Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, a Madonna rarity makes a splashy debut, the daughter of a soul legend sings with her dad on his holiday classic, and Roger Waters emerges from lockdown - plus remixes old and new, and a World Cup throwback you might not believe is real. Madonna, Gambler (Warner/Rhino) (iTunes /
In Memoriam: Christine McVie (1943-2022)
Many words have already been typed to memorialize Christine McVie, the stalwart Fleetwood Mac singer/songwriter/keyboardist who died November 30 after a brief illness. But really, it was right there in the name all along: before that fateful marriage to John McVie, she was born Christine Perfect. How she'd live up to that name over time. McVie, a founding member of the British blues band Chicken Shack, joined her bass-playing husband in Fleetwood Mac in 1970, a year after they were wed.
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Michael Jackson, 'Thriller 40'
We are more than 35 years into the practice of record labels utilizing compact discs to sell a venerated artist's catalogue while also telling a story through the format's expanded capacity and clarion sound capabilities. The one-two punch of Bob Dylan's Biograph (1985) and Eric Clapton's Crossroads (1988) helped legitimize the idea of the CD box set and put both artists' bodies of work in sharper focus at a time when both of them were, should we say, not as relevant to the cultural
An Offer You Can't Refuse: La-La Land's 2022 Black Friday Batch May Be Their Best
Black Friday isn't just a day for holiday sales and Record Store Day's second event of the year - it's also the day La-La Land Records announces their final (and often biggest) soundtrack reissues of the year. And it might not get bigger than 2022's batch of titles, which feature two underrated scores from a pair of legendary composers, two massive franchise favorites with rich themes, and the soundtrack to what some consider the greatest American film ever made. Up first is one of those
Dancing in the Moonlight: Thin Lizzy's Major Live Works Getting Reissued
For all the great songs Thin Lizzy cut in the studio like "The Boys Are Back in Town," "Jailbreak," "Dancing in the Moonlight," "Waiting for An Alibi" and "Killer on the Loose," the Irish rockers really did shine as a live unit. At the top of 2023, Universal's U.K. label UMC will truly show fans how with an expanded box set and sought after CD reissue of the two live albums they released during the lifetime of frontman/bassist Phil Lynott. 1978's Live and Dangerous was the culmination of two
The Weekend Stream: November 26, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, it's hardly Thanksgiving leftovers thanks to some British Christmas favorites, a legendary dance duo and a killer rockabilly discovery. Elton John, Step Into Christmas (Rocket/Mercury/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) He may have retired from performing, but Elton John is still in the release
The Weekend Stream: November 19, 2022
Madonna, You Can Dance (Single Edits) / Rain (Warner/Rhino) Dance: iTunes / Amazon Rain: iTunes / Amazon Rhino keeps digitally uploading intriguing stuff from Madonna's single and remix catalogue, and this month saw two such releases: first, a bundle of mixes surrounding the Erotica favorite "Rain," then this week, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of remix album You Can Dance, an upload of the rare promo version that found all the tracks unmixed and edited to single-ready
Give Me the News: Edsel Preps New Box Set of Robert Palmer Classics
For as long as CD reissues have been a thing, Robert Palmer's catalogue has been crying out for some real respect. The late blue-eyed soul singer, only 54 when a heart attack ended his life in 2003, has been in real need of rediscovery - and efforts to rebuild his discography for the modern age are few and far between. Next year, U.K. label Edsel will throw their hat in the ring (again) with a deluxe box set of his most famous work. The Island Records Years is an in-depth look at the first
The Weekend Stream: November 12, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week features a new version of a pop legend's most recent compilation, great proto-Motown soul, an expanded version of Robert Glasper's breakout album, Bon Jovi in Spanish(?) and a heap of early Christmas gifts. Check it out! Elton John, Diamonds (Deluxe) (Virgin/EMI) (iTunes /
Women, Wives and Everything in Between: Paul McCartney Announces Massive 7" Singles Box
At 80 years old - hell, at many ages younger than that - Paul McCartney has little to prove. Fans may blanch at his catalogue choices of late (whither the Archive Collection? why box up all the self-titled albums? we've heard and seen it all), but it's hard to claim all of his reissue products as uninteresting. Take The 7" Singles Box - a rather massive trove of vinyl featuring 80 single releases personally curated by the former Beatle. With 163 tracks across its sides, The 7" Singles Box
An Interview with Scott Davies, Rubellan Remasters' One-Man Band
Scott Davies has learned a lot on the job. Once toiling in the business of IT, music fans now know him as the singular creative force behind Rubellan Remasters - the sole curator, engineer, designer and distributor of a handful of CDs covering respected catalogues by New Wave/alternative acts including Visage, Missing Persons, Divinyls and most recently Oingo Boingo, the alt-rock band led in the '80s and '90s by future film composer Danny Elfman. From 2021 to the present Rubellan remastered
The Weekend Stream: November 5, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. The latest features new and old soundtracks, EPs and holiday favorites and much more! "Weird Al" Yankovic, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story - Original Soundtrack (Ear Booker/Roku/Legacy) (iTunes / Amazon) This weekend sees the release of "Weird Al" Yankovic's second foray into feature film: a
Rubellan Puts Flesh N' Blood Into Next Wave of Oingo Boingo Reissues on CD, Vinyl (UPDATED PRE-ORDER LINKS)
All of Rubellan Remasters' titles are a labor of love, but special care was taken when the label expanded a section of the Oingo Boingo catalogue in 2021. The seminal California alt-punk band, which first catapulted film composer Danny Elfman to the national stage, never got their due in peak reissue eras - but Rubellan corrected that record with expanded CDs (and colored vinyl reissues) of the band's first four albums, issued on the I.R.S. and MCA labels. With the Day of the Dead just
The Weekend Stream: October 29, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, it's a stuffed Halloween sack full of sweet rarities from INXS and Madonna, remixes of Frank Zappa and Bing Crosby, two completely unreleased 50-year-old albums and a brand-new spin on a Stephen Sondheim classic - and that's only half of it! INXS, Shabooh Shoobah (40th Anniversary
In Memoriam: Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-2022)
To the uninitiated, the biography of Jerry Lee Lewis in 2022 read like a list of rock tropes so basic you can't believe they all happened to one man. Born to a poor Louisiana family that included a lot of famous Southerners (including cousins Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart), Jerry Lee's parents mortgaged their farm to buy him a piano and hoped he would honor the Lord in song. What they got instead was a firebrand, whose boogie-woogie sensibilities galvanized and scandalized the
The Weekend Stream: October 22, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend - including favorites from a late '80s U.K. pop queen and the quickest digital reissue ever. Sinitta, Sinitta! (Expanded Edition) / Wicked (Expanded Edition) (Sony Music U.K.) SInitta: iTunes / Amazon Wicked: iTunes / Amazon Though Sinitta Malone was born in Seattle, her biggest chart
A Big Enough Umbrella: 'Ghost in the Machine' Picture Disc Details a "Lost" Police Release
For most fans of The Police, the story of their penultimate album, 1981's Ghost in the Machine, is pretty cut and dried. But a forthcoming picture disc release hints at a road not taken for the beloved LP. On November 4, UMC will reissue the record with its "original" expanded track list that was apparently shortened at the last minute. In addition to the inclusion of three non-album tracks - the haunting tracks "I Burn for You" and "Once Upon a Daydream" (released on the soundtrack to
Hello There! Real Gone Prep Limited CD Box Set of Cheap Trick's 1977 Whisky Gigs
As the 1970s drew to a close, the world became well aware of the live concert power of Cheap Trick. The Rockford, Illinois quartet broke through in a big way thanks to their seminal At Budokan, recorded in Japan in 1978 and belatedly released stateside a year later, yielding a Top 10 hit in "I Want You to Want Me." The audience response on the record was undeniable - and still is in many ways - but there were lucky concertgoers who already knew thanks to some seminal American club gigs. As the
The Weekend Stream: October 15, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend - including a few surprise digital expansions from some '80s U.K. legends, holiday remixes, a lost fitness favorite and more! Sting, ...Nothing Like the Sun (Expanded Edition) (A&M/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) This week marked the 35th anniversary of Sting's second solo album, and UMe
Memories for You Now: John Mellencamp's 'Scarecrow' Gets Remixed and Expanded in November
1984 was a big year for pop music, from the tail-end of Michael Jackson's Thriller era, the commercial breakthroughs of Madonna and Prince, and the blockbuster release of Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., which spun off seven Top 40 hits over the following year and a half. Those rising commercial tides lifted many boats, and John Mellencamp benefited greatly a year later with his own blue-collar rock masterpiece, the cutting Scarecrow. On November 4, that album comes back into print as a
The Weekend Stream: October 7, 2022
Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles. There may be no CD or vinyl, but there's plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend including an expanded edition from a superstar, a fun '80s flashback, two expansions from a disco legend, some choice Motown memories, and more! Janet Jackson, The Velvet Rope (25th Anniversary Edition) (Virgin/UMe) (iTunes / Amazon) A digital deluxe edition that merited its own press release?
Cast Your Fate to the Wind: Vince Guaraldi's Breakthrough 'Black Orpheus' to Be Expanded
Though he might be best known for the irresistible score to A Charlie Brown Christmas - the music of which is coming back in a big way this holiday season, jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi was first known for an unusual crossover jazz hit, the instrumental "Cast Your Fate to the Wind." The album that featured that unforgettable song (and put Guaraldi on the road to Peanuts perfection) will also get the deluxe treatment this year, in honor of its 60th anniversary. Jazz Impressions of Black Orpheus
Legacy Puts Prince's Original 'Hits' Albums on Vinyl
As more of Prince's recorded catalogue consolidates under a deal with Sony Music's Legacy Recordings, a big question is when a new career-spanning compilation will eventually hit the market. While fans might keep waiting, Legacy will issue two classic collections for the first time on vinyl: the two volumes that made up The Hits in 1993. The Hits capped 15 years of breakneck recording and massive commercial success from The Artist, who earlier that year announced he would change his name to
UMC to Spice Up 'Spiceworld' with New Reissues
England's pop exports are some of the biggest the world has ever known - and in the '90s, none were bigger than the Spice Girls. This fall, UMC will reissue Spiceworld, the group's second album and the one where they were metaphorically on top of the world, in a variety of formats with rare and unreleased material. Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm and Victoria Adams were irresistible to worldwide pop audiences not long after the release of debut Spice in 1996. With
Rockin' Around in NYC (and Beyond): Yep Roc to Celebrate 40 Years of Marshall Crenshaw's Debut
Tonight, Marshall Crenshaw takes his 40 Years in Showbiz! Tour to Manhattan's City Winery. (It's a show you can watch from the comfort of your home - hopefully my head won't be in the way!) Just as exciting as seeing this living power-pop legend celebrate his fourth decade of performing: some of his long-out-of-print classic albums are coming back into circulation courtesy of a new label home. Earlier this month, Yep Roc announced a double LP expanded edition of Crenshaw's hook-filled debut
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