This month’s picks also feature Steps, Max Tundra, Blondie, Joe Meek, R.E.M., Basement Jaxx, Pavement and Dinosaur Jr
musicOMH’s Reissues Roundup August 2022
Greetings, coleslaw lovers. July was a big old fire, wasn’t it? The heat being so intense and all that, it was bad times for anyone who thinks flip-flops, trainer socks, baseball caps and shorts are the work of Satan himself (ie. me) That’s without addressing all that other bullshit going on. So once again, kick off your mules and let me take you on an almost 5,000-word(ish) journey through what’s a-happening this month in the world of reissues and compilations!
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George Michael – Older
One of the greatest albums ever, George Michael’s Older, is finally being reissued on vinyl this month. Hurrah! It’s an album that’s grown more in stature with each passing year, and is literally his masterpiece. And in a catalogue such as George Michael’s, that’s real talk. Originally released in 1996, it ended a period of heartache and professional bullshit that took its toll on him: at war with his record company Sony, and a short but overwhelmingly happy relationship with the first man he ever loved, Anselmo, whom this album was dedicated to, it took him a good 18 months to get his mojo working again due to his grief, and when it did return with the epic Jesus To A Child, the songs started tumbling out and he bared his soul more than ever.
While Older was a massive million-selling success at the time – it contains two No 1s, three No 2s and a No 3 ferchrissakes – and its status as a work of art has snowballed over the years, and with numbers such as Fastlove, You Have Been Loved, Spinning The Wheel and the title track, it’s home to some of his most iconic performances. It’s also, as he claimed, his gayest album, and something which, due to events that occurred in the years that followed, has become clear to his fanbase – with fans debating that Fastlove was about going out for some bumming and Spinning The Wheel relating to the hazards of open relationships and the general air of a man mourning another man that spoke to ensuing generations. Due to the mid-’90s not really giving much truck to releasing albums on vinyl, original copies have been going for astronomical amounts on Discogs, so it’s literally worth all the fanfares that it is back. Back. BACK.
The original album will be available as a 2LP set, with various exclusive coloured vinyl editions available to particular retailers, and there’s a super deluxe box which is a 3LP/5CD edition with the original album alongside the extra Upper bonus that was issued a year later, plus two CDs of remixes, with three art prints and a 48-page book featuring contributions from those who worked on the album. There has since been talk of a Japanese 2CD edition – as there didn’t appear to be a standalone CD edition outside of the big box as yet – which contains the original album and a truncated selection of B-sides and remixes. There are also official store items such as a cassette edition available as a bundle. Look, whatever format you fancy, it’s an album that you should own regardless.
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Blondie – Against The Odds 1974-1982
One of the most awaited box sets in recent years – I mean, we were all hoping for one, but when they said they were planning it in 2018 we’ve been tapping our watches ever since – is Blondie’s Against The Odds 1974-1982. And what an absolute treat it is too. A veritable format carnival of the band’s first phase (it’s fair enough to call it that since they’ve been back in operation since 1999) and it collects together the six studio albums – Blondie, Plastic Letters, Parallel Lines, Eat To The Beat, Autoamerican and Hunter – alongside a trove of session outtakes, B-sides, and demos. For a 10LP option on vinyl there’s those albums plus four additional albums called Plaza Sound, Parallel Beats, Coca Cola (as an aside, Coca Cola was the original title for Autoamerican) and Home Tapes.
The box also comes with a bonus 10-inch of outtakes called Out In The Streets and a 7-inch single featuring the band’s cover of The Doors’ Moonlight Drive and demo of Mr Sightseer, and there are TWO books with commentary from each member involved on the tracks, and another detailing all the band’s artwork and sleeves from the period. That’s 124 tracks in total, 36 of which are previously unreleased, which is quite a lot of Blondie (Hurrah!) There’s an 8CD version, which compresses some of the bonus tracks on to the six separate albums, leaving the bonuses on two CDs. IF, however, you just want the bonus stuff, then good news as they’re available separately in 3CD and 4LP variations. Obviously, they’ve all been remastered – this isn’t amateur hour – and each package comes foiled wrapped. There’s also a red vinyl version of the 4LP bonus stuff, but not many (like, 400).
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Madonna – Finally Enough Love
Debbie Harry isn’t the only iconic blonde woman having a clear-out this month, oh no, for Madonna has officially smashed a bottle against the side of her reissues campaign with Finally Enough Love. It’s a celebration of her club hits (ie. the reswizzles rather than straightforward singles) of which she’s had 50. 50! (in the Billboard Dance Chart that is). It’s already ‘pon the streaming and that, but this month sees physical formats happening in the forms of a 3CD (with the 50 actual floorfillers) and an edited down 2LP/1CD with 16 tracks.
From the 7-inch edit of Holiday (or technically from Everybody (You Can Dance Remix Edit) on the 2LP) through to Honey Dijon’s Radio Mix of I Don’t Search I Find, it’s approximately 40 years of stellar shape-throwing. Among the highlights are the PSB Maxi Mix of Sorry and Deep Dish’s re-do of Music. Even if you may get a little exhausted towards the end, it’s a fabulous package featuring some tunes that have not been available since they were tucked away on 2CD single sets in yore. Hurrah for Madonna’s 50 chart-toppers!
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Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes – The Telstar Story
One of the greatest singles ever made in the history of, well, everything, and one of my lovely dad’s favourite records, Telstar by The Tornados is 60 this year. An international smash and the first UK act to top the US singles chart, it was, even then, like a twinkling retro-futuristic vision of an ideal world when space travel was in its infancy. It’s the true sound of wonder and excitement. It was also the magnificent-if-doomed producer Joe Meek’s finest moment. As part of his legendary Tea Chest Tapes, which Cherry Red have been painstakingly restoring and transferring these past two years, The Telstar Story features three demos, the original, overdub free version, an alternate edit, sound effects and a previously unheard reading of Magic Star, recorded by Glenda Collins.
Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes – The Heinz Sessions Vol 1
It’s, obviously, a genuine piece of gloriousness and is part of two 10-inch releases from the archive. The second is The Heinz Sessions, where Meek focused on a young Heinz Burt who was The Tornados’ German-born bass player (and someone whom Meek ‘took quite an unrequited fancy to’ ahem). It’s full of alternate takes, demos, session outtakes and a previously unreleased song, well in fact the whole package is previously unreleased. Basically, by the look of things, judging by this fanfare, this whole Tea Chest Tapes project is going to be a tremendous thing indeed.
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Lou Reed – Words & Music May 1965
Lou Reed’s archive is being given an airing this month, in the first of what is hopefully a series of releases in conjunction with Laurie Anderson and the magic Light In The Attic label. Ahead of what would have been his 80th birthday, Words & Music, May 1965 showcases some of the most iconic songs ever written in their earliest forms – Heroin! I’m Waiting For My Man! Pale Blue Eyes! – ie. deeply fantastic stuff. These recordings have not seen the light for over 50 years (dating from 1958 to 1965) having been kept in an unopened envelope when Lou posted them to himself as a primitive form of copyrighting BITD. John Cale pops up too, helping Lou with his first Velvet Underground inklings. It’s like discovering a new annexe, or perhaps a conservatory, to an already incredible career.
It’s in a galaxy of formats, with a limited 2LP 45rpm (with bonus 7-inch featuring an additional six demos such as a cover of Bob Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, and a doo-wop serenade recorded in 1958 when he was just 16, plus it comes with an accompanying saddle-stitched, die-cut 28-page book features lyrics, archival photos, and liner notes. Also included is an archival reproduction of a rarely-seen letter, written by Reed to his college professor and poet, Delmore Schwartz, circa 1964), cassette, 8-track, digital, and CD. For more information, head to the Light In The Attic site as this release is just one aspect of a whole lotta Lou happening this year.
Paul McCartney
Concerned that you might not have had an opportunity to own McCartney III when it was issued on 178 different vinyl variants, Paul McCartney has put 1970’s McCartney, 1980’s McCartney II and 2020’s McCartney III all into a box. It will be available in three different formats – Limited Edition colour vinyl (Clear, White and Creamy White – oooh), Black vinyl edition, and 3CD – each including three special photo prints with notes from Paul about each album. The cover art and typography for the slipcase are by Ed Ruscha, which is a bonus if ever I’ve seen one.
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Pavement – Slanted And Enchanted
Pavement have been back in action this year, what with a tour and the reissue of Terror Twilight, they’ve also remembered that its 30 years when it all began with Slanted & Enchanted (well actually it began before that, but go on – pedantic Pavement ed) and so they’re putting it out on red/white/black splatter vinyl, which is jolly.
It was a massive moment, really. Depending on who you ask, but I’m saying it is. So there. It was the best album of 1992 bar that self-titled Vanessa Paradis one. There’s also a bundle version which comes with a cassette of demos of the album with a reswizzled tracklist that the band sent around to labels called Courting Shutdown Offers, which is available from the Matador shop.
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Bobbie Gentry – The Girl From Chickasaw County
What’s the word that you mis-spell when you type in a hurry? My two main ones are chnage instead of change and writing Booby instead of Bobby. It’s been a bloody nightmare at times, what with submitting copy about Booby Gillespie or Booby O, or even the transcendence that is Boobie, sorry BOBBIE, Gentry.
Enough of my dallying, the good news is that Bobbie Gentry has seen fit to condense her incredible 2018 8CD box The Girl From Chickasaw County into a more digestible 32-track 2LP/ 46-track 2CD offering called The Girl From Chickasaw County: Highlights From The Capitol Masters, featuring some highlights from that Grammy-nominated busload of wonder.
There are tracks from her lost jazz album The Windows Of The World, and the deluxe edition of her classic album The Delta Sweete. There’s also outtakes, demos, rarities and live performances taken from her BBC series, and a fair few making their vinyl debut. There are new sleevenotes and many of the rare and unseen photos included in the box set plus the CD package comes with a 38-page booklet and the LP with a four-sided insert. Magic!
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Cherry Ghost – Thirst For Romance
It’s 15 years since the release of Cherry Ghost’s Thirst For Romance, and so to celebrate, it’s being repressed on vinyl. Cherry Ghost aka Simon Aldred is a songsmith for the ages, slightly yet thrillingly out of step with all else that was going on at the time with his Northern take on Southern soul, and via that approach Thirst For Romance has become one of those treasures that has accumulated new fans over the years, helped in some small part by Birdy’s cover of People Help The People. It won enough fans to start with when it charted at No 7 back in 2007, so hopefully this new reissue will create a hunger for more Cherry Ghost in the future.
R.E.M. – Chronic Town
R.E.M. are celebrating 40 years of their Chronic Town EP this year. They are! And so therefore they’re issuing it as a standalone release on CD, picture disc and cassette. A five-track featuring classics such as Gardening At Night, Wolves, Lower and 1,000,000, it effectively invented College Rock and made them a name to watch from thereon. It’s a timely reissue, as most R.E.M. fans only really got it as extra tracks on Dead Letter Office. It was a tremendous, assured message of intent and you can understand why they became as vast as they did.
Dinosaur Jr – SeventyTwoHundredSeconds (Live on MTV 1993)
It must be a thing for five-track EPs by marvellous American turns this month as the utterly fucking brilliant Dinosaur Jr are behind SeventyTwoHundredSeconds (Live on MTV 1993). It’s a five-track EP of, well, Dinosaur Jr performing live on MTV’s 120 Minutes thing. In 1993. It’s never been released on vinyl before, and features a whip through the band’s catalogue with numbers Raisans, Get Me, Severed Lips, Thumb and Budge. Amazing.
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Steps – Platinum Collection
Steps are 25! A quarter of a century! Well, technically they formed in 1997, split in 2001, reformed in 2011 and are still with us now so it’s been only really 15 years – BUT WHAT ARE THESE QUIBBLES, PEDANTS? Anyway. Hurrah for Steps! Naturally this milestone requires a compilation, and Platinum Collection is a magnificent reminder of what group they are. From 5678 to new tracks The Runner and Hard 2 Forget via utter crackers Last Thing On My Mind, One For Sorrow, Scared Of The Dark and Heartbreak In This City. There’s a hit-rammed 21-track 1CD, 2LP and cassette and a deluxe 43-track 2CD. There’s also signed solo editions for the fans available on their site too.
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The Jimmy Webb Songbook
If you’ve always been a trifle baffled by the Macarthur Park lyric ‘Someone left the cake out in the rain’ or even ‘Never have that recipe AGAIN’ and thought that it always seemed a bit daft, what with Delia Smith’s ability with an all-in-one Victoria Sponge proving that only a buffoon could fuck it up, well, sunshine, I’m here to reveal that it was a METAPHOR for a relationship gone awry. I know! Oh, you all knew that. Yes, well that’s the majesty of Jimmy Webb for you.
Managing to illuminate the hurdles thrown at the human condition using baked goods. Now, in the latest of Ace Records’, erm, ace, Songwriter Series, comes Clowns Exit Laughing – The Jimmy Webb Songbook, gathering together various renditions of songs from his pen. Kicking off with the don Glen Campbell, whom Webb regularly worked with, and his By The Time I Get To Phoenix, there’s Dionne Warwick doing Up, Up And Away, Everything But The Girl lungsmithing Where’s The Playground Susie?, Rumer’s jolly PF Sloan, Wichita Lineman (aka the greatest love song ever written) by Tony Joe White, and Mel Tormé having a pop at Requiem: 820 Latham. It is, as these collections tend to be, a fine salute to a songwriting genius.
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NOW Presents Electronic
I now turn to the NOW desk, where there’s some heavyweight amazingness a-happening this month. *turns to desk* Yes! This month sees the latest in their vinyl-only box set affairs, following last year’s magic ’70s box (which – curses – I didn’t manage to get hold of, so LET THAT BE A LESSON TO YOU – DON’T SLEEP ON THIS!), Now Presents Electronic. There are only 1,200 copies being made of the 5LP gorgeousness, and it’s a super mix of 12-inch and edits of some of the essential (Blue Monday, Relax, Torch, Quiet Life, Sound Of The Crowd) alongside some less obvious futurist-facing classics (Laurie Anderson’s O Superman(!), Donna Summer’s Working The Midnight Shift(!!), Duran Duran’s The Chauffeur(!!!), Art Of Noise’s Beatbox (!!!!), The Human League’s Hard Times (!!!!!) and more). It’s bloody ACE, quite frankly.
NOW Yearbook ’80 EXTRA
Also, it would be remiss of the NOW gang to not do a Yearbook Extra to accompany the latest 1980 set, and if you thought they’d pretty much covered everything on that, then I’ve got news for you as this 3CD 66-track smacker has actual gold-plated brilliance with Split Enz’s I Got You, George Benson’s Give Me The Night, Judas Priest’s Living After Midnight, Robert Palmer’s Johnny & Mary, Coffee’s Casanova, Change’s A Lovers Holiday AND The Glow Of Love, Shalamar’s I Owe You One, The Human League’s Empire State Human, The Cure’s A Forest, Kate Bush’s Army Dreamers AND Breathing, and Madness’ Embarrassment AND Night Boat To Cairo. JESUS. Plus, one of the oddest records ever to chart: Sweet People’s And The Birds Were Singing, which basically invented chill out. Again, it’s fair to say that NOW have cornered the market in making fans of a certain age go a bit giddy with these yearbooks, and rightly so as it’s lovingly put-together pop onions genius, so it’s wise to snap these up immediately as even actual record-collecting popstars have problems getting copies after a couple of months.
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The Faust Tapes
From NOW to NEU! (see what I did there?) and the German… *in earpiece* oh it turns out it’s been put back to September now. Honestly, I try and entertain with shit jokes and ravings about incredible krautrock outfits and this is what I have to put up with. Phffft. What I DO have for you this month is the reissue of the third album by Faust called The Faust Tapes. THE COLUMN IS SAVED EVERYONE!
Originally released in 1973, The Faust Tapes was available for a snipsome 49p – due to their previous label being a bit sniffy about not hearing much in the way of choruses on the two 20+ minute tracks called Untitled that were built around twenty odd tape-manipulation experiments and freak-out jams, and so Virgin snapped it up and wooed cash-strapped punters in sirenly who’d probably have not have given it much notice at the time. It even charted apparently after selling 60,000 copies, not that any official records show it now as it was redacted by the squares. It’s now back. Back. BACK! on vinyl with the original nifty Bridget Riley artwork, and one of the most important albums ever made.
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Eyeless In Gaza
Oooh. He’s here again. The man who goes wild in the aisles. Yes, regular viewers, Dudley is back from whatever drama has been keeping him away from the office. Take it away, big boy…
“Hello! And thank you for your ‘kind’ introduction there. It’s been a long time but I’m BACK with news of futurism and the like. First up, I have word of a 5CD box set compiling the complete Eyeless In Gaza Cherry Red recordings! The nucleus duo of Peter Becker and Martyn Bates have compiled their Cherry Red output into thematic selections. To be honest, while not strictly futurist per se, they weren’t really bracketed into anything really, but they were up my street let me tell you. Eyeless In Gaza: Skeletal Framework – The Cherry Red Recordings 1981-1986 flits around pleasingly, and sheds new light on their early output.
Duet Emmo – Or So It Seems
“The 1983 Or So It Seems album by DUET EMMO, aka a collaboration between The Normal’s Daniel Miller, and Wire’s Edvard Graham Lewis and BC Gilbert, is being reissued on 2LP and 1CD variants this month. Recorded at Blackwing Studios and produced by Eric Radcliffe between Boxing Day 1981 and New Year’s Day a week later, it could be considered one of the most Mute albums ever. Even the project’s name is an anagram of Mute and Dome. This reissue has been remastered from the original analogue tapes by Stefan Betke and the sleeve is a collage by animators and filmmakers, the Brothers Quay, which has been redesigned by Bart van Damme. To untrained ears it sounds a bit like early Depeche Mode down a well, but to us seasoned futurists, it’s an essential document.”
Cheers Dudley. Good to have you back. See you next month?
“Not if I see you first! Hahahaha!”
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Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru
The second LP in Mississippi Records’ ongoing series of releases from Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru arrives this month. The Ethiopian nun was one time singer to Haile Selassie, and during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War she and her family were prisoners of war and sent by the Italians to the prison camp on the Italian island of Asinara and later to Mercogliano, near Naples.
For the last three decades she’s lived as a recluse, with rare performances, and also set up the Emahoy Tsege Mariam Music Foundation to help children in need both in Africa and in the Washington DC metro area to study music. This self-titled album is made up of original recordings and available on vinyl for the first time since their release in the early 1960s.
David Bowie – Black Tie White Noise
Tremendous news now from David Bowie, or rather I should say his estate, the albums featured in last year’s Brilliant Adventures box set are all back out as individual items! Hurrah! 1993’s Black Tie White Noise and The Buddha Of Suburbia, 1995’s 1. Outside, 1997’s Earthling, 1999’s ‘Hours…’ and Toy. All are 2LP/ 1CD sets except for Toy and ‘Hours…’ which are all 1LP.
David Bowie – The Buddha Of Suburbia
I’m rather fond of The Buddha Of Suburbia and hoping to nab that myself. Probably one of his underrated albums (as in, it wasn’t really marketed as a Bowie album, more a soundtrack to the TV show) as it only reached No 35 in December 1993 and “hung around” for a grand total of three weeks because the general public can be right clots at times. Not you, obviously.
Max Tundra – Some Best Friend You Turned Out To Be
Who is Max Tundra? Who ISN’T Max Tundra more like. The man is a genius – he invented hyperpop, remixed Pet Shop Boys, worked with Arca and wrote and recorded Daphne & Celeste Save The World (with Daphne & Celeste obviously, otherwise it would’ve been a bit weird) among many other things.
Max Tundra – Parallax Error Beheads You
Anyway, he made a handful of albums for Domino a while back and they’re all being reissued on vinyl this month. These three albums: 2000’s Some Best Friend You Turned Out to Be, 2002’s Mastered By Guy At The Exchange and 2008’s Parallax Error Beheads You, are back. Back. BACK out on green, blue and orange vinyl respectively. They are tremendous offerings of a maximalist nature and have been quietly very, very influential. So go and get ‘em as there’s some extra downloadable goodies too.
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The Movers – Vol 1 1970-1976
Analog Africa want to introduce you to The Movers. Who The Movers? Well, The Movers were hugely successful during the 1970s yet there’s almost no information available on the band or members. What is known is that it began in 1967 when two unknown musicians – the brothers Norman and Oupa Hlongwane – approached Kenneth Siphayi, a stylish and wealthy businessman from the Alexandra township, to ask if he could buy them musical instruments, and in return he would receive a cut from future live shows and record deals.
Siphayi liked the cut of their jib and eventually became their manager. Starting the seventies with a soulful take on township pop, they gradually incorporated elements of Marabi, Mbaqanga, jazz, funk, and reggae into their sound. While they were enormously popular, by the end of the decade there were no original members left(!) however this smashing compilation entitled Vol 1 1970-1976 should push the door ajar into their groovin’ world.
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Singles
ELP, or if you prefer, Emerson Lake & Palmer are 50 this year (well actually 52, but let’s not quibble, lockdown buggered us all up a bit), and instead of cake, they’re offering YOU, or at least someone in your near vicinity, the chance to own all their singles! In a box! Primarily known as a bit of an albums act, the ELP knocked out a handful of singles in their time, yes, besides the iconic Fanfare For The Common Man which moogled its way to No 2 back in 1977 showing them pesky punkers what’s what.
This 12X7 box has all the trio’s singles reproduced lovingly, all on different coloured vinyl and remastered in sleeves from UK and international pressings from 1971’s German-released Lucky Man through to 1992’s Affairs Of The Heart. I’m not saying that things get a bit niche with the Angolan-released From The Beginning, but 12 is a round number, yeah? Anyway, it’s all very sexy as a box. This will surely be a completist’s dream but any fairweather penny-watching ELP enquirers are best served by buying Tarkus (which is amazing).
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Before The Day Is Done – The Story Of Folk Heritage Records 1968-1975
Before The Day Is Done: The Story Of Folk Heritage Records 1968-1975 is a 3CD set and the first ever anthology of the acclaimed label, which was first set up by Alan Green in Greater Manchester, in a bid to showcase some of the names making it on the north-west England Folk circuit, pressing up limited runs of 200 copies of the act’s albums, leading these to become massively valuable. Containing such names as Gallery, The Oldest Proffession, Folkal Point, The Minor Birds, Mike Raven/Joan Mills and Spinning Jenny. Plus, folk club habitues like The Taverners, Rosie Hardman and The Harvesters; folk-rockers Saraband, Stained Glass and Music Box) and singer-songwriters Christie Hennessy, Janet Jones, Jancis Harvey and Stuart Marson. Folk Heritage was well-regarded even if it was little-known outside that world, but this set should help change that scenario.
Kool & The Gang – The Albums Vol 2 1979-1989
A reminder that the second part of Kool & The Gang’s collections, The Albums Vol.2: 1979 – 1989 arrives this month, picking up where the excellent first edition left off, with the multi-headed octopus of good-time funk gravitating chartwards with Ladies Night. The 11 CDs here cover their global fame era – Celebration! Jones Vs Jones! Get Down On It! Take My Heart! Too Hot! The gloomy erection sectioner Cherish! – with eight albums and three bonus CDs – one for 7-inch edits and two for the 12s.
While I’m down the disco, how about some Disco Floorfillers? Well, there’s a superb 2LP 28-track bundle of dazzlers out on Demon this month. All that you could possibly want to ignite any surface into a discotheque: More More More, Dance Dance Dance, You Gave Me Love, Native New Yorker, Rock Your Baby, Gonna Get Along Without You Now, Ring My Bell – you name it, it’s all here and is proper imperial disco magic from the era rather than something from 1995 tacked on to make up the numbers. There’s absolutely no nonsense here and it will get your party started far better than, I dunno, Locust Abortion Technician did that last time.
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Archive – Vinyl
South London post-rock and what-have-you collective Archive issue their second album Take My Head on vinyl this month. First issued in 1999, it saw the acclaimed turn become quite a big deal across Europe, thanks mainly to 1996’s Londinium, and hasn’t been released on vinyl since then. They’re still very much a going concern having issued their latest album Call To Arms And Angels earlier this year. Case in point as to how much of a deal they are over there, they’re playing Paris’ Accor Hotels Arena – basically the Parisian Wembley Arena – in November one night, and the considerably snugger EartH in Hackney the next. Fancy that!
Neil Young – Time Fades Away
Let’s drop in on Neil Young, seeing as he’s basically releasing something from his archives every other week at the moment.
And, lo! August is no exception, with the Time Fades Away live album from 1973 back on CD and 1989’s Eldorado EP available on vinyl and CD. It wasn’t officially reissued until the, um, Official Release Series, Discs 5-8 vinyl box set back in 2014, it eventually took 43 years for it to come out on CD when the same box set was issued as a 4CD set back in 2017. So, it’s nice to have it as a standalone even if he wasn’t wild about it back then.
Neil Young – Eldorado
The five track Eldorado EP (WHAT IS IT WITH FIVE TRACK EPS THIS MONTH?) was originally only issued in Japan and Australia, and featured different mixes of three tracks from his Freedom album and two previously unissued numbers. Eldorado had previously been part of the Official Release Series Vol 4 box set from April this year, but now is FREED to roam alone.
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Oasis – Be Here Now
Good news if you’ve been unable to visit any charity shops in recent weeks, for Oasis’ Be Here Now is celebrating its 25th anniversary this month (not 25 years in charity shops, that anniversary is in October hoho). Yes, it sold absolute shedloads due to the demand for all things Gallagher built up from the reputations of their genuinely brilliant first two albums, and yet pissed it all away in a blizzard of cocaine and songs that didn’t know when to stop. In fact, it sold several million in its first seven days of release and then Diana died and everything went a bit weird for a while, and the idea of a coked up self-indulgent bloat seemed a bit pointless.
I’d started at a magazine the month this came out, and the sheer SONG AND DANCE of more than one human attempting to hear the thing was a debacle in itself, that any interest one had in just trying to enjoy the thing was marred by the sort-of palaver that didn’t surround somewhat superior albums of that year – Blur, Radiator, Young Team, OK Computer, Dig Your Own Hole etc. Anyway, look, peace and love, yeah? It’s back out as a 2LP silver vinyl, as well as various fan-bothering iterations that involve picture discs, cassettes and a limited t-shirt too. Although not on CD, which can be found for as little as 3 for £1 offers on any high street. Like some ’90s version of No Parlez.
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*shuffles papers* And that’s all the news fit to print about August’s schedules. Join me next month for a ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL that probably won’t be particularly special – no one’s applied to close the road for a street party or anything, the rotters – where I’ll be flicking through the likes of Roxy Music, Jellyfish, Slade, Fatboy Slim, David Sylvian, Pink Floyd, Four Seasons, Manics and several other things that will be announced in the next few weeks. As ever, if you enjoy these findings, lemme know, and if you wanna hit me up, then @wadeywade on Twitter is probably best.
George Michael MP3s or CDs
George Michael on Spotify
