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Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

John Coltrane, The Atlantic Years in Mono (Atlantic/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Rhino’s new box set, available on both CD and LP, includes original mono mixes of Trane’s Giant Steps; Bags & Trane (with Milt Jackson); Ole Coltrane; Coltrane Plays The Blues and The Avant Garde (with Don Cherry) plus one disc of outtakes.  All of these remastered albums are housed in replica jackets and a 32-page booklet is also included with new liner notes by Ashley Kahn and photos by Lee Friedlander.  The CD version has 6 CDs; the 6-LP version adds a bonus 7-inch single of the original “My Favorite Things” 45.)

Charlie Parker, Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes (Verve/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

You might have missed this recent release – the motherlode of unreleased Charlie Parker!  This new 2-CD set from Verve and UMe has a staggering 69 takes from the late saxophone titan of eighteen unique titles including the released master for each song.  Unheard Bird opens a window onto Parker’s creative process with these never-before-released takes dating from his Mercury and Clef period of 1949-1952.  Kevin Reeves has beautifully remastered this collection produced by Harry Weinger and Phil Schaap, and Schaap provides detailed annotations for every track in the 32-page booklet.  Essential listening.

The Beach Boys, Smiley Smile/Sunflower/Surf’s Up/Holland Hybrid Stereo SACDs (Analogue Productions) (All available and in stock from Acoustic Sounds)

Add some music to your day: Analogue Productions concludes its series of Beach Boys hybrid SACDs (playable on all CD players) with this quartet of titles spanning 1967-1973.  The timeless music made by Brian, Mike, Carl, Al, Dennis and Bruce has never sounded better than in this series remastered by Kevin Gray under the supervision of Mark Linett.  200-gram vinyl editions are also coming soon from Analogue Productions.  (Holland on LP will, naturally, include the bonus 7-inch “Mount Vernon and Fairway” as on the original release!)  Smiley Smile features the album in its original mono mix and Linett’s recent stereo mix.

Carly Simon, Hotcakes Hybrid Stereo SACD (Mobile Fidelity) (In stock at Acoustic Sounds)

Carly Simon’s fourth album, featuring “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” and the James Taylor duet “Mockingbird,” arrives on hybrid stereo SACD (playable on all CD players) from Mobile Fidelity!

The Monkees, The Complete TV Series Blu-ray (Rhino) (Available now at monkees.com)

Rhino isn’t monkee-ing around with this one-of-a-kind, limited edition Blu-ray box set, presenting all 58 episodes of the beloved television show, newly remastered in HD from the original negatives for the first time, plus the cult classic film Head, the 1969 special 33-1/3 Revolutions Per Monkee and tons of bonus material including commentaries from all four Monkees, original Kellogg’s commercials, and much more!  This release also has a bonus 7-inch single and a booklet with liner notes, and it’s exclusive to Monkees.com!

The Rave-Ups, Town + Country [Expanded Edition] (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore offers a 30th anniversary expanded edition of The Rave-Ups’ Town + Country.  The band may be best known for its appearance in the film Pretty in Pink, but this reissue proves there’s plenty more to the group.  The reissue of this lost Americana classic produced by Stephen Barncard (Grateful Dead’s American Beauty) features the original 10 songs, plus 11 previously unissued bonus tracks-including live radio performances recorded for Deirdre O’Donoghue’s KCRW-FM program Snap and material produced by Steve Berlin (Los Lobos) and longtime Beach Boys associate Mark Linett.  The Rave-Ups’ Jimmy Podrasky supplies the new liner notes!

David Bowie, Outside (Parlophone/ISO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The late artist’s 1995 concept album returns to print in a new, bare-bones edition on the Parlophone label.  Bowie’s 19th studio album, Outside reunited him with Brian Eno, and yielded the singles “The Hearts Filthy Lesson”, “Strangers When We Meet”, and “Hallo Spaceboy” (remixed by the Pet Shop Boys).

David Bowie, Hours (Parlophone/ISO) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada TBD)

Parlophone also has a new edition of Bowie’s 1999 Hours (his 21st studio album).  Includes “Thursday’s Child,” “The Pretty Things Are Going to Hell” and “Seven.”  (Earthling, Album # 20, returns to print on July 29 from Parlophone.)

Various Artists, Some Kinda Magic: The Songs of Jerry Ross (Ace) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Ace celebrates the great Philadelphia composer/producer Jerry Ross on this latest volume of the label’s Songwriters and Producers series.  You’ll hear tracks from Dee Dee Warwick (“I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” later a smash hit for Diana Ross & The Supremes and The Temptations), Reparata and the Delrons (“Who Do You Love”), Jerry Butler (“Some Kinda Magic”), Candy and the Kisses (“The 81”), Dusty Springfield (“Mr. Dream Merchant”) and many more!  Watch for a full review of this title soon!

Sid and Marty Krofft’s Les Poupees de Paris: Original Soundtrack (Masterworks Broadway) (Amazon U.S.)

Sid and Marty Krofft are beloved creators of a pantheon of children’s television classics includingH.R. Pufnstuf, Land of the Lost and Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, the latter of which has recently been revived as a brand-new program on Amazon.  Considerably less well-known is the production the Kroffts created for the 1964’s World’s Fair.  Sid and Marty Krofft’s Les Poupees de Paris (The Puppets of Paris) featured an amazing array of Krofft puppets, set to a soundtrack provided by songwriters Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and the voices of Pearl Bailey, Milton Berle, Cyd Charisse, Annie Fargé, Gene Kelly, Liberace, Jayne Mansfield, Tony Martin, Phil Silvers, Loretta Young, Edie Adams and legendary voiceover artist Paul Frees.  The all-star, Grammy-nominated soundtrack to Les Poupees de Paris will be officially released for the first time on CD-R and DD by Masterworks Broadway!