Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the titles available today.
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The Weather Girls and Martha Wash, Carry On: The Deluxe Collection 1982-1992 (SoulMusic/Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Hallelujah! Carry On: The Deluxe Collection 1982-1992 is a long-overdue assessment of Martha Wash and Izora Armstead's unlikely journey toward the top of the pop charts, some fascinating music that came before it - and a triumphant second act by Wash following some truly bizarre situations that only could have happened in the music industry. This 4CD box set, compiled and produced by Adam Mattera, presents The Weather Girls' three albums for Columbia Records - Success (1983), Big Girls Don't Cry (1985) and The Weather Girls (1988) - plus Wash's self-titled solo debut from 1992; together, they feature a total of 22 bonus songs and remixes, of which eight are making their debut on CD. Nick Robbins has remastered the audio, packaged with a booklet designed by Roger Williams featuring rare photographs and comprehensive new liner notes by Tim Dillinger. Out today in the U.K. and next Friday in North America. Read more here!
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Paul Young, The Crossing: 35th Anniversary Edition (7a Records)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
7a Records delivers a 30th anniversary remastered edition of Paul Young's final Columbia album, 1993's The Crossing. Primarily produced by Don Was, the album welcomed a number of familiar session veterans in support of Young including Billy Preston, Toto's Jeff Porcaro, The Who's Pino Palladino, and The Memphis Horns. "Now I Know What Made Otis Blue," penned by Mick Leeson and producer Peter Vale, became another top twenty success for the artist on the U.K. Singles Chart, while "Hope in a Hopeless World" and "It Will Be You" also charted. The Crossing will be available on both CD and LP; both formats include an exclusive interview with Young, rare photos, and lyrics to all songs. The vinyl version is pressed on 180-gram turquoise vinyl and includes a 12" booklet; the CD version has a 40-page color booklet. Read more here!
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Pet Shop Boys, Smash: The Singles 1985-2020 (Parlophone/Rhino)
6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3CD/2BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
6LP White Vinyl: PetShopBoys.com
3 Cassette: PetShopBoys.com
Pet Shop Boys have rounded up most of their A-sides released between 1985 and 2020 on this new box set available in a variety of editions including 3CD, 3CD/2BD (with two Blu-rays of music videos and extras), 6LP standard black vinyl, 6LP white vinyl, 3 cassettes, and digital formats. Get more info here!
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Drive-By Truckers, The Complete Dirty South (New West)
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Nearly 20 years ago, genre-bending Southern rock outfit (and launching pad for now-solo superstar Jason Isbell) Drive-By Truckers got their first shot of mainstream success with an intriguing concept album called The Dirty South. Now, the group is revisiting that release on The Complete Dirty South. It's a release that frontman Patterson Hood is deeming a "director's cut" of the original work, featuring an expanded, altered track list and a few songs that are remixed, featuring new vocals or both. All tracks have been remastered by Greg Calbi. Updated artwork by the band's longtime artist Wes Freed (who passed away in 2022) completes the set. Read more here!
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Poco, Legacy (Blue Elan) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Poco's 1989 studio album Legacy, featuring Richie Furay, Jim Messina, Rusty Young, Randy Meisner, and George Grantham, returns to CD and vinyl today from the Blue Elan label.
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Bettye LaVette, LaVette! (Jay-Vee) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The soulful Miss LaVette returns with this new studio set on producer Steve Jordan's label featuring guests John Mayer, Jon Batiste, Ray Parker Jr., and Steve Winwood.
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Steve Lukather, Bridges (Players Club) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Toto guitar man Steve Lukather's ninth studio album, Bridges, was largely co-written with bandmates David Paich and Joseph Williams; other co-writers include Stan Lynch and Randy Goodrum. Lukather comments that as Toto will never record another studio album, Bridges is "as close as we will get." Available on CD, LP, and digitally.
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John Mellencamp, Orpheus Descending (Republic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
The roots-rocker is back with a new, self-produced album filled with his characteristically incisive, socially-conscious writing. Available on CD, LP, and digitally, with the vinyl release coming on July 21.
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Yusuf/Cat Stevens, King of a Land (Dark Horse/BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
Yusuf, a.k.a. Cat Stevens, debuts on the reactivated Dark Horse label with King of a Land. The album features 12 original songs reflecting Stevens' varied influences including rock, gospel, classical, and folk. It's produced by Paul Samwell-Smith, who helmed Stevens' four seminal LPs at the dawn of the 1970s as well as his two most recent LPs. Available on CD, LP, and digitally.
Release Round-Up: Week of August 2
Release Round-Up: Week of July 26
OUT TOMORROW! Real Gone, Second Disc Collect Two Tons o' Fun on "Get the Feeling: The Complete Fantasy/Honey Recordings"
"Les Cousins: The Soundtrack to Soho's Legendary Folk and Blues Club" Features Paul Simon, Nick Drake, Cat Stevens, Al Stewart
Lots of goodies this week! I just finished streaming Lukather and am currently listening to LaVette. Betty's last few albums had a certain tired sameness. So far Lavette sounds like a lively and energetic move in a new direction.
I wish Paul Young's Crossing was a bit less expensive.
Legacy is one of my favorite Poco albums. I may have to revisit it.
Great week .
Happy weekend everyone.
Getting the PSB Smash, the 3CD/2BR version, looks like the most final up-to-date singles/videos comp that will ever happen...also ordered that DBT as I collect them & they are one of the purest examples of Outlaw Country we have right now & how come no one mentions the Lost Highway label?? It was through Mercury/Universal, focused on alt-country and the band's "Southern Rock Opera" was released on it...also, the band in the mid-80s was the alt/punk band Adam's House Cat & ATO released the band's recordings...resembled prime Replacements...what I like best about alt-country/countrypunk/cowpunk/progressive country like DBT is that they all come from either an outsider/punkrock angle & lens, not Nashville or they are from Nashville but don't like the restrictive rules and conservatism of Nashville & want creative control...anyhoo, bought...and Jason's "Weathervanes" is great too...
And you missed 2 key releases out today...first, on BMG, the 2CD 24 track latest best of by Scottish band Texas, covering 1989-2023 with a couple of new songs...and secondly & most importantly, the 20th anniversary of British/Irish girl group Girls Aloud's debut album "Sound of the Underground" as a 3CD, a green vinyl & picdisc vinyl...you may not be aware of their importance because their stuff never got released in the US during their reign, 2002-2013, but they had an unbroken string of 20 UK top 10 singles, which made the Guinness Book, and despite their formation on a reality competition show, Popstars: The Rivals, and even though they were a 5-member girl group, they had more in common with ABBA than the Spice Girls...see, their secret weapon was the brilliant songwriting/production collective called Xenomania, headed by Brian Higgins (his biggest breaks were Cher's "Believe" & Gina G's "Oooh Aaah Just a Little Bit") & former dancer (and failed solo artist Moonbaby) Miranda Cooper, who were like a punk Motown factory, throwing any genre into a pot of soup & even created songs by fusing 3 songs into 1, anything went, and with Girls Aloud, they went to the races, creating & producing one of THE greatest most innovative catalogues in music history, not kidding, every single track...the singles, B-sides, album tracks, remixes...can go toe to toe to anyone ever, from ABBA to the Beatles, Ramones to Led Zeppelin, Yes to Prince, Madonna to Burt Bacharach...and it's not just the original songs (their covers are hit & miss though), but the vocals...even though it was 5 girls (Sarah Harding sadly died of breast cancer in 2022 at age 39, way too young), Brian & Miranda recorded all 5 girls on every song solo, then took the best lines by each girl and assembled the records like jigsaw puzzles, so it was like passing a baton...not 1 lead singer ever...it's an innovative approach that lasted 5 albums, a ton of singles, B-sides, etc...anyhoo, I'm not crazy for thinking this, I really delved deep and analyzed this brilliant music...and the US really missed out by not getting these records over those 10 years & if we got them, the US charts & scene may have been way different now...you can say the same if we got the 3rd Anastacia album in 2004 too...it's all hypothetical though, but you can judge for yourself, starting with the title track "Sound of the Underground", which fused surf guitar riffs, a drum & bass beat & a five-headed Kylie Minogue vocal on top...
We always appreciate our readers sharing extra titles (great choices this week, Larry!), but I sometimes feel it's important to remind everybody that our RRU offers a curated selection of the week's new titles, not a full list. It's often impossible for us to include every worthy new release; our friends at Pause and Play do a great job of that. 🙂
Cool yes, the GA title was listed on P&P but I don't think anyone here are familiar with GA or how innovative or important musically they actually are...just saying...
you are the second person who has lauded "girls aloud"...and with such great enthusiasm...i am just going to have to have a listen this weekend...i love womens voices, and i especially love when it's more than one
Cool...it's not just the voices but the innovative approach and how brilliant their pop actually is...beware, you may be tempted to go down the GA rabbit hole, but also the Xenomania rabbit hole too, but you won't regret it...it's more Britpop, a bit of Motown and even punk...not really any straight R&B...
I picked up the King Of A Land CD on Friday. Been listening to it all weekend. It is like the Cat Stevens of the early 70s! He hit it out of the park with this album!