THE REISSUES OF THE YEAR
In another year packed with anniversaries, we were spoilt for choice when it came to quality reissues. Here are some of our favourites.
The reissue market continued its lucrative surge this year. Great for the record companies and bands, not always so great for our wallets! In 2019, with many bands celebrating landmark anniversaries, this trend continued, bringing with it a wave of thoughtful remixes, lost classics, celebrated classics and other goodies from artists across the rock spectrum.
JIMI HENDRIX
Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore East Concerts
EXPERIENCE HENDRIX/LEGACY
What we said: “This five-CD package gives us everything: one disc for each of the four shows, the fifth containing encores, all newly mixed by Eddie Kramer, who was working with Jimi at the time. Releasing so much loose and under-rehearsed material might seem like madness. Yet time and again Hendrix conjures sounds from his guitar that make perfect sense of the decision. Even an under-rehearsed Jimi Hendrix remains a treasure.”
THE CULT
Sonic Temple: 30th Anniversary Edition
BEGGARS ARKIVE
What we said: “This 30th anniversary edition comes in a variety of formats, from a five-CD set to standard double vinyl, dependent on both your budget and your appetite for demos, unreleased tracks, alternative mixes and a live recording from Wembley Stadium. Sonic Temple is an event.”
THE ROLLING STONES
Let It Bleed: 50th Anniversary Limited Edition ABKCO
What we said: “Fifty years on, Let It Bleed has lost none of its power to thrill and shock in equal measure. And it all adds up to a fillerfree classic. Containing mono and stereo vinyl versions as well as SACD counterparts, this anniversary edition is bolstered with a mono seven-inch of Honky Tonk Women and an 80-page book illustrated with previously unseen photos.” DAVID BOWIE
Conversation Piece PARLOPHONE What we said: “Box sets have been coming thick and fast since Bowie’s death, but there’s a charming warmth to the rarities and outliers from this early phase. Across five discs there are a dozen unreleased treasures alongside the new, lovingly and knowingly handled Tony Visconti mix of the Space Oddity album, the 1968 BBC radio session and a 1969 DLT session, plus sundry mixes and rough takes.”
THE DAMNED
Black Is The Night
BMG What we said: “Why not celebrate with a 39-track greatest hits? Unbound from strict chronology, Black Is The Night’s tracklist has been chosen by the band and just keeps on giving. It’s easy to underrate the Damned, but impossible to overrate them.”
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
The Best Of Everything
UMC/ISLAND What we said: “Curated by the singer’s family and closest musical associates, it combines Heartbreakers classics and solo hits with a few tracks recorded during his sentimental reunion with first band Mudcrutch. For those who always wanted Petty’s best songs all in one place, this collection – remastered from the original stereo tapes – ticks all the boxes.”
THE BAND
The Band: 50th Anniversary Edition.
UMC What we said: “This lovingly crafted remastered version includes a slew of hitherto unreleased takes. There’s also the set they played at Woodstock a few weeks before The Band’s release. And while they didn’t actually play anything from it, their Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was rock-soul in excelsis. For all their studio subtleties, they could rock with the best of them.”
STRAY CATS
Runaway Boys Deluxe Vinyl Box Set
BMG What we said: “What you have here is lashings of sleaze, walking bass and minimal guitar solos, best shown off on the provocative US hit single (She’s) Sexy + 17 and tear-jerker I Won’t Stand In Your Way. The four-vinyl set includes their first three albums, an LP of rare tracks, a 40-page booklet, and a board game where you race to have a rumble in Brighton.”
THE DOORS
The Soft Parade: 50thAnniversary
RHINO What we said: “Previously remastered by Bruce Botnick for 1999 and 2007 reissues, his brightest spruce-up yet highlights The Doors’ virtuosity, although the album remains contentious in original form. The main draw will be disc two’s orchestrally denuded band versions of Tell All The People, Touch Me and more; powerfully intimate now they’re allowed to breathe.”
RONNIE LANE
Just For A Moment 1973-1997
UNIVERSAL What we said: “A sixCD box set of all Lane’s albums, complete with hardback book and poster, does him justice, with stacks of previously unreleased material, BBC live sessions, a Rockpalast concert and tracks recorded when he moved to America.”
WHITESNAKE
Slip Of The Tongue: 30th Anniversary Edition
RHINO What we said: “Fittingly for such an overwrought piece of work, a new Super Deluxe edition box set is a seven-disc bonanza of epic proportions. The box set has the real bounty – out-takes, jams, extended interviews and, in the naughtily titled Liquor And Poker, Coverdale crooning: ‘Who gives a fucking shit?’ his tongue firmly in his cheek, as it’s always been.”
GONG
Love From The Planet Gong: The Vigin Years 1973-75
UMC
What we said: “Seventy per cent of the box set consists of previously unreleased out-takes, alternative mixes, BBC radio sessions and complete live shows, enhanced by lyric book and another containing previously unseen artwork from Daevid Allen’s archive.”
THE KINKS
Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire: 50th Anniversary Ed
BMG What we said: “Along with a remastered version of the original album, there are 28 previously unreleased mixes as well as Dave Davies’s quite brilliant ‘lost’ solo album from 1968. Even more intriguing is a previously unreleased medley of Ray’s home demos. Throw in two new recordings of Ray with the Doo Wop Choir, and a memorabilia packed 68-page book, and the result will have Kink-o-holics weeping with joy.”
MOTÖRHEAD
Deluxe Reissues + 1979 Box Set
BMG What we said: “The new deluxe editions of both Overkill and Bomber come in hardbound book format each with a previously unreleased concert recording from the relevant tour. The box set has all of this and more, notably a bonus disc of rare tracks and out-takes, repro memorabilia and a 40-page music mag revisiting the heady days of ’79. The box itself is designed like a black biker jacket – so very Motörhead.”
JOHN LEE HOOKER
The Country Blues Of…
CRAFT/UMC What we said: “Hooker had never sounded like he does on Country Blues, guitar unplugged for pin-drop punctuation. Even if Craft Records’ blurb for this record repeats that hoary myth that the songs on Country Blues came from travels that never happened, their quality replication in the original sleeve makes a fine, genre-defining artefact.”
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL
Live At Woodstock
CRAFT What we said: “Three classic albums in a 12-month stretch, and Woodstock should have been the crowning glory. But John Fogerty wasn’t happy with CCR’s performance and pulled it from both the soundtrack album and film. Fifty years on, it’s difficult to fathom what his problem might have been.”
VARIOUS
Optimism/Reject Punk & Post-Punk Meets D-I-Y Aesthetic
CHERRY RED What we said: “The cumulative effect of these 105 songs is like an extraordinary jukebox, each single a telegram from tiny islands which linked up to become an archipelago of musical innovation. A brilliant collection that’s more like a box of grenades than an archive.”
DEF LEPPARD
Volume Two (Vinyl Box)
UMC/PARLOPHONE What we said: “Encyclopaedic boxed vinyl round-up of a turbulent decade for Leppard. Volume Two is the sound of a band emerging through tragedy and from under the weight of expectations hanging over them at the end of the 80s to thrive, adapt and ultimately emerge victorious.”
VARIOUS
Woodstock 50: Back To The Garden
RHINO What we said: “The behemoth 38-disc version comes in a plywoodand-canvas box, is limited to 1,969 copies, and includes every complete set from the festival, the movie on Blu-ray, Michael Lang’s book, replica memorabilia and more; 433 tracks lasting 36 hours.”
IAN DURY
Do It Yourself 40th Anniversary
EDSEL What we said: “Forty years on, these more meditative songs have weathered well, while a raft of extras, including live footage from a BBC Rock Goes To College appearance from 1979 and a booklet where Phill Jupitus recounts his efforts to own a copy of all 34 wallpaper themed vinyl editions are reasons to make any diehard Blockheads fan cheerful.”
RORY GALLAGHER
Blues
CHESS/UMC
What we said: “Following the release of five albums of material from the vaults, a cynic might expect to hear barrel-scraping on a new 36-track, three-CD Gallagher set. But no. The famously fussy Rory might have passed on most of this, but his nephew Daniel and brother/manager Donal (Daniel’s father) can be satisfied that they have again done the Cork man proud.”
THE BEATLES
The Beatles: 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
APPLE What we said: “The original album, remastered by a team co-headed by George Martin’s son Giles, is presented with a freshness and immediacy that makes a mockery of the passage of half a century. The two CDs of sessions and demos are a revealing trove.”
JOHNNY THUNDERS
Que Sera, Sera Resurrected
JUNGLE What we said: “Johnny Thunders was one of the special ones, a pirate pocket dynamo sizzling with rock’s primal essence, rare charisma and ferocious chops. The second disc presents out-takes, alternative versions and five live tracks. The scorching guitar salvo on Blame It On Mom shows how dazzling Thunders could be on his night.”
BE-BOP DELUXE
Futurama: Expanded & Remastered
ESOTERIC
What we said: “This expanded edition, compiled with some care, adds some new stereo mixes, and also a disc of BBC sessions and live material which will give the listener not only a great deal of ear fun but also a real sense of the world in which bands in 1975 operated.”
KEITH RICHARDS
Talk Is Cheap: 30th Anniversary
BMG What we said: “The reissue gets the works. Seven hundred bucks snarfs the signed version in a box crafted by Fender from the same wood as Keith’s trusty Tele (unsigned is less). The deluxe presents the album on vinyl and CD, unreleased extras, two 45s, 80-page hardback book, posters, laminate, lyric sheets and guitar pick. The bonus tracks are a worthy addendum to a scorching set.”