Holding the Music in Your Hands ®
Edsel Records will release a second wave of Everything But The Girl reissues in November 2013.
The three deluxe editions will be The Language Of Life (1990), Worldwide and the Acoustic EPs, (1991-2) and Amplified Heart (1994).
Continue reading “Everything But The Girl / New deluxe reissues coming”
The Pet Shop Boys are certainly churning out the singles from Electric.
Love Is A Bourgeois Construct has only just been released, but Neil and Chris are already focusing on the next single, Thursday (featuring Example), which is due out on 4 November.
Continue reading “Pet Shop Boys / “Thursday” CD Single”
Two CDs of newly remixed Rock Of Ages audio, plus a further two discs of soundboard recordings of The Band‘s 1971 New Year’s Eve concert in full. As if that wasn’t enough a DVD adds 5.1 surround mixes and archive footage. 
The Kinks‘ 1971 album is issued as a deluxe edition with a second CD of demos, remixes and live tracks.
Continue reading “Out This Week / 7 October 2013”
The Band‘s 5-disc deluxe set Live at the Academy of Music 1971 is released today.
This edition features an expanded and fully remixed version of the original Rock Of Ages live album from 1972 (across two discs) and adds a couple more CDs which include the 1971 New Year’s Eve concert in its entirety. A DVD provides a 5.1 surround sound mix and has a couple of archival film clips from the 30 December performance.
It comes packaged in a wonderful ten-inch square hardcover book which exudes quality with a front cover that features embossed type and some special finishes.
As you will see from the video and photos below, this volume of full of evocative photos from those three nights at the end of 1971. Each of the five discs are securely housed in individual thick card pages at the back of the book.
More photos below:
Continue reading “FIRST PICTURES: The Band / Live at the Academy of Music 1971 deluxe”
It wouldn’t be a Morrissey project without some drama. For a time his autobiography was looking like it might not be released, when last month it emerged last month that the singer had had “a last minute content disagreement” with publishers Penguin.
Thankfully, the disagreement has now been resolved and Autobiography, as it is called, will be released on 17 October 2013.
Refreshingly, it’s straight out on paperback, at a reasonable price and utilises the classic Penguin book design (as well as the photo used for Morrissey’s 2008 Greatest Hits).
Autobiography covers Steven Patrick Morrissey’s life from his birth until the present day.
British band Keane have a new greatest hits out in November.
The Best Of Keane is available in a number of configurations including a special super deluxe edition set which contains two CDs, a DVD and a 100-page hardcover ‘photo scrapbook’.
Continue reading “Keane / “The Best Of”: deluxe editions”
Biographers of individual Beatles are often guilty of focusing on the well told story of the Fab Four and then skipping over the period when the musician in question wasn’t a Beatle anymore – the solo years.
So it is good to see that journalist Mat Snow has done the opposite and ignored the period where the boys were toppermost of the poppermost, in his new four-volume book set The Beatles Solo.
Continue reading “New book: “The Beatles: Solo””
A month after being announced, Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live, the celebration of The Rolling Stones‘ two 2013 summer gigs in central London’s most famous green space, has finally been made available to US and Canadian fans.
Not only that, Amazon in the US has most of the configurations available, including the T-shirt-and -DVD (pictured above) and the elusive ‘Deluxe Edition‘ (2CD+DVD+Blu-ray and book) which is still not available on Amazon UK.
Continue reading “Rolling Stones / “Summer Sun: Hyde Park” deluxe hits the USA”
The 11xLP vinyl box set from Suede which was initially unavailable to US fans via Suede’s webstore, is not only is it now available to them via Amazon UK, but has actually dropped in price by 35%.
At the time of writing (and it will undoubtedly go back up soon) the price is £106. Even for UK buyers that undercuts the Suede store by £24. For US fans who get the VAT deducted that is a price of around £88 or $142. That is a great deal, considering the newly announced 8LP Jam vinyl box set is £132. The Suede box is also available on Amazon Germany, but the price isn’t really competitive.
The box contains all the band’s studio albums, but at least six pieces of vinyl inside this set could be classed as essential. They are Suede’s 1993 debut, the double LP that is follow-up Dog Man Star, the 3LP Sci-Fi Lullabies B-side collection and Coming Up.
Suede: The Vinyl collection is released on 21 October 2013.
Universal Music will release a limited edition Jam vinyl box set in November.
The Studio Recordings is an 8LP collection featuring remastered versions of all six studio albums on heavyweight vinyl, plus two special LPs of non-album singles and B-sides.
Within the rigid slipcase, next to the records, you will also find a 44-page hardback book (with an introduction by Paul Weller) full of period photographs and memorabilia. For the times when you can’t access your black vinyl, a download code for MP3s of all the tracks is included.
The Jam – The Studio Recordings vinyl box is out on 25 November 2013.
Continue reading “The Jam / The Studio Recordings: 8LP career-spanning vinyl box”
Chrysalis Records will release a new Ultravox box set later on this month.
The Albums 1980-2012 is a nine-CD collection featuring the six Midge Ure era studio albums – Vienna (1980), Rage in Eden (1981), Quartet (1982), Lament (1984) and U-Vox (1986) – as well as live records Monument (1983) and Return to Eden (2009).
The story is brought right back up to date with the inclusion of Brilliant, last year’s studio album featuring the classic line-up after a recording hiatus of almost three decades.
All the LPs from the 1980s have been newly remastered by Steve Rooke at Abbey Road Studios.
The CDs will be in card sleeves and housed in a clamshell box. The Albums 1980-2012 is released on 28 October 2013.
Continue reading “Ultravox / The Albums 1980-2012: 9CD album collection box set”
May 1993. Almost three years had passed since A-ha last had a top twenty hit in the UK, with sweet harmonies of the Everly Brothers’ cover Crying In The Rain.
The wistful adult pop of follow-up singles I Call Your Name and Early Morning (also from 1990’s East of the Sun, West of the Moon) simply hadn’t connected with the great British public – probably more to do with radio play, than anything else.
Continue reading “Single File / A-ha: Dark Is The Night”
David Bowie‘s 1997 album Earthling is being re-released on vinyl later this month.
Sometimes referred to as his ‘drum and bass’ album, Earthling is an uneven affair, but does feature the UK hit single Little Wonder as well as Telling Lies, which is supposedly the first single by a major artist to be available for download. I’m Afraid Of Americans was remixed and issued as a single in the US.
Continue reading “David Bowie / “Earthling” LP reissue”
Garcia Live Volume 3 is a three-CD Set featuring over two and a half hours of previously unreleased music from Jerry Garcia’s short lived touring band Legion of Mary.
This set features live performances from the Pacific Northwest dating from December 14-15 1974, and the audio is mastered from original soundboard recordings.
Continue reading “Legion of Mary / GarciaLive: Volume Three / Dec 1974 Northwest tour”
This November, Sony/Columbia will release a special three-disc collector’s edition of David Bowie‘s 2013 ‘comeback’ album The Next Day.
“The Next Day Extra” as it is being dubbed in some quarters, breaks down as follows: Disc one is the original 14-track album, while disc two is a ten-track ‘companion CD‘ which includes the three bonus tracks from the original deluxe edition (So She, Plan and I’ll Take You There), the Japanese-only bonus track (God Bless The Girl), two remixes (Love Is Lost and I’d Rather Be High) and four previously unreleased tracks (Atomica, The Informer, Like A Rocket Man, and Born In A UFO). The third disc is a DVD featuring the four videos made for the songs Where Are We Now?, The Stars (Are Out Tonight), The Next Day and Valentine’s Day.
Continue reading “David Bowie / “The Next Day”: 2CD+DVD collector’s edition”
With the recent news that Universal Music are issuing a Dire Straits Complete Studio Albums box set, we thought the band’s highly regarded 1978 debut album would be a good choice for our semi-regular Japanese CD of the Day feature.
This reissue dates from late 2010 and is actually both an SHM CD (Super High Material) and a (stereo-only) SACD (Super Audio CD). Universal Music Japan released a number of albums in this format at that time including titles from The Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder.
Continue reading “Japanese CD of the Day / Dire Straits: 1978 debut album”
US audiophile specialist Audio Fidelity will issue their first ever box set in December 2013.
The Audio Fidelity Collection contains four classic Deep Purple 24K Gold CD titles from the Mark II line-up, namely In Rock, Machine Head, Fireball, Who Do We Think We Are.
Continue reading “Deep Purple / The Audio Fidelity Collection: 24k gold 4CD box set”
This week’s mega-set is the John Martyn box The Island Years. 17 CDs collect all his Island-era albums with bonus tracks, including previously unreleased mixes, outtakes and unheard songs. Also comes with a DVD, hardback book, poster and more.
Very much looking forward to this Grateful Dead box. You get the full Sunshine Daydream concert from August 1972 (across three CDs) plus a DVD that includes the previously unreleased concert film with new stereo and 5.1 audio mixes. A vinyl set is also available.
A seven-CD box set of Rush‘s Atlantic albums from 1989-2007, this Studio Albums collection also includes a newly remixed version of Vapor Trails which is supposed to be a massive improvement on the original (it’s also available separately).
Continue reading “Out This Week / 30 September 2013”
Universal Music will issue a Dire Straits vinyl box set in November.
The Complete Studio Albums 1978-1991 will deliver all six of the band’s studio long players on 180g vinyl, starting with their superb eponymous debut, working through to the commercial high of 1985’s Brothers In Arms before signing off with On Every Street from 1991. All have been newly remastered by engineer Bob Ludwig.
Continue reading “Dire Straits / The Complete Studio Albums 1978-1991 vinyl box”
Suede‘s 11LP vinyl box set announced last month, looked to be exclusive to their online webstore. Unfortunately for US fans, this box could not be shipped to North America due the distribution rights situation.
However, a potential solution has emerged for fans across the Atlantic, since the box is now available to order from the Amazon UK site. Although they are charging more for the set (£169 at the time of writing), assuming there are no restrictions in place, US shoppers should see that reduced to around £140 with the removal of VAT.
The box set collects all six Suede studio albums (Suede, Dog Man Star (2LP), Coming Up, Head Music (2LP), A New Morning, Bloodsports), and also includes B-Side compilation Sci-Fi Lullabies (3LP), for the first time on vinyl.
