Author: Paul Sinclair

Edsel Records reject Robert Palmer MP3 mastering claims

Posted on by Paul Sinclair
Robert Palmer / Edsel Island-era reissues
“The CDs certainly don’t have MP3s on them”, Edsel’s Val Jennings told us

Online music forums are buzzing at the moment with fans claiming that Edsel’s recent Island-era Robert Palmer reissues show signs of being mastered from an MP3 source.

Using sound editing software such as Audacity, audiophiles often like to ‘look’ at the sound of tracks via waveforms – it’s a way to check the state of the mastering. Some fans of the late English singer have been doing just this with the latest reissues and are unhappy with what they see. “There is absolutely no musical information above 16 kHz, which is a dead giveaway” stated one person –  the implication being that this was an indication of an MP3 source. Many fans have emailed us in the last 24 hours asking if they should not buy the reissues and if we knew whether there was any truth in these claims.
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Roger Waters / Amused to Death SACD & vinyl pre-order

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Roger Waters / Amused to Death SACD and 200g vinyl reissue

Analogue Productions’ vinyl and SACD reissues of Roger Waters‘ 1992 album Amused To Death will be released on 5 November, according to new listings on Amazon.

The reissue was announced in January this year, with James Guthrie (who originally mixed the album) remastering from the original analogue tapes.

Amused To Death will be available on 200-gram double LP and Stereo Hybrid SACD.

SACD

2LP Heavyweight Vinyl (200g)

Out This Week / 16 September 2013

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

diving_board_sde

Elton John / The Diving Board

The new album from Elton John is offered as an expensive Super Deluxe Edition as well as a standard deluxe, but a proliferation of ‘exclusive’ versions in US retail chains frustrates fans . Read more
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Bros: “Push” reissue improved thanks to SuperDeluxeEdition readers

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push_improved

Cherry Red Records have made a last minute change to their reissue of Bros’ 1988 album Push –  first announced via this blog  earlier this month – and it’s all down to the passion and enthusiasm of SuperDeluxeEdition readers!
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Fleetwood Mac / “Boston” 3CD set

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cover

The live recordings on this new three-CD set feature the classic blues line-up of Fleetwood Mac (Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green, Danny Kirwan, John McVie and Jeremy Spencer) and date from February 1970 when they played three nights at the Boston Tea Party venue.

The tapes were originally left unissued, following Peter Green’s departure shortly after the gigs, but were remixed and remastered in the late nineties for individual issues of the three separate nights. They have been trotted out a number of times since, and this new set collects the three nights together, using the re-mastered recordings to present a complete document of these shows.

The release comes packaged in a round box with a 24-page book and – just what you wanted – five beer mats (!). The booklet contains new sleeve notes and reworked artwork.

Track listing:
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Mike and the Mechanics / The Singles 1986-2013

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singls

Although fans might have preferred a 25th Anniversary Edition of The Living Years, Genesis ‘spin-off’ Mike & The Mechanics have announced a new greatest hits set due out on 21 October.

As well as singles like All I Need Is A Miracle, Over My Shoulder, and The Living Years, The Singles 1986-2013 will include B-sides, rarities and unreleased recordings and a brand new track When My Feed Down’t Touch The Ground.

Universal appear to have given retailers the impression that this two-CD set is a CD+DVD combo, but there is no confirmation of this anywhere and it appears to be a simple error. The two versions listed online are likely to be a one-CD edition and the 2CD version with the rarities/new track/unreleased song on the second disc. The Mike and the Mechanics website, only confirms a two-CD set.

Full track listing:

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Japanese CD of the Day / Manic Street Preachers: Stars and Stripes

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manics
Stars and Stripes (click to enlarge)

Stars and Stripes (ESCA 5630) was a 1992 Japan-only release of Manic Street Preachers‘ songs from the Generation Terrorists era.

If you look closer at the image about, you’ll notice that this release actually has the subtitle “Generation Terrorists US Mix”. The reason for this is that four of the eight tracks – Slash ‘n’ Burn, Nat West–Barclays–Midlands–Lloyds, Little Baby Nothing and You Love Us are different mixes from the UK/European versions (remixed by Michael Brauer) and feature the live drumming of American session drummer Zachary Alford.
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Jethro Tull / Benefit 2CD+DVD Collector’s Editon

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Tull_exploded_packshot

Jethro Tull‘s 1970 album Benefit is to be reissued as a special collector’s edition featuring two CDs of audio and a audio-only DVD with new stereo and surround mixes.

The first disc contains the album’s 10 original tracks, plus five bonus tracks that include both the U.K. and U.S. stereo versions of Teacher. All the songs are newly mixed by Steven Wilson (who also did the surround mixes) and approved by Ian Anderson. The second disc includes newly remastered versions of rare tracks and singles recorded around the same time as Benefit, such as Sweet Dream in both stereo and mono.
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PICTURES / Chic: The 12-inch Singles Collection vinyl box set

Posted on by Paul Sinclair
chic_front
Click to enlarge

There is something rather appropriate about this vinyl box set of five 12-inch singles, featuring the best of Chic in extended form.

Call it a link back to those heady days of Studio 54 in the late 1970s, but pulling the record from the sturdy slipcase, sliding the 180g vinyl from its thick sleeve (with period design) and putting the needle down – accurately – with the hiss of anticipation, is a satisfying ritual far removed from pressing ‘play’ on a CD remote control, or clicking on an MP3 file.
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WIN an Original Album Series set

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COMP_OAS

Rhino continue to put out some excellent ‘Original Album Series’ collections. These are normally five-CD sets, packaged in simple card sleeves and a card slipcase, and priced VERY competitively (normally between £10-12).

Although, as you might expect, you are unlikely to find any bonus tracks on the albums within these sets, you will quite often see previously out-of-print records being included within the offerings.
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Nik Kershaw / “The Riddle” 2CD expanded deluxe edition

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front

There’s two big differences in how Nik Kershaw approached The Riddle – his second album of 1984 – and his debut Human Racing. The first difference is that he was no longer writing songs trying to get a record deal, and the second is that he had very little time to put The Riddle together “two weeks to write and demo nine of the tracks” is how he puts it in the booklet included with Universal’s new two-CD deluxe edition.

Unfortunately, having to turnaround the album so quickly did take its toll somewhat on the quality of the songs. Know How starts well enough with lots of funky slap bass and a melodic verse melody, but wimps out totally with a non-existent chorus (“It’s easy when you know how“) and then rather outstays its welcome, lasting for almost five minutes.
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The Beatles: “On Air: Live At The BBC Vol 2” and old BBC set remastered

Posted on by Paul Sinclair
cover
The cover of The Beatles “On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2”

A second volume of live performances by The Beatles recorded at the BBC in the early sixties will be issued by Apple/Universal on 10 November 2013.

On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2  features 63 tracks, none of which overlaps with The Beatles’ first BBC release, include 37 previously unreleased performances and 23 previously unreleased recordings of in-studio banter and conversation between the band’s members and their BBC radio hosts. It will be issued as a two-CD set and 180g vinyl package. Full track listing below.
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Mark Lewisohn on The Beatles “All These Years” Extended Edition

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Beatles expert and author Mark Lewisohn tries to explain the difference between the “Extended Special Edition” (what he calls the ‘author’s cut’) and the standard edition of volume one of his much anticipated Beatles biography All These Years, which is due out at the end of October. The long version does not appear to be available in the US and Canada at present.

 

Mark Lewisohn on The Beatles All These Years Extended Edition

Extended Special Edition (Hardcover, 1728 pages)

Standard version (Hardcover, 960 pages)

The Eagles / “The Studio Albums 1972-1979” limited edition vinyl box

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eagles_vinyl

The Eagles‘ original Asylum Records studio albums issued in the seventies, will be released on 180g vinyl, in a special limited edition box set called The Studio Albums 1972-1979.

Each LP within the box features replicas of the original album packaging with two special artwork upgrades – the sleeve of the debut album, Eagles, will be released as the band originally intended, with no glue flaps, so the cover folds out into a poster. Hotel California will include a replica of the poster from the original issue with band photos by Norman Seeff in full colour, for the first time.
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Tears For Fears / Everybody Wants To Rule The World: The Collection

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ruletheworld_collection

We know you’ve already spent your Tears For Fears budget on pre-ordering The Hurting deluxe box set, but we thought we’d draw your attention to this slightly weird ‘budget’ greatest hits that has been put out via Universal Music’s Spectrum imprint in the last few weeks.

It’s a mix of classic singles, B-sides and the occasional oddity. It’s deliberately not ‘comprehensive’ but is still rather intriguing. So you get Mad World and Change, but not Pale Shelter. Songs From The Big Chair selections include Shout and Everybody Wants To Rule The World, but not Head Over Heels. Mothers Talk is included, but in the not-really-as-good ‘US Remix’ re-recording.
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Japanese CD of the Day / Kate Bush: “Never For Ever” supermasters reissue

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NFE
Japanese reissue Never For Ever reissue from 1990 (TOCP-6546)

Although Kate Bush‘s third album Never For Ever didn’t sell quite as well as her 1978 debut The Kick Inside, it did reach number one on the UK album charts in September 1980, something both of her first two records failed to do (Lionheart was issued in late 1978).
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“Over the Bridge of Time: A Paul Simon Retrospective”

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cover

You can’t accuse Sony/Legacy of not hedging their bets.

In October, as previously reported, they will release a 15-disc Complete Albums Collection box set that gathers together all of Paul Simon‘s solo long-players. Good as that set looks, it could simply be too much Paul Simon for you to handle, and Sony want to offer you a bite-sized portion. So on the same day they will also release a one-CD hits package (or a ‘retrospective’, to give it the appropriate gravitas) that includes some of his best known songs from Simon and Garfunkel AND his solo output.
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Sugar / “Besides” vinyl edition

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besides

Demon Records will reissue Sugar‘s 1995 flipside compilation Besides on vinyl on 7 November 2013.

For the first time the album’s 17-tracks will be spread across two LPs, and as usual this will come with a free download card, providing access to MP3 files.
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New Arcade Fire album: Reflektor

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reflektor

 Arcade Fire will release Reflektor on 28 October 2013, their first studio album since 2010’s The Suburbs.

Reflektor is a double album and is being issued physically as a two-CD package and a double gatefold vinyl LP. The Anton Corbijn directed video for the song Reflektor can be viewed below.

Reflektor 2CD

Reflektor Double Gatefold Vinyl

 

 

The Rolling Stones / Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live

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square

The Rolling Stones are to release Sweet Summer Sun: Hyde Park Live on 11 November 2013, an audio-video celebration of their two gigs in the London park this summer.

It will be available in a five different formats including a deluxe edition which features a Blu-ray, 2CDs, DVD and a 60-page book.
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