- Queen have confirmed their last batch of expanded studio albums - The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, Innuendo and Made in Heaven - to be released in the U.K. on September 5 from Island/UMC. Another Deep Cuts compilation will be released as well, as seen above; neither that set nor the bonus material have gotten confirmed track lists. Note that all 15 remastered studio albums will be out before the second batch of reissues hit American shelves.
- It usually pains me to agree with Nine Inch Nails honcho Trent Reznor - the musician who rallied so hard against the superficiality of the Grammys had no problem picking up an Oscar for the score to The Social Network last year - but his latest cause is a particularly worthy one. The musician took to Twitter to urge fans not to buy a recent reissue of Pretty Hate Machine that Universal put out. The set was not sourced from the remastered tapes which were released through UMe last year, nor did the bonus track on said remaster appear. Look, maybe I'm just naive, but what does a label stand to gain from reissuing a catalogue album so soon after re-releasing it in the first place?
- Another one from the "strange tales of the industry" department: the reissue of Megadeth's Peace Sells...But Who's Buying? sold 1,800 copies in its first week. Not sure whether that's worthy of mention, nor if that's even a good number for a major-label catalogue title. I've seen some reports damning that number, but indie reissue labels sometimes limit titles to around that quantity, and you don't see them struggling publicly. The music business doesn't always make sense, is what I'm trying to say.
- Let's end on a happy note, shall we? A nice article about High Moon Records and their upcoming reissues of Love's Black Beauty and Gene Clarke's Two Sides to Every Story. Hooray!
Release Round-Up: Week of November 18
I Want It All: Queen's "The Miracle" Gets Super-Sized in Upcoming Box Set
Grapefruit's "Heroes and Villains" Collects L.A. Sounds of 1965-1968 From The Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, Monkees, Zappa, More
Brian May Goes 'Back to the Light' with Expansion of Solo Debut
So glad I have a store that gets imports and at a decent price.
I saw that reissue of Pretty Hate Machine at Walmart this week. It's got the original "pink and blue" cover and comes in a jewel case, not the enhanced cover/packaging from the remaster. At first I thought it was an older Argentinian import that Walmart carried a few years ago, but then I turned it over and saw "UME 2011" on the back. Why in the WORLD would Universal do this?
My only theory is that they did some market research and found that people didn't like the new cover. But even then, couldn't they just repackage the 2010 remaster with the original cover? Why use the old master?
I'm not interested int he PHM remaster anyway, because my understanding is that it's been remixed as well. That doesn't sit well with me at all. Remastering, fine. Remixing...? No thanks.
With regards to the Megadeth set, if it's the 5CD/3LP set, then it's hardly surprising that it didn't sell more. In fact, I'd say that 1800 copies of such a massive (and presumably expensive!) set would be rather good.