By any standards, Richard Page would have a lot to be thankful for as the frontman of Mr. Mister, the band behind chart-topping smash hits "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie." This year, however, there's another part of his career to celebrate: after two decades, Pull, the intended fourth album from the band, is coming out of […]
Continue ReadingAs any music collector can tell you, buying box sets and reissues is an expensive hobby. It's not often that fans catch a break, either; outside of the occasional Cyber Monday deal before the holidays, prices on box sets rarely go down, unless you've found the right connections in the secondary market. So it's refreshing […]
Continue ReadingIt's a story that's been done to death: band releases hit album, changes direction ambitiously for follow-up, is met with critical or commercial indifference - or worse, the disapproval of a label leads to said ambitious follow-up never happening. Sometimes, though, there's a post-script, Eddie and The Cruisers-style, where the music is freed from captivity […]
Continue ReadingWhether you thought he was the smartest of The Beatles, the best writer, the most politically astute, the one with the most interesting solo career - or if you disagree with any of those statements - I daresay I cannot allow you to disagree with this one: it is not fair that John Lennon is […]
Continue Reading[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gmARGvPlI] Here's a Christmas conundrum that's stumping this catalogue correspondent: are there more than two versions of WHAM!'s "Last Christmas"? A year ago this author bought a copy of The Essential NOW That's What I Call Christmas (UMG Recordings B0011941-02, 2008). Only this year did I open the disc and discover a mix of "Last […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on well-known albums of the past and the reissues they could someday see. Today's focus is on two hosers from the Great White North and the strangely funny musical legacy they left behind. The first flurries of the new winter stuck to the lawn outside The […]
Continue ReadingWelcome to the first installment in a special series of holiday-themed Back Tracks in which we’ll explore an artist’s entire seasonal catalogue! When it comes time each year to create my annual Christmas mix for family and friends, it’s always an uphill battle to not open with Andy Williams’ “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of […]
Continue ReadingABBA, ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits - Special Edition / The Vinyl Collection (Polydor/UMe) The most popular ABBA compilation ever gets expanded with a DVD of music videos, including a previously unreleased animated clip. Also, a deluxe box of the band's eight LPs on vinyl alongside a ten-track record of single and non-LP tracks will be […]
Continue ReadingColumbia and Legacy are releasing a semi-new disc of live performances from Miles Davis in 2011. Bitches Brew Live is a nine-track disc that features Davis and an all-star lineup (including Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette and Chick Corea) across two historic live settings. Three tracks, never released on CD, come from a performance at the […]
Continue Reading+-, the new U.K. vinyl singles box from Joy Division, may be followed up with a New Order box set, drummer Stephen Morris said recently. In an interview with The Quietus, Morris - a member of the short-lived post-punk outfit and its post-Ian Curtis New-Wave counterpart, oversaw the remastering of the new vinyl set, which […]
Continue Reading