Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc's review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. This week brings new songs from two of our '80s favorites, a reissue from a rock supergroup, the first release from a hard-working film composer and a new stand-up comedy album with a little something extra.
Duran Duran, "New Moon (Dark Phase)" (Tapemodern) (iTunes / Amazon)
Friday the 13th was a perfect day for this to drop! Duran Duran will reissue last year's spooky, ethereal Danse Macabre - a mix of covers, re-recordings and new tracks that saw them reunite on record with original guitarist Andy Taylor and his late '80s to early '00s replacement, Warren Cuccurullo. Among the three new tracks: a re-recording (also featuring Andy!) of Duran's second single from 1983's Seven and the Ragged Tiger, the underrated "New Moon on Monday." The band will hit the road later this year in support of the reissue, including a special performance on Halloween night at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Tears for Fears, "The Girl That I Call Home" (Concord) (iTunes / Amazon)
2022's The Tipping Point - the first new album by Tears for Fears in nearly two decades - was exactly the kind of reunion you want from your favorite older bands: hints of what you love of their classic '80s material, with a bold, unique sound and a batch of songs that stand up to the hits. The duo will showcase this discographical stability next month with their first-ever live album, Songs for a Nervous Planet. In addition to a live set recorded last summer in Franklin, Tennessee, the double album will also include four newly-recorded studio tracks (five, if you buy the version at U.S. retailer Target). "The Girl That I Call Home" is a sweet, shimmery love song Roland Orzabal wrote with John Shanks (Michelle Branch, Sheryl Crow) for his second wife, Emily Rath.
Velvet Revolver, Contraband (Deluxe Edition) (RCA/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon)
Rock supergroups in the mid-'00s didn't come much bigger than Velvet Revolver, a quintet featuring vocalist Scott Weiland of the Stone Temple Pilots and a good chunk of Guns N' Roses backing him up, including guitarist Slash, bassist Duff McKagan and Use Your Illusion-era drummer Matt Sorum. (Rock journeyman Dave Kushner rounded out the group on rhythm guitar.) Contraband's singles, the hard-driving "Slither" and the power ballad "Fall to Pieces," were both certified gold and each topped Billboard's mainstream rock chart. For its 20th anniversary, this digital deluxe edition offers six bonus tracks, including an acoustic "Fall to Pieces" and covers of Cheap Trick ("Surrender"), Pink Floyd ("Money"), Sex Pistols (a live version of "Bodies") Aerosmith ("No More, No More") and Nirvana ("Negative Creep").
Peggy Lee, From the Vaults Vol. 3 (Capitol/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon)
The third of four volumes collecting lost gems from the late, great Peggy Lee has hit streaming services. From the Vaults Vol. 3 spans 1951-1972 and a wide variety of tracks including an early song by Burt Bacharach and lyricist Sammy Gallop ("Uninvited Dream," in an alternate version), Jimmy Webb's classic standard "Didn't We," Steve Allen's "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" (best known in Steve and Eydie's rendition), Bobby Scott and Ric Marlow's oft-covered "A Taste of Honey," and Peggy and Heinie Beau's "I Love You, But I Don't Like You." Full liner notes for this enjoyably eclectic release can be found here.
Sting, Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot (Remixes) (A&M) (iTunes / Amazon)
Mysteriously landed on digital channels is a collection of dance versions of the first single off 1996's Mercury Falling, mixed by producer/engineers Marc Auerbach and Ian Green.
Daryl Hall, Help Me Find a Way to Your Heart EP (Epic) (iTunes / Amazon)
A third single/EP from 1993's Soul Alone has been loosed from the digital vault, featuring the single version of the track and two live B-sides.
Phil Collins, "Easy Lover" (Live from the Board) (Atlantic/Rhino) (iTunes / Amazon)
Another track from the vintage live EP, being reissued for Record Store Day, makes its digital debut. Do you think we'll get the full EP before or after Record Store Day?
Sergio Mendes and Brasil '77, Vintage 74 (Bell) (iTunes / Amazon)
The 5th Dimension team of producer-engineer Bones Howe and arranger Bob Alcivar teamed with the late Sergio Mendes for this terrifically appealing LP featuring the Mendes touch on such modern standards as Stevie Wonder's "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," "If You Really Love Me," and "Superstition," Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Waters of March," and Leon Russell's "This Masquerade." It's Brazilian pop magic at its finest; this Vintage has never gone out of style!
James Newton Howard, James Newton Howard (Kama Sutra) (iTunes / Amazon)
A fascinating 50th anniversary find for soundtrack fans and cratediggers alike! James Newton Howard was primarily known as a session musician through the late '70s and early '80s - notably, as a keyboardist and arranger for Elton John - and would later transition into a still-ongoing, workhorse career scoring film and television, including The Hunger Games series, eight of M. Night Shyamalan's films (including The Sixth Sense), Christopher Nolan's first two Batman films (alongside Hans Zimmer), The Fugitive and ER. But before any of that, in 1974, he cut an album of spacious, keyboard-driven art rock/jazz soundscapes almost entirely by himself. They read like score cues in search of a picture, and mark the first major step in an incredible career.
Gino Cunico, Gino Cunico (Kama Sutra) (iTunes / Amazon)
Australian singer-songwriter-guitarist Gino Cunico came to Arista Records in 1976 with a self-titled LP produced by Vini Poncia; it yielded the ballad "When I Wanted You" which would be covered by artists including Barry Manilow and Perry Como. Before that, he released one solo LP for the Kama Sutra label which sees its first reissue this weekend. Gino Cunico features covers of Goffin and King ("Goin' Back") and John Sebastian ("Younger Girl") along with original songs. Poncia's onetime musical partner Peter Anders (a.k.a. Pete Andreoli) arranged.
John Early, Now More Than Ever (Lookin' for My Denim/Thirty Tigers) (iTunes / Amazon)
Finally, a great album for fans of comedy and affecting music. Actor/stand-up John Early (Search Party, Stress Positions, Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero" music video) has been skewering self-aware millennial tropes for more than a decade - easily one of the most unique voices in comedy today. (His surreal recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers made me laugh until it hurt.) In 2023, Early released Now More Than Ever, an HBO special that combined some of his sharpest, silliest jokes - you'll never hear the words "ask app not to track" the same way again - with earnest covers of Britney Spears ("Overprotected"), Donna Summer ("I Feel Love") and even Neil Young ("After the Gold Rush"). (I was lucky enough to attend the taping, and it was uproarious.) The special is now available as an album (either digitally or on vinyl) that expands the program considerably, adding a set from Early's denim-loving alter-ego Vicky with a "V" (recorded during the special but not in the final cut) as well as even more songs recorded in-studio with his band, The Lemon Squares.
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Release Round-Up: Week of October 25
Tears For Fears have actually released one other live album, a limited release for Record Store Day 2021 called "Live At Massey Hall Toronto, Canada / 1985", available on vinyl and cd. Some of the tracks were also previously released on the "Songs From The Big Chair" super deluxe box set.
https://www.discogs.com/release/19079854-Tears-For-Fears-Live-At-Massey-Hall-Toronto-Canada-1985
Love the site btw, especially this page. Helps to keep up on the more interesting releases coming out on the streaming platforms.
Massey Hall is a BOOTLEG.
T4F has a real live album from the Happy Ending era called "Secret World Live" with a few studio tracks included such as "Floating Down the River"
The Record Store Day release is a bootleg? The one that was released by Universal Music? Doubt it.
Massey Hall isn't a bootleg: it was an official release for Record Store Day.
Secret World Live preceded it as the first official live release.
Neither were available on all formats in every country.
I feel like in a sense you're all correct, haha! First of all - yes, 'Secret World Live' came first. Totally forgot about that one, partly due to its status as an import outside the U.S., and partly due to some poor relations between the label and the band (or at least Curt, who put out a solo record with them and, IIRC, did not have a great experience). Massey Hall I think of as more of an archival piece (coming after the BIG CHAIR box) and was also very hard to track down. I ended up getting one off Discogs for an OK price, after passing up an import during a visit to Amoeba Music in Hollywood a few years back.
And thank you for the kind words, Ken! We'll always support physical titles where possible, but if rare remixes and things show up digitally before they ever do physically, we'd be silly not to let people know!
I've been thrilled by the spate of Bryan Ferry digital singles--especially my long desired "Don't Stop The Dance" instrumental!
Thanks for pointing this out, John! We'll make sure to note what they've released in next week's column, with a credit to you for letting us know! (This might be the hardest regular feature of ours, because digital-only titles seem to be promoted much differently than physical ones. Half the time, they just show up.)
I'm wondering if the Sting remixes aren't because we're about to get an expanded digital version of Mercury Falling, the way he's done with previous albums.
That's a good question! As I recall, the albums they have done so far - Nothing Like the Sun, The Soul Cages and Ten Summoner's Tales - were all on anniversaries that ended in "0" or "5" (TSC, from 1991 - 2021; NLTS, from 1987 - 2022; TSS, from 1993 - 2023). My money would therefore be on Brand New Day, which in fact turns 25 in less than two weeks! There's a lot of good stuff they could include there, from the full version of "End of the Game" to the (in my opinion, superior) promo version of "After the Rain Has Fallen" that remixes and re-edits the song to sound like more of a band track.
I, of course, wouldn't hate the idea of Sting, post-Synchronicity box set, giving some sort of physical reissue to The Dream of the Blue Turtles for its 40th anniversary next year...!