RECORD STORE DAY IS HERE AGAIN! BUT WHAT’S UP FOR GRABS?
THE SHOPS ARE open, spring is in the air, and the record buyer’s thoughts turn to, well – records. Luckily, it’s Record Store Day again on April 23, so what are the limited-edition, super-covetable releases to look out for, and what trends can be gleaned from the combined efforts of the dozens of labels involved?
First up, the big guns have anniversaries to mark. The Rolling Stones’ More Hot Rocks
(Big Hits & Fazed Cookies) (UMC/ ABKCO) gets a 50th-anniversary refresh on double coloured vinyl with embossed Gered Mankowitz litho prints. Joni Mitchell’s Blue 50: Demos, Outtakes And Live Tracks From Joni Mitchell Archives,
Vol. 2 (Rhino) is a single 180-gram LP pick of rarities from last year’s archive box. Repressed on vinyl for the first time since ’72, Dusty Springfield’s See All Her Faces
(UMC/Mercury) gets a five-decade double-disc expansion with out-takes and extra tracks.
T. Rex’s The Slider (Demon) marks half a century with a fetching picture disc, while a 40th-anniversary edition of Dire Straits’ Love Over Gold (UMC/ Mercury) is a half-speed master to benefit the War Child charity.
Other anniversaries are less strictly observed. The Doors’
4-LP L.A. Woman Sessions (Rhino) reveals song-by-song in-studio development of the group’s 1971 farewell, including a Riders On The Storm demo with soon-toquit producer Paul Rothschild. A new iteration of Stevie Nicks’
1981 LP Bella Donna (Rhino) adds bonuses never released on vinyl before, while a repress of
Groundhogs’ Hogwash (Fire) has its original 1971 tri-fold sleeve restored and gets an extra disc of live album tracks from a BBC In Concert broadcast. Lou Reed’s I’m So
Free: 1971 RCA Demos (Sony CMG) is a favourites-heavy, first-time-on-album document of Lou’s first solo session.
The mysterious frisson of coloured vinyl is, as ever, well represented. Blur’s Bustin’ +
Dronin’ (Parlophone) is reborn on double blue and green LP with a replica Japanese OBI strip, while Soul Jazz Records make super-fine comps Betty Harris: The Lost Queen Of New Orleans Soul
and Studio One Classics re-available on green and purple wax respectively. Scott Walker’s solo
comp Boy Child (UMC) gets expanded onto two 180-gram white albums with new notes from Jarvis Cocker, while The League Unlimited Orchestra’s 1982 remix classic Love And
Dancing (UMC) gets the half-speed treatment and a white vinyl makeover. At 40, The Who’s It’s Hard (UMC/ Polydor) gets expanded on orange and yellow vinyl.
Elsewhere, archival compilations become fully-fledged LPs in their own right. Pearls Before Swine’s The Exaltation Of Tom Rapp
(Earth) collects unreleased recordings and rarities from the psych-folk cult. Karen Dalton’s
Shuckin’ Sugar (Delmore Recording Society) selects from three 1963 reel-to-reel tapes, with Dalton singing solo and in duet with Richard Tucker. Including seven never-heard songs, it’s pressed by Third Man on “transparent, natural vinyl.” Sandy Denny’s two-LP The Early
Home Recordings (Earth) sees 27 pre-Fairport cuts appear on vinyl, including two versions of Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Denny can also be heard singing her signature song for the last time on Gold Dust Live At
The Royalty (UMC/Island), where her final gig from 1977 makes its vinyl debut. Her husband, bandmate and producer Trevor Lucas’s long-lost 1966 LP
Overlander (Earth) also gets an RSD reissue.
This year, the noble 7-inch single remains an essential format. Five 45s by Ronnie Wood’s first group The Birds are boxed as The Birds Ride Again
(Flood Gallery), while from Blondie, the Sunday Girl EP (UMC/Capitol) is a 7-inch double-pack featuring the original 1979 hit version and the French version (on red wax), and the ’78 demo and a live ’79 version on a second yellow disc. Foo Fighters’ Making A Fire (Mark Ronson Re-Version) b/w Chasing Birds (Preservation Hall Jazz Band Re-Version) (Columbia) finds Grohl’s musical pals covering Medicine At Midnight tracks. On 10-inch, David Bowie’s Toy EP collects rarities from 2000, while four-track 12-inch Brilliant Adventure features unheard material from the Outside era (both Parlophone). Newly upgraded to 12-inch, U2’s A Celebration (UMC/Island) adds two unreleased takes to the 1982 original. Turning singles back into albums, conversely, is Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Altered Reels (UMC), which collects the capricious, lunatic “cassingles” for big hits
Relax and Two Tribes.
The live LPs are also tempting this year. Laura Nyro’s Trees Of The Ages: Laura Nyro Live In
Japan (Omnivore) was previously a 2003 Japanese CD-only release of 1994 performances in Tokyo and Osaka, while Grateful Dead’s Wembley Empire Pool, London, England
4/8/72 (Rhino) comes on five LPs in a ‘Two Piece Telescope Box.’ Jefferson Airplane Live At The Monterey International Pop
Festival (The Monterey International Pop Festival Foundation) sees a first vinyl release for this 1967 show.
It’s fair to say live jazz aficionados will feel catered to.
Revelations (Elemental Music) is a 5-LP, illustrated and annotated document of two French gigs by free jazz sax colossus Albert Ayler, recorded just months before his death in 1970. Resonance release two Bill Evans Buenos Aires sets from 1973 and ’79 officially for the first time, mastered by Bernie Grundman, who also does the honours on Charles Mingus’s 3-LP, 1972-recorded The Lost Album From Ronnie Scott’s
(Resonance).
There are also movie soundtracks of note: Angelo
Badalamenti’s OST to David Lynch’s 1986 masterpiece Blue
Velvet (Concord/UMG) is expanded with an hour of extra and alternative cues on ‘Marbleized Blue’ vinyl, while Ennio Morricone works including Una Pistola Per Ringo/Il Ritorno Di
Ringo (BTF) and Trio Infernale (Rustblade) are available on a variety of vinyl hues. Bruno Nicolai’s “sensual, deranged” score La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette
Volte (Decca/CAM Sugar) is inevitably on ‘Blood Red Vinyl.’ Hip-hop OST Breakin’ (Get On Down), by contrast, comes in a ‘Coke Bottle Clear Pressing.’
Other RSD initiatives include a 15th-anniversary limited-edition turntable from Rega, available on the day, and numerous grassroots larks across the nation, such as Shrubs & Dubs of Hackney giving away a shrub with RSD purchases (see the RSD site for more incentives to get out and mingle). Finally, does a book count for RSD? It does if it’s Jonny Trunk’s A-Z Of Record Shop Bags (Fuel). It’s a nostalgic, fascinating trawl of more than 500 carrier bags from the ’40s to the ’90s, from Rumbelows to Muzik City. Time to get some bags, as well as records, to treasure.
“Bruno Nicolai’s ‘sensual, deranged’ film score is inevitably on ‘Blood Red Vinyl.’”