TOP REISSUES OF 2020
With a stack of major anniversaries and desirable compilations coming out this year we were spoiled for choice. Here are some definitely worth the investment.
BLACK SABBATH
Paranoid Super Deluxe BMG
What we said: “Fiftiethanniversary five-LP/ four-CD edition of a metal landmark, expanded with live recordings. This was never a band relying solely on bludgeoning riffs and Beelzebub. Contrary to stereotype, Sabbath always displayed intriguing prog tendencies and an ear for the atmospheric… The August 1970 Casino De Montreux performance begins with the sound of feedback and of nails being hammered, presumably into the stage. The filthy fuzz of Tony Iommi’s riffs is a visceral joy.”
MOTÖRHEAD
Ace Of Spades (Deluxe Box) BMG
What we said: “This 40th-anniversary reissue of Motörhead’s seminal Ace Of Spades album comprises 73 tracks. That’s 73 grizzled, glorious, gut-busting slabs of full-on rock’n’roll. And as great as the original studio album is, you ain’t lived until you’ve heard this box set’s two double live albums taken from the Ace Up Your Sleeve tour… or the double album of outtakes and rare tracks, including an alternative version of Ace Of Spades that nearly beats the original.”
UFO
Strangers In The Night CHRYSALIS
What we said: “This eight-disc set, covering various cities and sets on that [1978] tour, somehow manages to improve on perfection. The new, judiciously detailed packaging (with excellent liner notes from Michael Hann) is to be applauded… A very welcome reminder that at one point in time UFO were at the very apex of creativity and as performers, and always just a heartbeat away from the wheels coming off.”
ELTON JOHN
Elton: Jewel Box UMI
What we said: “A 148track, eight-CD set, two minutes short of 10 hours (cherry-picking vinyl versions are available), Elton: Jewel Box is every bit the treasure trove for fans that it aims to be, gathering a cornucopia of rarities, previously unreleased tracks and deep cuts that indicate Elton’s own favourite career moments. Offering gems, misfires and revelations, it’s an absorbing opening of the vaults.”
THIN LIZZY
Rock Legends UMC
What we said: “The bootlegs have been out there for years, YouTube clips too, Thin Lizzy recordings that were never officially released. Demos of classic songs, rough takes of other tracks that missed the cut for albums. Now, in this box set 10 years in the making, the best of all this is collected, along with some material never previously heard outside of the band’s inner circle.”
SLADE
Cum On Feel The Hitz BMG
What we said: “It’s double, it’s vinyl, it’s got all the hits, everything’s correctly misspelled, and on the cover Dave Hill appears to be wearing some sort of bra made out of gilded tortoises. You’d have to be an idiot not to buy it.”
THE STOOGES
Fun House (50thAnniversary) RHINO
What we said: “The Stooges’ second album is a beautiful thing; a seven-track study in the feral and unhinged. The 1,970 punters who manage to acquire this set (for 325 quid) get 15 180g slabs of vinyl – the original album over two 45 rpm 12-inch discs, the second of which is etched, the complete sessions across a dozen more discs, two replica seven-inch singles, a 28-page book, two posters, two prints, a slip-mat and a 45-adaptor.”
DEF LEPPARD
The Early Years 79-81 UMC/VIRGIN
What we said:
“Remasters of first two albums – On Through The Night and High ’N’ Dry – were included in the 2018 box set Rock Of Ages Vol 1. But the considerable carrot/ excuse for buying them again now are this new box set’s three bonus CDs: a live set from the tour for Leppard’s first album, and two discs of collectables.”
MARILLION
Script For A Jester’s Tear PARLOPHONE
What we said: “Script For A Jester’s Tear was the album that built the beast, and, following deluxe reissues of Brave, Misplaced Childhood and Afraid Of Sunlight, it’s that debut album’s turn to be given a polish and an update. The Deluxe Edition is rounded off by a quite brilliant live set recorded a few months before the album’s release, at one of the band’s spiritual homes, the legendary Marquee on London’s Wardour Street. Marvellous times.”
THE ROLLING STONES
Goats Head Soup UNIVERSAL
What we said:
“A remastered, multiformat edition of the band’s 1973 classic, with previously unheard tracks. After 47 years in the vaults it has no right to still sound so fresh. Their creative studio peak might have been (just) behind them, but for a taste of the Stones at their down-anddirtiest Goats Head Soup will always be the dish of the day.”
RUSH Permanent Waves 40th anniversary ANTHEM/UME
What we said: “This lavish reissue has added poignancy, being the first major one since we lost drummer/lyricist Neil Peart, and Permanent Waves is the album that redefined who and what Rush were as a band. The 2015 remaster of the original gleams brilliantly… and comes in four different editions, including a 180-gram vinyl one.”
IGGY POP The Bowie Years UME
What we said: “1977’s twin towers [The Idiot and Lust For Life] Bowiebranded and with familiar extras… Nothing should detract from these two glorious studio landmarks, or the fact that had Bowie not enabled them, Iggy might not have marinated into today’s much-loved punk godfather, artisan and raconteur.”
TOM PETTY Wildflowers & All The Rest WARNER
What we said: “Petty’s second solo album is now available as a twoCD or three-LP set, box or deluxe edition, the latter including a necklace. The box set features a collection of Petty’s wholly solo home recordings, and an 11-song live set… There’s a lot to take in, but Petty was at one of his many peaks and this is worth luxuriating in.”
NEIL YOUNG Homegrown REPRISE
What we said: “Young’s legendary lost album resurfaces 45 years later. The familiar material remains stark and beautiful. While White Line’s ‘That old white line is a friend of mine’ speaks for itself, Emmylou Harris is glowing on Star Of Bethlehem, and Love Is A Rose is jauntiness itself. Of the more unfamiliar, Florida is atonal spoken-word indulgence, but there’s gold to be mined from this self-lacerating despair.”
IRON MAIDEN Iron Maiden (40th Anniversary) PARLOPHONE
What we said: “This vinyl edition comes as a picture disc, offering the dubious pleasure of watching Eddie’s snarling face spinning menacingly as it plays. While no bonus material has been added, the original album remains as thrilling as it always was. The energy and streetwise aggression is undeniable, and in their first great songs – Running Free, Phantom Of The Opera, Iron Maiden – a legend was born.”
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Cosmo’s Factory CRAFT
What we said: “The 50th-anniversary vinyl edition of an American classic, now newly remastered. Topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in 1970, Cosmo’s Factory pulled off the enviable feat of being both an artistic and commercial success. More importantly, perhaps, it also dispelled the tired myth that CCR were just a great singles band.”
KING CRIMSON The Complete 1969 Recordings PANEGYRIC
What we said: “This epic 26-disc box set tells the story of In The Court Of The Crimson King, one of the most audacious debut albums ever released. Seven of the CDs focus on King Crimson’s live work, which here includes their festival debut as unlikely openers for the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park. Steven Wilson sprinkles his magic dust over the original album, while the recording sessions – complete with in-studio dialogue and alternative versions – are for the Crimson hard-core.”
THE GRATEFUL DEAD Workingman's Dead (50thAnniversary) RHINO
What we said: “This package finds the Dead at their most fertile and inventive. The original album, remixed and remastered to perfection, comes with a complete contemporary concert from 1971 that includes pieces from follow-up album American Beauty, while unveiling live versions of the epic songs Bertha, Wharf Rat and guitarist/vocalist Bob Weir’s bible-bash Greatest Story Ever Told that appeared on his debut solo record Ace.”
DEREK AND THE DOMINOS Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs (50th Anniversary Edition) UME/POLYDOR
What we said: “Derek And The Dominos’ ever-astonishing sole studio album is celebrated, with halfspeed mastering enhancing its dense, skyscraper catharsis and majestic blues on double vinyl. Packages include the 40th-anniversary set’s extras debut on double wax, including
Phil Spector’s punk-speed single version of Tell The Truth, and the band’s TV appearance on The Johnny Cash Show that unveiled the wasted optimism of Got To Get Better In A Little While.”
BE-BOP DELUXE Axe Victim CHERRY RED
What we said:
“A schizoid sprawl of glammed-up histrionics, prog, blues and folkedup rumination, Bill Nelson’s BBD debut was a bold but unfocused opening statement. This lavish multi-format reissue features a full duplicate copy of the album, newly remastered in 5.1 surround sound stereo. The limited-edition four-disc box set also includes two John Peel sessions from 1973 and 1974, one previously unreleased.”
JOHN LENNON Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Mixes CAPITOL/UME
What we said: “These now achingly familiar songs never sounded so good. Remixed top to tail by Paul Hicks, its 36 cuts were selected by Yoko and son Sean to tell John’s postBeatles story and illustrate his many facets, thus turning their eternal grief into an immaculately packaged multi-format tribute (Deluxe includes a 124-page book telling the songs’ stories, plus previously unseen photos and archive memorabilia).”
OZZY OSBOURNE Blizzard Of Ozz (40thAnniversary) SONY/LEGACY
What we said: “Blizzard Of Ozz framed Ozzy’s unique voice in a modern, post-Sabbath context… Marking its fortieth anniversary, the album has now been reissued on suitably garish black/red swirl vinyl, with the expanded digital version adding bonus (but previously released) material, including live tracks from the Blizzard tour and the fastfingered Randy Rhoads solo RR – his answer to Eddie Van Halen’s Eruption.”
THE DOORS Morrison Hotel (50th Anniversary Edition) RHINO
What we said:
“Remastered by original engineer Bruce Botnick, this 50th-anniversary reissue features an hourplus of out-takes that track the evolution of their Bakersfield trip to Roadhouse Blues, Peace Frog (originally a poem in Morrison’s Abortion Stories chronicle) and the downbeat Blue Sunday. It’s all cracking stuff.”