoying than albums by the same artist being reissued in a hodge-podge of styles, formats and packaging. Witness EMI’s approach to the Duran Duran catalogue a few years back. A true “pick ‘n’ mix” of re-releases included a casebound book (Rio), lift-off lid boxes (Duran Duran, Notorious) and ‘fatbox’ jewel case (Arcadia’s So Red The Rose). Let’s face it, that’s never going to look good on your shelf.

So credit to Universal for sticking with the same book format for the Super Deluxe Edition of The Velvet Underground‘s White Light/White Heat that was used for last year’s Velvet Underground & Nico SDE. If nothing else it ticks the OCD box, because they do slot nicely together on the shelf and the fonts on the spine match (very important).
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Deal of the Day: Bruce Springsteen / “Tracks” 4CD set

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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66 Bruce Springsteen songs for £12?! What’s not to like. Tracks is his excellent box set from 1998 and illustrates that there are few artists that can match Springsteen when it comes to the quality of previously unreleased material.

Although Rhino are doing a great job with repackaging their box sets and can match (and often beat) Sony’s pricing, they can’t beat the presentation – this rejigged bookpack is very stylish and has a great booklet in the middle, full of all the detail you could want.

Tears For Fears / “The Hurting” blu-ray audio on the way

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Tears For Fears‘ 1983 album The Hurting will be issued as a High-Fidelity Pure Audio blu-ray on 20 January 2014.

The album received the deluxe treatment back in October when it was issued as a 3CD+DVD box set. SDE Editor Paul Sinclair helped to compile the bonus tracks and remixes included on that special edition but unfortunately none of them appear to have been included in this Pure Audio edition which, according to Universal’s own website contains just the 10-tracks from the original album.
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Suede / “Sci-Fi Lullabies” 3LP vinyl

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Any Suede fans who recently missed out on the recent (now sold out) Vinyl Collection box set  might be pleased to hear that one of its main attractions – the vinyl debut of their sublime 1997 Sci-Fi Lullabies B-sides collection – will be available separately early next year.
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Pure Audio Competition Winner

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

COMPETITION: Win a High Fidelity Pure Audio prize bundle

Congratulations go to SuperDeluxeEdition reader TREVOR BAKER who has been randomly selected as the winner of our 9-disc High Fidelity Pure Audio bundle. Trevor wins the following titles:

  • Stevie Wonder / Songs In The Key Of Life
  • The Rolling Stones / GRRR!
  • Bob Marley / Legend
  • The Rolling Stones / Exile On Main Street
  • John Coltrane / A Love Supreme
  • Supertramp / Breakfast In America
  • Serge Gainsbourg / Histoire De Melody Nelson
  • Quincy Jones / Big Band Bossa Nova
  • A not-for-sale HFPA 15-track demo disc including songs by Guns and Roses and Dire Straits.

The following three runners-up each win a copy of the HFPA 15-track demo disc: Jeff Zinger, John Medina and Nigel Croft.

All the winners will be informed via email and these will be shipped after the Christmas break. Congratulations to those who were lucky and many thanks to everyone who entered and to Universal Music for supplying the prizes.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood / Relax (Sex Mix) 2014 twelve-inch vinyl

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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The ZTT 30th Anniversary releases will include a special twelve-inch of Frankie Goes To Hollywood‘s classic Relax featuring a mix new to vinyl.

This limited pressing of what is one of the biggest-selling twelve-inch singles of all time, has a new spined sleeve, in a new colour scheme and an inner sleeve featuring photography by John Stoddart. It will feature “Relax (Sex Mix Edition 3)” on the A-side.
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Japanese CD of the Day: Bruce Springsteen Live/1975-85

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band’s 1986 release Live 1975/85 is the selection in our semi-regular feature Japanese CD of the Day.

The 40-track collection was originally released as a three-CD (and three-cassette) set in a lift-off lid box. Later issues of the CD version reverted to a ‘fatbox’ CD jewel case. Due to the format’s limited running time, the original vinyl version was a five-LP offering and it’s that edition that is replicated in detail with this Japanese mini-LP CD (MHCP-729).
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Chas & Dave / The Rockney Box 1981-1991 / 9-disc set

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Hot on the heels of Demon Music’s rather great Leo Sayer collection Just A Box, comes a similarly styled Chas & Dave anthology called The Rockney Box 1981-1991.

For those unfamiliar with the pop-rock duo, Charles Nicholas “Chas” Hodges and David Victor “Dave” Peacock were exponents of music which combined the pub singalong, music-hall humour, boogie-woogie piano rock ‘n’ roll – a combination that was dubbed ‘rockney’.
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Agnetha Faltskog / “A” deluxe edition

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Universal Music have issued a deluxe CD+DVD edition of ABBA star Agnetha Fältskog‘s 2013 solo album A.

The record was originally released back in May and features a collaboration with Gary Barlow called I Should Have Followed You Home which the pair performed together on BBC TV’s Children In Need show last month.
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Alice Cooper / Billion Dollar Babies hybrid Super Audio CD (SACD)

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Alice Cooper‘s 1973 album Billion Dollar Babies will be issued as a hybrid SACD by US audiophile specialists Audio Fidelity, early next year.

The record was a transatlantic number one at the time of release and features the singles Elected, Hello Hooray, Billion Dollar Babies, and No More Mr. Nice Guy.
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DEAL OF THE DAY: U2 / Achtung Baby 17-disc UBER deluxe

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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The U2 Achtung Baby UBER deluxe box set came out in late 2011.

It took deluxe editions to a whole new level with an amazing array of content. It came in an enormous “magnetic puzzle tiled box” which contained the 10 discs found in the standard SUPER deluxe box (6 CDs and 4 DVDs). Unlike that box the discs come in special bespoke digipacks in the UBER deluxe set. The box actually has drawers, it’s so big and also contained the 2LP 180g vinyl version of the album (the only other place it was issued was in a vinyl box – it wasn’t released separately) as well as the five singles all pressed on transparent vinyl, contained in special oversized wallets.
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ZTT / 30th Anniversary releases available for pre-order

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The previously announced ZTT 30th anniversary titles have now been made available for pre-order.

The Art of the 12″, Volume Three is probably the pick of the bunch, with two CDs packed with remix rarities, although the new deluxe edition of Frankie Said is sure to appeal to fans of Frankie Goes To Hollywood with what looks like a reasonably comprehensive collection of promos and TV appearances on the DVD element. Continue reading “ZTT / 30th Anniversary releases available for pre-order”

Beatles / Bootleg Recordings 1963

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After something of a false start, Apple Corps/Universal have today issued 59 previously unreleased recordings by The Beatles consisting of studio outtakes and live material from 1963.

We should clarify straight off the bat, that this is not a deluxe box set; indeed, it’s not being released physically on any format. Bootleg Recordings 1963 (as this collection is dubbed) is a digital-only affair and can only be bought via iTunes. But hey, it is The Beatles, so coverage here is justified!

The Beatles’ Anthology albums (themselves nearly 20 years old) were the one and only time in the last 50 years that Fab Four studio outtakes have been officially released, so to see something akin to The Holy Grail almost casually uploaded onto (the other) Apple’s iTunes servers takes a while to get your head around.
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DEAL OF THE DAY: The Beatles / The US Albums 13CD box set

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The recently announced 13CD box set of The Beatles Capitol albums is due for release on 20 January 2014.

Each CD in The U.S. Albums box set has mono and stereo versions of each album (with a couple of exceptions) and exquisite packaging with vinyl replica jackets, inner sleeves reproduced to exacting detail and with Yesterday And Today even being supplied with a sticker of the ‘trunk’ cover which you can paste over the infamous ‘butcher’ sleeve (or not!).

Anyway, the cheapest place to pick this up is Amazon Canada where it is currently only $135 Canadian, which is £78, or a little over HALF the cost of the set on Amazon UK (£145). Obviously, remember to factor in shipping fees and concerns about import duty (if applicable) but still worthy of ‘Deal of the Day’!

DEAL OF THE DAY: Cheap Trick / The Complete Epic Albums Collection

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

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The Cheap Trick Complete Epic Albums Collection was released in June 2013

The 14-disc set includes the complete Budokan concert, all the band’s studio albums from 1977 to 1990 (many expanded, or newly remastered) along with the Found All The Parts E.P.

It is currently available for £27 on Amazon UK which is as cheap as we remember seeing it (normally over £40). At less than £2 per disc that makes this set outstanding value. More details and photos can be found here.

True To The Blues: The Johnny Winter Story / 4CD box set

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Sony/Legacy will release True To The Blues: The Johnny Winter Story in February 2014.

The four-disc set celebrates the long recording career of the American blues guitarist who celebrates his 70th birthday on February 23, 2014.
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Out This Week / 16 December 2013

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The Jesus and Mary Chain  / The Vinyl Collection  (9LP Box)

Following on from their now sold out Suede vinyl box, Demon Music have created this 9LP limited edition vinyl box that collects the work of The Jesus And Mary Chain. We have a handful of 10% off discount codes left, if you thinking of making a purchase! Read more

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Dr Feelgood / Live at Rockpalast (CD+DVD set)

An October 1980 performance on the German TV show from the Canvey Island band’s second line-up featuring Lee Brilleaux, John B.Sparkes and The Big Figure and John ‘Gypie’ Mayo. Restored and remastered – 18 tracks on CD and DVD.

The Zombies / In Stereo 4CD box set

The Zombies  / In Stereo (4CD box set)

A four-CD, 90-track Zombies compilation that explores the band’s stereo recordings during the 1964-66 Decca era. Features true stereo, ‘fake’ stereo and new stereo mixes. Read more
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The Pogues / 30 Years box set

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Rhino’s eight-CD Pogues box, 30 Years, is released today.

This set collects the seven studio albums from 1984’s Red Roses For Me to Pogue Mahone from 1996 and adds a previously unreleased live album The Pogues with Joe Strummer – Live In London (recorded in December 1991).

There have been Pogues reissues before of course, notably in 2004 when the albums were re-released on CD with bonus tracks. Rhino also issued an Original Album Series collection in 2009 that brought together the five Shane MacGowan albums in the usual card slipcase packaging.
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