Since the dawn of the CD era, Todd Rundgren's classic Bearsville LPs have appeared and re-appeared with regularity - yet they had never appeared in the physical format for which they're most ideally suited: high-resolution audio. Thanks to Analog Spark, that's all changed. The label has just released hybrid stereo SACDs of the singer-songwriter-producer's third and fourth Bearsville LPs - the career-defining Something/Anything (1973) and its daring successor, A Wizard, A True Star (1974).
For Your Love: Herman’s Hermits, Yardbirds, Hollies Featured on “The Graham Gouldman Songbook”
Ace's latest addition to its Songwriter Series, Listen People: The Graham Gouldman Songbook 1964-2005, appropriately enough begins with a track written by Gouldman, "That's How (It's Gonna Stay)." But the track is also significant in that it was performed by Gouldman, as well - as part of his early group The Mockingbirds. Throughout his career, he's worn many hats - as a songwriter, as a band member, as a solo artist - and all of them are touched upon on this fine celebration of a largely
Holiday Gift Guide Review: INXS, ‘Kick 30’
"All we've got is this moment," INXS frontman Michael Hutchence implores in the band's biggest American hit, "Need You Tonight." But in the case of the band's landmark sixth studio album Kick (1987), nothing could be further from the truth. The album, which sold more than nine million copies around the world and spun off five hit singles, has received no less than four expanded reissues in the last 15 years. In 2002, Atlantic Records and Rhino (who oversee the band's catalogue in North America)
Holiday Gift Guide Review: America, “Heritage: Home Recordings/Demos 1970-1973”
It must have taken a great deal of gumption, not to mention youthful hubris, for Gerry Beckley, Dewey Bunnell, and Dan Peek to name their band America - as if three teenaged army brats abroad in England could have possibly captured the spirit of their home country in all its complexities. Yet, capture that spirit the trio did, and today, some 47 years after they first entered the studio, America is still making music. Yet Beckley and Bunnell have happily been looking back on recent releases
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Elton John, ‘Diamonds’
It's not untoward to ask exactly who the intended audience of an Elton John compilation is in 2017. The British piano pop legend has been releasing music for more than 50 years now, and has enjoyed a run of success that began early in the '70s and has yet to entirely let up. And in that time, there have been plenty of collections for fans of all stripes. His very first greatest hits album topped both the U.S. and U.K. charts in 1974 and prompted a sequel only three years later (and a third a
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Ramones, “Rocket to Russia” [40th Anniversary Edition]
Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Tommy Ramone introduced their fast and furious style of bubblegum punk on 1976's Ramones, then followed it up the next year with the even more potent Leave Home. Just months later, the band dropped its third major salvo. With Rocket to Russia, the sound and feel of the band's first two albums was taken to the next level - and now, forty years later, it's often recognized as the finest Ramones set. Happily, Rhino has continued its series of LP-sized, hardcover
Review: The Doors, “Strange Days: 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition”
Earlier this year, Rhino marked the fiftieth anniversary of The Doors' debut with a 3-CD/1-LP box set premiering the original mono mix of the album for the very first time on CD and including it on vinyl, as well, plus a new version of Live at the Matrix. The label has recently followed that up with a deluxe edition of Strange Days, the band's sophomore album, also in time for its own golden anniversary. (The Doors arrived in January '67, and Strange Days in September of that year.) This time
Don’t Think Twice: Ace Collects Rare Dylan Covers on “Take What You Need”
As one of the most influential songwriters of his generation - or any other - Bob Dylan's music has long transcended borders, physical or otherwise. The Minnesota native's music struck a chord in Britain, both on the concert stage (see: the famous "Judas!" concert) and on records, and his influence on British artists from The Beatles down can't be underestimated. It's no surprise that his songs were seized upon by British artists with a zeal equal to that of their American counterparts. Ace
Review: Bob Dylan, “Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981”
I. Gotta Serve Somebody Bob Dylan wasn't mincing words. On the first track of the first album of what would later be referred to as his "gospel years," the artist laid his message out with striking simplicity. "It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord," Dylan admonished, "but you're gonna have to serve somebody." Suddenly, the same singer-songwriter who opined that "the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" had found the answer - and His name was Jesus Christ. Between 1979 and
Review: The Smiths, “The Queen Is Dead: Deluxe Edition”
The Smiths have been apart far longer than they were together in the mid-1980s, making the Manchester quartet today less of a band and more of an idea. It's interesting to see how a new deluxe edition of The Queen Is Dead (Warner Bros. 0190295783372), the group's most lauded album, interprets that thesis through its content and packaging. While the band may have made for a mere cult sensation in America, but in their native England (where success was fleeting but far more consistent), they
Review: David Bowie, “A New Career in a New Town: 1977-1982”
I. Art Decade Keep Up with David's Changes, read an insert from the David Bowie Fan Club packaged in original pressings of the artist's 1977 album Low and painstakingly replicated on the edition included in the new 11-CD (or 13-LP) box set A New Career in a New Town 1977-1982. Indeed, it was no small feat to follow the restless artist's many transformations. 1975's Station to Station saw the formal introduction of The Thin White Duke, a nattily-dressed but rather unpleasant fellow; who
Review: Alex Chilton, “A Man Called Destruction” and Chris Bell, “I Am The Cosmos”
Omnivore Recordings has kept the flame for Big Star burning brightly in recent years as the label continues to plumb the depths of the cult band's story from various angles. Two recent releases shed light on the solo works of Big Star's late musical heroes Alex Chilton and Chris Bell: an expanded reissue of Chilton's 1995 solo album A Man Called Destruction; and an updated, expanded version of Bell's I Am the Cosmos. The second album since Chilton's 1993 solo "comeback" Clichés, A Man Called
Intervention Reissues Murray Head’s Ambitious Rock Concept Album “Nigel Lived”
Few artists have bridged the worlds of rock and theatre as successfully as Murray Head. Singing the music of others, actor-singer Head scored two major hits on both sides of the Atlantic with 1973's "Superstar" from Jesus Christ Superstar and 1984's "One Night in Bangkok" from Chess. Far lesser known, however, is his discography as a singer-songwriter. Head imbued his own compositions with the same vibrant life as those famous songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny
Review: The Doors, “The Singles”
The Doors have had no shortage of collections in the CD era, whether the 10x-platinum The Best of The Doors, Legacy: The Absolute Best, The Very Best of The Doors, or The Future Starts Here: The Essential Doors Hits - just to name a few. Happily, the latest such release from Messrs. Morrison, Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore distinguishes itself with a true raison d'etre. Rhino's simply-titled The Singles lives up to its name with 44 A-and B-sides on two CDs, originally released between 1967
The World Goes On: Esoteric Reissues Barclay James Harvest’s “Octoberon” In Deluxe Set
Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint has continued its harvest of releases from progressive rock's Barclay James Harvest. The latest deluxe edition from the band, 1976's Octoberon, once again is in the expanded 2-CD/1-DVD format, and follows the recent reissue of 1978's XII as well as Everyone is Everybody Else (1974) and Gone to Earth (1977), the latter two of which were released by the label in 2016. Octoberon arrived immediately prior to Gone to Earth in a landmark year for the
Review: The Creation, “Creation Theory”
Though The Creation only left behind roughly a couple dozen songs during their mid-'60s heyday, the story of the hard-rocking mods actually goes back further, and extends to decades later. Earlier this year, the U.S. label Numero Group presented 46 masters, alternates and remixes on a double-disc collection entitled Action Painting. Shortly thereafter, U.K. label Edsel unveiled an even more thorough presentation of the complete Creation story containing those 46 tracks and 33
Review: Ramones, “Leave Home: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition”
The sophomore album from Forest Hills, Queens, New York's Ramones, Leave Home, arrived in January 1977 on Sire Records, just months after the April 1976 release of the band's self-titled debut. Despite the title, however, Leave Home didn't mark a large stylistic leap or departure for the young punks out of their comfort zone. On closer inspection, however, it continued the growth of the band. Forty years later, it's easier to hear that progression than ever, thanks to a new, 3-CD/1-LP set
Review: Elvis Presley, “A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings”
It's hard to believe - impossible, even - but Elvis Aron Presley once was just A Boy from Tupelo. The once and future King's transformation from modest beginnings to international superstar has never been more vividly traced than on the new 3-CD box set from RCA and Legacy. A Boy from Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings is a trip back in time to the birth of rock-and-roll (destination: Memphis) featuring every one of Elvis' known Sun Records masters and outtakes, as well as his four
Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: Ace Collects Shel Talmy Productions From The Who, David Bowie, More
An advertisement reprinted in Ace Records' splendid new collection Making Time: A Shel Talmy Production reads, "Artistes Shel Talmy Has Recorded: The Kinks, The Bachelors, The Who, Chad and Jeremy" and so on. Add to that list Manfred Mann, The Creation, The Fortunes, Trini Lopez, Lee Hazlewood, and a certain David Bowie, and you have an idea of the scope of this first-of-its-kind collection dedicated to the work of the producer-engineer-impresario. Though born in Chicago, Talmy made his name
Review: The Beach Boys, “1967: Sunshine Tomorrow” and “Wild Honey” (Stereo LP)
There's nothing quite nice as a kiss of wild honey... Carl Wilson - the angelic voice from on high of "God Only Knows" - unleashed his inner soul man with a fury on "Wild Honey," the title track of The Beach Boys' second album of 1967. The funky, Theremin-driven ode to a "girl with the sweetness of a honey bee" opened the LP which turned out to be one of the most singular in the band's storied catalogue. Its fusion of pulsating R&B and raw rock-and-roll, anchored by nine Brian
Review: Prince and The Revolution, ‘Purple Rain: Deluxe Expanded Edition’
Dearly Beloved It exists. It really exists. That may be the most astounding thing about the deluxe expanded edition of Prince's masterpiece Purple Rain (Warner Bros./NPG Records 547374-2). And believe me, there's a lot to be astounded by. This set features the first remaster of any Prince album in the compact disc era, a fully-stocked disc of officially unreleased tracks from the vault, a complete offering of sides (edits, remixes and B-sides) from all five singles released from the
Kick Out The Jams! Run Out Groove Compiles Best of The MC5 on Vinyl
Has the time ever been more right for a return of The MC5? The band from Lincoln Park, Michigan fused garage rock with elements of blues, jazz, and psychedelia to give voice to the counterculture movement of the mid- to late 1960s in as aggressive a fashion as possible. Between 1969 and 1971, the band released three albums on Elektra and Atlantic, anticipating the punk movement with fast and furiously heavy riffs. Run Out Groove, Rhino's new arm dedicated to limited edition
Review: The Beatles, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition”
I. It Was Fifty Years Ago Today... I read the news today, oh, boy! It's a new day in Pepperland thanks to today's release of the most eagerly-anticipated reissue project of the year: the 50th anniversary deluxe box set of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. This would be a landmark collection for any number of reasons: that Pepper is routinely considered one of the greatest albums, if not the greatest album, of all time; that this is the first-ever "Expanded Edition" of a
Spicks and Specks: Ace Collects “Songs of The Bee Gees” From Lulu, Nina Simone, Percy Sledge, Others
With a recent Grammy Awards salute, a new catalogue deal, and the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Fever, the music of the Bee Gees has been front and center in 2017. Ace Records has joined the celebration of the brothers Gibb with a new entry in the label's long-running Songwriters Series. To Love Somebody: The Songs of The Bee Gees 1966-1970 pulls into focus the early professional years of Barry, Robin, and Maurice, with 24 choice cover versions of songs both familiar and lesser-known.
Review: The Flying Burrito Brothers, “The Gilded Palace of Sin” from Intervention Records
In 1969, The Flying Burrito Brothers welcomed listeners into their Gilded Palace of Sin. The album, released on Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss' A&M label, heralded a new style of music - one which co-founder Gram Parsons would famously dub "Cosmic American Music." Indeed, the sounds emanating from this Palace were, at the same time, surprisingly traditional and completely radical. For the Burritos melded the harmonies of the Everlys or the Louvins with the gutbucket soul of the deep south,
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