Time to hail the notso-humble box set...
The latest music retrospectives offer a wealth of classic material from music’s biggest stars with a few surprises thrown in too
JOHN LENNON’S second solo album is painstakingly tweaked, remastered and expanded in this lavish new package. Recorded in 1971 in the Ascot mansion he shared with Yoko Ono — who has overseen this reissue by adding a little clarity to John’s vocals — it remains a tremendous record.
Subtitled The Ultimate Collection and out today as a single CD (€13), double CD (€24), double vinyl LP (€46) and sprawling sixdisc box set (€85, all goldendiscs.
ie), it captures the cordial and caustic sides of Lennon. The title track has become ubiquitous, but the 15 different versions on the box set are excessive.
Lennon’s humour is to the fore on Crippled Inside, a song dubbed ‘corny country’ by the singer, and he pulls no punches in his assessment of Paul McCartney (although he did later apologise) on the powerful funk-rocker How Do You Sleep?: ‘The only thing you done was yesterday.’
ARETHA FRANKLIN: Atlantic Singles Collection 1967-1970 (Rhino)
THIS tribute to Aretha was intended as a sequel to last year’s symphonic A Brand New Me and was on the release schedule before the Queen of Soul’s death in August. Out as a CD (€8) and vinyl LP (€15), it chronicles her rise to the top.
Having paid her dues on the gospel circuit, Franklin was 25 when she joined the Atlantic roster in 1967 and the deal was seen as her last chance of wider success. Beginning with her first hit, I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You), she grabbed it with both hands.
The period covered here saw her become one of the greats, her range and her versatility undeniable. In addition to hits such as Respect — an Otis Redding standard transformed into a strident feminist anthem — it features two Beatles covers that showcased Aretha’s ability to transcend genres: her funky take on Eleanor Rigby is astonishing; Let It Be has never sounded more hymn-like.
BOBBIE GENTRY: The Girl From Chickasaw County (UMC)
BOBBIE GENTRY turned Mississippi’s Tallahatchie Bridge into a musical landmark when she used the unheralded river crossing as the backdrop to her mysterious 1967 hit Ode To Billie Joe. She also topped the US charts with the song, despite its basic production and lack of any discernible chorus.
But the former Las Vegas chorus girl never fully capitalised on that early break, and disappeared from the public eye in 1981.
This eight-disc CD retrospective (€95) is a fitting tribute. Gentry’s alluringly dusky voice and detailed character sketches placed her at odds with her more confessional female peers, but she was an accomplished artist whose selfproduced songs shifted between country, folk and pop.
Highlights include a Spanish revamp of her chart-topper I’ll Never Fall In Love Again and the swaggering country-soul number Fancy, a 1970 story-song celebrating a New Orleans woman who was ‘born plain white trash … but Fancy was my name’.
TOM PETTY: An American Treasure (Reprise)
LOVINGLY curated by his wife Dana, daughter Adria and bandmates Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, this wide-ranging collection is a fine tribute to a Florida insurance salesman’s son who was a distinctive voice in American rock for four decades.
Out as a double CD (€16) and four-disc set (€26) — with a vinyl edition (€130) to follow on November 23 — it frames Petty, who died after a cardiac arrest last year, as a musical giant whose brilliantly realised songs were deeper than they sometimes first appeared.
Album tracks mingle with unreleased songs with Stevie Nicks dueting on Insider.
LED ZEPPELIN: The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song)
SAVAGED when it was first released in 1976, this soundtrack to a Led Zeppelin concert film has aged better than expected. Taken from a three-night residency at New York’s Madison Square Garden in July 1973, it has now been repackaged as a double CD (€22), four-disc vinyl set (€125) and ‘super deluxe’ box (€300).
Stodgy in places, the record lacks the freshness of its sister live album How The West Was Won (re-released in March), but it still reiterates the scope of a brilliant live band.
Lauded as the hell-raising pioneers of heavy rock, Led Zep could also deliver softer moments. Five decades on from their live debut, the band are also the subject of two new digital-only releases: Led Zeppelin x Led Zeppelin is a 30-track download (€13.70); An Introduction To … (€10) is a perfect entry point.
KATIE MELUA: Ultimate Collection (BMG)
THE easy-listening pop queen says she was prompted to compile this ‘best of’ after watching a school concert made up solely of her songs. Whether Katie Melua has the repertoire to sustain such a retrospective is debatable, but this double CD (€22) has some fine moments.
Discovered by impresario Mike Batt, Melua has since loosened her ties with the Womble In Chief. Her soft voice has also matured: the career high point In Winter, made with a female choir from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where Katie was born, features heavily.
Alongside covers such as The Cure’s Just Like Heaven, two new tracks offer interesting pointers. Bridge Over Troubled Water features an orchestra, while Diamonds Are Forever, produced by T. Bone Burnett, is haunting.
PINK FLOYD: A Foot In The Door (Parlophone)
FOR an act that largely avoided singles, Pink Floyd are surprisingly well served by greatest hits albums. Out for the first time on vinyl (€40), this newly-mastered 2011 selection is the perfect primer.
Leaner than 2001’s Echoes, it includes 1967’s psychedelic See Emily Play and focuses strongly on tracks from Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall, the albums that turned Floyd from moderately successful progressive rockers into world-beaters.