Saturday Deluxe / 19 Sep 2015

It’s the weekend. Time to kick back and listen to some of the music you’ve been buying recently – don’t just stick it on the shelf! Saturday morning, means Saturday Deluxe,  a chance for SDE to catch up on the big news and talking points of the week, so here goes…

Beatles Video Collection

Big news this week was the announcement of a new Beatles product for November 2015 –  a video compilation based on the existing track listing used by the massive selling ‘1’ hits collection from 2000.

The only potential problem with this approach is that by limiting the videos to just the 27 tracks on 1 there is no place for Strawberry Fields Forever which has arguably the best ‘promo video’ footage of any of their singles. Apple have solved that problem by creating a deluxe edition which adds a second blu-ray (or DVD) which effectively goes ‘off piste’ and gathers up lots of interesting stuff which don’t adhere to the ‘1’ template.

Thank goodness, because the bonus disc is packed with essential films including Rain (surely a contender for one of the best B-sides of all time), and multiple versions of some singles like Paperback Writer and Hello Goodbye. Also, this disc includes Don’t Let Me Down, Let It Be, Get Back and The Long and Winding Road – which is the nearest we’re going to get seeing a cleaned up version of the Let It Be film, for the time being. A nice touch is the inclusion of Free As A Bird and Real Love – both excellent videos. The deluxe (known as 1+) is so good in fact, you wonder how many ‘proper’ Beatles fans would bother with the standard edition.

Of course YouTube has removed a lot of the excitement of ‘official’ video releases, because virtually everything seems to be available to view at the click of a button – reducing pent-up demand to an extent – even if the quality is often dubious. To ensure that this doesn’t affect sales of the new 1, Apple and Universal have gone to town on the sound aspect, with Giles Martin and team creating brand new 5.1 surround sound mixes and new stereo mixes of all the music on the blu-rays/DVDs.

Even the CD which comes with all the various editions has the new stereo mixes. Probably a good thing, since the CD was re-released as recently as 2011 (utilising the 2009 remasters) and just chucking the standard version on this would have been rather boring.

It’s been a while since a ‘new’ Beatles release has been both an essential purchase and affordable (I’d say last year’s vinyl mono box was both a ‘must buy’ and very expensive – an unfortunate mix) but these new sets tick virtually every box and the 1+ deluxe edition with a CD and two blu-rays is only a fiver more than T’Pau’s Bridge of Spies deluxe which gives you a bit of perspective.

Read all about the new Beatles 1 video collection here (now updated with pre-order links for Germany and Italy).

Otis Redding

Here is a new shot of the forthcoming Otis Redding Soul Manifesto box. Lots of CDs! (12 to be precise). Don’t forget to shop around if you haven’t placed your order. It’s over £50 on Amazon UK at the moment, but less than £40 on Amazon Germany. Even with shipping, that’s probably at least a fiver saved (depending on your location). This box is due out at the end of next month, although a reissue of the 2CD version of Otis Blue was put out on Friday (the box doesn’t contain the deluxe).

Read more about the Soul Manifesto box set here.

Holy Moby! Great Deal

Is this the best ever price for a deluxe set? Moby‘s Almost Home: Live at the Fonda, LA is only 18 months old, but the 2CD+DVD set is now only £2.37 on Amazon UK. Crazy. Must have been a terrible seller and someone, somewhere has a warehouse full of them! Has anyone got this, and is it any good? The track listing looks solid enough.

Order Moby’s Almost Home: Live at the Fonda from Amazon UK