If you're in the U.S. and are heading to Target after work for a few household items, you might want to keep an eye out for two recent hit albums, both newly expanded in sets exclusive to the retail chain.
First up, a familiar expansion of last year's biggest album, 21, by British soul singer Adele. Unless you've been living underneath a rock for the past year, you know that the 21-year-old Grammy Award winner for Best New Artist has had a precedent-shattering year with this record. In an age where it's a surprise if albums go platinum (meaning, of course, a million units shipped), 21 has gone six times platinum, has spent 46 weeks in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200 as of this writing (it's been out for 47 weeks) and has been the No. 1 album in the country for 16 nonconsecutive weeks, a feat most recently matched by the soundtrack to Titanic in 1997 and 1998. And singles "Rolling in the Deep" and "Someone Like You" spent a combined 12 weeks atop Billboard's Hot 100.
A Target-exclusive deluxe edition was in fact already released alongside the initial pressing of the album, featuring four live bonus tracks (including a duet of country group Lady Antebellum's hit "Need You Now" with Darius Rucker, onetime lead singer of Hootie and The Blowfish and now a country star in his own right). But it wasn't long before copies were impossible to come by; so, with the 54th Grammy Awards fast approaching in February (where Adele and 21 are nominated for six trophies), the store has ordered up a second pressing of the deluxe edition.
But that's not all! A modern country performer and television star gets expanded with an '80s twist after the jump.
Target's also seeing an expansion of Red River Blue, the sixth album by country performer Blake Shelton. Shelton, a longtime star in Nashville, earned points for his charming voice, rugged good looks and crossover sensibility (as evidenced in a great cover of pop crooner Michael Bublé's "Home" in 2008. The chart-topping Red River Blue, released hot off the release his first proper greatest hits compilation, Loaded: The Best of Blake Shelton (2010), featured two country No. 1 singles, "Honey Bee" and "God Gave Me You."
The new deluxe edition adds only one bonus track - a rip-roaring country cover of Kenny Loggins' "Footloose" that closed out the remake of the film as released last fall - but it also offers fans a special, nonmusical treat: a T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan "Team Blake" - a reference to Shelton's secondary career as a judge on NBC's musical competition The Voice alongside Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and Cee Lo Green. (Naturally, The Voice's second season premiere is imminent, following the telecast of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5.)
Both packages are out today and can be ordered on Target's online store as well. Keep reading to find those links and full track lists for each.
Adele, 21: Deluxe Edition (XL Recordings 88697 82734-2, 2011 - reissued 2012)
Disc 1: Original album (released as XL Recordings 88697 44699-2, 2011)
- Rolling in the Deep
- Rumour Has It
- Turning Tables
- Don't You Remember
- Set Fire to the Rain
- He Won't Go
- Take It All
- I'll Be Waiting
- One and Only
- Lovesong
- Someone Like You
Disc 2: Bonus disc
- Need You Now (with Darius Rucker) (Live @ the CMT Artist of the Year Awards - December 2010)
- Someone Like You (Live Acoustic)
- Turning Tables (Live Acoustic)
- Don't You Remember (Live Acoustic)
Blake Shelton, Red River Blue: Deluxe Edition (originally released as Warner Bros. Records 527370-2, 2011)
- Honey Bee
- Ready to Roll
- God Gave Me You
- Get Some
- Drink on It
- Good Ol' Boys
- I'm Sorry (featuring Martina McBride)
- Sunny in Seattle
- Over
- Hey
- Red River Blue (featuring Miranda Lewis)
- Footloose (from Footloose: Music from the Motion Picture - Atlantic 528899-2, 2011)
I so, so *so* hate when they do these exclusives. It's just so rude to the consumer who already bought the previous edition(s).
In another generation, an artist like Adele would - by this stage in her career - have up to a dozen albums out, and would continue to roll. At the pace of issues from artists these days, which can trickle down to one release every 4-6 years, Adele may end up having only a handful of albums over her entire career.
The companies push this by doing many of these modified reissues. Instead, they should allow artists to be prolific. There is an advantage in increasing an artists output. Not every song will be outstanding, but the gems emerge, and artists will leave a great legacy to be explored for many years.
If Sinatra, Dylan, Elvis, Johnny Cash had been part of this newer approach, each of them would have left us with only a few albums, and we all would have lost a great deal.
Kevin - BRAVO! That is SO so on the mark. It costs the record company less to rehash and rerelease expanded, remixed, whatever than it would if they paid the artist money for new product and potentially run them through their contractual obligations. It is a shame - the whole business is rotten these days! Thank god for THE SECOND DISC to keep us in the know on all these great remasters!
It is so distressing to look at the shelf of a recent artist already beyond mid-career and advancing rapidly in age and see only 5 or 6 albums. Then you look over at the shelf of a great artist of yesteryear and see 100 plus albums. You know you are missing ALOT. Why? Modern marketing. The musicians themselves are just as creative. They are stifled by the companies. Think of all of that missing music. Given some liberty, the music that they might have released would probably have been even better than fussed over, heavily produced product of today.
Incidentally, I purchased the Target Exclusive of Blake Shelton's "Red River Blue." After the bonus track of "Footloose," it also features four bonus instrumental/"karaoke" versions of:
13. Honey Bee (Instrumental/Karaoke Version)
14. God Gave Me You (Instrumental/Karaoke Version)
15. Drink On It (Instrumental/Karaoke Version)
16. Footloose (From the Soundtrack "Footloose") [Instrumental/Karaoke Version]
Actually iTunes/Gracenote did not recognize any of the song titles for this Target Exclusive version. I had to manually type them in and, as for the bonus songs, listen to them to see which ones they actually were.
Anyway, hope this helps.