by Adrian Thrills Box set bonanza!
Remastered classics you can’t miss
GEORGE MICHAEL: Listen Without Prejudice/ MTV Unplugged (Sony)
HAILED by Elton John as a masterpiece, George Michael’s second solo album sounded the death knell for Eighties’ pop when it was first released in 1990. Dispensing with synthetic sounds in favour of more organic instrumentation, its piano-dominated tunes were the work of a singer- songwriter at the top of his game — and this reissue reiterates its enduring quality.
Out today as a double CD (£10), four-disc edition (£30) and on vinyl (£18), Listen Without Prejudice found Michael confounding his American critics, who had accused him of simply plundering Stateside R&B, by broadening his palate to embrace classic British pop, too.
He looked to John Lennon for inspiration on Praying For Time, laid bare his admiration for Paul McCartney on Heal The Pain and referenced the Stones on Waiting For That Day.
This new package is enhanced by an MTV concert from 1996 that captures a consummate live performer who never used auto-tune to enhance his soulful voice. The only blot is a gimmicky revamp of 1990’s Fantasy by the usually reliable Nile Rodgers. ★★★★★
THE SMITHS: The Queen Is Dead (Warner Music)
UNDER pressure to come up with a blockbuster to cement their status as the best British band of their day, The Smiths duly delivered with The Queen Is Dead.
Expanded and remastered — the first time the band’s back catalogue has been revisited in this way — it remains a tour de force. Out today as a double CD (£13), four-disc package (£30) and five-album box of vinyl (£70), the album is boosted by a U.S. live show, plus scratchy, but revealing, demo recordings.
‘This is as exciting and direct a rock record as we are likely to hear this year,’ I said in an NME review of the album in 1986, and its brilliance has stood the test of time. ★★★★★
DAVID BOWIE: A New Career In A New Town (Parlophone)
‘THERE’S old wave, there’s new wave, and there’s David Bowie,’ ran RCA’s promotional blurb for Bowie’s Heroes in 1977 — and many fans hold up the singer’s sojourn in Berlin, which also yielded Low and Lodger, as the pinnacle of his career.
The third in a series of lavish box sets, A New Career In A New Town focuses on the Berlin trilogy plus 1980’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps). Out on CD (£100) and vinyl (£223.20), it’s bolstered by rarities and live material. ★★★✩✩
THE ROLLING STONES: Their Satanic Majesties Request (Abkco)
ONE for the dedicated fan, this reissue of the Stones’ only detour into psychedelia is notable partly for its recreation of Michael Cooper’s original 3-D lenticular sleeve, on which Mick Jagger and company would move their heads whenever the cover was tilted.
First out in 1967, the album was a messy response to The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper, and it was no surprise when the Stones went back to the blues with Jumpin’ Jack Flash a few months later.
For all that, the record has become a guilty pleasure for some, and this package (two vinyl LPs and two CDs for £69) has its moments — the charming She’s A Rainbow being one. ★★★✩✩