NewsSaturday Deluxe / 1 October 2016
November spawned a monster
It is of course common practise for record labels to ‘save’ their premium products for the latter part of the year because as well as targeting the music obsessive (that’ll be you and me, then) and feeding their wallet-emptying pastime, the record companies know that friends and family are also on the look out for *that* Christmas gift to bring us joy during the festive period (probably via some unsubtle hints like “wow, have you seen this Lou Reed box, that looks amazing…”). But in the five and a half years SDE has been up and running, I’ve never known a month quite like November 2016, when it comes to reissues and box sets…
There is a CRAZY amount on the schedule, but for sheer buzz, nothing will beat Kate Bush‘s first album release in five years – the Before The Dawn live show – which was officially announced on Thursday (although SDE told you about it on Wednesday). It’s taken two years – and we’re not even getting the video of the most visual of performances – but nonetheless it’s a going to be a real highlight for me and the 4LP vinyl looks like a wonderful physical product (and a decent price, too).
The Pink Floyd Early Years box set is horrendously expensive, and if you’ve placed a pre-order then you may will have to cut your cloth accordingly, with all the other boxes coming out, including The Kinks‘ The Mono Collection vinyl set, the six-LP 40th anniversary of The Band‘s The Last Waltz and maybe even Bob Dylan‘s 1966 Live Recordings (although in the UK that is already very hard to get hold of).
Not everything is expensive; you can enjoy Tori Amos‘ Boys For Pele reissue or the Paul Weller vinyl LPs (not pictured) at decent prices. But let’s put it this way, if you bought everything in the image at the top of this post, you’d be parting with around £1500 of your hard-earned cash. This is one month’s worth of releases!
There is even MORE TO COME in November, with further announcements imminent. There is a 5-disc super deluxe of The Who‘s My Generation on the way, for example. Amazon UK are listing this for an 18 Nov release, so if you want to lock into their current price of £75 then now might be a good time to do it. While we’re on the subject of The Who, there is also a Live At Leeds vinyl reissue listed, although that’s actual late October. If the amazon listing is to be believed, this is a 3LP set (it’s currently £25, which could be a great price).
On the same day as My Generation will be what looks like a 4LP vinyl reissue of Marvin Gaye‘s What’s Going On. This will be a 45th anniversary edition, in effect. In 2011 we had an LP+2CD super deluxe, with the ‘Detroit Mix’ getting its debut on vinyl and the album proper and various bonus tracks and ‘instrumental jams’ across the two CDs.
Working on the assumption that this new set is all vinyl records, then it’s quite likely to include both versions of the album on vinyl, plus all previous bonus tracks and maybe some live material. Given that The Human League want you to pay £80 for their 4LP anthology, £28 for this What’s Going On set seems like a real bargain!
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Marvin Gaye
What's Going On [VINYL]
Given everything above, it may not be a bad thing that it is looking like 2016 will be the first year since Paul McCartney kicked off his ‘Archive Collection’ series in 2010 that we won’t be getting a reissue. Flowers in the Dirt was expected, but historically this would have been announced by now for a November release. Perhaps Paul leaving Concord and signing with Capitol Records has indeed added a layer of complication to proceedings. If we don’t get this in 2016, it is likely to be issued in March/April next year.
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By Paul Sinclair
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