The release date of Peter Gabriel’si/o box set has been pushed back. Originally scheduled for next month, it’s now gone back to 26 April (same day that the Pet Shop Boys album comes out).
Although it definitely looks good, this box simply gathers together all the formats that have been made available separately: 2CDs, four vinyl LPs and a blu-ray. It does include a casebound book with expanded sleeve notes and a poster, but apart from enjoying the object, it’s hard to get too excited. PG has shared some photos of the actual box (see above).
Thanks for all the positive feedback on the Wham! SDE-exclusive blu-rays and to everyone who has so far pre-ordered. They were a year in the making and obviously I’m thrilled to be able to deliver these exclusive products to the marketplace, especially an album as iconic as Make It Big!
I was always sad that ‘Careless Whisper’ wasn’t part of the Echoes From The Edge of Heaven campaign, so it’s fantastic (pun intended) to have both the album/12-inch version and the single version in Atmos on the Make It Big blu-ray. Including the Wexler Mix of ‘Careless Whisper’ would have been the icing on the cake, but sadly George did not have a high opinion of that version (as made clear in the recent Wham! Netflix documentary) so you can guess why it hasn’t made an appearance!
But putting that to one side, I’ve done my best to bring together all the appropriate bonus material including a smattering of rarities, and together the blu-rays come very close to offering a complete discography of 1983-1986. I’d love to do the same for George Michael’s solo albums. No promises of course, but if these do well that obviously increases the chances, so if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to place your order via the SDE shop!
Deluxe editions of Wham!’s two studio albums – 1983’s Fantastic and 1984’s Make It Big – will be issued for the very first time via two SDE-exclusiveblu-ray audio releases which feature 96/24 hi-res stereo mixes of the original recordings and Dolby Atmos spatial audio, along with a generous selection of bonus tracks in both Atmos and stereo. Both albums will also be reissued on limited edition coloured vinyl (and black vinyl) at the same time.
These albums need no introduction; Wham!’s 1983 debut Fantastic is of course home to four UK top 10 hit singles in ‘Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)’, ‘Young Guns (Go For It)’, ‘Bad Boys’ and ‘Club Tropicana’. A youthful George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley were the cool funk/soul boys who, for a time, sang about life on the dole, teenage rebellion, having fun and hitting the clubs. The album went to number one in the UK album charts and made stars of the duo.
Just ten months after the release of ‘Club Tropicana’ – and one legal dispute later – Wham! released ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ on Epic Records. This effervescent pop song is the lead track from Make It Big – an album that is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year – and is one of the most iconic singles released by any band during the 1980s. It reached number one in the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK singles charts (and virtually everywhere else). The next single ‘Careless Whisper’ (credited as a George Michael solo single in the UK, but co-written with Ridgeley) repeated this feat and even on release felt like it had reserved a spot in the history books as an all-time classic single. Wham! had a third consecutive number one in the UK with ‘Freedom’ and a trio of chart-topping singles from Make It Big in America when ‘Everything She Wants’ reached the summit in the USA. As is well documented, the non-album ‘Last Christmas’ should have been the group’s fourth number one in the UK in 1984 but they had to make do with the song peaking at number two (due to ‘Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas’). In the streaming era, ‘Last Christmas’ now tops the UK single chart apparently with ease, on an almost annual basis.
Fantastichighlights the drive and energy of Ridgeley and the fast emerging songwriting talent of Michael, which was all too apparent when the quality and sophistication of Make It Big was plain for all to see, in 1984. Wham! went stratospheric and the spark was only extinguished by choice when, in 1986, George called time on the band that, in the words of Andrew Ridgeley, “was never going to grow up”.
Together, the SDE-exclusive blu-rays of Fantastic and Make It Big tell virtually the entire story of Wham! via the two albums, A-sides, B-sides and rarities. The records have never sounded better and are presented in high resolution and immersive audio; here’s your one opportunity to own the Atmos Mixes – created by original engineer Chris Porter – of the albums and associated bonus tracks as a limited edition physical product!
The blu-ray of Fantastic features the longer version of the album originally issued on CD and cassette with three extra instrumental remixes: ‘A Ray of Sunshine’, ‘Love Machine’ and ‘Nothing Looks the Same in the Light’. Additionally, there are four extra tracks in Dolby Atmos including classic B-side ‘Blue (Armed with Love)’, the UK 12-inch of ‘Young Guns (Go For It)’ and a handful of single versions. On top of that, there are ten further bonus tracks in stereo, including instrumentals, and more remixes. In total, there’s 25 different songs/versions, 16 of which are available in both Atmos and stereo.
Make It Big on blu-ray audio is exclusive to SDE and features a Dolby Atmos Mix, hi-res stereo and 21 bonus tracks
Make It Big features the 8-track album in both Atmos and 96/24 stereo and then a further 11 tracks in Dolby Atmos (and stereo) including the 12-inch remixes of ‘Freedom’, ‘Everything She Wants’ and ‘Last Christmas’. There are also Atmos Mixes of the single version of ‘Careless Whisper’ and the alternate single version of ‘Freedom’.
Encouraged by Andrew Ridgeley, George Michael Entertainment and Sony to ‘finish’ the Wham! story with this SDE-exclusive Make It Big blu-ray, we have included the two singles that were released afterwards. This means that the UK chart-toppers from 1985 and 1986 respectively – ‘I’m Your Man’ and ‘The Edge of Heaven’ – both feature in Dolby Atmos (and stereo), as do both ‘Battlestations’ and ‘Where Did Your Heart Go?’
As if that wasn’t enough, there are 10 further bonus tracks in stereo, including the rare 4.45 ‘Pudding Mix Edit’ of ‘Last Christmas’ which has never been officially issued on CD and, from the 12-inch of ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’, ‘A Ray of Sunshine (specially recorded for ‘The Tube’)’ – another track that has never been issued on CD, outside of Japan. All the remixes of ‘I’m Your Man’ feature on this disc, including the alternate 12-inch mix from the US-only mini-album Music From The Edge of Heaven (this version has never been released in the UK) and ‘Blue (Recorded Live in China)’ which was first issued on the 1985 reissue of ‘Last Christmas’. ‘Wham! Rap ’86’ from ‘The Edge of Heaven’ single closes the circle and brings to an end this celebration of Wham! 1983-1986.
Fantastic and Make It Big are numbers 19 and 20 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series of blu-ray audios with Atmos Mixes and both will ship with the free, collectible SDE slipcase. This acclaimed series has delivered some classic 80s albums over the last two years including ABC’s The Lexicon of Love and Tears For Fears The Hurting (both are now out-of-print).
Here’s the now traditional reminder as to why this product is highly recommended:
It’s the only way to enjoy the Dolby Atmos mix of the albums 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 mixes
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 and 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 leads to similar collaborations with labels/artists and we are keen to bring your more in the near future!
If you don’t have an Atmos set-up just yet, the Atmos Mixes will ‘fold down’ and still sound great in a 5.1 system. If/when you upgrade, you’ll get the full Atmos experience!
The SDE-exclusive Blu-ray Audios of Fantastic and Make It Big will be available to pre-order for 14 days only and will close on Thursday 22 February 2024. Availability after that cannot be guaranteed, so secure your copy today by pre-ordering at the SDE shop, either directly via this link or using the special SDE shop buy button below. We ship worldwide, no longer have any extra charges to the EU (for orders under €150).
Limited edition one-time pressings of Fantastic and Make It Big on red and white vinyl respectively are also available and can be ordered with the blu-rays via the SDE shop. There’s plenty of cost-saving bundles available depending on which products you want to buy.
The Fantastic and Make It Big blu-rays initiative is a collaboration between SDE and Sony Music and will be released on 26 April 2024 (was 22 March).
TECHNICAL NOTES: This blu-ray audio requires a blu-ray player. Decoding the Dolby Atmos mix requires a Dolby Atmos-certified soundbar or a Dolby Atmos-compatible AV Receiver/Amp. The Dolby Atmos mix will ‘fold down’ to 5.1 or stereo if a Dolby Atmos decoder is not detected.
A blu-ray audio is a blu-ray disc with no video content. It is region-free and compatible with ALL blu-ray players. Any stereo content can be played via two speakers or a soundbar, in the normal way, but to enjoy the surround sound/spatial audio element such as 5.1 mixes and Dolby Atmos Mixes you will need to connect to an appropriate amplifier/receiver with speaker set-up or a Atmos/5.1 certified soundbar
Tracklisting
FantasticWham! /SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio
Dolby Atmos & 96/24 Stereo
Bad Boys
A Ray of Sunshine
Love Machine
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?)
A Ray of Sunshine (Instrumental Remix)
Love Machine (Instrumental Remix)
Club Tropicana
Nothing Looks The Same in the Light
Come On
Young Guns (Go For It!)
Nothing Looks The Same in the Light (Instrumental Remix)
Bonus tracks in Dolby Atmos & Stereo
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) – single version 3.32
Young Guns (Go For It) – single version 3.43
Young Guns (Go For It) UK 12” mix 5.11
Blue (Armed With Love) 3.56
Bonus tracks in Stereo-only
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) [Club Mix] 4.20
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) [Social Mix] 6.45
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) [Unsocial Mix] 6.38
Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do?) [Special Club Remix] 3.05
Young Guns (For For It) – Special US 12” Remix 6.53
Going For It 4.39
Bad Boys (12” Extended Club Mix) 4.58
Bad Boys (instrumental) 3.21
Club Tropicana (instrumental) 3.31
Club Fantastic Megamix 3.57
Tracklisting
Make It Big Wham! /SDE-exclusive blu-ray audio
Dolby Atmos & 96/24 Stereo
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go 3.51
Everything She Wants 5.03
Heartbeat 4.44
Like A Baby 4.15
Freedom 5.02
If You Were There 3.39
Credit Card Baby 5.10
Careless Whisper 6.32
Bonus tracks in Dolby Atmos & Stereo
Careless Whisper (Single Version) 5.03
Freedom (version from The Final) 5.20
Last Christmas 4.26
Everything She Wants (Remix edit) 5.30
Freedom (Long Version) 7.09
Last Christmas (Pudding Mix) 6.45
Everything She Wants (Remix) 6.30
I’m Your Man 4.07
The Edge of Heaven 4.37
Battlestations 5.31
Where Did Your Heart Go? 5.50
Bonus tracks in Stereo-only
A Ray of Sunshine (specially recorded for ‘The Tube’)
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go (instrumental) 4.02
Freedom (instrumental) 5.10
Last Christmas (Pudding Mix Edit) 4.47
I’m Your Man (Extended Stimulation)
Do It Right (Instrumental)
I’m Your Man (Acappella)
Blue (Recorded Live in China)
I’m Your Man (version from Music From The Edge Of Heaven version)
With Now Yearbook ’90 only just released a week ago, Now That’s What I Call Music are wasting no time in announcing its triple-disc’d companion, Now Yearbook ’90 – Extra.
This 3CD set features 58 more “essential singles” and has a pretty strong CD 1 which features George Michael (‘Freedom! 90’), Duran Duran (‘Serious’), Tears For Fears (‘Advice From The Young At Heart’), TFF’s ‘bestie’ at the time Oleta Adams with ‘Rhythm of Life’ (penned by Roland Orzabal and Nicky Holland) and contributions from Paul Young, Tina Turner, Robert Palmer (with UB40), Propaganda, Roxette, Eurythmics and more.
The second CD starts off vaguely ‘baggy’/indie with The Farm, The Soup Dragons, The Beloved, The Cure, Aztec Camera and Primal Scream before going ‘dance’ (SNAP, LL Cool J, MC Tunes & 808 State) and then ending with a bit of rawk (Billy Idol, Poison, Cher).
CD 3 is the pop disc and it’s a surprise to recall that as late as 1990 Kylie Minogue was still releasing singles like ‘Tears On My Pillow’ and Jason Donovan was still releasing singles. Bros, New Kids On The Block, Paula Abdul feature here and the second half is a mish-mash of styles and artists including Betty Boo, Cliff Richard, Dusty Springfield, Deborah Harry, Big Fun and Liza Minelli.
Now Yearbook ’90 – Extra will be released on 15 March 2024.
Manic Street Preachers will reissue their 2004 album Lifeblood in April for its 20th anniversary.
Described by Nicky Wire as “our most estranged album of all” the band’s seventh studio long-player features the singles ‘For The Love Of Richard Nixon’ and ‘Empty Souls’ and will be available on four physical formats.
A 3CD deluxe bookset features a newly remastered version of the album on the first disc (overseen by James Dean Bradfield) and the B-sides and extra tracks (including Japan-only ‘Antarctic’ and ‘The Soulmates’) collected on the second CD. There is also a new ‘extended eighties mix’ of 1985 remixed by Steven Wilson and a Gwenno Mix of the same song. The final disc in this set offers unreleased demos, alternate Tony Visconti mixes and live tracks.
Lifeblood 3CD deluxe bookset (click image to enlarge)
The 2LP vinyl edition is album-only but is available in two variants: black or indie-exclusive red vinyl. The single CD edition appends those two remixes of ‘1985’ to the remastered album.
Lifeblood is reissued on 12 April 2024 via Sony Music.
Deep Purple’s 1972 album Machine Head will be reissued as a 3CD+Blu-ray+LP super deluxe edition next month.
The English rock band’s sixth studio album was famously due to be recorded at Montreux Casino before it burnt to the ground. The band ended up setting up the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio in the nearby Grand Hotel which was closed for the Winter, Overlook-style. These events were depicted in the classic Smoke on the Water, which starts side two of the vinyl version of this album.
The new super deluxe edition of Machine Head (click image to enlarge)
Machine Head has been reissued many times, so what new content does this super deluxe edition offer? Well, Dweezil Zappa has remixed the record in stereo and in Dolby Atmos. The new stereo mix features on the coloured vinyl LP (“opaque white with hints of purple”) which is included in this super deluxe and on the first CD in the five-disc set, which is also home to a 2024 remaster (two versions of the album on one CD). The new stereo and Atmos remixes also include ‘Never Before’ B-side, ‘When A Blind Man Cries’.
Deep Purple in 1972 (photo by Didi Zill. Click image to enlarge)
The two CDs both include live performances. The first, recorded on 9 March 1972, at the Paris Theatre in London, captures the group on their Machine Head Tour. The second is previously unreleased; it was recorded in April 1971 at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland (yes, the same one that burned down eight months later). This is an “audience recording” which covers songs the band recorded prior to Machine Head, including ‘Child In Time’ (from 1969’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra), ‘Speed King’ (from 1970’s Deep Purple in Rock), and ‘Strange Kind Of Woman’ (from 1971’s Fireball ).
The blu-ray audio features the new Atmos Mix, and the original 1974 US Quad Mix and three tracks in 5.1 Surround Sound. The new stereo mix is not listed amongst the content (go figure) and why the whole album, rather than just three tracks, isn’t included in 5.1 (from the old DVD-Audio) is a mystery.
The super deluxe edition includes a 60-page book with new sleeve notes and the usual archive and rare photos.
Machine Head will be released on 29 March 2024 via Universal ex USA and Warners in America.
In 2004, Sean Rowley was booked onto Jonathan Ross’ Radio 2 show to promote the first Guilty Pleasures compilation. What had begun as a regular slot on his own BBC London show, playing the kind of music that had actually been big in the UK singles charts at a time when the rock history books and documentaries would have you believe Britain was entirely consumed by punk – Alessi’s feather-light soft rock hit ‘Oh Lori’, Andrew Gold’s ‘Never Let Her Slip Away’, ‘Howzat’, the solitary UK hit by Australian pop band Sherbert – had mushroomed into a club night and now a series of major-label compilations. Knowing that Ross was away that week, and his slot would be filled by comedian Mark Lamarr, Rowley took former Specials frontman Terry Hall with him: Lamar was a huge Specials fan, Hall – who had apparently spent his time in The Specials quietly nursing a love of the oeuvres of Pilto – was one of the resident DJs at the Guilty Pleasures club night. It did not work out quite as planned. Lamar was aghast at the music on the compilation and more aghast still at Hall’s involvement. “This is just rubbish,” he protested, fading out an old Carol Bayer Sager track selected by Hall after less than a minute. The interview turned combative. “I felt like I was in the Sex Pistols, being attacked by Bill Grundy,” Hall later deadpanned. “Just because I like The Captain And Tennille.”
If nothing else, it’s a story that tells you a lot about how big a phenomenon Guilty Pleasures became in the ‘noughties’. You might have reasonably expected it to strike a chord with a certain demographic. if you had been a kid in the mid-to-late 70s – too young for the music press, but not too young for Radio One and Top Of The Pops – these songs were buried somewhere deep in your brain. They might have subsequently been written out of history, but they had been played a lot at the time: if you relied on the radio and telly for your musical diet, you would have heard Marshall Hain’s now-forgotten 1978 Top 3 hit ‘Dancing In The City’ a lot more than the oeuvres of The Damned or The Clash. Hearing it again a spark of acknowledgement among listeners of a certain age – oh my God, this! I remember this! – and an accompanying burst of nostalgia: few things have the ability to transport you back to the past quite like music you haven’t heard for decades, that’s never previously been revived or reassessed.
You might possibly have expected said demographic to include a few people who’d gone on to become famous musicians: George Michael requested Rowley play a Guilty Pleasures DJ set at his 2007 Wembley Arena show. You might even have wondered if it might attract a few people like the late Terry Hall who’d been old enough to participate in punk, but had a secret yen for the music it was supposed to be implacably opposed to. But what was startling was how widely the idea took off: Rowley obviously hadn’t invented the phrase, he certainly succeeded in reanimating it in reference to rock and pop. The club night was featured on the front page of The Guardian. Barbra Streisand was impelled to change the name of her 2005 album Guilty Pleasures to Guilty Too in the UK. There was a Guilty Pleasures TV special, a Guilty Pleasures live show – featuring Suggs from Madness singing John Paul Young’s ‘Love Is In The Air’ – and a sneaking suspicion that the success of the compilation paved the way for new bands who sounded like the artists on it to have hits was hard to avoid, hence the triple platinum sales of The Feeling’s debut album Twelve Stops And Home.
But along the way, the term became uncoupled from the specific era on which the first Guilty Pleasures compilation alighted. “Guilty pleasures” ultimately just became shorthand for pop music of virtually any stripe. By the time that X Factor started running a guilty pleasures week – which bafflingly involved contestants performing Chaka Khan’s ‘Ain’t Nobody’, and, wait for it, Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’ – it became apparent that the term had become so detached from its original concept as to become essentially meaningless.
Perhaps understandably, the 4CD set that celebrates Guilty Pleasures’ 20th birthday attempts to bring things back to basics. Everything on it hails from the 70s. It offers a mix of songs that appeared on the initial compilations, ‘Oh Lori’, ‘Howzat’ and ‘Dancing In The City’ among them, songs that probably should have been – Liverpool Express’s ‘You Are My Love’ is prime Guilty Pleasures territory, a fabulous piece of shimmering, dreamy soft pop, a huge hit during the heatwave-struck summer of 1976 – and what you might call Guilty Pleasures deep cuts: songs that are too obscure to cause the old flash of nostalgia-laden recognition, but which broadly fit in with the sonic aesthetics of the music that does.
Some of the latter category really is obscure – British duo Denne And Gold, a track from a flop solo album by former Three Dog Night vocalist Cory Wells. What’s been dug up here is often intriguing (‘Umbopo’ is a peculiar bit of early 70s pop recorded by a pre-fame 10cc under the name Doctor Father; Watchersign was Pratt & McLean’s improbable attempt to follow up their big hit, the theme tune from Happy Days, with some astrology-obsessed disco-inflected soft rock) and frequently fantastic. For all its nostalgic appeal, the music Guilty Pleasures focussed on was seldom kitsch, just unfashionable – you’d have a hard time applying the so-bad-it’s-good label to songs as well-written as Captain And Tennille’s ‘Love Will Keep Us Together’ or Ace’s ‘How Long’ or Helen Reddy’s fabulously creepy ‘Angie Baby’ – and so it proves here. Stephen Bishop’s 1976 album track ‘Little Italy’ is impeccably turned-out soft rock blessed with a guest vocal from Chaka Khan. Browning Bryant’s ‘Liverpool Fool’ is just fantastic – the work of a former child star, written by Allen Toussaint, with a supremely lithe backing courtesy of The Meters. And, frankly, the charts in 2024 could use a song as idiosyncratic and melodically rich as Lynsey de Paul’s ‘Sugar Me’.
It walks a line between familiarity and crate-digging exploration, and it’s all richly enjoyable – shameless, blameless fun, as the club’s tagline used to have it – but it’s perhaps worth pausing to think what a mind-boggling state of affairs a fairly lavish 4CD box set that features the work of Alessi, Sherbert, Jigsaw and the Starland Vocal Band would once have seemed. That it doesn’t in 2024 is at least partly down to the fact that we currently live in a world that Guilty Pleasures predicted. It presaged a number of things, not least the rise in standing of yacht rock, as it came to be known, the elevation of which from the bargain bin status to the stuff of serious discussion may be America’s answer to the Guilty Pleasures phenomenon, although the other candidate would be the 2014 soundtrack to Disney’s Guardians Of The Galaxy, which majored in disposable 70s US pop, from Blue Swede’s ‘Hooked On A Feeling’ to Rupert Holmes’ deathless ‘Escape (The Piña Colada Song)’. Both have had an impact on the tracklisting of this box set, which features yacht rock favourites Seals And Croft and Nicolette Larson’s super-smooth reading of Neil Young’s ‘Lotta Love’, as well as a brace of songs familiar from Guardians Of The Galaxy: Looking Glass’s ‘Brandy You’re A Fine Girl’, Silver’s ‘Wham-Bam-Shang-A-Lang’, Elvin Bishop’s ‘Fooled Around And Fell In Love’.
And you only have to look at the improbable old tracks that have gone viral thanks to TikTok’s teenage users to realise that we’re in an era where old-fashioned notions of canonical cool and gatekeeping – the very things Guilty Pleasures was reacting against – no longer apply. Recent years have seen the streaming figures for everything from Edison Lighthouse’s ‘Love Goes (Where My Rosemary Goes)’ to Matthew Wilder’s jaunty ‘Break My Stride’ go through the roof after becoming memes on the video-sharing platform. Meanwhile, the makers of wildly popular teen drama Euphoria thought nothing of throwing songs by Gerry Rafferty and Billy Swan – both of whom appear on this box set – in amongst the big 21st Century pop stars and ultra-hip names on its soundtrack: Labrinth, Arca, Drake, Rosalia, James Blake, Megan Thee Stallion. So the Guilty Pleasures box set arrives in a world where the notion of a guilty pleasure no longer really exists – which makes it a historical artefact twice over.
Guilty Pleasures was reviewed for SDE by Alexis Petridis. It is out now via Demon Records.
The Pineapple Thief’s 14th album was recorded over the last couple of years and is available across a number of formats. The 2CD+Blu-ray+DVD deluxe (in 52-page hardcover book) not only features a Y Aqui Estamos – a bonus album of alternate versions – but also Dolby Atmos and 5.1 mixes of both albums! If you can live without the book, the same content (both albums in Atmos, 5.1 and stereo) is available on a standalone blu-ray.
The Scottish band’s 2004 debut is reissued as this limited black and orange marbled vinyl pressing, for the record’s 20th anniversary. Comes with an embossed sleeve and a download card.
This time a 15th anniversary reissue as the Brighton-based British Sea Power re-release their third album. The expanded 2CD version of Do You Like Rock Music features live sessions and B-sides. The deluxe 2LP version includes the same audio but one LP is orange vinyl and the other is a picture disc!
10th anniversary reissue of Eminem’s eighth studio album features 11 bonus tracks including six instrumentals. Available as a 2CD set and as a 4LP vinyl package (same tracks on both).
Amazing reduction on the RushSignals super deluxe which features half-speed cut vinyl LP, blu-ray with 5.1 and Atmos Mixes, CD, hardcover book and four seven-inch singles!
The Beach Boys/Sail on Sailor 1972 6CD set6CD deluxe
NOW Millennium ’04 – ’05 is available in the usual formats for deluxe 4CD set in hardcover book packaging, 2LP coloured vinyl and the standard 4CD in a card sleeve.
The 4CD sets features 83 tracks while the 2LP vinyl edition offers 31 songs. It’s always interesting to look back at the relatively near past and there’s probably more big names on here than you might imagine. So for every Shane Ward, Kelly Clarkson and Crazy Frog there’s also George Michael, Duran Duran (both singles off their Astronaut comeback) and R.E.M.
New bands at the time The Killers and Keane feature, as do Kylie, Robbie, The Scissor Sisters, Maroon 5, Embrace, Snow Patrol and the like. Did Elton John have a single called ‘Electricity’ in 2005? Yes, it turns out he did and not only that, it got to number four in the UK singles chart!
NOW Millennium ’04-’05 will be released on 1 March 2024.
Elbow return next month with their 10th studio album, Audio Vertigo, and you can pre-order a CD edition signed by the band via Amazon in the UK.
The album was recorded throughout 2023 and sees a change of direction with lead singer and lyricist Guy Garvey, saying that Audio Vertigo was built from “gnarly, seedy grooves created by us playing together in garagey rooms”. SDE has heard the record and can confirm the PR hype – it’s tremendous! Check out the first single, ‘Lovers Leap’, below.
The album’s cover art is available in a variety of colour schemes, depending on where you purchase it and there’s coloured vinyl editions also available.
Audio Vertigo will be released on 22 March 2024 via Polydor.
Loneliness, the Pet Shop Boys first single from their new album Nonetheless, is now available to pre-order as a CD single.
None of the three tracks on the CD are available on the new album, since Loneliness is a special radio edit and ‘Party in the Blitz’ and ‘Through You’ are both brand new songs. Curiously ‘Through You’ is an extended mix; whether a standard version will emerge remains to be seen.
Although Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe have given away the odd CD, with issues of their book Annually, ‘Loneliness’ is their first full commercial CD single since ‘I Don’t Wanna’, in 2020. It is also the first CD single not to feature a remix of the main song since 2012’s ‘Winner’.
Loneliness is released on 16 February 2024 via Parlophone.
The Pet Shop Boys 15th studio album will be called Nonetheless and will be released in April.
Produced by James Ford (who has worked with Depeche Mode and Blur) the record was written during lockdown and recorded and mixed last year.
According to Neil “every track has an orchestra on it” although “with electronics”. Speaking with Tennant on the Zoe Ball Show on BBC Radio 2 today, Chris describes the album as having “two or three dance tracks” with “some more reflective stuff”.
The 2CD deluxe features re-recordings of PSB classics on CD 2
The first single is ‘Loneliness’, will be available as a 3-track CD single (hurrah!) which features two exclusive non-album tracks (and a radio edit of ‘Loneliness’). You can preview this new single, on YouTube.
The album is available as deluxe editions – 2CD and deluxe LP+12″ vinyl – which offer a bonus disc called Futhermore. This features “all new recordings” of four classic Pet Shop Boys tracks. It appears as if the vinyl deluxe might be exclusive to the PSB shop and is pressed on white vinyl.
Nonetheless will be released on 26 April and sees Neil and Chris re-sign with Parlophone. Pre-order links for the CD single are coming soon…
As part of their ongoing 50th anniversary campaign, Pink Floyd will reissue The Dark Side of the Moon as a special 2LP set on crystal clear vinyl.
One side of each LP has music, while the other non-groove sides feature UV artwork. The idea is that the prism spectrum will be seen through the playable side of the vinyl giving you the picture disc ‘experience’ while maintaining optimum sound quality.
The 2LP clear vinyl/picture disc edition of The Dark Side of the Moon (click image to enlarge)
The images are printed with a high end UV printer, using UV-Led light to dry the permanent ink on the sides without audio on which the image is printed. This release comes packaged in a slip cased gatefold sleeve, with an exclusive poster.
This new edition of The Dark Side of the Moon will be released on 19 April 2024, via Pink Floyd Records.
Paul McCartney & Wings’ classic 1973 album Band on the Run is reissued for its 50th anniversary in three physical editions, with two of them offering unheard early mixes without overdubs.
French band Air’s 1998 debut album, Moon Safari, will be reissued for its 25th anniversary (somewhat belatedly) as a 2CD+blu-ray set. The second CD features a selection of 11 rarities, some of which are previously unreleased.
The 2CD+blu-ray edition of Moon Safari
The really exciting element is the blu-ray which includes a Dolby Atmos Mix of Moon Safari, a 192/24 stereo mix, and three promo videos alongside the 1998 documentary film Eating, Sleeping, Waiting & Playing by director Mike Mills. This film follows band members Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel during their first ever tour stops in New York, London, and Paris.
Moon Safari will be reissued on 15 March 2024 (was 8 March) via Rhino. It is available via the SDE shop should you choose to support SDE. Use this link or the button below, if you want to do that.
NOW That’s What I Call Music continue their vinyl-only Eighties Dancefloor series with a new 2LP coloured vinyl offering that the best from the era of Soul & Disco
This limited edition orange/yellow vinyl set includes tracks from Tina Turner, Jocelyn Brown, Gwen Guthrie, Womack & Womack, Loose Ends, Alexander O’Neal, Aretha Franklin, Ashford and Simpson, Donna Summer, Hall & Oates, Chaka Khan, Miami Sound Machine, Sister Sledge and many more.
NOW Eighties Dancefloor: Soul & Disco will be released on 23 February 2024.
Compare prices and pre-order
Various Artists
NOW Eighties Dancefloor Soul and Disco - 2LP vinyl
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’.
![David Bowie / Brilliant Adventure [1992-2001] 11CD box set](https://images.superdeluxeedition.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CDspread-1.jpg)
