In 1941, the werewolf mythology gained an iconic set of lines in the Universal horror classic The Wolf Man: "Even a man who is pure at heart/and says his prayers by night/May become a wolf when the wolfsbane blooms/and the autumn moon is bright." Forty years later, from the same studio, a less delicate line […]
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It's been a banner year for the Kinks. Under the supervision of reissue producer (and Monkees guru!) Andrew Sandoval, Sanctuary and Universal U.K. have rolled out an impressive series of Deluxe Editions bringing together mono and stereo album versions, single and EP tracks and related ephemera from the Kinks' Pye Records heyday. Now, that campaign […]
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UPDATE 10/6: We're just a few short weeks away from the release of Goin' Back: The Definitive Dusty Springfield, a super deluxe box set by any standards. With its four CDs, three DVDs and two hardback books, Goin' Back may be the ultimate holiday gift for the Dusty diehard. Of its 92 audio tracks, 22 […]
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In one of our newest features, Greater Hits, we pit two greatest hits compilations by the same artist against each other and see which one comes out on top. Today's installment: we take one of Canada's most successful alt-rock bands, compare their compilations and figure out which one's most worth your time, whether you have […]
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Timing is everything, especially in the hip-hop world. So what does it say about Jay-Z that he somehow managed to make a positive out of one of the darkest days in American history? A vinyl reissue of his landmark The Blueprint may provide some answers to that question. The man born Shawn Carter had already established […]
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As if getting a set of Ben Folds Five rarities on disc with next week's Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective wasn't enough, Folds, along with Legacy Recordings, vowed to open the vaults even further with the Ben Folds Fifty-Five Vault, a 55-track digital companion, five tracks of which would be given away free with purchase […]
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At what point in a super deluxe - or Immersion - box set does the music itself become, if not irrelevant, an afterthought? It's hard not to wonder, sifting through the treasure chest - or toy chest, perhaps - that's the Immersion Box Set of Pink Floyd's landmark 1973 rock opus The Dark Side of […]
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Gorillaz don't look 10 years old, do they? Granted, it's not easy to assess the age of a band made almost entirely out of cartoons. Adding to the confusion, the band's future-forward hip-hop doesn't sound much like a product of any time period. Regardless, the band is indeed at the decade mark - and they're […]
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If Elmer Bernstein had only composed the indelible theme to The Magnificent Seven, the composer would have been considered a legend. How lucky for us, then, that Bernstein (1922-2004) wrote the scores for more than 200 films and television shows including Sweet Smell of Success, The Ten Commandments, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Airplane! and Ghostbusters, contributing […]
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In case you've been living under a rock for the past year or so, Mumford & Sons isn't the name of a trendy country boutique. It's a rather great, roots-oriented band turning out some of the best, harmonically dense Americana-tinged rock on the scene right now. (Naturally, they're not from around these parts, calling West […]
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