Today, Legacy releases a double-disc edition of Supernatural, the massive comeback album Santana released in 1999. Perhaps more than any catalogue reissue I’ve ever followed, there’s something positively mind-boggling about seeing an album that’s only a decade old – even one that’s a successful, good listen – get the deluxe treatment.
You see, while I have been passionate about reissues for much of my music-collecting life, I’m firmly a part of the generation that went from watching Britney Spears and *NSYNC on Total Request Live before tying up the family phone line by downloading tracks off Napster. I can remember seeing the videos for “Smooth” and “Maria Maria” on VH-1 before my mom drove me to middle school. With those kinds of memories in tow, it’s crazy to think that Supernatural now exists in the same sort of lavishly packaged physical tribute as records such as ZZ Top’s Eliminator or Space Oddity by David Bowie.
But it brings up a good question: as the ’90s and ’00s get further away from us, what LPs will be reissued and expanded to show off what music was like for future generations? Sure, the answer could easily be none of them – by the middle of the last decade, the music business and music fans were at such splintering odds that it seems pointless to think that No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom or Baby One More Time by Britney Spears would ever get a reissue with vault content or well-penned liner notes.
But to paraphrase that Kevin Costner movie, if you build it, they will come. To that end, I ask you, dear reader: what recent album – let’s say anything from 1990 on – do you think deserves a proper deluxe reissue in the coming years?
Rhino’s 10-CD Woodstock Set “Back To the Garden: The 50th Anniversary Experience” Delivers the Goods
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That’s how I felt when Eliminator and other early 80s records came out as deluxe editions.
Oh, and on a semi-related note to your NOW tweets, there was a one-off early in the CD era in the UK called “NOW That’s What I Call CD Music!” before they started releasing the actual NOW comps on CD. I’ve got it (bought it when it was new, ugh) — it’s got Julian Lennon, OMD, Tina Turner and other usual period suspects. It doesn’t get mentioned much — the Wikipedia NOW discography doesn’t even list it.
RHCP “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”…if the vaults contain anything of the same quality.
This may raise a few eyebrows but I’d love to see a deluxe version of Fatboy Slim’s You’ve Come A Long Way Baby. It was easily his best album, and pretty much defined the “big beat” sound. There should be enough b-sides, remixes, and oddities like the “clean” version of “In Heaven” to fill a second disc.
A deluxe box-set devoted to the 1991 Smashing Pumpkins album, “Gish” was announced a couple of years ago, but, like many recent Pumpkins vault announcements, it has yet to come to any fruition–or even any further mention from Billy Corgan.
Well, if there was anything in the vaults, a Deluxe “(What’s the Story) Morning Glory” would be most welcome, as would an expanded “The Soft Bulletin.”
But I agree that it’s much too soon. We still need a Deluxe version of lots of other things first.