Author: Paul Sinclair

Roger Waters / The Collection / 7CD+1DVD Solo Album Box Set / Review

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

Roger Waters The Collection Solo Albums Box Set Review
The grumpy one from Pink Floyd collects together his solo output in this great value box set

To celebrate his recent tour of The Wall, Sony have put together a box set collecting all four of Roger Waters’ solo albums, the live album In The Flesh and the opera Ça Ira.

They are all interesting, but none of his solo efforts have sold particularly well, so many will be unfamiliar with the music contained within. Let’s remind ourselves of Roger’s solo output:

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Marvin Gaye / What’s Going On / 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition / Review

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Marvin Gaye / What's Going On / 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition / Review
Marvin Gaye’s 1971 masterpiece celebrates another birthday and gets the Super Deluxe treatment

Like many truly great albums, Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On works on a few levels. As a straightforward R&B/pop record with it’s multi-layered vocals, string arrangements and smooth melodies, it’s a joy. But it also works as an intense personal meditation on spirituality, a man questioning the world in which he lives, looking for answers. This lyrical thoughtfulness has ensured the record endures, along with the remarkable fact that, 40 years on, the very concerns expressed in the songs – war, ecology, drug abuse, and poverty – are as relevant as ever.

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Erasure / Wonderland and The Circus / 2CD+DVD Deluxe Editions

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A flop and and a hit  – Erasure’s excellent first two records show the power of hit singles, if nothing else

It seems incredible listening to Erasure’s rather accomplished debut, Wonderland, to think that, back in 1986, it was a hit-free zone. Despite some excellent singles (Who Needs Love Like That, Heavenly Action, Oh L’Amour) and the already solid pedigree of Vince Clarke (Yazoo, Depeche Mode), this was indeed the case. None of the three singles released made the UK top 40.

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The Jesus and Mary Chain / 2CD+DVD Deluxe Editions / Full track listings

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The Jesus and Mary Chain’s entire studio output gets the deluxe treatment in September

Having completed their superb Suede reissue campaign, Edsel Records now focus their attention on Scottish alt-rock band The Jesus and Mary Chain. All six studio albums – Psychocandy, Darklands, Automatic, Honey’s Dead, Stoned & Dethroned and Munki – will be reissued in late September and early October.

Released in pairs over three weeks, each album will be expanded to 2CD+DVD with all the non-album b-sides as well as previously unreleased demos and rare outtakes. The DVD element for each issue will contain promo videos and previously unreleased archival TV appearances.

Full details and track listings below.

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Pink Floyd UPDATE / Andy Jackson Q&A on Immersion Editions

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A few weeks ago we reported on our our first listen to some of the forthcoming Pink Floyd remasters from the stunning setting of David Gilmour’s houseboat studio ‘Astoria’.

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Depeche Mode / Remixes 2: 81-11 / Review

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Depeche Mode / The Remixe 2: 81-11 / Review
DJ Culture:  The boys from Basildon mix it up, again

Seven years after their first remix compilation (Remixes 81-04), Depeche Mode return with another remix-fest, entitled – Hollywood-style– Remixes 2 81-11. It is available as a 1CD edition, 3CD Deluxe Edition (reviewed here) , and a 6LP box set.

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Pink Floyd / Dark Side of the Moon Immersion Edition / FIRST LISTEN

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Pink Floyd / Dark Side of the Moon / Immersions Box Set
We listen to some previously unreleased tracks from the forthcoming Immersion Edition box sets

Superdeluxeedition were treated to an exclusive preview of Pink Floyd’s forthcoming Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall Immersion box sets last week.

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Rosie Vela / Zazu 25th Anniversary Edition / Review

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25 years on, Rosie Vela’s one and only album continues to intrigue and impress

Roseanne ‘Rosie’ Vela’s 1986 album Zazu famously features the talents of Steely Dan‘s Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. Steely Dan had spilt up only six years earlier, so for the two men to record together again was extraordinary, but even more extraordinary was how Vela had gone from music-obsessed teenager in Little Rock, Arkansas in the early 1970s, to major-label recording artist, working with ‘The Dan’ in the mid-1980s.

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Suede / Coming Up Deluxe Edition / Review

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Suede / Coming Up 2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition
Suede move out of the darkness and into the limelight.

Coming Up. The perfect title for the follow-up to the dark and brooding Dog Man Star, since the commercial fortunes of Suede were about to be dramatically revived. This was no ironic title. The band had recorded a hit album and it would be named appropriately.

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David Bowie / Golden Years KCRW Remixes / Review

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Golden Years David Bowie vs KCRW
When EMI reissued David Bowie’s classic Station to Station album back in the autumn of 2010, as an act of celebration Los Angeles-based radio station KCRW took up the challenge of remixing the album’s lead single Golden Years. Four DJs from KCRW were let loose on the multi-tracks with very different results. EMI has now officially released the remixes – approved by Bowie himself – on CD, 12″ vinyl and download.

Here is our verdict on this release:

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Suede / Head Music Deluxe Edition & Singles Picture Gallery

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We continue with our Suede Singles Artwork Gallery celebrating the singles released from each forthcoming deluxe edition.

Suede’s fourth album, Head Music is due for release as a 2CD+DVD deluxe edition in one week, on Monday 20th June.

This week we take a look back at the singles from that album. As a bonus, the gallery finishes with some new pictures of the deluxe edition.

The best way to view these galleries is simply to click on a thumbnail image and then click again on the arrow at the bottom right of the image to toggle through all the images. We hope you enjoy!

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Suede / Dog Man Star 2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition / Review

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Suede / Dog Man Star 2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition
A pop masterpiece and a pop tragedy. Why Dog Man Star has a lot going for it and a lot to answer for…

Dog Man Star was the album that changed Suede. It broke Suede. It also made Suede. It proved to the world that they could push their art to a new level. If you could take any Suede album with you to your desert island, Dog Man Star would be the one.

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Mercury Rev / Deserter’s Songs / 2CD Deluxe Edition / Review

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Mercury Rev / Deserters Songs Deluxe Edition
“Holes, dug by little moles”. So sings guitarist Jonathan Donahue, in his slightly straining Neil Young-esque vocal style. Not the kind of lyric you’d expect from an NME album of the year (1998) but that just goes to underline what a persuasive and powerful piece of work Mercury Rev’s Deserter’s Songs really is.

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Radiohead to release limited edition 12″ remixes from The King of Limbs

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Radiohead / King of Limbs / Little by Little and Lotus Flower remixes
Radiohead will release a series of limited edition 12” vinyl records, featuring remixes of tracks from their current album The King Of Limbs, this summer on XL/Ticker Tape.

The first release, on July 4, comprises remixes of Little By Little by Caribou, and Lotus Flower by Jacques Greene.

The 12” will be available at selected independent record stores, and from www.radiohead.com. There will also be a WAV format available through independent music specialist Boomkat, and Radiohead’s site.

Suede / Coming Up Deluxe Edition & Singles Picture Gallery

Posted on by Paul Sinclair

We continue with our Suede Singles Artwork Gallery celebrating the singles released from each forthcoming deluxe edition.

Suede’s third album, Coming Up is due for release as a 2CD+DVD deluxe edition in one week, on Monday 13th June.

This week we take a look back at the singles from that album. As a bonus, the gallery finishes with some new pictures of the deluxe edition.

The best way to view these galleries is simply to click on a thumbnail image and then click again on the arrow at the bottom right of the image to toggle through all the images. We hope you enjoy!

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Mike Oldfield / Incantations / 2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition / Details & tracklisting

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Mike Oldfield / Incantations / Deluxe Edition
The fourth instalment of Mike Oldfield’s catalogue reissues, Incantations, is released on July 25th. Incantations, originally released in November 1978, was Oldfield’s first and only studio double album. Comprising of four parts of the title track, it was a masterpiece of minimalism, with Oldfield again playing many of the instruments, with old friends including David Bedford conducting the choir and orchestra, Pierre Moerlen on drums and Mike’s sister Sally on vocals.

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Suede / Dog Man Star Deluxe Edition & Singles Picture Gallery

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We continue with our Suede Singles Artwork Gallery celebrating the singles released from each forthcoming deluxe edition.

Suede’s second album, Dog Man Star is due for release as a 2CD+DVD deluxe edition in one week, on Monday 6th June.

This week we take a look back at the singles from that album. As a bonus, the gallery finishes with some new pictures of the deluxe edition and some other Dog Man Star related items.

The best way to view these galleries is simply to click on a thumbnail image and then click again on the arrow at the bottom right of the image to toggle through all the images. We hope you enjoy!

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Suede / Debut album / 2CD+DVD Deluxe Edition / Review

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Suede / Debut Album / Deluxe Edition / 2CD+DVD
As Suede practised in rehearsal rooms in East London in late 1991 all the pieces of the jigsaw were about to fall into place. Justine Frischman had broken up with lead singer Brett Anderson and started dating Damon Albarn of Blur. Shortly after this, she left the band and things started to happen…

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Paul Simon / Four classic albums reissued / June 13th

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Paul Simon / Sony Reissues / Still Crazy After All These Years
Sony are set to reissue four classic Paul Simon albums on June 13th. Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin’ Simon, Paul Simon In Concert: Live Rhymin’ and Still Crazy After All These Years mark the start of a major reissue campaign and these editions will see the bonus tracks that were available on previous CD issues of the albums reinstated. The albums will also be remastered, although it is not clear at this stage which mastering will be used.

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Neil Diamond / The Bang Years 1966-1968 / Review

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Neil Diamond / The Bang Years 1966 - 1968 / Review
This week sees the release of a fascinating early chapter in the career of Brooklyn-born singer-songwriter Neil Diamond.

Neil Diamond The Bang Years 1966-1968, charts the beginnings of the career of Diamond in the 1960s, when he was a young (and married) struggling songwriter, desperately trying to make a living from his art and avoid a “real job”.

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