James will release Yummy, their 18th studio album, in April.
The 12-track album has been produced by Leo Abrahams and mixed by Cenzo Townsend. It features the new single Is ‘This Love’, which you can preview below.
Formats include black vinyl, a special coloured vinyl pressing, CD and a 2CD deluxe edition. The latter is interesting because it includes a bonus CD called ‘Pudding’ which features 12 extra tracks; demos produced by the four songwriters in James. Most of them contain the original music and vocals created in the initial jams.
These are not demos of songs on the album but are “the tracks that didn’t make it to the next stage” where the individual songwriters would take them to the band members to contribute and Tim would work on the lyrics before recording the final versions with a producer.
How the 2CD deluxe is packaged
The artwork for both the album and first single was designed by Stephen Kennedy at Studio Fury and Yummy will be released on 12 April 2024 via Virgin.
Mark Knopfler will release One Deep River, his 10th solo studio album in April and amongst the formats will be an SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio, No 18 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series.
Issued on his own British Grove label via EMI, One Deep River features 12 elegant new Knopfler songs, with his warm Geordie vocal tone, his poetic storytelling lyrics and deft, richly melodic guitar playing are all present and correct and as dazzling as ever. Aside from Knopfler, the band album features Jim Cox and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Glenn Worf on bass, Ian Thomas on drums and Danny Cummings on percussion, Richard Bennett on guitar, and newcomer Greg Leisz on pedal and lap steel; Mike McGoldrick provides whistle and uilleann pipes, and John McCusker plays fiddle, while the Topolski sisters Emma and Tamsin add backing vocals.
The SDE-exclusive blu-ray features the album plus five bonus tracks. All 17 tracks are mixed in immersive Dolby Atmos and available in the highest resolution stereo: 192 kHz / 24 bit. Neither audio streams are available anywhere else on a physical product.
This will be the first spatial audio version of a Mark Knopfler album, released physically, since the SACD of 2004’s Shangri-La. The Dolby Atmos Mix has been created by Guy Fletcher who was of course a keyboardist in Dire Straits and he has played on all of Knopfler’s solo albums; indeed he co-produced Mark’s last solo outing, 2018’s Down The Road Wherever. Guy has plenty of Atmos experience, having worked on the Atmos Mixes for both the Dire Straits’ classic Money For Nothing compilation and 1985’s mega-selling Brothers in Arms.
Other formats of One Deep River include a 2CD set (with the same five bonus tracks on the second CD), a 2LP vinyl edition available pressed on indie-exclusive light blue vinyl (45rpm LPs, mastered at half speed by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios) and a 3LP+2CD box set with the five bonus tracks on the additional CD and four different bonus tracks on the third LP.
Here’s the now traditional reminder as to why the SDE-exclusive blu-ray comes highly recommended:
It’s the only way to enjoy the Dolby Atmos mix of the album via a physical product
You don’t need to sign-up to a streaming service such as Tidal or Apple Music to hear the spatial audio mix
The Atmos Mix on the Blu-ray is not compressed due to streaming bandwidth restrictions. The Dolby Atmos version on a Blu-ray is encoded in Dolby TrueHD Atmos has a bit rate 10 times higher (up to 8000 kbits/s) compared to streaming’s Dolby Digital Plus (768 kbits/s)
You own the product, you are not renting it from a digital service provider
The Blu-ray audio is an excellent format for music and you don’t want to see it die off
Supporting SDE with these initiatives is definitely leading to similar collaborations with labels/artists and we are keen to bring your more in the near future!
One Deep River will be released on 12 April 2024 via British Grove/EMI. The SDE-exclusives are now SOLD OUT.
Originally released in October 1991, Diamonds and Pearls was Prince’s 13th overall studio album and first to feature his new backing band The New Power Generation. Recorded at his Paisley Park complex in Minnesota, the album yielded multiple hit singles including ‘Gett Off’, ‘Cream’, ‘Money Don’t Matter 2 Night’, ‘Insatiable’, and the title track (featuring co-lead vocals from Rosie Gaines).
Various reissues of Diamonds and Pearls appeared in the autumn of 2023, including a Super Deluxe Edition box set containing a new remaster of the album as well as previously-unheard live and studio recordings from that era. For audiophiles and immersive music fans, the most exciting of all the new editions would have to be the Blu-ray Audio, featuring a brand-new Dolby Atmos mix of the album by longtime Prince collaborator Chris James. This marks the first occasion that a Prince studio album has been remixed in any spatial audio format, be it 5.1 surround sound or Dolby Atmos (though an Atmos mix of ‘When Doves Cry’ was made available on the streaming service way back in 2020).
Diamonds and Pearls marks the first occasion that a Prince studio album has been remixed in any spatial audio format
Jonathan Cornell
Diamonds and Pearls is notable for its incorporation of then-contemporary hip-hop elements, including sampled percussion, loops, and even rap passages. Though some of the production comes off as somewhat dated today, the fusion of organic and electronic sounds definitely makes the album a perfect candidate for immersive audio. For the most part, I found James’ new Atmos mix to be an interesting, albeit occasionally-flawed, expansion of the 1991 stereo mix by Michael Koppelman. Though some passages are dazzling in terms of both sonic clarity and spatial impact, other key moments seem to lack the ‘punch’ and groove of the original version.
The opening track ‘Thunder’ was an adventure even in two channels, so I was most excited to see how it would unfold in Atmos. As expected, the quick bursts of electronic percussion, sitar-like keyboard licks, and backing vocals are spread all around the room to great effect. Prince’s vocals are interestingly panned to the front ‘phantom’ center, rather than the physical center speaker. I did find the lower frequencies a bit overwhelming on my system, but that obviously varies room-to-room and to taste.
Percussion pops out of the front left height speaker during the intro to ‘Daddy Pop‘, quickly joined by a keyboard line in the right rear height channel while the rhythm section thunders in from upfront. Keyboards extend from the side speakers up into the height array for the title track, with both Prince and Rosie Gaines’ vocals both sharing the front channels. There’s a particularly fun moment at around two-and-a-half minutes in, where the synth brass appears solely in the rear surrounds.
The low point of the immersive presentation would unfortunately have to be ‘Cream’ one of my favourite tracks on the album. The snare drum is oddly set way back in the Atmos mix relative to the original stereo, really robbing the song of its power and drive. It’s a shame as there’s again fun use of the expanded soundstage, with percussion and guitar licks positioned largely in the overhead speakers.
Prince’s guitar appears mostly in the front right height speaker for the jazzy ‘Strollin” with the lower-register backing vocals confined to the side surrounds and fingersnaps coming from the back. Percussion pops from behind throughout ‘Willing and Able‘ again with a steady diet of overhead guitar and rear-panned harmonies. At around the three-minute mark, the organ blasts appear solely in the rear height speakers to great effect.
Following a center channel scream, the band launches into the explosive ‘Gett Off‘. The main rhythmic elements appear in the front soundstage, with ancillary sounds like the sampled percussion and rhythm guitar filling out the side, rear, and height speakers. The rap vocal parts interestingly seem to use the center speaker more, while the sung vocals are confined to the front channels as on other songs.
Iconic hit songs like ‘Cream’ and ‘Money Don’t Matter 2 Night’ are somewhat marred by curious mixing decisions.
Jonathan Cornell
Percussion dances around from above throughout ‘Money Don’t Matter 2 Night’ with the guitar elevated into the front left height speaker and backing vocals taking up residence in the sides. Unfortunately, the saturation effect on the lead vocal that was applied judiciously in the original 1991 mix (apparently it was recorded like this – Ed.) is way overdone in the Atmos version – giving Prince’s voice an unpleasant grunge-y quality.
‘Insatiable‘ gradually presents itself in Atmos, starting off as more of an ‘expanded stereo’ presentation with the big drum reverbs hitting off the back wall. Backing vocals soon rise from the side surrounds up into the heights, as sprinkles of keyboard later appear overhead. Diamonds and Pearls then concludes with ‘Live 4 Love’, one of the most effective demonstrations of immersive audio on the album. The call-and-response vocal parts alternate front-to-back, while keyboards blast from the sides and tambourine hovers overhead.
Overall, at least to my ears, the Atmos mix seems to work best on lesser-known album tracks such as ‘Strollin’’ and ‘Willing and Able’ – whereas the iconic hit songs like ‘Cream’ and ‘Money Don’t Matter 2 Night’ are somewhat marred by curious mixing decisions. Nevertheless, it’s fantastic to finally hear a Prince studio album reimagined in surround sound and I’m hopeful that future releases will fully highlight the detailed artistry captured in these iconic recordings.
Review by Jonathan Cornell for SDE. Read more of Jonathan’s reviews atImmersiveAudioAlbum.com.
The Diamonds and Pearls Dolby Atmos Mix is available on blu-ray audio and is in stock and ready to ship from the SDE shop. Place an order using this link or simply use the ‘buy button’ below. Other blu-ray audios, including exclusive titles, can be found on the blu-ray audio section of the SDE shop.
Tracklisting
Diamonds and PearlsPrince & The New Power Generation/
Dolby Atmos and remastered stereo versions of the following songs
Go West’s 1987 album Dancing On The Couch is reissued as a 3CD+DVD set and as a 2LP vinyl package. Very limited numbers of signed editions left via the SDE shop.
Kiki Dee / The Ariola and EMI Years (4CD set – signed!)
This 4CD deluxe set showcases Kiki Dee’s ‘80s releases, and includes a previously unreleased album, fourteen additional tracks and three previously unreleased demos. This limited edition comes with a signed print.
Various Artists / Jon Savage’s 1983-1985: Welcome to Techno City (2CD set)
Jon Savage compiles this various artists 2CD set for Ace Records which spotlights the variety and experimentation of pop music from 1983 to 1985. Artists include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soft Cell, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Smiths, Orange Juice, Malcolm X, Grandmaster & Melle Mel, Scritti Politti, Fine Young Cannibals, Pet Shop Boys and many more.
EMF are back with a new record which sees the band re-united with Ralph Jezzard, who produced their worldwide hit ‘Unbelievable’ and their first two albums (Schubert Dip and Stigma). First single, ‘Hello People’, features Stephen Fry. The CD version of the album features two bonus tracks: a remix of ‘Hello People’ and a cover of The Monkees’ ‘I’m A Believer’.
Kate Bush is following up her ‘Baskerville Edition’ of Hounds of Love with another illustrated vinyl edition of one of her studio albums, this time 1982’s The Dreaming.
Called, the ‘Escapologist Edition’ this edition represents the album in totally new artwork, which has been designed by Timorous Beasties, the same Glasgow-based design studio responsible for the new Hounds of Love.
The Escapologist Edition of The Dreaming features new artwork (click image to enlarge)
This time though, there’s no gizmos such as flashing lights and solar panels, just new illustrated artwork for front, rear and inner sleeves picking up the same theme as the original, the escape of Harry Houdini thanks to his wife passing him the key to the padlock via a kiss (as told in the song ‘Houdini’ on the album). This means the cost of acquiring this is lower than the Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love by a cool £100, and in fact the Escapologist Edition of The Dreaming can be picked up for the same price as the Indie Exclusive ‘smokey’ coloured vinyl version.
The Escapologist Edition of The Dreaming is pressed on 180g black vinyl and uses the 2018 remastering. It will be released on 14 February 2024 via The State51 conspiracy.
It’s available to pre-order via the SDE shop using this link or via the pre-order button below.
Image from one side of the inner sleeve (click to enlarge)
Norah Jones will release, Visions, a new studio album in March.
The songwriter and pianist has collaborated with producer and multi-instrumentalist Leon Michels for this new record, with eight of the album’s dozen tracks composed with him. Check out ‘Running’ from Visions, below. This song features Norah on vocals, piano, guitar, and bass with Leon on drums and baritone saxophone.
It’s Jones’ first album of original songs since 2020’s Pick Me Up Off The Floor and it is described as “a vibrant and joyous 12-song set that finds Jones singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings”.
“The reason I called the album Visions is because a lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep, and ‘Running’ was one of them where you’re half asleep and kind of jolted awake,” says Jones. “We did most of the songs in the same way where I was at the piano or on guitar and Leon was playing drums and we were just jamming on stuff. I like the rawness between me and Leon, the way it sounds kind of garage-y but also kind of soulful, because that’s where he’s coming from, but also not overly perfected.”
JPC in Germany has exclusive CD edition which includes the bonus track ‘Where My Heart Is Found’ and comes with a poster. This same version is available in Target in the USA and may well emerge in other territories, we’ll have to wait and see.
There’s also an indie-exclusive orange vinyl edition that is available in certain shops including Rough Trade in the US and JPC in Germany (although this edition doesn’t appear to be available in the UK, curiously).
In Japan there are THREE editions of this album: a standard SHM-CD, and SHM-SACD and an SHM-CD+DVD edition. It appears as if all three of these have a bonus track called ‘Can You Believe’. There is no confirmation in terms of what is on the DVD and we can probably assume the SACD is (hi-res) stereo-only.
Visions will be released on 8 March 2024 via Capitol/EMI.
Girls Aloud’s second album, 2004’s What Will The Neighbours Say? is being reissued for its 20th anniversary as 3CD set and on vinyl for the very first time.
The 3CD edition features 14 previously unreleased tracks (all produced by Xenomania) including three unheard numbers: the band’s cover of the Chris Isaac’s ‘Wicked Game’ plus two new songs that didn’t make the final cut, ‘Disco Bunny’ and ‘Baby When You Go’. The third CD is full of remixes of singles like ‘The Show’, ‘Love Machine’ and ‘I’ll Stand By You’.
The first-time-ever-on-vinyl edition is pressed on ‘sky blue’ coloured vinyl and there’s also a special picture disc vinyl LP which is available exclusively from the Girls Aloud shop.
What Will The Neighbours Say? is reissued on 8 March 2024, via UMR/Polydor.
Mariah Carey’s 1993 album Music Box is being reissued and expanded for its 30th anniversary.
Carey’s third album was a massive success and features the singles ‘Dreamlover’ and ‘Hero’ which both topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Third single, a cover of Badfinger’s classic ‘Without You’ was number one on the UK singles chart and around Europe and while the final 45, ‘Anytime You Need A Friend’, didn’t quite match the success of the first three, but still reached the top 10 and top 20 around the world.
This reissue is offered in 3CD and 4LP deluxe formats with the same tracklistings for both editions. It appends the international bonus track ‘Everything Fades Away’ to the album and offers a selection of 15 rarities on CD 2 (and across LPs 2 & 3). Amongst these are what Sony claim are previously unreleased tracks such as ‘Workin’ Hard’, ‘All I Live For (Extended Version)’, ‘My Prayer’, ‘Hero (2009 Version)’, ‘Anytime You Need A Friend (Extended Mix)’, ‘Music Box (A Capella)’ and two live performances from Top of the Pops: ‘Dreamlover’ and ‘Without You’.
The anniversary edition also features a variety of previously unreleased tracks including Mariah’s duet with Luther Vandross on ‘Endless Love’ is also included, as is two brand new remixes from DJ Terry Hunter: ‘I’ve Been Thinking About You’ and ‘Workin’ Hard’.
The final CD and vinyl LP in these deluxe editions features Carey ‘Live at Proctor’s Theater, NY – 1993’ which features 10 tracks, eight of which are previously unreleased (Hero and Dreamlover being the previously released cuts).
Music Box will be reissued on 2 February 2024 via Sony Music.
Metallica will reissue their 1988 album ...And Justice For All as a special 2LP coloured vinyl pressing, next month.
This release is part of an ongoing campaign to press their first five studio albums on special limited edition coloured vinyl. Kill Em All, Ride The Lightning and Master of Puppets have already been released (in November, December and January respectively) and …And Justice For All is scheduled for early Feb, with Metallica/’The Black Album’ following in March.
…And Justice For All is offered as a 2LP set pressed on 180g ‘Dyers Green’ limited coloured vinyl. This release uses the 2018 remastering.
It will be released on 2 February 2024, via UMC/Mercury. These coloured vinyl pressings are not available in North America.
Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine’s 1992 album is reissued as this four-disc box set. The first CD features the remastered album, while CD 2 offers rarities, B-sides and BBC ‘Live in Norwich’ recordings. CD 3 includes the complete 1992 Glastonbury headline performance which is available in its entirety for the very first time and the DVD includes the 55 minute ‘What Do You Think Of The Programme So Far?’ feature, plus three Top Of The Pops performances, all appearing on DVD for the first time and accompanied by exclusive new commentary by Jim Bob and Fruitbat! A 2LP edition offers a bonus LP of B-sides and non-album tracks.
Gentle Giant’s 1977 album, The Missing Piece, is to be reissued next month.
The album marked something of a change in direction for the British band, with one half experimenting with new styles and the other embracing the progressive rock they were most closely associated with.
The line-up featured the same personnel that had recorded 1976’s In’terview, that is Derek Shulman, Ray Shulman, Kerry Minnear, Gary Green and John ‘Pugwash’ Weathers.
The CD+blu-ray edition of The Missing Piece (click image to enlarge)
Steven Wilson has again worked with Gentle Giant and has remixed the album in both stereo and spatial audio and three new physical formats feature some or all of this new work. New vinyl and CD editions offer the new stereo mix of The Missing Piece, but the CD+blu-ray edition is likely to be the most popular, since the blu-ray element delivers Dolby Atmos, Stereo and 5.1 Surround Sound and Instrumental Mixes of the album. The blu-ray also offers newly created visuals for each track.
The Missing Piece will be reissued on 29 March 2024 (was 23 February), via Chrysalis.
NOW That’s What I Call Music’sYearbook series continues with 1990, only the second time they’ve dipped their toe into the decade we like to call “the 1990s”.
There’s loads of great songs and artists on this compilation, including George Michael, Elton John, Roxette, New Order, The KLF, The Beautiful South, Pet Shop Boys, Sting, Duran Duran, Kylie, Whitney, er, Appleby… and that’s just CD 1!
The second disc is home to a few memorable collaborations, namely DNA & Suzanne Vega, Adamski & Seal and there’s definitely a ‘dance’ vibe with contributions from Deee-Lite, Soul II Soul, Adventures Of Stevie V, SNAP! (he will attack and we definitely don’t want that) before it goes a bit ‘indie’ towards the end with The Charlatans, The Stone Roses, The Cure and Primal Scream, etc.
Deluxe 4CD edition in hardcover book
The third CD in the four-disc set has some BIG songs early doors with Sinéad O’Connor’s interpretation of Prince’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U and Maria McKee’s ‘Show Me Heaven’, from the Days Of Thunder soundtrack (both UK number one hits, of course). There’s loads of US acts on CD 3 including Tina Turner, Jon Bon Jovi, Cher, Wilson Phillips, Heart, Paul Abdul, MC Hammer, Vanilla Ice and who can forget Partners In Kryme. You can? Okay, they were the hip-hop duo who performed ‘Turtle Power’ from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack (welcome to the 90s!).
The final disc offers further Pet Shop Boys and Kylie, alongside songs by Martika, a-ha, Go West, Jason Donovan, The Human League, Deacon Blue and more.
As usual, there’s a deluxe hardcover book edition with track-by-track guide and a music quiz, a coloured 3LP vinyl edition (orange this time) and the cheap as chips 4CD card sleeve version.
NOW Yearbook ’90 will be released on 2 February 2024.
Jonathan Cornell on the new Steven Wilson Dolby Atmos mix of Van Morrison’s Moondance.
Moondance (1970) was Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison’s third studio album, recorded at legendary producer Phil Ramone’s A&R studios in New York City and mixed by then-novice staff engineer Elliot Scheiner (who’d go on to work with Steely Dan, Toto, The Eagles, and other notable acts). Whereas his prior album Astral Weeks (1968) failed to immediately attain critical or commercial success, Moondance cemented Morrison as one of the great singer-songwriter acts of the early 1970s.
Fans may recall that in 2013, Warner/Rhino issued a 4CD/Blu-Ray deluxe edition of Moondance featuring a new 5.1 surround sound mix by Scheiner. The new 2023 standalone Blu-Ray edition of Moondance contains not only the same high-resolution stereo remaster and 5.1 mix from the 2013 set, but also new stereo, instrumental, and Dolby Atmos mixes from Steven Wilson. Interestingly enough, it was through working with Scheiner on the 5.1 mix of Porcupine Tree’s In Absentia way back in 2002 that Wilson was first introduced to the idea of immersive music.
As is often the case in his 5.1 surround mixes, Scheiner’s multi-channel interpretation of the album drops the listener in the centre of the band with key musical elements such as acoustic guitar, backing vocals, piano, horns, and even the drums in ‘Crazy Love’ isolated in the rear speakers. Van Morrison’s vocals are woven into all speakers, but appear most prominently in the front channels. It’s also= noticeably drier than the original 1970 stereo version, which I felt somewhat took away the album’s trademark ‘warmth’ and ethereal vibe.
“The album was recorded onto eight-track, one-inch analog tape. This was the newest format at the time and the cutting edge, believe it or not. The eight tracks were relegated to one track of drums, one for bass, one for keyboards, Van’s vocal on one, Van’s guitar on one, backgrounds on one, and the last one for horns. I thought it wouldn’t be easy to take an eight-track master and make a 5.1 version, but it’s amazing how great it turned out. I hope enough people get an opportunity to hear this version. After 44 years, this music still holds up and commands your attention”
Elliot Scheiner, 2013
Similar to his recent Dolby Atmos mixes of The Who’sWho’s Next (read the review) and The Grateful Dead’s American Beauty – both titles of a similar vintage – Steven Wilson’s immersive take on the album spreads the instrumentation far and wide, carrying over many of the hard pans from the original stereo release. The addition of the side surround and height speakers in Atmos allows him to take the ‘listener in-the-centre-of-the-band’ concept even further, making this the ultimate Moondance experience.
‘And It Stoned Me’ immediately fills up the entire soundstage with the rhythm section upfront, vocal in the centre channel, acoustic guitars in the sides, piano mostly in the left rear surround, and horns taking up both the front right and rear right height speakers. The thick plate reverb that was key to the sound of Moondance is back and now reassigned to the height channels, giving the vocals a multi-dimensional quality not found in the prior 5.1 mix.
The Moondance blu-ray audio features the Atmos Mix, a 5.1 mix, new stereo mix and 2013 remastered stereo (click to order a copy)
Moving into the classic title song, the iconic piano melody mostly emanates from the right side speaker accompanied by an acoustic guitar floating off to the left. Horns extend upward from the rear surrounds up into the heights (flute on the left, brass on the right), while the sax solo hovers between the centre channel and front heights.
Van Morrison’s vocal is almost completely isolated in the centre channel for ‘Crazy Love’, while vibes emanate mostly from the left side speaker and the backing vocals appear suspended between the rear surrounds and rear heights. The rhythm section, originally pushed way off to the left side of the stereo image, is now centered in the front channels. Piano from the side left speaker brings us into ‘Caravan’, as the drums thunder in from upfront and acoustic guitar floats off to the right. Horns and backing vocals emerge from the rear heights, while a second acoustic guitar part pops up in the left rear speaker towards the end.
“Think of [the Atmos mix] as a new perspective on something familiar, a version that plays with the possibilities of spatial audio rather than trying to sound as if you’re sitting in the performance space with the band (which is kind of the approach that Elliot’s mix took). This is my interpretation, made with love and respect for the masterpiece that is Moondance, and I hope you enjoy it”
Steven Wilson
‘Into The Mystic’, perhaps my favourite song on the album, is another highlight with the acoustic guitars again filling up the side surrounds and the ‘foghorn whistle’ brass in the height speakers. Piano floats over your left shoulder and tambourine off to the right, both elements slightly elevated into the height array. Morrison’s voice seems to extend a bit further out into the room during this song, perhaps to cover up the vocal bleed in one of the guitar parts (as revealed in the instrumental mix).
Percussion from the left rear speaker complements the rhythm section upfront throughout ‘Come Running’, with horns mostly in the right rear height speaker and backing vocals over to the left. Harmonica then pops up from behind for ‘These Dreams Of You’, while the sax solo comes blaring from the front heights.
‘Brand New Day’ again features backing vocals from Judy Clay and Cissy Houston in the rear height speakers. Electric and acoustic guitar parts alternate between the side speakers, while the piano appears centered in the rears. Perhaps my one gripe with the Atmos mix is that the piano solo in this song is quite buried in comparison to past versions, coming off almost like a ghost in the mix.
Clavinet from the left side speaker kicks off ‘Everyone’, quickly joined by an acoustic guitar over on the right side and Van’s centered vocal. Flute appears mainly in the left rear height speaker, but switches to the front heights for the solo.
‘Glad Tidings’ then closes out the album in glorious fashion with handclaps and horns raining down from above, while Morrison’s overdubbed harmony vocals alternate left-centre-right in the rear surround speakers. That said, one fun touch I do miss from Scheiner’s 5.1 mix is the handclaps at the beginning of the song playfully rotating from speaker-to-speaker around the room.
Though the music has now been spread over twelve speakers instead of merely two (in a 7.1.4 set-up), I feel Wilson has succeeded in maintaining and even enhancing the intimate atmosphere of the original production. If you close your eyes, at times it almost sounds as if you could be sitting at a campfire surrounded by these great musicians. Needless to say, this reissue comes highly recommended to fans of Moondance and immersive audio.
Review by Jonathan Cornell for SDE. Read more of Jonathan’s reviews atImmersiveAudioAlbum.com.
The Moondance Dolby Atmos Mix is available on blu-ray audio and is in stock and ready to ship from the SDE shop. Place an order using this link or simply use the ‘buy button’ below. Other blu-ray audios, including exclusive titles, can be found on the blu-ray audio section of the SDE shop.
Tracklisting
MoondanceVan Morrison/
2022 Atmos Mix
2013 96/24 5.1 Mix
2022 96/24 Steven Wilson Remix
2013 192/24 Remastered Stereo
2022 96/24 Steven Wilson Instrumental Mix
Initially issued on CD as part of the Archives Vol. 2 box set, Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s album Dume – effectively an expanded version of the Zuma album – will be issued on vinyl for the first time next month.
The 16-song album includes tracks from 1975, recorded during the Zuma sessions. The record gets its name from Point Dume, the area in Malibu where Neil Young, Crazy Horse, and producer David Briggs lived, wrote and recorded the music (Zuma beach in this area, too).
The idea behind Dume was to weave songs from the Zuma album with unreleased tracks and mixes from that period; to use the Zuma album as a starting point and expand it into a brand-new entity, with unreleased tracks and alternate mixes. Eight out of Zuma’s nine tracks are included in exactly the same versions (‘Through My Sails’ is the only one omitted) everything else is unreleased, or was until 2020, when the Archives Vol. 2 CD box came out. This is the first time they’ve been released on vinyl.
Dume will be released on 23 February 2034 via Reprise Records.
Welcome to the traditional SDE Reissue Preview for the year ahead! As usual we will start with the first few months of this year where we have confirmed releases and then move on to what we know/think/presume/hope will be reissued later in the year. Of course they’ll be plenty of things not covered, so please as well as offering your thoughts on reissues mentioned below, do chip in with forthcoming products you know about that SDE hasn’t mentioned! You can do this via the comments section.
Despite the recently announced Band on the Run reissue, the last few years have been very frustrating for Paul McCartney and Wings fans. Yes, there has been product: The 50th anniversary half-speed vinyl editions, for example, the lavish and actually rather impressive 7” Singles box in a wooden crate, endless iterations of McCartney III but the fact remains that Archive Collection series, Paul’s “multi-year” reissue campaign that kicked off in 2010 with Band on the Run, has been effectively dormant since July 2020 when his 1997 album Flaming Pie was reissued. When you consider the re-release before that one (Wild Life / Red Rose Speedway) was released in December 2018, that means we’ve only had one proper reissue in the last five years.
While I do not think anyone has an issue with Paul prioritising new albums over archival projects – 2018’s Egypt Station and 2020’s McCartney III – it has gone well beyond that. Paul milked both albums to an excessive degree, particularly McCartney III with its endless vinyl iterations, the III Imagined release (which appeared literally months later), the McCartney vinyl and CD box sets, and now only three years down the line, a trio of third anniversary vinyl editions!
Add to that Paul’s newly found fascination with books, including the admittedly excellent The Lyrics tome, and there is a sense that he has rather gone off the idea of reissuing his old albums – including latter-day Wings long-players London Town and Back to the Egg. It’s not even a feeling; the evidence is there for all to see: any idea, any flight of fancy, any ‘why don’t we do this?’ gets prioritised above what was once a core interest. Consider that in the first two years of the Archive Collection series McCartney reissued FOUR albums (Band on the Run, McCartney, McCartney II and Ram). A hit rate of one every six months has turned into one every 3 or 4 years. The ever productive McCartney has not slowed down at all, but has either lost interest or just got distracted.
It has been so long that I have to conclude that we will finally see some activity in 2024. The sad news of Paul’s loyal bandmate Denny Laine dying last month must have surely have triggered some stirrings and affection for the good old days. One of the albums that hasn’t been reissued is London Town which, like Band on the Run, was produced by a three-piece Wings: just Paul, Denny and Linda. My money is on that album being next, perhaps with its follow-up, 1979’s Back to Egg reissued simultaneously.
Paul’s box sets have definitely got better over the years (if rather expensive), with more alternative mixes/demos on offer but he continues to have a habit of annoying his core fanbase with strange decisions. This started with the Flowers in the Dirt ‘download-only’ debacle of 2017 where key B-sides and remixes were not even included on CD within the deluxe box set, and continued with interesting demos – not included in the physical product – appearing as low quality MP3s on Paul’s website. In recent times, Paul has finally embraced spatial audio with a series of 50th anniversary Dolby Atmos Mixes but not offered them as a physical product, something which there is clearly demand for. If we do see London Town emerge in 2024 SDE would like a blu-ray included with an Atmos Mix.
John Lennon
There’s a good case for stating that John Lennon has eclipsed his old partner Paul with his own ongoing reissue campaign. When McCartney kicked off his Archive Collection series in 2010 there was, at the same time, a series of Lennon reissues which rather lacked ambition. Decent remasters of the studio albums (and an accompanying Signature box set) along with a couple of different compilations (Gimme Some Truth and Power to the People) were okay… but it was a career overview, rather than a deep dive. Paul’s Band on the Run deluxe edition wasn’t perfect when it came to audio, but the book was excellent, but it felt high quality and ‘deluxe’ and was reasonably priced at the time.
Fast forward to 2018 and the 4CD+2xblu-ray deluxe edition of John Lennon’s Imagine delivered in every way, particularly with a forensic and comprehensive look at the audio. New ‘Ultimate Mixes’ were offered in stereo and 5.1 surround. There were ‘Element Mixes’ which isolated specific elements of a track (sometimes previously unheard contributions), Extended Album Versions, Outtakes, ‘Evolution Mixes’ which tracked the development of a song in the studio, and even the original Quad Mix. Virtually everything was offered in surround sound via the two blu-ray audios. Frankly, this blew any of Paul’s deluxe editions to that point out of the water (he’d released nine, with 2017’s Flowers in the Dirt being the latest at the time). The books with the Lennon deluxe sets matched McCartney’s and had the courtesy to not be so intricate and lavish as to cost a fortune. Imagine was around the £60 mark with its four CDs and two blu-rays. McCartney withheld a CD of audio from the 3CD+DVD Flowers in the Dirt deluxe edition and still managed to charge £125 for it!
This quality with John Lennon has continued with similar packages for 1970’s Plastic Ono Band and the Gimme Some Truth set of 2020. Admittedly, it hasn’t been plain sailing with these either, with Plastic Ono Band delayed until 2021 for the more crowd-pleasing ‘best of’ and nothing since then thanks to some hesitation over Some Time In New York City which was apparently done, but mothballed, for the time being at least, to make way for a Mind Games deluxe edition which is confirmed for July 2024. The Mind Games deluxe will feature six CDs and two blu-rays which is the same as the Plastic Ono Band set. The now familiar accompanying book is already available to pre-order.
The Beatles
There was a time when Apple and Universal could do no wrong with Beatles reissues. 2017’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was deservedly well received, as was ‘The White Album’ in 2018. Abbey Road got decent notices and had the first Dolby Atmos Mix released physically but it all started to go a little bit awry around the time of Let It Be, in 2021. With Disney heavily invested in Peter Jackson’s The Beatles Get Back documentary, the tail started wagging the dog. Not only did the box set arrive a year late, the triumphant denouement of those three weeks in Twickenham Studios and then Savile Row – the Rooftop Concert – was almost entirely missing from the Let It Be box set, one presumes due to contractual reasons.
A year later, when The Beatles’ 1966 masterpiece Revolver was reissued there was no blu-ray included which meant unlike the three deluxe sets before it, Revolver had no Dolby Atmos of 5.1 version available as part of a physical product. Apple and Universal shrugged it off and tried to keep their head down, but fans were astounded at this major omission and assumed it would be corrected at some point with a standalone blu-ray. That never happened.
This year Rubber Soul was widely expected but Paul’s interest in reviving the mid-90s attempt to make a Beatles recording of John Lennon’s ‘Now and Then’ threw a spanner in the works. Unwilling to simply release it as a standalone single (not profitable enough!) it was decided that ‘Now and Then’ would be grafted on to the 1967-1970 (‘Blue’) compilation from 1973. Of course releasing ‘Blue’ on its own didn’t make much sense, so the 1962-1966 (‘Red’) best of was also reissued with both rebooted to include extra selections.
The whole thing was a bit of a mess. From the makes-no-sense inclusion of a 1977/1996/2022 track on a compilation that purportedly ‘ends’ at 1970 to the inconsistent treatment of the new selections on CD and vinyl. It also missed out two of the Fab Four’s singles (Free As A Bird and Real Love) for no good reason and to top it all off the 3LP sets were extraordinarily expensive. The most interesting element – Giles Martin’s Dolby Atmos Mixes – were for the second time of asking not included in a physical product, with Apple and Universal apparently ignoring – or not caring – about the significant complaints when the same treatment was afforded the spatial audio mix of Revolver.
There is an assumption that in 2024 we will finally get the Rubber Soul deluxe set but the decision making of the last few years has to be questioned and Apple and Universal Music need to go back-to-basics and ensure that fans are offered a generous selection of outtakes paired with a blu-ray featuring a spatial audio version of the album.
Duran Duran
BMG have done a great job at getting ‘mid-period’ Duran Duran back into the marketplace, including albums such as Medazzaland, Pop Trash, Astronaut, Red Carpet Massacre and All You Need Is Now. The label had actually promised a Medazzaland box for this year, which obviously never happened and Nick Rhodes is on record as talking about a 40th anniversary anthology which seems to be a vague aspiration rather than a set of specific product plans.
The issue is more with the Warner-owned output; the ‘classic era’, if you will. Rio’s 40th birthday came and went in 2022 with no activity barring the odd tweet and in 2023 the 40th and 30th anniversaries of Seven and the Ragged Tiger and ‘The Wedding Album’ respectively also came and went with no physical product to mark the occasion. Barring a 2CD set in 1994, ‘The Wedding Album’ has never been reissued at all; quite remarkable for such a successful and important album for Duran Duran. The good news is that someone called David Hughes posted on Twitter/’X’ alternative BlueSky in October that he was “working with Duran Duran/Warner” on a super deluxe reissue of ‘The Wedding Album’ that has been “delayed twice”. He says “if it all comes together it’ll be something special”.
With Duran Duran the suspicion is always that they are more focused on the here-and-now than the past. So touring remains a key pursuit and as does working on “the new album”. If neither of those things is happening then they have a predilection for material that they own and control which is perhaps why, for them, Medezzaland is a higher priority than Rio, and Pop Trash might be more interesting for than Seven and the Ragged Tiger. This might not align with what fans want, but it’s probably the reality.
With Danse Macabre having been released this year, there’s clearly not going to be any new material in 2024, so perhaps we will get a Medazzland box set or given that message from David Hughes, a ‘Wedding Album’ one. But be warned, the band were working with Warner Music a decade ago on a ‘Wedding album’ reissue and the project failed to reach fruition due to creative differences.
Madonna
It is now 26 months since Warner Music Group excitedly announced “a career-spanning partnership” with Madonna that will see a “multi-year catalog series”. Number of studio albums reissued since that announcement? Zero! We’ve had bits and bobs: ‘Erotica’ picture discs, Record Store Day releases that feature remixes of tracks from American Life, and most notably Finally Enough Love the mildly interesting best of/remix collection from 2022. The sloth-like pace has been frustrating. Madonna and Warners have been guilty of playing with their food and they need to get stuck in. They shouldn’t have missed the 40th anniversary of Madonna’s debut album but surely this will finally emerge in 2024. Only when we get an album box set can we judge the campaign and ascertain if “personally curated by Madonna” is a warning or a recommendation.
Other artists and activity
2024 is a big year for reissues because it’s the anniversary of such strong years for music. First and foremost 2024 is the 40th anniversary of 1984, for this writer the best year in pop, and that – potentially – means we could get all sorts of favourites reissued. It was the year of Frankie Goes To Hollywoodwho enjoyed three number one singles in ’84 and their chart-topping debut album Welcome to the Pleasuredome. Of course ‘things’ are happening with Frankie what with their Eurovision Song Contest reunion last year. This has led to rumours of a full blown reunion tour. Also, Universal Music bought the ZTT catalogue ages ago and the fruits so far have been relatively modest, with Record Store Day product, ‘vanilla’ album reissues and the FGTH Essential compilation. All this means it’s reasonable to expect Frankie archival activity in 2024.
Nik Kershaw’s two albums from 1984 (Human Racing and The Riddle) got decent 2CD reissues in 2012 and 2013 but that was a decade ago and not a lot has happened since. The good news is that an 9CD+2DVD MCA Years box will be released in 2024 which covers the first four albums (up to The Works) with a comprehensive round up of long-players, remixes, b-sides, live tracks and more. This will be similar to the Level 42 or Swing Out Sister sets (talking of SOS, there will be another Swing Out Sister box set too).
We can expect some 5.1 / Atmos Mixes from Howard Jones and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ Rattlesnakes was another great album from 1984 but I doubt we’ll get any reissues of that record, especially since this period was well covered in the 2015 and 2020 Collected Recordings CD and vinyl box sets. Lloyd spent last year working on his latest album On Pain, but now that is out it clears the decks for the delayed reissue of his 2003 album Music in a Foreign Language. It has been remastered and will include a 10-track bonus album of Lloyd’s rough mixes before other musicians were brought in. According to LC it’s “quite different” to the final version.
Ultravox’sLament album is another from 1984 and Chrysalis excellent deluxe campaign will continue with a 40th anniversary edition and after Sony delivered the Echoes From The Edge Of Heaven singles box and fans enjoyed ‘Last Christmas’ spending a month at number one over the festive period, there should be some further Wham!activity in 2024 since 1984 was of course the year that George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley ‘made it big’ and, like Frankie, enjoyed three number one singles: ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, ‘Careless Whisper’ and ‘Freedom’.
Suede’s 1994 masterpiece Dog Man Star is 30 years old this year, so an anniversary edition which mirrors the Suede reissue from last year would be most welcome, although as always the availability of multi-track tapes for spatial audio is always an issue. We shall see how things develop.
The Thompson Twins had their biggest album, Into The Gap, in 1984, but for reasons unknown there has been zero activity with this group for years. The last significant archival activity was the SDE-curated ‘Remixes and Rarities’ compilation from 2013 and I’d be surprised if we see anything this year. Tom Bailey continues to enjoy touring though and will be on the road in America next year.
David Bowie’s prolificacy in the early 1970s mean Warners are struggling to keep up with the reissues. The excellent Divine SymmetryHunky Dory box came out in November 2022, which was a year late for the 50 anniversary. Today, we’ve just had the announcement of the RSD Bowie release and this all but confirms that a Ziggy Stardust deluxe set similar to Divine Symmetry should emerge in 2024 and when it does, that will be two years late in terms of the 50th anniversary. Diamonds Dogs is the album that is actually 50 years old in 2024 but aside from maybe a picture disc, nothing much will happen with that album (which is an SDE favourite).
Police fans have good reason to be frustrated since the band (e.g. Sting) has been unwilling to dive into the vaults and offer anything at all and all these years later none of the band’s five albums has ever been expanded for a CD box set. Andy Summers told SDE over two years ago that “a four-disc version of Regatta de Blanc is coming” which got us excited but, somewhat predictably, nothing has happened. From what SDE understands this has been abandoned for a belated 40th anniversary version of 1983’s Synchronicity which could run to as much as six CDs! We could be going from famine to feast – let’s wait and see.
The ongoing Toyah reissue campaign will likely continue this year Love is the Law, her last Safari album (and the last record before she became a solo artist) but I doubt we’ll see any more big super deluxe box sets.
In 2024 it will be seven years since INXS‘s Kick album was reissued (for the second time of asking) as an excellent 2CD+blu-ray with a Dolby Atmos Mix. Shockingly, since then, we still haven’t had any other INXS album expanded and reissued as a physical product. The death of Chris Murphy, the band’s manager, in 2021 was a terrible blow but let’s not forget that INXS issued 10 albums in the original era and this obsession with Kick is becoming very tiresome. The Swing album was released in 1984 – featuring the Nile Rodgers-produced Original Sin – so it’s the perfect time for a 40th anniversary edition, although I get the feeling 1993’s Welcome to Wherever You Are might be top of most fans’ reissue wishlist.
The Killers‘ classic 2004 debut Hot Fuss is 20 years old this year and you’d hope that there would be some activity around that and another album released in the same year, Keane’sHopes and Fears has been confirmed for a 20th anniversary reissue around May time.
There was talk of Kate Bush delivering another vinyl version of The Dreaming, just like she did for the somewhat underwhelming Baskerville Edition of Hounds of Love but fans will be thinking it must be time for a new album. Kate has just quietly broken her own record of 12 years between consecutive studio albums (1993’s The Red Shoes and 2005’s Aerial). It is now longer than that since she issued 50 Words For Snow (in November 2011).
BMG should be continuing their pretty good Bryan Ferry reissue campaign and his debut on Virgin, Bête Noire, would seem a likely contender. Talking of which, we are still waiting for Roxy Music’s second album, For Your Pleasure, to be reissued and this year will be eight years since their debut was released as a deluxe box set! I doubt we’ll see anything this year, to be honest (this year is actually the 50th anniversary of their fourth studio album, Country Life).
Elton John’s wonderful 1973 album Goodbye Yellow Brick Road missed its 50th anniversary last year and while the worldonly seems to have ears for Diamonds these days, I still think we’ll see a belated reissue of the 1973 album, especially since the 30th anniversary box set (also issued a year late in 2014) was somewhat lacking in ambition.
Things are quiet at the moment in terms of Tears For Fears but we know Steven Wilson has done an as yet unreleased Atmos Mix of the band’s 1989 album The Seeds of Love and after the success of the SDE-exclusive Hurting blu-ray last year, fans will be hoping we can follow this up with some further offerings. Watch this space.
There was a big effort and push with Prince last year and Diamonds and Pearls but that was a long time coming and we will need to wait and see what’s in store during 2024. In its 40th anniversary year, fans are hoping they might do Purple Rain ‘properly’ since the 2017 3CD+DVD now looks paper thin compared to the lavish releases that have followed. A straw poll would probably confirm Parade as the album that most people would like to see reissued. With rights split between Sony and Warners there will undoubtedly be activity this year, but another mega campaign like Sign O’ The Times or Diamonds and Pearls feels unlikely at this point in time.
On what would have been David Bowie’s 77th birthday, Parlophone have announced a special vinyl LP called Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth).
This record features the then provisional tracklisting for what would become Bowie’s 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. This early version is taken from the Trident Studio quarter-inch tapes dated 15 December 1971.
There are four songs on Waiting in the Sky that didn’t make the final album. On side one, in the place of ‘Starman’ (one of the last three tracks recorded for the album in February 1972, is the Chuck Berry cover ‘Round and Round‘which was eventually found a home as the B-side to the Aladdin Sane single ‘Drive-in Staturday’, on 6 April 1973. Also, Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s ‘Amsterdam’, ended side one (this was sat on for even longer and became the B-side of ‘Sorrow’ on 12 October, 1973. Side two of this RSD release includes both ‘Holy Holy‘ and ‘Velvet Goldmine‘. The former is the re-recording with The Spiders of David’s 1971 single and wasn’t released at the time until ‘Diamond Dogs’ was issued as a single when it became yet another B-side. ‘Velvet Goldmine’ was unreleased for nearly four years, but became the B-side to the 1975 reissue of ‘Space Oddity’.
As well as ‘Starman’, ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide’ and ‘Suffragette City’ had not been recorded and are also missing from this early version of the album. Three great late additions, I’m sure you’ll agree!
This vinyl was cut from digital and is a half-speed vinyl pressing. There is no CD version for Record Store Day (see the recent SDE post on CDs!).
Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth) will be released on 20 April 2024 (this year’s Record Store Day) via Parlophone and will be available at participating independent record shops.
Tracklisting
Waiting in the Sky (Before The Starman Came to Earth)David Bowie /
Lou Reed / Hudson River Wind Meditations (reissue)
Lou Reed’s final studio album was released in 2007 and is be reissued by Light in the Attic, #2 in their Lou Reed Archive Series. The album’s ambient soundscapes combines Reed’s love of creating drone music with his passion for Tai Chi, yoga, and meditation.
Del Palmer, who played bass on virtually all of Kate Bush’s albums – and was romantically involved with Kate for a long time – died yesterday, his family have announced.
Del was there from the very beginning, playing the pub circuit with Kate as part of the KT Bush Band in 1977 and from Lionheart onwards he contributed to all her albums in some way, shape or form. He played bass on most of them and engineered them all from 1985’s Hounds of Love onwards.
Despite the the end of their personal relationship in the early 1990s, Kate stayed loyal to Del and he recorded/engineered later albums such as 2005’s Aerial and what is Kate’s most recent album, 2011’s 50 Words For Snow. Del also played bass on songs on of those both albums.
In return, Palmer was fiercely loyal to Kate as well, and while he made a rare on-screen contribution to the 2014 BBC documentary The Kate Bush Story – Running Up That Hill, he mostly refused interview requests to discuss his work with Kate, including from this writer! But I did meet Del in 2016 (as you can see from the photo above) and he was a sweet and charming man.
Palmer recorded three solo albums in the last 15 years or so and made a surprise appearance at the London’s Islington Assembly Halls in 2018, joining Kate Bush tribute act Cloudbusting on stage for a track or two. He later played with them on a few other occasions.
Del Palmer is also the only man to appear on the cover of a Kate Bush album. He’s ‘Houdini’ on the front of 1982’s The Dreaming and is about to be “passed the key” by Kate.
On her website Kate Bush called Del “a brilliant musician, bass player, a great artist” and said “I’m going to miss him terribly”.
Del Palmer died aged 71. Condolences to family and friends.
The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) has published its annual report on UK music consumption and, as usual, it makes for interesting reading.
As has been reported on SDE before – and occasionally elsewhere – the BPI do have a propensity to talk up the ‘vinyl revival’ and marginalise the ongoing success of CDs and this year isn’t much different.
For those who are not aware, the BPI is not an independent organisation, it’s a trade body made up of “music companies” – primarily record labels – including all three major record companies in the UK (Warner Records, Sony Music and Universal Music). So inevitably, the strategies and goals of the record industry at large are reflected in the reporting.
The headline for physical music this year is “Double-digit percentage rise of vinyl salesas CD decline signficantly slowed“. The statistics that support this are that vinyl sales grew 11.8 percent to 6.1m units in 2023 and CD sales dropped 6.9% to 10.8m units (the lowest annual rate of decline since 2015).
So for all those who love to goad with the question: “who buys CDs anymore?”, the fact remains that CDs are the most popular physical format in the UK and continue to outsell vinyl significantly, something they have done for more than 30 consecutive years. How about we celebrate that?
Also, perhaps CDs wouldn’t be declining at all if there was more of a level playing field. The amount of marketing value that the largely vinyl-only Record Store Day benefits from is enormous. Indulge CDs with a similar initiative and I’m sure sales would rise. National Album Day is the same: purportedly a day to celebrate “the album”, it’s actually designed specifically to sell vinyl. It’s so transparent, and I don’t mean the coloured vinyl.
And there’s still plenty of reissues where the labels concerned don’t bother to issue a CD version. Recent examples include Steely Dan albums, Depeche Mode’s ongoing 12-inch box sets, the Talking HeadsStop Making Sense reissue, the Beastie Boys’Hello Nasty 4LP set, and the Bonnie TylerFaster Than The Speed of Night 40th anniversary. Not wanting to state the obvious, but a CD sale can only be registered if a CD edition is actually released and that is controlled by the record labels who benefit from everyone buying into the idea that no one buys CDs anymore and it’s all about vinyl. Earnings and profit will be higher with the vinyl variants (just look at the differential with the recent ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Beatles reissues which were priced at around £70 on vinyl and £20 on CD).
Of course, the other rapidly developing concept is one of offering multiple vinyl versions of a product to increase sales. There was only one CD single of The Beatles’ ‘Now and Then’ but four different seven-inch vinyl editions. Not only that, Apple and Universal Music held back the announcement of the CD until the last minute, to maximise vinyl sales. Remember what I said about level playing field? Despite this, the one CD single still almost matched those vinyl sales in the UK put together (18,738 CDs vs 19,358 seven-inch singles) to help ‘Now and Then’ get to number one in the UK single charts.
It’s almost routine now for run-of-the-mill album releases to have a standard black vinyl, an artist store coloured vinyl exclusive, maybe an Amazon coloured vinyl exclusive and perhaps a deal with Blood Records to come up with a ‘zoetrope’ picture disc later in the campaign. Oh, and you can also buy a CD in a plastic jewel case that that has been mastered to within an inch of its life. The superfan buys FOUR vinyl editions and just one CD. Of course, that’s marketing; that’s how organisations make money. They influence and direct consumers to the products they want them to buy – I get it. But the BPI report these figures as if we are seeing a natural shift in consumer behaviour and act as if they are impartial observers when its members are responsible for stacking the cards in favour of vinyl. Box sets to one side, the humble CD is arguably being subjected to death by neglect, both in presentation and the quality of the audio. Still it endures! This is the unwritten story.
Here’s an example. Even though streaming dominates “music consumption” in the UK, with a massive 87.7 percent of the market, the BPI point out that “physical continued to dominate the top of the Official Albums Chart”. A key statistic is that out of the 44 albums that debuted at number one in 2023, 86 percent of them had “more than half their chart-eligible sales made up of physical sales”. And in 35 weeks physical was behind more than 70 percent of chart eligible sales. Blur’sThe Ballad of Darren (89.6 %) and The Rolling Stones’Hackney Diamonds (89.5%) being great examples. Since CDs outsell vinyl by almost 2:1 in the UK, CDs are a big part of the physical sales that help albums to the higher reaches of the chart.
I’d like to see the UK music industry do more to promote and protect sales of what is still its biggest selling physical format. Apart from a few exceptions, labels show no interest in coming up with special CD products for Record Store Day, or National Album Day, for that matter. There is no ‘CD Day’ and there are no cross-label ventures specifically designed to slow the decline of their biggest selling physical product. With the media annually picking up on the so-called “vinyl boom” it negatively influences stakeholders. Supermarket buyers decide to stop selling CDs, car manufacturers stop supporting the format and the sales decline becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The CD is still an excellent and robust format and can still look good and sound good when it’s given some love by audio engineers, product managers and marketeers within record labels. It’s surely time for the industry to stop being a curious spectator and actively support and celebrate the format that poured so many millions into the coffers in the late 80s and 1990s. With some effort, I’m convinced the “slow decline” of CDs could be turned around by the BPI’s members and within the next fews years CD sales could start to grow again.
What do you think? Leave a comment. You can read the details of the BPI’s report, here.
1985 is a new 6CD box set that tells the story of the making of The Waterboys‘ third studio album This Is The Sea.
Curated by the band’s leader Mike Scott, 1985 takes the listener through 95 tracks including a staggering 64 previously unreleased recordings of home recordings, early demos, alternate versions, outtakes, live recordings, and tv/radio sessions. It covers the recording process of the album and the sixth and final disc is a remastered version of the This Is The Sea album.
The box set comes with a massive book 220-page hard cover book containing a first-hand account of the creation of the album with deep recording details, background, cultural context, photographs (many previously unseen), songwriting pages, lyrics and previously unseen writings. Text is by Waterboys’ singer and songwriter Mike Scot with additional sections by Anthony Thistlethwaite and Max Edie.
This large format presentation (288mm x 255mm) is a limited edition of only 3,000 units worldwide. A clear vinyl 180g pressing of the remastered This Is The Sea will also be available.
The 1985 6CD box set and the vinyl reissue of This is The Sea will be released on 23 February 2024 via Chrysalis Records.
