The Black Crowes’ 1992 album The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion has been remastered and expanded for CD and vinyl reissues next month. The reissue has been overseen by Chris and Rich Robinson and album producer George Drakoulias.
A 3CD super deluxe edition box set features 14 unreleased tracks including two studio recordings,a live February 1993 concert, and the never-before-heard live in-studio performances at the end of the Southern Harmony session – along with B-sides and the original album (which was remastered from the original 1/4″ production master tape). This box also comes with ‘stuff’ which includes a “hymn book” with insights from both Chris and Rich Robinson, sheet music and four lithographs.
The 3CD super deluxe of The Southern Harmony… (click image to enlarge)
There’s also a 2CD deluxe which features the original remastered album with the bonus ‘Best Of The Box’ highlights disc with nine rare and unreleased selections from the super deluxe.
In terms of vinyl, there’s a single remastered black vinyl edition as well as a 4LP super deluxe which repeats the content on the 3CD set. Sadly, there appears to be no ‘cheap’ 3CD edition, which fans had the option of buying for the Shake Your Money Maker reissue of 2021.
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion will be reissued on 15 December 2023 via UMR.
1962-1966 and 1967-1970, the two classic Beatles compilations – better known as the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Albums – are newly remixed and expanded with the notable inclusion of ‘Now and Then’ the first ‘new’ song from the Fab Four since ‘Real Love’ in 1996.
Standard CD and vinyl editions of the 2018 concert performance from London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall that features full orchestral re-imaginings of Roxy Music tracks as performed on stage by Roxy Music legends Andy Mackay & Phil Manzanera
The full audio for the much hyped ‘last’ Beatles song Now and Then has been made available. Have a listen below and let us know what you think. Do you like it and does it live up to expectations? Leave a comment!
Now and Then is officially released on 3 November 2023 with various vinyl editions available, along with a CD single. It also features on the new ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums which are released on 10 November.
Part 1: 1983-1984 – Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy Plus…
Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy (May 1983)
1. The Milkman Of Human Kindness 2. To Have And To Have Not 3. Richard 4. A New England 5. The Man In The Iron Mask 6. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty 7. Lovers Town Revisited
Album Extras
8. Strange Things Happen (Alternative Version) 9. The Cloth 1 10. Love Lives Here 11. Speedway Hero 12. Loving You Too Long 13. The Man In The Iron Mask (Alternative Version) 14. This Guitar Says Sorry (Alternative Version) 15. Love Gets Dangerous (Alternative Version) 16. The Cloth 2 17. A13, Trunk Road To The Sea 18. Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend
John Peel Session 27/07/83
19. A New England 20. Strange Things Happen 21. This Guitar Says Sorry 22. Love Gets Dangerous 23. Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend 24. A13, Trunk Road To The Sea
Live at the ICA, London 05/01/84
25. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty 26. The Man In The Iron Mask 27. A New England
Part 2: 1984-1985 – Brewing Up With Plus…
Brewing Up With… (October 1984)
1. It Says Here 2. Love Gets Dangerous 3. The Myth Of Trust 4. From A Vauxhall Velox 5. The Saturday Boy 6. Island Of No Return 7. St. Swithin’s Day 8. Like Soldiers Do 9. This Guitar Says Sorry 10. Strange Things Happen 11. A Lover Sings
Album Extras
12. It Must Be A River 13. Won’t Talk About It 14. Talking Wag Club Blues 15. You Got The Power 16. The Last Time 17. Back To The Old House 18. A Lover Sings (Alternative Version)
Between The Wars E.P (February 1985)
19. Between The Wars 20. Which Side Are You On? 21. World Turned Upside Down 22. It Says Here (Alternative Version)
Days like These E.P. (December 1985)
23. Days Like These 24. I Don’t Need This Pressure Ron 25. Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance 26. Between The Wars (Live at Festival Des Politischen Liedes, Berlin)
Part 3: 1986 – 1988 – Talking With The Taxman Plus…
Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (September 1986)
1. Greetings To The New Brunette 2. Train Train 3. The Marriage 4. Ideology 5. Levi Stubbs’ Tears 6. Honey, I’m A Big Boy Now 7. There Is Power In A Union 8. Help Save The Youth Of America 9. Wishing The Days Away 10. The Passion 11. The Warmest Room 12. The Home Front
Album Extras
13. Shirley 14. The Tracks Of My Tears 15. Wishing The Days Away (Alternative Version) 16. The Clashing Of Ideologies (Alternative Version) 17. A Nurse’s Life Is Full Of Woe 18. Only Bad Signs 19. Hold The Fort
From ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’ (June 1986)
20. Think Again 21. Walk Away Renee (Version) (Introducing Duane Tremelo)
From ‘Greetings To The New Brunette’ (November 1986)
22. The Tatler 23. Deportees (With Hank Wangford) 24. Jeane 25. Sin City (With Hank Wangford)
Part 4: 1988 – 1989 – Workers Playtime Plus…
Workers Playtime (September 1988)
1. She’s Got A New Spell 2. Must I Paint You A Picture 3. Tender Comrade 4. The Price I Pay 5. Little Time Bomb 6. Rotting On Remand 7. Valentine’s Day Is Over 8. Life With The Lions 9. The Only One 10. The Short Answer 11. Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
Album Extras
12. The Price I Pay (Demo) 13. Love Has No Pride 14. That’s Entertainment 15. She’s Got A New Spell (Demo) 16. Little Time Bomb (Demo) 17. Bad Penny (Demo) 18. Reason To Believe (Live at Club Soda, Montreal, November 1988) 19. Raglan Road (Live at Womad Festival Toronto, August 1989) 20. She’s Leaving Home (With Cara Tivey) (Single, March 1988) 21. Wishing The Days Away (Ballad Version) (from ‘Waiting For The Great Leap Forward’, August 1988)
Part 5: 1990 – 1991 – The Internationale Plus…
The Internationale (May 1990)
1. The Internationale 2. I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night 3. The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions 4. Blake’s Jerusalem 5. Nicaragua Nicarauguita 6. The Red Flag 7. My Youngest Son Came Home Today
Album Extras
8. Joe Hill (With The Pattersons) 9. This Land Is Your Land (With Heathens All) 10. Never Cross A Picket Line 11. A Change Is Gonna Come 12. A Miner’s Life
Live And Dubious E.P: Help Save The Youth Of America (April 1988)
13. Introduction 14. Help Save The Youth Of America (Live) 15. Think Again (Live) 16. Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto (Live) 17. Days Like These (DC Remix) 18. To Have And To Have Not (Live) 19. There Is Power In A Union (With The Pattersons)
Billy Bragg Live (Canada 1991)
20. Levi Stubbs’ Tears (Live) 21. Ideology (Live) 22. The Short Answer (Live) 23. Seven & Seven Is (from ‘Rubáiyát (Elektra’s 40th Anniversary)’, March 1990)
Part 6: 1991 – 1992 – Don’t Try This At Home Plus…
Don’t Try This At Home (September 1991)
1. Accident Waiting To Happen 2. Moving The Goalposts 3. Everywhere 4. Cindy Of A Thousand Lives 5. You Woke Up My Neighbourhood 6. Trust 7. God’s Footballer 8. The Few 9. Sexuality 10. Mother Of The Bride 11. Tank Park Salute 12. Dolphins 13. North Sea Bubble 14. Rumours Of War 15. Wish You Were Her 16. Body Of Water 17. Bad Penny (from ‘Sexuality’, June 1991)
From ‘You Woke Up My Neighbourhood’ (September 1991)
18. Ontario, Quebec And Me 19. Bread And Circuses 20. Heart Like A Wheel
From ‘Accident Waiting To Happen’ (February 1992)
21. Accident Waiting To Happen (Red Star Version) 22. Sulk 23. Revolution
Part 7: 1996 – 1997 – William Bloke Plus…
William Bloke (September 1996)
1. From Red To Blue 2. Upfield 3. Everybody Loves You Babe 4. Sugardaddy 5. A Pict Song 6. Brickbat 7. The Space Race Is Over 8. Northern Industrial Town 9. The Fourteenth Of February 10. King James Version 11. Goalhanger
Album Extras
12. Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet? (Demo)
From ‘The Boy Done Good’ (May 1997)
13. The Boy Done Good (Extended Edit) 14. Run Out Of Reasons 15. Just One Victory
From ‘Bloke On Bloke’ (June 1997)
16. The Boy Done Good 17. Qualifications 18. Sugardaddy (Smokey Gets In Your Ears Mix) 19. Never Had No One Ever 20. Rule Nor Reason 21. Thatcherites
Part 8: 1998 – 2012 – The Mermaid Avenue Recordings
From ‘Mermaid Avenue’ (June 1998)
1. Walt Whitman’s Niece (With Wilco) 2. Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (With Wilco) 3. Birds And Ships (With Natalie Merchant) 4. She Came Along To Me (With Wilco) 5. Ingrid Bergman 6. I Guess I Planted (With Wilco) 7. Eisler On The Go (With Wilco) 8. The Unwelcome Guest (With Wilco)
From ‘Mermaid Avenue Volume 2’ (November 1999)
9. My Flying Saucer (With Wilco) 10. Hot Rod Hotel (With Wilco) 11. Stetson Kennedy (With Wilco) 12. All You Fascists (With Wilco) 13. Meanest Man (With Wilco) 14. Black Wind Blowing
From ‘Mermaid Avenue Volume 3’ (June 2012)
15. Bugeye Jim 16. My Thirty Thousand (With Wilco) 17. Ought To Be Satisfied Now 18. Go Down To The Water 19. Jailcell Blues (With Wilco) 20. Don’t You Marry 21. Give Me A Nail (With Wilco) 22. Union Prayer 23. Be Kind To The Boy On The Road (With Wilco) 24. I’m Out To Get (With Wilco)
Part 9: 1998 – 2002: Billy Bragg And The Blokes Plus…
England, Half English (March 2002)
1. St. Monday 2. Jane Allen 3. Distant Shore 4. England, Half English 5. NPWA 6. Some Days I See The Point 7. Baby Faroukh 8. Take Down The Union Jack 9. Another Kind Of Judy 10. He’ll Go Down 11. Dreadbelly 12. The Tears Of My Tracks
From ‘Take Down The Union Jack’ (May 2002)
13. Mystery Shoes 14. England, Half English (7″ Remix) 15. Take Down The Union Jack (Band Version) 16. Yarra Song 17. You Pulled The Carpet Out
From ‘The Mermaid Avenue Tour: You Can Call Me Cupcake’ (January 1999)
18. Christ For President (Live in the studio October / November 1999) 19. California Stars (Live in the studio October / November 1999) 20. Hoodoo Ska Voodoo (Live in the studio October / November 1999) 21. My Father’s Mansion (from ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone: The Songs Of Pete Seeger’, March 1998) 22. England Half English Meets John Barleycorn (With Eliza and Martin Carthy) (from ‘The Imagined Village’ E.P., (September 2007)
Part 10: 2006 – 2010 Mr. Love & Justice Plus…
Mr. Love & Justice (March 2008)
1. I Keep Faith 2. I Almost Killed You 3. M For Me 4. The Beach Is Free 5. Sing Their Souls Back Home 6. You Make Me Brave 7. Something Happened 8. Mr. Love & Justice 9. If You Ever Leave 10. O Freedom 11. The Johnny Carcinogenic Show 12. Farm Boy 13. Ash Wednesday (Band Version) 14. Like Soldiers Do (Acoustic Version) (from ‘I Keep Faith’ 7-inch single, March 2008) 15. The Price Of Oil 16. Down In The Willow Garden (from ‘The Progressive Patriot: Complimentary Music’, November 2006) 17. Old Clash Fan Fight Song (from ‘Johnny Clash’ single, August 2007) 18. The Big Lie
From ‘Six Songs From Pressure Drop’ (April 2010)
19. Home 20. Same Again 21. There Will Be A Reckoning (Pressure Drop Version) 22. All You Fascists 2010 23. Tomorrow’s Going To Be A Better Day (Pressure Drop Version) 24. The Battle Of Barking 25. A New England (from ‘A Concert For Kirsty MacColl’, Shepherds Bush Empire 10/10/2010)
Part 11: 2011 – 2015 – Tooth & Nail Plus…
Tooth & Nail (March 2013)
1. January Song 2. No One Knows Nothing Anymore 3. Handyman Blues 4. I Ain’t Got No Home 5. Swallow My Pride 6. Do Unto Others 7. Over You 8. Goodbye, Goodbye 9. There Will Be A Reckoning 10. Chasing Rainbows 11. Your Name On My Tongue 12. Tomorrow’s Going To Be A Better Day
From ‘Fight Songs: A Decade Of Downloads’ (November 2011)
13. We’re Following The Wrong Star 14. Never Buy The Sun 15. Last Flight To Abu Dhabi 16. Constituition Hill 17. Lay Down Your Weary Tune (from ‘Chimes Of Freedom: The Songs Of Bob Dylan’, February 2012) 18. Song Of The Iceberg (from ‘No One Knows Nothing Anymore’ 7-inch Single, April 2013) 19. There Is Power In A Union (recorded for the film Pride, September 2014) 20. Hope St. (With The Levellers) (Single, 2014) 21. Kilroy Was Here (from ‘Joy Of Living: A Tribute To Ewan MacColl’ October 2015) 22. Sunday Morning (With Courtney Barnett) (from RockWiz Sunday Morning September 2015)
Part 12: 2016 – 2017 – Shine A Light Plus…
Shine A Light: Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad with Joe Henry (September 2016)
1. Rock Island Line 2. The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore 3. The Midnight Special 4. Railroad Bill 5. Lonesome Whistle 6. KC Moan 7. Waiting For A Train 8. In The Pines 9. Gentle On My Mind 10. Hobo’s Lullaby 11. Railroading On The Great Divide 12. John Henry 13. Early Morning Rain
Live at Buxton Opera House with Joe Henry 21/01/2017
14. Why We Build The Wall (Live) 15. The Midnight Special (Live) 16. The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore (Live)
Bridges Not Walls (November 2017)
17. The Sleep Of Reason 18. King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood 19. Why We Build The Wall 20. Saffiyah Smiles 21. Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted 22. Full English Brexit
Part 13: 2021 – The Million Things Plus…
The Million Things That Never Happened (October 2021)
1. Should Have Seen It Coming 2. Mid-Century Modern 3. Lonesome Ocean 4. Good Days And Bad Days 5. Freedom Doesn’t Come For Free 6. Reflections On The Mirth Of Creativity 7. The Million Things That Never Happened 8. The Buck Doesn’t Stop Here No More 9. I Believe In You 10. Pass It On 11. I Will Be Your Shield 12. Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained
Lockdown Live: The Million Things Streamed Launch (September 2021)
13. Sulk (Live) 14. Moving The Goalposts (Live) 15. Ten Mysterious Photos That Can’t Be Explained (Live) 16. The Million Things That Never Happened (Live) 17. King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood (Live) 18. Mid-Century Modern (Live) 19. Cindy Of A Thousand Lives (Live) 20. Lonesome Ocean (Live)
Part 14: Rare and Previously Unreleased Recordings 1987 – 2015
1. Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) (Live) 2. The Internationale (with Pete Seeger) 3. Salt of the Earth (with Peter Buck) 4. My Youngest Son Came Home Today (with Michael Stipe) 5. PF Sloan Billy Bragg (with Mike Mills) 6. Darling, Let’s Have Another Baby (with Kirsty MacColl) 7. If I Had A Hammer Billy Bragg (with Eliza Carthy) 8. Slipknot 9. Marching Out From Selma 10. When The Ship Comes In (Live) 11. Don’t Do It Liza Billy Bragg (with KT Tunstall) 12. The Drugs Don’t Work Billy Bragg (with KT Tunstall) 13. I Ain’t Got No Home (with Foy Vance) 14. On A Good Day 15. Talkin’ World War III Blues 16. The Rebels of ’48 (Live) 17. An English Revolutionary (Live) 18. Ballots and Bread (Live) 19. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (with Joe Henry) 20. If We Make It Through December (with Joe Henry) 21. Springhill 22. Can’t Be There Today
Kate Bush has delivered on her promise of ‘special presentations’ of her classic 1985 album Hounds of Love with three new editions, none of which offers any new audio.
The Baskerville Edition is a gatefold vinyl presentation with entirely new artwork by Glasgow-based design studio Timorous Beasties (who delivered some of the illustrations for Before The Dawn). Inside the gatefold is a LED light (“little light…shining”) which doesn’t require batteries since it’s powered via a solar panel on the rear of the product! Oh yes. You can see clearly what the product is like from the video below. There are no bonus tracks or anything like that and indeed this edition uses the same 2018 remaster as the recently announced black and coloured vinyl reissues. Interestingly, ‘The Big Sky’ is no longer indicated as the ‘single mix’ even though it must be, if they are using the 2018 version. The Baskerville Edition is retailing for £138 from Kate’s newly-designed website.
The other two editions actually split the album in half. The Boxes of Lost At Sea Edition consists of two boxes, each containing one side of the album. Each disc features a UV printed illustration on white vinyl and a battery powered LED light. Kate says: “The idea was to create a hybrid of an album and a piece of artwork you could hang on the wall. They’re based on something I designed for an auction for the charity War Child”. (In 1993 Brian Eno asked Kate to contribute to an auction for War Child, and she came up with the idea of two identical box frames, each containing a flashing red LED with text on brass plaques). A donation will be made to War Child from each new box that is sold.
The Boxes of Lost At Sea editions are part art, part album
These boxes are £285 each, so that’s £570 for the album, although there’s a bundle edition of this hybrid album/art edition available which costs £500.
All three new editions of Hounds of Love will be released on 1 December 2023 via The state51 Conspiracy. They appear only to be available via Kate’s site. Don’t forget you can order the standard coloured vinyl indie editions from the SDE shop as an alternative to the above!
The back of the ‘The Baskerville Edition’ of Hounds of Love. The black square is a solar panel that charges the LED light within
Tracklisting
Hounds of LoveKate Bush /The Baskerville Edition
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (2018 Remaster)
Hounds Of Love (2018 Remaster)
The Big Sky (2018 Remaster)
Mother Stands For Comfort (2018 Remaster)
Cloudbusting (2018 Remaster)
And Dream Of Sheep (2018 Remaster)
Under Ice (2018 Remaster)
Waking The Witch (2018 Remaster)
Watching You Without Me (2018 Remaster)
Jig Of Life (2018 Remaster)
Hello Earth (2018 Remaster)
The Morning Fog (2018 Remaster)
Tracklisting
Hounds of LoveKate Bush /The Boxes of Lost at Sea Edition – Box A
Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God) (2018 Remaster)
Hounds Of Love (2018 Remaster)
The Big Sky (2018 Remaster)
Mother Stands For Comfort (2018 Remaster)
Cloudbusting (2018 Remaster)
Tracklisting
Hounds of LoveKate Bush /The Boxes of Lost at Sea Edition – Box B
The ‘new’ Beatles single Now and Then will be released as a CD single, it has just been confirmed.
This format was notable for its absence when the release was announced last week, but it’s now happening. Like all other formats, the CD will feature ‘Now and Then’, plus the 2023 stereo remix of ‘Love Me Do’.
The release date remains 3 November 2023 which rather suggests that this was in the planning all along.
The pre-order window for the Soft Cell Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret SDE-exclusive blu-ray CLOSES TODAY. This is No 15 in the ongoing SDE Surround Series and will be packaged the same as previous editions and ships with a free, collectible SDE Surround Series slipcase with the number 15 on the spine.
This blu-ray audio offers you a Non-Stop Immersive Cabaret, featuring a brand new 2023 Dolby Atmos Mix of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret created at Abbey Road Studios under the supervision of the band. Additionally, three non-album singles ‘Memorabilia‘, ‘Torch‘ and ‘What!’ are also included in Dolby Atmos, meaning this blu-ray includes all five of Soft Cell’s UK top 10 hits, in Atmos!
Furthermore, instrumentals of the album and the three bonus tracks are also included in Dolby Atmos and the same 13 tracks also feature in the original 1981 stereo mix, remastered.If that’s not enough, four original Tim Pope promo videos for ‘Bedsitter’, ‘Say Hello Wave Goodbye’, ‘Torch’ and ‘What!’, available physically in HD for the very first time.
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret blu-ray is released on 1 December 2023, alongside the other reissue formats, including the 6CD box set. Secure your copy by ordering via the SDE shop using this link or the pre-order button, below.
Don’t miss out! This is your last chance to guarantee you get a copy. There may be some cancellation/contingency stock around the time of release, but this is not definite.
Tracklisting
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret Soft Cell /SDE-exclusive blu-ray
You can always rely on The Beatles – or should I say news of a Beatles archival product – to get the SDE audience engaged. The SDE post about last Thursday’s announcement of both a ‘new’ song called ‘Now and Then’, and a set of new-and-improved 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilations (more commonly referred to as the ‘Red‘ and ‘Blue‘ albums), has generated more than 300 comments so far. As is often the case, opinion is split. One person’s “why can’t they leave these alone – they’re perfect as they are?” is another’s “Nice to see they are filling up the excess capacity on CD with more songs!”.
There’s certainly a lot to unpack. Arguably, the most exciting aspect has been the least heralded: the new mixes of songs from 1962-1965, made possible by the advance of so-called ‘demixing’ technology, first used by Apple Corps for the 2022 remix of Revolver. Together, these tracks form a taster menu for future super deluxe editions.
Of course, commerce and art are not always great bedfellows and, inevitably, there’s more than a few decisions that leave you head-scratching. For example, why do the CD editions of ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ have their additional tracks inserted chronologically into the running order, while the LPs herd them together on a third record? Why does ‘Now and Then’ (correctly) end 1967-1970 on the 2CD set when on vinyl it sits before tracks from The White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road?
The remixed tracks form a taster menu for future super deluxe editions
Paul Sinclair, SDE.
Also, at the time of release, these two compilations included every UK Beatles single. 50 years later, the updated versions, despite all the extra tracks, do not. ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ are missing. Should we look forward to ‘Now and Then’ being similarly sidelined for future compilations?
By far the biggest query (I’m being polite: the biggest complaint) is to do with the Dolby Atmos versions of the new Red and Blue compilations. Let’s remember, we were assured that the omission of the Atmos version of the new mix of Revolver on blu-ray in last year’s box set was logistical misfortune and not a change in strategy. Fair enough, so what’s the reason this time? (insert Oscar Wilde quote, from The Importance of Being Earnest).
In 2017, so committed were Apple Corps to surround sound via physical product that they gave us a blu-ray and a DVD in the Sgt. Pepper box set. Now for the second year in a row, a major Beatles reissue campaign has no blu-ray at all. Some sources (scroll down to the bottom of this Stereophile article) have Apple boss Jeff Jones explicitly stating that they’ll be no more Atmos blu-rays going forward. Just as I am noticing a new enthusiasm from fans and a shift in thinking amongst artists and labels with regards to physical blu-rays – with recent reissues including The Rolling Stones, Prince, Van Morrison and Pink Floyd offering them as standalone products – The Beatles are going in the opposite direction. Why? Surely it’s obvious that the demographic for these products are the very people who value physical media and invest in pricey hi-fi set-ups, with many desiring spatial audio in its highest quality form: blu-ray.
Some sources have Apple boss Jeff Jones stating they’ll be no more Atmos blu-rays going forward
Paul Sinclair, SDE
Finally, Paul McCartney’s oft-quoted observation that The Beatles always wanted to give value for money to fans (with new compositions on B-sides and not putting singles on albums, etc.) should now be consigned to history and looked upon with curiosity, like bowler hats or queuing at bus stops. The new single ‘Now and Then’ is available in at least SEVEN different formats, mostly coloured vinyl variants. This may be modest compared to The Rolling Stones’ 43+ versions of Hackney Diamonds, but the Fabs have seen the bandwagon and they’re going to jump on it. A CD single has just been confirmed.
This article was first featured in the SDE Newsletter on 29 October. The 2023 reissues of the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ albums are released on 10 November 2023, via Apple/UMR. ‘Now and Then’ is out on Friday, 3 November.
The recently announced Neil Youngalbum, Before & After, is being made available on the blu-ray audio format.
With this album, Young chooses favourites from his playbook like a trip into his music history and performs them mostly alone on a solo acoustic journey. Apparently, each of the songs blend into each other and “morph with mesmerising clarity into a continuous flow of music creating a 48-minute pure and intimate listening experience”.
The 13-track record spans Neil’s career, from his early Buffalo Springfield contribution, ‘Burned’ (1966) to the recent ‘Don’t Forget Love’ (2021) and includes the previously unreleased song ‘If You Got Love’.
The blu-ray comes with a poster lyric sheet
Neil is well known for his interest in high quality audio but it has been over a decade since he has issued a new album on blu-ray as a standalone format (he did it twice in 2012 with Americana and Psychedelic Pill) so this is certainly welcome.
This special blu-ray audio edition offers a Dolby Atmos Mix, a hi-res 96-24 stereo mix and interestingly a ‘binaural’ mix which offers a spatial audio mix via headphones.
Before and After is released on 8 December 2023 via Warner Records. You can order your copy of the blu-ray audio from the SDE shop using this link or via the button below. Given how expensive the CD is, this makes the investment in the blu-ray more attractive!
Depeche Mode’s video/film collections Strange (1988) and Strange Too (1990) are brought together for a blu-ray and DVD release in December.
Only ever issued on VHS and Laserdisc, these collections of music videos and short films by Anton Corbijn were undertaken for, arguably, their two best albums 1987’s Music For The Masses and 1990’s Violator (although the final Black Celebration single, ‘A Question of Time’, also features on Strange).
This new combined collection presents 11 Anton Corbijn/Depeche Mode music films, newly restored from original Super 8mm sources, alongside six previously unseen outtake “vignettes” from the DM archives. When assembling the final edits for Strange and Strange Too, Corbijn created a visual running order where the individual music videos are perceived as one continuous film, with additional interstitial content not seen in the original promo clips.
The new Strange / Strange Too blu-ray/DVD package
Remembering the filming, Corbijn says “The idea to make this into a connected series of little films and fake interviews came late into the process of shooting these. I was shooting all the films myself on black & white Super 8 film. We put all this together on a shoestring budget; those were the days. We have to look at these films in the light of us being young; we were experimenting and I am happy we were given that space at the time by Daniel Miller.”
The blu-ray and DVD configurations of this release come in a digipack with a 16-page concertina booklet featuring photographs and new liner notes penned by Anton Corbijn.
Strange/Strange Too will be released on 8 December 2023, via Sony Music Entertainment.
The Fab Four’s ‘new’ song is released physically on Friday just 8 days after it was officially announced. There’s at least eight different versions, including multiple coloured vinyl seven-inches, 12-inch vinyl and cassettes.
Last year Amazon Music unveiled some new and exclusive remixes of tracks from George Michael’sOlder album by new dance and electronic producers and collaborators including LF System, Emily Nash, Kiimi and Absolute. These were digital-only, but this week they are released physically on a 12-inch vinyl. The tracks are LF System’s remix of ‘Fastlove’, Emily Nash’s remix of ‘The Strangest Thing’, Kiimi’s remix of ‘Spinning The Wheel’ and Absolute’s remix of ‘Star People ’97’.
Belinda Carlisle’s third album features the hit singles ‘Leave A Light On’, ‘La Luna’, ‘(We Want) The Same Thing’ and ‘Summer Rain’. This half-speed mastered vinyl is housed in a poly-lined sleeve and this package comes with an OBI-strip and four-page insert.
A very exclusive playback event is happening on Thursday 2 November in Central London where the new Dolby Atmos Mix of Soft Cell’sNon-Stop Erotic Cabaret will be premiered in front of a small audience.
SDE will be there co-hosting this and I’d like to offer the opportunity for a few SDE readers to come along and hear this Non-Stop Immersive Cabaret.
So if you would like to attend, and you are available, early evening on Thursday (details will be provided), please leave a comment below. We’ll randomly select eight lucky winners on Monday morning at 8am and be in touch via email.
The Dolby Atmos Mix features on the SDE-exclusive blu-ray of Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret. If you haven’t pre-ordered your copy yet, it’s available only via the SDE shop using this link, or the button below.
The blu-ray also features bonus singles (‘Memorabilia’, ‘Torch’, ‘What!’) in Atmos, Dolby Atmos Instrumentals, the remastered original stereo mix of the album and four HD videos. It’s released on 1 December 2023 alongside the 6CD box set and vinyl formats.
Tracklisting
Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret Soft Cell /SDE-exclusive blu-ray
SDEtv explores the new Kirsty MacColl box set that features eight CDs worth of music from across her career including over 40 previously unreleased tracks. Watch the video!
Perhaps no artist lends themselves as well to the super deluxe box set treatment as Prince. As everyone knows, he recorded vastly more music than he ever released. Even the quickest flick through Duane Tudhal’s books, which dissect his studio sessions from 1983-84 and 1985-86 with in-depth research and scholarly rigour, leaves you both agog at Prince’s Stakhanovite approach to music – did the guy ever sleep? – and profoundly glad you weren’t working with him: subject to phone calls in the middle of the night demanding your immediate presence in the studio or, in the case of one member of The Revolution, obliged to leave your own wedding party midway through in order to record a new track. Paisley Park’s infamous Vault – wherein, it’s alleged, lurk thousands of unreleased tracks – has proved impossibly fertile ground for posthumous compilers. It slightly undersells the vastly extended editions of Purple Rain, 1999 and Sign O’ The Timesthat have appeared over the last eight years to say they contain ‘extra tracks’: they are home to albums and albums of material as good as the stuff he deigned to release in the 80s. Sometimes, what’s emerged is of a quality that’s baffling: if he had an album as good as Welcome 2 America in the can in 2010, why didn’t he release it then, instead of the sub-par 20Ten?
Which brings us to the latest instalment in the super-deluxe series of Prince reissues. On release, 1991’s Diamonds And Pearls sold 6m copies – his biggest album since Purple Rain – but it occupies a hotly-contested position within the Prince canon. There are people who’ll tell you it was the last incontrovertible classic Prince released in his lifetime, a brilliant and unexpected marshalling of his energies and eclectic tastes after the uneven Batman soundtrack and the disaster of Graffiti Bridge; the final time Prince made an album that needed no special pleading, with his genius evident from soup to nuts. Equally, there are people who think that particular ship sailed some years before, and that Prince’s genius last seemed unquestionable on Lovesexy or even Sign O’ The Times. There are also people who’ll tell you that Prince’s greatest album is The Rainbow Children or Musicology, but they’re either insane or engaged in posturing of the eye-understand-Prince’s-work-on-a-deeper-and-more-profound-level-that-U variety and either way their opinion need not detain us.
Diamonds and Pearls occupies a hotly-contested position within the Prince canon
Alexis Petridis
After consuming the box set – which expands the original album’s 65 minutes to over seven hours of music (plus a blu-ray featuring a frankly astonishing 1992 live performance from Prince’s Minneapolis nightclub Glam Slam), and arrives packaged with an impressively detailed hardback book and features vinyl mastered by Bernie Grundman, whose name is about as close to a trademark of quality as you can get in these matters – you find yourself wavering between the two viewpoints. On the one hand, Diamonds And Pearls itself contains more no-further-questions classics than either of its predecessors – ‘Gett Off’, ‘Money Don’t Matter 2 Night’, ‘Insatiable’, ‘Cream’, the title track – and it’s impressively varied in its scope. It variously touches on jazz, T Rex, funk, Steely Dan, hip hop and soul. Opener ‘Thunder’ attempts to meld together psychedelia (by way of a sitar), early 90s R&B, squealing hair metal guitars and a nagging pop chorus, a cocktail no one other than Prince would have thought of mixing. The backing track of ‘Willing And Able’ sounds a little like The Police, of all people.
On the other, it feels noticeably more dated than Prince’s earlier albums. The influence of New Jack Swing is pronounced, which locks it into its era, partly because the version of New Jack Swing it alights on – stabbing samples, then-cutting-edge drum machines heavy on the cowbell sound – is one that 21st Century pop has yet to revive. There are good songs among the deep cuts – the jazzy ‘Strollin’’ is lovely – but nothing you’d describe as an overlooked masterpiece, and not all the experiments work. As Chuck D puts it in the accompanying booklet’s introductory essay, Prince “didn’t jump into rap right away”, which is a tactful way of saying he dabbled in it – rapping on 1983’s ‘Irresistible Bitch’ – then took to dismissing it: “the only good rapper is one that’s dead,” he sang on The Black Album’s ‘Dead On It’. By the time of Diamonds And Pearls, he’d clearly reconsidered, apparently impressed by Digital Underground’s ‘The Humpty Dance’. Indeed, the outtakes and b-sides assembled on the box set reveal that Diamonds And Pearls might have been a far more hip hop-influenced album than the one he eventually released: ‘Something Funky This House Comes’, ‘Horny Pony’, ‘The Last Dance (Bang Zoom And The Whole Nine)’, ‘Things Have Gotta Change’.
There are good songs among the deep cuts – the jazzy ‘Strollin’’ is lovely – but nothing you’d describe as an overlooked masterpiece, and not all the experiments work.
Alexis Petridis
The problem was Prince’s choice of rapper: it was a golden age for hip hop, and Prince could presumably have had his pick of top-tier collaborators, but instead he opted to stay local, employing Tony M, a Minnesotan whose rhymes were of a similar standard to those found on early 90s pop/dance tracks – ‘Rhythm Is A Dancer’ by Snap!, ‘Dirty Cash’ by The Adventures Of Stevie V. His presence makes Prince’s ventures into hip hop seem a little dilettantish, as if something of it lay beyond his grasp: a disappointment, given that he’d previously seemed capable of making pretty much any musical genre bend to his will.
Outside the album itself, and the plethora of additional remixes – ranging from the essential (the Damn Near 10 Minutes version of ‘Gett Off’), to completists-only single edits – the haul of songs from The Vault seems a little less abundant than that on 1999 or Sign O’ The Times, perhaps because a lot of the tracks here ended up being released by other artists: El DeBarge, Rosie Gaines, Mavis Staples, three songs from Martika’s 1991 album Martika’s Kitchen. Then again, that doesn’t stop Prince’s original versions being great: you listen to the joyous title track from Martika’s Kitchen and boggle that it was only a minor hit in the UK, and flopped altogether in the States. And among the material that never found a home, previously known only to bootleg collectors and file-swappers, there’s real gold. Not enough to suggest that Prince could have easily released two albums of equivalent quality in 1991, but enough to have drastically reconfigured Diamonds And Pearls itself, and possibly to have improved it: the frantic ‘Streetwalker’ – co-written with Rosie Gaines – the vaguely ‘Little Red Corvette’-esque ‘Lauriann’, the stuttering electronic funk of ‘Hey U’. The best thing here might be the drum-machine-driven ‘Schoolyard’, which is implausibly funky and richly melody, although you can understand why Prince elected to keep that one to himself: even by his standards, the lyrics are a bit much. They depict his first sexual encounter, aged 16, with a girl two years younger than him, complete with – and there’s no easy way of putting this – a fairly detailed description of her vagina.
Elsewhere, even the less essential stuff is intriguing: a remix of Glam Slam from which ‘Gett Off’ was ultimately derived; a hugely extended and re-arranged version of ‘Thunder’ that was used as music for a ballet; ‘Letter 4 Miles’, a jazz piece composed in response to his friend and sometime collaborator Miles Davis’ death. You can argue that it would have been more exciting had the super-deluxe treatment been meted out to one of Prince’s unquestionable classics – Around The World In A Day, or Parade – but wallowing in what’s here is still a pleasure. Diamonds And Pearls has its flaws, evidence that Prince wasn’t as unfailingly great in 1991 as he had been four or five years earlier, but he was still great: great enough to make a deep dive as extensive as this seem a delight, rather than a chore.
Review by Alexis Petridis for SDE.
The Diamonds and Pearls reissue is out today via Warner Records. The exception to this is the blu-ray audio edition which is delayed until 24 November. It’s available via the SDE shop using this link or the button below.
2023 Editions of ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ on CD & vinyl with extra songs & 36 new stereo mixes • ‘Now and Then’ added to the ‘Blue’ album & available as a physical single
1962-1966 and 1967-1970, the two classic Beatles compilations – better known as the ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ Albums – will be reissued next month, newly remixed and expanded with the notable inclusion of ‘Now and Then’ the first ‘new’ song from the Fab Four since ‘Real Love’ in 1996.
The two compilations were first issued in 1973, created by Apple and EMi/Capitol in response to 4LP vinyl bootlegs called Alpha Omega Volumes I & II: The Story Of The Beatles being advertised on TV and radio stations in the US and sold by mail order. In fact, Allen Klein, the maligned manager of Apple’s and The Beatles’ business affairs instigated the two official collections not long before he was dismissed.
Both compilations remain 2CD sets, despite the extra tracks (1967-1970, pictured above)
‘The Red Album’ starts with ‘Love Me Do’ in 1962 and ends with ‘Yellow Submarine’ from 1966. It included none of The Beatles’ many cover versions, nor any songs written by George Harrison, all being Lennon-McCartney compositions. For the new edition of 1962-1966, 12 songs have been added, including George’s ‘If I Needed Someone’ (from Rubber Soul) and ‘Taxman’ (from Revolver). ‘Twist and Shout’, the last song recorded for 1963’s Please Please Me by a voice-shredded John Lennon also features, as does ‘Roll Over Beethoven’ which is sung by George and features on With The Beatles (also released in 1963, of course).
Revolver was, arguably, under-represented originally (only featuring ‘Yellow Submarine’ and Eleanor Rigby’), so now in addition to ‘Taxman’, ‘The Red Album’ now features ‘Got to Get You into My Life’, ‘I’m Only Sleeping’ ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. At seven tracks, there’s now a case for the pendulum having swung too much in the other direction and it might be over-represented!
1967-1970 has fewer tracks added. The only addition to what was the first record in this 2LP set is George’s ‘Within You, Without You’ from Sgt. Pepper. Harrison’s ‘I Me Mine’ (the last Beatles/Threetles session until the 1990s) is added to what was LP 2, along with ‘Dear Prudence’, ‘Glass Onion’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Hey Bulldog’, ‘Oh! Darling’, and ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’.
The cover art to ‘Now and Then’ is by Ed Ruscha
The headline news is that a ‘new’ Beatles song called ‘Now and Then’ ends what is now an inaccurately titled 1967-1970. Like ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, this song is an old John Lennon demo from the 1970s that Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr attempted to ‘finish’ during the Anthology period of the mid-90s. It was abandoned, reportedly because Harrison was apparently not too keen. ‘Now and Then’ features elements from the 1995 sessions including George’s guitar parts, and vocal and instrumental parts recorded by Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in 2022, along with a new arrangement for strings. It’s produced by Paul and Giles Martin. Talking of ‘Free As A Bird’ and ‘Real Love’, it’s curious that neither song earns a place at the end of ‘The Blue Album’ while ‘Now and Then’ does.
The songs are all in stereo versions with 36 of the 75 tracks across the four CDs in brand new stereo remixes using state of the art ‘de-mixing’ technology utilising ‘Machine-Aided Learning [MAL]’, which was used for last year’s Revolver box set. The 36 songs are mostly (but not entirely) from 1962 to 1965. All tracks have been mixed for Dolby Atmos too (existing or new mixes), although for the second year running there is no physical blu-ray to host the Atmos Mixes of a major Beatles reissue campaign. John Harris contributes new sleeve notes.
In terms of the actual new physical products, on CD 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 remain 2CD sets. The extra songs have been slotted in place in chronological order. On vinyl, both titles become 3LP editions. 6LP and 4CD box sets are available but they only add a slipcase.
‘Now and Then’ is also being issued as a seven-inch vinyl record with ‘Love Me Do’ on the B-side, in various coloured vinyl editions. There are also 12-inch and cassette variants. The single is officially ‘released in a week’s time on 2 November.
1962-1966, 1967-1970 and ‘Now and Then’ are all released on 10 November 2023 via Apple/UMR.
NOW That’s What I Call Music continue their vinyl-only 80s Dancefloor series with a 2LP set focussed on Disco & Electro.
The first volume (HI-NRG and Pop) was issued earlier this month, while this new selection features 29 tracks pressed on purple and pink vinyl, including songs from Carly Simon, Irene Cara, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Chaka Khan, Nu Shooz, The SOS Band, Malcolm McLaren and many more.
NOW 80s Dancefloor: Disco & Electro will be released on 1 December 2023.
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Now 80s Dancefloor - Disco and Electro - 2LP coloured vinyl
Sheryl Crow’s debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club, is being reissued on vinyl for its 30th anniversary.
Surprisingly, the 1993 album wasn’t released on vinyl until the 2018 2LP blue vinyl edition that was put out for Black Friday RSD in the USA. At the time, SDE expected a more widely available 2LP black vinyl of that edition to follow, but it never happened.
This new 30th anniversary edition is a 1LP pressing on black vinyl. Bernie Grundman, who originally mastered the album, recently used the original 1/2-inch flat master tape to create a new master and then cut the lacquers. That suggests it should sound better than the 2LP edition, although we’ll have to wait and see.
The album was of course a massive success at the time, particularly in America, where a string of singles, particularly ‘All I Wanna Do’ and ‘Strong Enough’, did well in the Billboard Hot 100. A 2CD+DVD deluxe edition was issued in 2009.
Tuesday Night Music Club will be reissued on vinyl on 1 December 2023 via UMR/Polydor.
Earlier this year, Sheffield’s bequiffed, baritone-voiced singer-songwriter, Richard Hawley, put together a brilliantly eclectic compilation album of mostly instrumental garage rock, surf, rock ‘n’ roll and R & B seven-inch singles from the ‘50s and ‘60s that he’d hand-picked from his own vinyl collection. Called 28 Little Bangers From Richard Hawley’s Jukebox, and released on Ace Records, it was full of killer riffs, dirty sounds, fuzzed-up guitars, mean organ and twangy licks. Now, only a few months later, there’s another Hawley compilation being released, but this time it’s a collection of his own songs – the career-spanning Now Then: The Very Best of Richard Hawley.
Prompted by the success of the award-winning musical, Standing At The Sky’s Edge, which is transferring to the West End in February next year, Now Then is the first compilation of Hawley’s music and has been curated by the man himself and his long-term collaborator, Colin Elliot (musician, producer, arranger). It’s available as a double ‘half and half’ coloured vinyl version – in a gatefold sleeve, with 22 tracks, while the 2CD digi-pak edition offers 32 songs.
Originally the guitarist in ‘90s indie-rockers Longpigs, Hawley, who has also played with Pulp, launched his solo career in 2001 with a self-titled, seven-track mini-album. There’s a song from it included on the CD version of this new collection, the bleary-eyed yet gorgeous, post-break-up ballad ‘Naked In Pitsmoor’: “What have you done to me baby? I’m just wasted and wake in the morning and get up screaming,” he croons, over acoustic guitar, twinkling sounds and weird humming electronica, with the song building to a dramatic crescendo that’s part ‘50s dancehall, part BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
The country-flavoured ‘Coming Home’, which is also from Hawley’s first record, appears only on the vinyl version. It should be noted that Now Then hasn’t been put together in chronological order and it doesn’t feel like your typical ‘Best Of’ album – on the CD, there’s room for the atmospheric, slide guitar instrumental, ‘Kelham Island’, which was the B-side of 2005 single, ‘The Ocean.’ The album opens with ‘Open Up Your Door’ – see what they did there? – from 2009’s Truelove’s Gutter. It’s a beautiful and towering romantic ballad that’s coated with delicious Easy Listening strings that will melt even the hardest of hearts – well, it was once used as the soundtrack to a TV campaign for Häagen-Dazs ice-cream, which almost certainly, er, opened up Hawley’s music to a lot of people who hadn’t heard it before. ‘Tonight The Streets Are Ours’ – another of his more well-known songs – is also included. It’s soaring and majestic – ‘60s-style orch-pop with spooky female backing vocals that sound like they were recorded in Joe Meek’s bathroom.
Famously, when fellow Sheffield musicians, Arctic Monkeys, won the 2006 Mercury Prize for their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, they joked: “Somebody call 999. Richard Hawley’s been robbed.” On the CD version of this compilation, there are four songs from the masterful Coles Corner – the album that was nominated for the Mercury Prize alongside the Arctic Monkeys’ record that year: the stately title track, the sublime ‘The Ocean’, with its swelling strings, the late-night, twangy ‘50s romanticism of ‘Hotel Room’, and the Morrisseyesque ‘Born Under A Bad Sign.’ You can’t help but think that Alex Turner and co were right when they made that quip…
Ahead of the release of Now Then, Hawley put out the wistful ‘Not The Only Road’ as a digital single. It’s a rerecording of ‘The Only Road’ from 2003’s Lowedges – the new version, with sweeping strings, was used on the soundtrack to the TV series of The Full Monty.
Much has been made of Hawley’s melodramatic and melancholy balladeering – he’s often been called Sheffield’s answer to Roy Orbison – but as this collection expertly demonstrates, there’s so much more to him than that. As well as a superb singer, he’s a gifted and inventive guitarist – he worked as a session musician for acts including All Saints and Robbie Williams – and he loves psychedelia. ‘She Brings The Sunlight’ (on the CD version, but not the vinyl) dates back to 2012’s Standing At The Sky’s Edge and is one of the compilation’s heaviest moments. With a blistering guitar solo, it’s full-on, cosmic, Beatles-like, droning raga-rock that could’ve easily come off one of Oasis’s albums from the early Noughties. There are more psych sounds on the reflective and cinematic, ‘Don’t Stare At The Sun’, which was inspired by flying a kite with his son, and has a wonderful John Barry-like instrumental break, and loads of trippy guitar effects.
The shadowy and dramatic ‘Which Way’ – only on the 2CD set – has a slight Bond song feel to it – but, sadly, there’s no room on either format for the magnificently moody and bluesy space-rock of 2012 single ‘Leave Your Body Behind You’, which could’ve quite easily graced the soundtrack of a 007 film. The swooning single ‘Valentine’, from the 2007 album Lady’s Bridge doesn’t make the cut either, but the playful skiffle-rockabilly of ‘Serious’ – another Lady’s Bridge track – gets a look in on both the CD and vinyl.
It’s nice to see the inclusion of Hawley’s powerful cover version of Dylan’s vitriolic ‘Ballad of a Thin Man’ on both formats. It was previously only available digitally, or on the Peaky Blinders vinyl and CD soundtrack album that came out in 2019. The song was used as the finale to season five of the TV show.
‘Heart of Oak’ – the lead single from 2015’s Hollow Meadows – is anthemic, life-affirming stadium rock, and the collection closes with one of Hawley’s finest moments, the full version of ‘There’s A Storm A’Comin’, which was played over the end credits of the 2010 remake of classic crime film, Brighton Rock and has become a staple of his live sets. It perfectly encapsulates what he’s all about, starting off as a delicate, stripped-back, ‘50s-sounding, country-tinged ballad, before exploding into a dark and menacing, guitar-heavy epic, with a funereal orchestral arrangement.
Now Then serves as an ideal introduction to Hawley’s music, expertly showcasing his different sides, but with some added bonuses for diehard fans or completists. One of the more recent songs on the compilation is called ‘My Little Treasures’ – it was the second single from 2019’s Further. It’s about true love and loyalty, and Hawley wrote it after he met up for a pint with two of his late dad’s friends. In it, he sings: ‘My little treasures – I keep close to me. They give me so much pleasure and some company. Cold beer in warm places – heartbreak and old faces.’
Let’s raise a glass to Hawley – he really is a national treasure.
Now Then: The Very Best of Richard Hawley was reviewed for SDE by Sean Hannam. It’s out now.
