Holding the Music in Your Hands ®
Rhino will issue a new spate of Original Album Series collections on 2 September 2013, including this five-CD set from The Happy Mondays. Conveniently, it includes (almost) all the band’s official studio albums, notably the acclaimed Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches from 1990. As usual, don’t expect more than perfunctory packaging with card sleeves, and a thin card slipcase, but unarguable value as ever.
Continue reading “Happy Mondays included in new Original Album Series sets”
Madonna‘s 1995 compilation album Something To Remember is being reissued on 2LP 180g vinyl by Warner Music on 9 September 2013.
The album – made up of mostly ballads – is a mixture of previously released material (I’ll Remember, Take A Bow, Crazy For You, Live To Tell) and a few new recordings, including the Massive Attack-produced I Want You, One More Chance and the rather fine single You’ll See, which reached the top ten almost everywhere.
Continue reading “Madonna / “Something To Remember” vinyl reissue”
Humble Pie (featuring Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton) recorded four albums and several singles before achieving their U.S. breakthrough with their 1971 the double-live set Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore.
The album was drawn from four shows played over two consecutive nights at the Fillmore East, and although only seven tracks were issued, the album ran for over an hour, thanks to some lengthy interpretations, including a 24-minute rendition of Dr John’s I Walk On Gilded Splinters (later covered by Paul Weller).
Omnivore Recordings / Universal have gathered all four shows from these performances and packaged them into this ‘Complete Recordings’ four-CD box set. There is no editing, or resequencing — just the four sets as they were played on May 28 and 29, 1971. The seven tracks that comprised the original album are joined here by 15 previously unissued performances—including the never-before-heard complete first set from 28 May. In total four hours of music across four CDs.
This has been mixed and mastered from the original multi-tracks under the supervision of Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley.
Performance – Rockin’ the Fillmore: The Complete Recordings track listing:
Continue reading “Humble Pie / Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore: Complete Recordings”
OMD will issue a special 10-track CD ‘single’ of Night Cafe from their album English Electric in September.
Night Cafe is the third 45 from the album, following Metroland and Dresden, and as well as four new remixes, this single proves to be a satisfying ’round up’ of various English Electric B-sides and non-album tracks. It includes, amongst others, the iTunes bonus track No Man’s Land, Record Store Day flipside Time Burns, and The Great White Silence from the Metroland single.
Night Cafe is released on 9 September 2013.
Night Cafe track listing:
Much to recommend in this new Bob Dylan set, including the complete 1969 Isle of Wight performance with The Band, and a wealth of rarities and previously unreleased tracks from the 1970 studio recording sessions that resulted in the Self Portrait and New Morning albums. 
Universal’s exhaustive 6CD set of Marc Bolan material recorded at the BBC, is exquisitely packaged, with the design perfectly matching The Kinks BBC set from last year. A one-CD ‘highlights’ release is also available.
When the seven-CD Duane Allman retrospective Skydog was issued in March this year, the limited edition 10,000 run sold out almost before the release date, leading to high prices ($250+) being charged for new or nearly new copies.
Continue reading “Duane Allman “Skydog” retrospective 7CD box set being reissued”
IMPORTANT UPDATE: This release has now been cancelled!
Continue reading “Bob Marley / “Kaya” Anniversary 3LP”
Madonna‘s high-grossing MDNA World Tour, which kept the material girl busy for the second half of 2012, will be released across multiple formats on 9 September 2013.
Continue reading “Madonna / MDNA World Tour released across multiple formats”
Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way album from 1993 is being reissued next month as a 2CD 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition.
The expanded reissue will feature a new remaster, and comes with 20 bonus tracks, which range from previously released B-sides to unheard work-in-progress outtakes and demos.
Continue reading “Lenny Kravitz / Are You Gonna Go My Way Deluxe Edition”
Cherry Pop will release an expanded 2CD edition of ABC‘s 1997 album Skyscraping on 23 September 2013.
The reissue comes with a bonus disc of non-album material, much of which was available on CD singles issued at the time.
Track listing:
Disc: 1
Disc: 2
Universal’s Nirvana In Utero 3CD+DVD box (due 23 September) is back up to £83 in the UK having dropped under £70 at one point. The 3LP 45RPM vinyl version is particularly good value in Britain, costing £28, and producer Steve Albini rates this highly.
More details on In Utero here.
The Marc Bolan at the BBC 6CD box set had risen to just under £50 on Amazon UK but has recently dropped to £37. For those in the US it might be worth considering placing an order, because on Amazon.com you are being asked to pay $108 for the same set which is around £70 sterling.
More details on Marc Bolan Live at the BBC here.
The Chic 12-inch vinyl box set (released next week) was £43 a couple of weeks back but has now gone down to its lowest UK price of £28. It’s remains very expensive in the USA at $80 / £52.
More details on The 12″ Singles box here.
All prices are correct at the time of writing.
If the mammoth 12-disc career-spanning Sound System Clash box set is not on your shopping list this autumn, the good news is there are plenty of other Clash releases open to you, if you are interested in the new remastered audio.
Continue reading “The Clash / Box sets and “Hits Back””
Electronic pioneer Gary Numan releases his 20th solo album, Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind), on 14 October and it will be available as a two-CD deluxe edition.
The album is produced by long-standing collaborator Ade Fenton, and the deluxe edition comes packaged in a CD sized bookpack with 24 pages. A 2LP 180g vinyl version is also available, which comes with an art print and a download card.
Continue reading “Gary Numan / Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind) deluxe edition”
Out this week, is this rather splendid Fleetwood Mac 1969 to 1972 vinyl box set. We posted the details back in July but have now had the opportunity to take a look (and listen) close-up.
Continue reading “First Pictures: Fleetwood Mac 1969 to 1972 4LP vinyl box set”
2013 has turned out to be a busy year for Close To The Edge, the fifth studio album from prog-rock band Yes.
Back in January it was issued as a remastered hybrid SACD by Audio Fidelity. No bonus tracks and no 5.1 mix, but respected engineer Steve Hoffman did the remastering.
Continue reading “Yes / “Close to the Edge” CD+Blu-ray including hi-res 5.1 mix + exclusives”
Salvo Music will release the Madness movie Take It Or Leave It on 7 October 2013, pairing the DVD with a 26-track soundtrack CD.
The film follows the origins of the band from the mid-to-late ’70s through various line-up changes, before they eventually find success. It dates from 1981 and was largely self-financed and directed by Stiff Records’ Dave Robinson.
Take It Or Leave It has been digitally restored and contains the commentary by Madness guitarist Chris Foreman and the film’s director found on the previous standalone DVD.
The accompanying CD soundtrack album features 26 songs including singles, B-sides and album tracks. Two non-Madness songs are included (Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’ and The Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There), both of which can be heard in the film.
Is there such as thing as ‘too much’ content in a box set? Not, it seems, if you are prog-rock specialist Panegyric Recordings, who are preparing, The Road To Red, a 24-disc box set, that attempts to comprehensively capture the essence of King Crimson‘s US tour of 1974 and the process leading to the band’s Red album released the same year.
Continue reading “King Crimson / “The Road to Red” 24-disc CD/DVD/Blu-ray box set”
With two months to go until the release of The Hurting deluxe box set, Tears For Fears have today made available a brand new studio recording – a cover version of Arcade Fire’s Ready To Start, which featured on the Canadian band’s 2010 album The Suburbs. Listen to the cover version below and tell us what you think of it.
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3CD+DVD Box Set
2CD Deluxe Edition
Sony Legacy will this October issue a career spanning 15-disc box set collecting together all of Paul Simon‘s solo albums.
The Complete Albums Collection includes all 12 of Simon’s studio albums and apart from his recent offerings (2006’s Suprise and 2011’s So Beautiful or So What) they all come with the bonus tracks appended to the previous reissues (including the three new tracks on last year’s Graceland reissue). In total this adds up to 37 bonus tracks.
The box set also includes The Paul Simon Songbook – the 1965 acoustic album recorded in London – and the live recordings Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’ (1974) and Paul Simon’s Concert in the Park (1991).
The CDs are packaged in a library book style box with magnetic enclosure and included is a 56-page book with photos and new liner notes by Ashley Kahn.
The Complete Album Collection is released on 13 October 2013 (full track listing below).
Paul Simon – The Complete Albums Collection – full track listing:
Continue reading “Paul Simon / The Complete Album Collection: 15CD solo career box set”
RCA/Legacy’s Elvis at Stax deluxe set was issued very recently and the packaging mirrors the Prince From Another Planet release from last year.
Although there is no DVD this time around, the Elvis at Stax set comes in an eight inch die-cut square slip case, which is home for a six-panel wallet containing the three CDs and a 44-page softcover book with a host of archive photographs and an excellent essay by Robert Gordon (author of It Came From Memphis and Elvis Treasures, amongst others).
We very much like this style of presentation and hope to see Sony make more use of it on other releases. It’s small enough to be shelf-friendly, while different and significant enough to feel ‘special’ and justify the ‘deluxe edition’ tag.
Elvis at Stax is out now. More information about this release and the track listing can be found here.
Continue reading “First Pictures: Elvis at Stax deluxe”
