Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up!
America, Classic Album Collection: The Capitol Years (Capitol/Caroline) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
All six of America's Capitol albums are collected in one newly remastered box set. Classic Album Collection: The Capitol Years presents newly remastered versions of 1979's Silent Letter, 1980's Alibi, 1982's View from the Ground, 1983's Your Move, 1984's Perspective, and 1985's In Concert in one deluxe, affordable package complete with a booklet. It's been compiled by America archivist Jeff Larson and remastered by Andy Pearce. Read all about it right here!
Various Artists, Rocketman: Music from the Motion Picture (Interscope) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Taron Egerton (The Kingsman) stars as Elton John in this fantastical biopic - and on its soundtrack, where he does all of his own singing as the titular Rocketman. The soundtrack presents 22 Elton favorites, reimagined by producer Giles Martin, including the new uptempo duet between Egerton and the real John, "(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again." The Target exclusive CD splits the soundtrack onto two discs and adds two bonus tracks, "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and "Breakin' Down the Walls of Heartache."
Kiki Dee, Gold (Crimson/Demon) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Demon follows up Kiki Dee's comprehensive The Rocket Years box set with a budget-priced, 3-CD, 45-song anthology that surpasses expectations. Gold (part of a series of similar compilations from artists including T Rex and Brotherhood of Man) doesn't only draw upon the Rocket material but also the artist's Fontana, Motown, Ariola, and EMI years, and beyond. Her hits and fan favorites are all here, including "Amoreuse," "I've Got the Music in Me," and duets with Elton John on "Don't Go Breaking My Heart," "Snow Queen," "Loving You Is Sweeter than Ever," and "True Love."
Lee Moses, How Much Longer Must I Wait? Singles & Rarities 1965-1972 (Future Days Recordings/Light In the Attic, 2019)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Standard black vinyl LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LITA-exclusive red-and-tan vinyl: Light In the Attic Store
Plaid Room-exclusive cream-and-red vinyl: Plaid Room Records
How Much Longer Must I Wait proves brings together all of underrated soul man Lee Moses' singles and B-sides originally recorded between 1965 and 1972 for the CBS, Musicor, Dynamo, Front Page and Gates labels - along with three previously unreleased recordings. It's available in a number of configurations: a standard CD edition that's housed in a "tube pocket" digipak with an 8-paged booklet, as well as its digital counterpart; a black vinyl edition presented in a deluxe, Kraft board jacket with an insert; a LITA Store-exclusive red-and-tan color vinyl edition; and a U.S. indie retail-exclusive red vinyl edition. In addition, Light In The Attic has teamed up with Ohio-based Plaid Room/Colemine Records, an independent store and label known for their love for soul and funk music, to offer an exclusive cream-and-red color variant of the record to their fanbase. Read more here!
Todd Rundgren, The Complete Bearsville & Warner Bros. Singles (Rhino/Warner Music Japan) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Rhino Japan brings the recent Record Store Day release to CD. The Complete Bearsville & Warner Bros. Singles spans two CDs and 43 tracks, from "We Gotta Get You a Woman" to "I Love My Life," and includes a foldout poster with Paul Myers' English liner notes as well as a 44-page booklet with Japanese notes and English lyrics. It's housed in a super-thick jewel case. Also available from our friends at CD Japan.
Steve Miller Band, The Complete Albums Volume 2 (1977-2011) (Capitol/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The second vinyl box set of Steve Miller Band's classic albums arrives from Capitol and UMe. All nine albums have been remastered for these 180-gram vinyl pressings.
Toto, All In (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Toto's All In, first announced in 2018, is finally here in an all-CD edition, boasting remastered versions of the band's albums Toto, Hydra, Turn Back, IV, Isolation, Fahrenheit, The Seventh One, Kingdom Of Desire, Tambu, Mindfields, and Toto XX. The set also includes a Live In Tokyo EP from their 1980 tour, along with a compilation entitled Old Is New. The Old Is New CD includes ten tracks, seven of which are previously unreleased along with "Spanish Sea," "Alone," and "Struck By Lighting" which premiered on the s greatest hits collection 40 Trips Around The Sun.
Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, Walk in the Night: The Motown '70s Studio Albums (Cherry Red/SoulMusic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Cherry Red's SoulMusic imprint brings six classic albums from Motown's great sax man, originally released between 1970 and 1976, to 3 CDs on this new collection. Out today in the U.K. and next Friday in North America. Watch this space for a full run-down of this title!
Phil Seymour, In Concert! Archive Series Vol. 3 (Sunset Blvd.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Sunset Blvd. Records revisits the archival series dedicated to the late power pop hero Phil Seymour with a reissue of the 2014 volume containing two concerts and 24 songs on two CDs.
Sting, My Songs [Various Formats] (Cherrytree/A&M/Interscope)
Standard CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Deluxe CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Sting returns with a new studio album of his classic songs, "reconstructed, some of them refitted, some of them reframed, but all of them with a contemporary focus." My Songs, with new versions of "Fields of Gold," "Message in a Bottle," "Every Breath You Take," and more, is available on standard CD, deluxe CD (adding a bonus EP of four live version), vinyl, and international exclusive CDs for Japan (with a live bonus track of "I Can't Stop Thinking About You") and France (with a bonus track of "Desert Rose (Extended Version)").
Morrissey, California Son (BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Morrissey returns with a new album of classic songs, reinvented in his own style and inspired by the California sound. Tracks include Laura Nyro's "Wedding Bell Blues" by way of The 5th Dimension, Bacharach and David's "Loneliness Remembers What Happiness Forgets" (introduced by Dionne Warwick), Jerry Fuller's "Lady Willpower" (a smash for Gary Puckett and the Union Gap), and more. Available on CD, vinyl, and digital platforms.
Mavis Staples, We Get By (ANTI-) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The great lady of gospel and soul returns with a new set produced and written by singer-songwriter Ben Harper, who also guests. Available on CD, LP, and digitally.
Company: 2018 London Cast Recording (Arts Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Arts Music gives a belated U.S. pressing to the 2018 London Cast Recording of Stephen Sondheim's Company featuring Rosalie Craig and Patti LuPone in a reimagined version of the classic musical comedy.
And two pre-orders from the Kritzerland label have just gone live!
The Trotter Trio, The Fantasticks in Jazz (Kritzerland) (Pre-order here)
Various Artists, Rodgers and Hart Revisited Vol. III (Kritzerland) (Pre-order here)
Kritzerland has just announced a pair of limited edition releases (both limited to 500 units). The Fantasticks in Jazz is the 2001 reworking of the classic Tom Jones/Harvey Schmidt score by The Trotter Trio (Terry Trotter on piano, Tom Warrington on bass, Joe LaBarbera on drums) with appearances from vocalist Maureen McGovern and Harvey Schmidt himself. Originally released in 2001, it's been out-of-print for at least fourteen years. The label also continues its series reissuing Ben Bagley's Revisited series with an expanded edition of Rodgers and Hart Revisited Vol. III. The album features an all-star cast of singers including Anthony Perkins, Blossom Dearie, Estelle Parsons, Lynn Redgrave, Nancy Andrews, Arthur Siegel, and Johnny Desmond; for this reissue, Kritzerland has added an almost half-hour-long interview with the late Richard Rodgers, with the legendary composer at the piano. Both titles are due to ship by the first week of July, but Kritzerland's pre-orders typically arrive early.
Galley says
It’s a shame the Steve Miller Band collections weren’t released on CD. Some of the early albums are impossible to find!
David says
New Waterboys – "Where the Action Is" – out today. Comes as both a single album and a double album.
Jman Burnett says
"All nine albums, from Wide River through Let Your Hair Down..."
But that's only a three-album span!
Joe Marchese says
From the official information provided by the label. (No, I don't know why they're ordered like this...)
1. Disc 1 - Wide River
2. Disc 2 - Book Of Dreams
3. Disc 3 - Circle Of Love
4. Disc 4 - Abracadabra
5. Disc 5 - Italian X Rays
6. Disc 6 - Living In The 20th Century
7. Disc 7 - Born 2 B Blue
8. Disc 8 - Bingo!
9. Disc 9 - Let Your Hair Down
Earl Cambron says
Where is best place to purchase the new Waterboys deluxe edition?
Joe Marchese says
Amazon U.S. doesn't appear to have the Deluxe Edition in stock, though Amazon U.K. does.
Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Joe Mac Pherson says
Morrissey, singing Wedding Bell Blues? Oh, I do remember the 1980's. And, the extraordinary New Wave/Experimental band, The Associates, from Aberdeen, Scotland. With Alan Rankine, a genius multi-instrumentalist and visionary of sound. And, on vocals, Billy MacKenzie, with his tremendous voice that could sink to the lower levels, and rise to high altitudes. And, his amazing ability as a lyricist, to craft songs that sounded like no one else's, with Rankine's sonic tapestry to accompany him. And, a VERY broken, shattered romance Billy experienced because of a certain person.
"William, It Was Really Nothing" was a song sung by Morrissey, performed by The Smiths, in 1984.
"Stephen, You're Really Something", written and sung by Billy MacKenzie, performed with Alan Rankine after they briefly reunited in the 1990's as Associates. The track is on CD 2, in the Associates compilation, Double Hipness.
A tragedy, that Billy MacKenzie took his life in Aberdeen, on January 22, 1997. His heart was too fragile to go on.