October’s picks also zoom in on Kylie Minogue, Dexys Midnight Runners, Maha, Japan, Recoil, Marine Girls, David Bowie, Can, INXS, The Libertines and Siouxsie And The Banshees
October 2022 reissues
September, eh? A ‘bit of a month’ as far as history will remember it. What with The Queen and all that. Plus, a new government populated by mediocre cunts aiming to be as fucking dreadful as possible because the barrel has been scraped so much now, it seems like people are just really into picking splinters out of their bloodied fingers. Sheesh. So, take your mind off all that for however long it takes for you to read this cheery survey as to what is happening in the world of reissues and compilations this October. Well, hopefully October anyway, after the debacle of Older who knows when this stuff will come out?
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The Beatles – Revolver
After last year’s Let It Be bingo, The Beatles go back a few years to 1966 and have gone full bells and whistles on a deluxe-up of their seventh album Revolver. Also? It’s their best – don’t @ me. There are six physical formats, and each of them offer a new stereo mix by Giles Martin directly from the master tapes, and with the aid of Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films’ demixing technology, it’s been pulled apart and cleaned up and rejigged.
The formats? Well, natch there’s yer basic 1LP, 1PD and 1CD if you just fancy the album itself. The 2CD option features the main album plus highlights from the whopper boxes, while the, um, whopper boxes themselves consist of a vinyl 4LP & 1 7-inch (Paperback Writer and Rain in both mono and stereo) and a 5CD that replicates all the vinyl – the fifth CD is the Paperback Writer EP. In the boxes, there’s also the original mono mix, 31 session takes and home demos, a 100-page book with a foreword by Paul McCartney, an essay by Questlove, detailed track notes, plus photos and ephemera including handwritten lyrics, tape boxes and extracts from Klaus Voormann’s graphic novel on the making of the cover art.
Personally I’d have been all up for one disc going full-on with the myriad versions of Tomorrow Never Knows, but that’s me. It does seem a little steep, looking at it as a pre-order, but as is usual with these things, the price might budge down a tad once the thing is out.
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David Bowie – Heroes
Following the reissue of Low earlier this year, David Bowie’s Heroes is also celebrating its mid-40 with a grey vinyl edition. It shouldn’t need much introduction as much to say that it is one of those incredible albums that only absolute fucking nutters dislike. ‘Pon the same day there’s also a digital issue of Live In Berlin (1978) which was originally available on limited vinyl as part of the David Bowie Is… V&A exhibition. So that’s nice.
Olivia Newton John – Greatest Hits
Now we’ve just about stopped blubbing, news comes of a reissue of Olivia Newton John’s Greatest Hits. This was from 1977 a year before having two of the biggest-selling singles of all time from Grease and a few years prior to Physical. Nonetheless this is as essential (from If Not For You to her take on Don’t Cry For Me Argentina) and now in a 2LP, 1CDremastered package.
Dexys Midnight Runners – Too-Rye-Ay
Dexys Midnight Runners’ Too Rye Ay was 40 earlier this year, and so to celebrate, Kevin Rowland has been under its bonnet and had a tinker with it due to his feeling that the original album didn’t sound quite right and exacting to his vision. Too Rye Ay: As It Should Have Sounded comes as a 1LP (black or green vinyl), a 3CD (disc one has the album, disc two has singles andB-sides from the period and unreleased out-takes, and disc three is them during their dungareed pomp Live at the Shaftesbury Theatre 1982).
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There are bundles of the 3CD/1LP available on their official store, as well as a 4LP (which follows the 3CD set up but with albums 3&4 being the Shaftesbury show) deluxe ‘lift off lid’ box job with signed prints, replica tour programme, book and art prints. It’s a classic and a half, alright.
INXS – Shabooh Shoobah
INXS will also be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their third album Shabooh Shoobah album this month with a deluxe digital boxset featuring 15 songs on streaming services for the first time, along with two special vinyl releases, one of which will be issued as a very limited clear vinyl edition exclusively via INXS.com along with a vintage Shabooh Shoobah t-shirt. Not actually vintage, I presume. I know I’ve got some elderly t-shirts, but none reaching that far back. Anyway, Hurrah hurrah Shabooh Shabooh!
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Marine Girls – Lazy Ways / Beach Party
The brief but cheery career of Marine Girls is celebrated this month with their two albums Lazy Ways/ Beach Party being issued together on 1CD. The Marines were notable for being Tracey Thorn’s pre-Everything But The Girl outfit and this release collects pretty much everything they ever recorded bar a track or two and is jolly wonderful.
Maha – Orkos
First issued in 1979, Egypt’s Maha and her sole album Orkos is the latest in Habibi Funk’s ongoing God’s Work mission to unearth tremendous treasure. Originally released on cassette (cassettes were the scene back in Egypt around that time as vinyl was a pain in the arse to press. Much like, um, now) Maha was the vocalist in Salah Ragab‘s Cairo Jazz Band. It’s a cracker of an album combining jazz, funk and Latin flavours, none more so than the incredible frantic action-funk of Law Laffeina El Ard or the sexy swaying glow of Kabl Ma Nessallem We Nemshy.
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The Communards – Red
After celebrating 35 years of their debut album last year, it’s only fitting that The Communards follow that with a 35th anniversary reissue of their second album Red. While the cover of Never Can Say Goodbye didn’t quite match the success of Don’t Leave Me This Way, the album contains one of the most heartfelt tributes ever in For A Friend. That it was recorded and produced by Stephen Hague at the same time as he was zipping between working on Pet Shop Boys’ Actually and New Order’s True Faith is a Fancy That! in itself. The new reissue comes as a 32-track 2CD with bonus remixes (including a 2 Bears reswizzle), B-sides and suchlike or as a red/white 2LP with a trimmed down selection of extras. The thought that someone bought it for me on my 18th birthday is making me feel very very old now.
Senseless Things – The First Of Too Many
The First Of Too Many was perhaps an apt title for the Senseless Things’ debut album, but tbh they were one of the better turns doing the Ipswich Caribbean Club circuit BITD and it was a buzz when they signed to Epic as their exuberant punk-pop was quite the tonic for us Deadline readers. Anyway, founding members Morgan Nicholls and Cass Browne (who’ve both gone on to be part of the Gorillaz universe with this album’s cover artist Jamie Hewlett) (Oh and speaking of Cass Browne, his post Things project Delakota’s ace album One Love is FINALLY on streaming) had a tinker with the album and remastered it for reissue alongside the original mix of it for this 2LP/3CD release. The third CD is them at their powerpop pomp Live At Camden Palace in 1991 too.
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Kylie Minogue – Impossible Princess
Hastily renamed at the time due to ‘events’, Kylie Minogue’s Impossible Princess makes its vinyl debut this month in – depending on where you shop – transparent violet, orange, purple marbled or picture disc variations. It’s a rum album tbh. Her second for Deconstruction, which somehow slightly failed to live up to the ‘she’s working with loads of cool people’ hyperbole that arrived with her 1994 release (although, any album with Confide In Me and Put Yourself In My Place is far from shit), Impossible Princess saw her co-producing the record (with Brothers In Rhythm‘s, Dave Ball and Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield) and was bugled by the tremendous Manics-written Some Kind Of Bliss, and the reswizzles of Did It Again worked wonders too. It seemed dogged from the outset and spent literally a month in the album chart and it soon signalled an end to the IndieKylie experiment when she’d return with the none-more-pop Fever in 2000.
Duran Duran – Medazzaland
Another album making its vinyl debut in the UK after EMI refused to release it (in the UK at least) is Duran Duran’s Medazzaland. Like Impossible Princess, it’s another strange album that was maybe a little out of step with the times but whose art-rock reputation has been enhanced by its unavailability, which saw the Durans down to two original members Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes (with occasional cock-outer Warren Cuccurullo) as John Taylor fled halfway through recording. It’s out as 2LP neon pink and 1CD variations, so fill them boots.
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Queens Of The Stone Age – ..Like Clockwork
Queens Of The Stone Age news now, and while we await whatever unpleasantness going on to be over and for them to come back, they’re reissuing their eponymous 1998 debut on vinyl with its original sleeve. It’s a belter, in all honesty. And that’s not all, in December both 2017’s Villains and the utterly superb …Like Clockwork from 2013 are also on the way too, in red or opaque aqua (LC) and leaf green (V) vinyl. They come with obi-strips, updated artwork and are exclusive limited editions to their site, so call into your friendly retailer just to see which one suits you. *mouths ‘…Like Clockwork is the one you need if cash-strapped and time poor’*
Tom Waits – Blood Money
Tom Waits is issuing vinyl editions of 2002’s twin albums Alice and Blood Money. He is! The 20th anniversary versions will come on translucent blue and red vinyl. They’re both classics, and very much the epitome of his ‘bloke screaming in a shed’ era.
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The Libertines – Up The Bracket
Funny how time slips away, eh viewers? And how we’ve now somehow arrived at 20 years since The Libertines released their debut album Up The Bracket. Produced by Mick Jones, it was, in some quarters at least, celebrated as a defining debut album and brought the messy plight of this quartet of urchins into the light.
So anyway, they’ve gone to town with a celebratory edition. The Super Deluxe Edition includes a remarkable 65 previously unreleased recordings including live tracks, demos and whatnot. I’m sure remarkable is used here as in, they were in disarray pretty much from the off, that it’s astonishing an album got made at all. There’s 2LP/2CD variants with the second disc featuring them live at The 100 Club; and, well, if you fancy, the full caboodle has those plus a further 2CD set with demos and the like, a pair of 7-inch singles, a DVD of performances, a cassette of further demos plus a book. There’s also a super super deluxe which bundles all that together with a tote bag, vest, t-shirt, badges, water bottle, shot glass, mug and used syringes* (*not really).
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Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber
Melody’s Echo Chamber, the eponymous debut album from Melody Prochet, is being reissued to celebrate its 10th anniversary. It was recorded with then-beau Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker in Perth, Australia, and finished in the South of France. It apparently became a cornerstone of the new wave of psychedelia on its release in 2012. It also comes with the seven-track bonus Unfold, with extra music from that era which Melody thought she’d deleted (the clot).
Do It Again! The Songs Of Brian Wilson
Brian Wilson is ace, isn’t he? Well, for the purposes of this month he genuinely IS Ace, as they’ve put together a winning selection of some of his songs as performed by other turns on the CD Do It Again! The Songs Of Brian Wilson with everyone from The King’s Singers to June & The Exit Wounds chipping in.
Siouxsie And The Banshees – All Souls
All Souls is the first of season-based compilations by the tremendous Siouxsie And The Banshees. It’s an autumnal affair selected by Siouxsie herself highlighting some of the group’s spookier tunes. The vinyl-only collection features the likes of Spellbound, Fireworks, Peek-A-Boo alongside album tracks and B-sides. Obviously, it’s a work of art and a very clever way of showcasing one of the greatest catalogues known to humanity.
Dinosaur Jr – The Best Of
Another ridiculously sensational catalogue is that of Dinosaur Jr’s, whose 2002 Best of, Ear Bleeding Country gets a vinyl release this month. The 2LP white vinyl features some absolute fucking crackers such as Freak Scene, Start Choppin’, The Wagon and Thumb, plus there’s an essay from band superfan Henry Rollins. You should own this – it’s utterly amazing.
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Jesus Jones – Some Of The Answers
Arriving at the end of the ’80s as a skatewear-festooned sampler-accessorised day-glo riot were Jesus Jones. They were a stupendous blast and I’m not saying that because their record company rep gave me a pair of bright yellow shorts either. Anywho, they’ve gone to town with a career-spanning 15CD box set called Some Of The Answers, featuring all their albums (including Liquidizer, Doubt, Perverse, Already, London, and Passages) expanded on to two (or even three in the case of Doubt, Perverse and Already) discs with bonus mixes and the like making 131 of the 200 tracks here bonus content. They’re also issuing all the individual albums on variously coloured vinyl as well as the concise toe-dip of hits that is the 2LP best of Zeroes and Ones.
The Rah Band – Message For The Stars Vol 1
The Rah Band’s Message For The Stars Vol 1 is a 71-track deluxe 5CD box set contains expanded versions of the albums The Crunch & Beyond, Rah Band and Going Up alongside two discs of edits, extensions and remixes. A vast majority of it is new to CD and while it’s mostly about the monstrously phenomenal The Crunch, and the debut album is the one for that and similar variations on wild and wiggy glammers, it’s a very good box overall taking the listener into the far out and beyond.
Garbage – Anthology
Garbage are issuing an Anthology, the first collection of their wares in 15 years no less. There’s a 20-track 2LP option that narrows down to the essentials such as Stupid Girl, Happy When It Rains, The World Is Not Enough among others, or there’s a 35-track 2CD which hauls in all the other bits and bobs that the quartet have issued over their near 30-year existence.
Can – Live In Cuxhaven 1976
Live in Cuxhaven, 1976 is the third in the acclaimed series of live albums by the fantabulous Can. Again, taken from one of the many bootlegged shows taped by the late Andrew Hall, it’s four parts spread across a 2LP set (an actual tracklisting, or titles of ‘hits’ were not Can’s scene. Amazing). Like the predecessors, it’s pretty fucking mindblowing stuff and testament to one of the greatest ensembles of the 20th century. All hail The Can!
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You might have spotted that I’m not quite the chatty Cathy this month due to things, and so I’m going to hand over to Dudley our Futurist Correspondent to witter on all things synthular. Take it away, Dudders…
Recoil – Unsound Methods
“I found myself wearing a black armband when Alan Wilder left The Depeche Mode. I was distraught, frankly. In all honesty I’m metaphorically still wearing that black armband, but that’s just style choices. It’s called fashion – look it up. I speak of this because our Alan’s side-project Recoil (not named after the gentlemen’s ‘clothing’ shop btw) is having a reissue bonanza this month, with the final three albums from the project – 1997’s Unsound Methods, 2000’s Liquid and subhuman from 2007 all coming out on vinyl and CD. The first three albums are currently in the workshop being remastered for a later date, because sometimes the art of futurism is looking backwards to enable one to encounter the ahead. These are all 2LP sets on a variety of coloured vinyl too, so that’s a boon.
Japan – Exorcising Ghosts
“It was hard growing up at a tough school – I never was one for rugby or metalwork, and the sheer art of being a futurist was in itself a form of education – and the cads who bullied me for enjoying the music of The Japan would relentlessly tease me, and took it in turns to mock my tears when I first heard that my favourite group had split. I was fooled into thinking that I’d found a friend who asked to borrow my copy of Exorcising Ghosts, which I’d seen as a something of an olive leaf, only for him to return it crudely graffitied and scratched beyond all repair. Fortunately, now I can bury that torment as Exorcising Ghosts has arrived as a remastered 2LP wonder again and revel in the David Sylvian-curated hits comp in comfort without seeing the words ‘Exercising Goats’ on the sleeve. It also comes with an obi-strip, some early editions have a free print and there’s a poster too. What an album, dear reader. What a group.”
Thanks Dudley! See you next month you dandy old coot.
“We’ll see. Not unless I’ve unionised first, sunshine.”
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Now Yearbook 79
The NOW Desk has been non-stop working overtime of late, and it’s always an absolute joy to report on the comings and goings of the nation’s favourite iconic compilation brand. Obviously last month’s superb 1979 Yearbook now continues the tradition of offering a Yearbook Extra, a 3CD 67-track gloriousness with such delights as Lost In Music, Is It Love You’re After, Take That To The Bank, Union City Blue, Death Disco, Up The Junction, Angel Eyes, Number One Song In Heaven and more. If anything, it’s even more superb-er.
Now Nineties Dancefloor
And further wondrous trinkets can be found with the ebullient and ecstatic sounds on Now That’s What I Call 90s: Dancefloor. Feel the joyous rush and ravery of He’s On The Phone! The Rhythm Of The Night! Hideaway! Hey Boy Hey Girl! Encore Une Fois! The Bomb!! The Armband mix of Professional Widow! Groove Is In The Heart! Let Me Be Your Fantasy! (Look I’m not going to list it all, sheesh) It’s utterly sensational tbh, and with 84 tracks across 4CDs, it’s a floor-ramming party in your pocket (or ideally on your CD player).
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Sex: We Are Not In The Least Afraid Of Ruins
A second compilation of the toe-taps one would be confronted with on the in-store jukebox when visiting the SEX shop (Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s emporium, not, like Ann Summers or Regulation or anything) while trying on a rubber kilt or something, is out this month. The marvellously titled Sex: We Are Not In The Least Afraid Of Ruins is compiled by Antman Marco Pirroni and contains 23 tracks from Chris Farlowe’s Out Of Time to Mott The Hoople’s The Golden Age of Rock ‘N’ Roll with space for Max Bygraves’ You Need Hands and Burundi Steïphenson Black’s Burundi Black. It’s deranged and yet rather wonderful as a selection. It’s available as a 2LP or 1CD and there’s a limited PVC overbag edition which probably means something mucky.
Disco Reggae Rockers
Disco Reggae Rockers is a splendid collection put together by Soul Jazz, which follows the magic Hustle: Disco Reggae set from, Christ, 2004(!) There’s 16 tracks with reggae re-dos of numbers by Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Jackson, The Isley Brothers, Candi Staton, Curtis Mayfield and more as performed by the likes of Derrick Harriott, Devon Russell, Hortense Ellis, Glen Adams, Dave Barker and more. It’s a 2LP and 2CD joint, and well worth getting for the limited yellow vinyl too.
C85
Having cannily imagined what the iconic C86 compilation (and the book about the tape by Nige Tassell is a must-read) may’ve sounded like had it continued into the early ’90s, we now have the opportunity to see what a C85 might have looked like. Across the 3CD set there are 72 tracks featuring shambling action from turns such as The Jesus And Mary Chain, That Petrol Emotion, Meat Whiplash, Bogshed, Bob Hope To Die, Brilliant Corners, Chesterfields, The Stone Roses and Stitched-Back Foot Airman. It is, admittedly, a lot to take on in one big swoop, but a disc a day will make your fringe a-sway!
Detroit Artists Workshop
Released officially in conjunction with John Sinclair and the various artists and estates, Detroit Artists Workshop: Community, Jazz & Art… 1965-1981 is a wild ride for any art jazz fan, featuring previously unreleased and remastered recordings by Donald Byrd, Charles Moore, Ron English, Lyman Woodard, Bennie Maupin and Teddy Harris. The package is accompanied by extensive sleeve notes from Sinclair, Robin Eichele and Herb Boyd alongside rare and unseen photos. It’s a 2LP or 1CD cavalcade of far outness, which is worth the price alone for the full 10 minutes of English’s Bees banger.
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Right. That’s October out of the way. I’ll see you next month after I’ve had a birthday and hopefully we’ve not been nuked out of existence. What delights does it hold? Well, my rough list says The Cure, Steely Dan, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Ride, Seal, Guns & Roses, Prodigy, PJ Harvey, The Human League, These Animal Men and That Petrol Emotion. As ever, hit me with cock pics and plaudits on Twitter @wadeywade. Cheerio.
The Beatles MP3s or CDs
The Beatles on Spotify
