A big reissue is coming from indie reissue label Friday Music: a 25th anniversary reissue of Welcome to the Real World, the 1985 sophomore LP by Mr. Mister. This record, which spawned the Top 10 hits "Broken Wings," "Kyrie" and "Is It Love," is remastered direct from RCA's original master tapes and comes in a digipak. (No bonus tracks, but outside of a dance mix and dub for "Is It Love," there were none, really.) Amazon has this one listed for an April 20 release. (Thanks to Pause & Play for
Reissue Theory: a-ha - "Scoundrel Days"
The Ending on a High Note Tour, the farewell trek by synthpop legends a-ha, has been in full swing for some time now. In about a month, the band takes their show to the U.S.A., a country that knows them for that first great hit "Take on Me," but little else. Readers of The Second Disc, however, likely know that the band continued to succeed (particularly in Europe and South America) through the mid-1990s and again in 2000, when comeback album Minor Earth, Major Sky earned them a new generation
Reissue Theory x4: Chaka Khan (and Rufus Too)
The Second Disc is a day late (but no less enthusiastic) in wishing Chaka Khan, The Queen of Funk Soul, a happy birthday. Chaka has had, to say the least, an illustrious career, first as a member of Rufus then as a wildly successful solo artist in the late '70s and '80s. What is the secret to Khan's ongoing popularity? Chalk it up to three things. First, there's that powerhouse voice - at once sensuous and celebratory. There's also the great sounds she surrounds her vocals with, whether it's
Labelled with Love
It might not mean as much now in an era dominated by digital files (not to mention a music business that is more or less split between four major labels), but there's a certain beauty in looking at the label on a piece of vinyl. Next to a picture sleeve, it's the prettiest art you could get in the early days of buying music. With that label, there would be an image, not only literally but spiritually as well; the image a label projected onto its LPs and singles usually called a certain emotion
Every Day Should Be Record Store Day
And perhaps it is, depending on how often you buy from one. The fourth annual Record Store Day is happening in less than a month (April 17) but already a lot of releases have been announced for the occasion. Best of all, there are some neat releases for catalogue fans out there, too. You can have a look at the full list here, but here are some of the neatest catalogue offerings coming on Record Store Day. Devo, Duty Now for the Future (1979) (Warner Bros.) As previously mentioned, Devo's
Back Tracks: Alex Chilton
A potentially embarassing confession: it took the death of Big Star frontman Alex Chilton for me to realize just what I knew about him. I knew his name was the title of a Replacements song (thanks, Rock Band), I'd known of Big Star thanks to the justifiable hype over last year's box set from Rhino and I'd known a handful of his most famous, very solid compositions that he either wrote or popularized ("Thirteen," "The Letter," "In the Street") through inevitable cultural osmosis (thanks, That
Still Your Dog
After a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and an upcoming reissue of their most iconic record, what more can The Stooges pull from their back catalogue? Not surprisingly, there's an answer: Rhino Handmade is prepping a two-disc reissue of the band's 1969 self-titled debut LP. Of course, as you may have read last week, the album already was given a double-disc reissue by Rhino in 2005. This set ups the ante by presenting a complete, alternate mix of the record and several unearthed songs. The
Back Tracks: U2
Is it inherently lazy to do a U2 post on a music blog for St. Patrick's Day? Whether it is or not, it's done for two reasons. First, since The Second Disc is all about reissues, it's worth tipping a hat to Universal's ongoing series of U2 reissues. They have been some of the best on the market in recent years. The packaging is nice, the content is comprehensive and groundbreaking (in other words, the fan gets all those hard-to-find tracks he or she is looking for plus a score of vault material)
News Round-Up: Disintegrated, Devo and Lena Horne Unearthed
Chain of Flowers reports that the upcoming expansion of Disintegration by The Cure still lacks a release date. In a related story, ARRRRRRRGH. Amazon is taking pre-orders for a reissue of Duty Now for the Future, Devo's 1979 sophomore album. This title, due on April 13 (presumably with bonus content), follows the deluxe versions of Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! and Freedom of Choice released last year. Hip-O Select tweeted a tease for an upcoming release: "Lena Horne did 16 singles on MGM
Reissue Theory: - Public Enemy, "Fear of a Black Planet"
Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of Fear of a Black Planet, the third album by hip-hop legends Public Enemy. Billboard did a great write-up about the album's impact after two decades, which dovetails rather interestingly into a highly-recommended recent documentary I had the pleasure to see last week. The film, Copyright Criminals, is a thought-provoking look into the rise of sampling in music and the ongoing legal challenges faced by samplers. Public Enemy frontman Chuck D, as well as
Back Tracks: ABBA
Continuing the Rock and Rall Hall of Fame coverage leading up to Monday night's induction, here is another catalogue retrospective for one of the artist inductees. In his latest book, 2009's Eating the Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman includes an essay praising ABBA for their intriguing critical status (contending that, like AC/DC, ABBA's work never operated near relevance or irrelevance, thereby guaranteeing that it will have a more lasting impact) as well as their somewhat unusual commercial
Channel One
There's a lot of older music fans out there who would give anything to "bring things back" - whatever that might mean to them. Bring it back to the days of radio hits, record stores and so on. Optimistic though we may be, we're pretty much resigned to the fact that most things aren't going to revert back to the way they were. One notable exception exists in the catalogue world, though: it's a simple four-letter word that is quite literally changing the way we listen to our older music. It's
Back Tracks: Genesis
Continuing with our Rock and Roll Hall of Fame pre-coverage, we have the first of five catalogue overviews from our artist inductees. Genesis is one of many bands without a definitive entry point into their catalogue. As a five piece outfit composed of Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins through the early 1970s, the band put out some delightful prog-rock that was surprisingly accessible. (Considering that their live sets consisted of twenty-minute jams and
Judas Priest Re-Forging "British Steel"
Legacy Recordings announced details for a new Legacy Edition of Judas Priest's 1980 classic British Steel. This LP - their second with producer Tom Allom - was destined to become a heavy metal classic from the get-go, earning Priest their first U.S. Top 40 record and paving the way for a loud, in-your-face but streamlined metal sound that would be deployed to full effect by bands like Metallica and Anthrax in the coming years. As for the vault material, the audio offerings are nothing new -
Back Tracks: James Horner
As this post is being written, the Oscars have wrapped up. Exciting, right? Of course not. The Oscars are perhaps as ridiculous as the Grammys, and usually don't have a heck of a lot to offer fans of any music in general. Perhaps this year was a bit of an exception - it was very exciting to see Michael Giacchino score his first Oscar for the excellent score to Up - but for someone raised on ultra-thematic scores such as John Williams' work for Star Wars, Jaws and others, there's usually not much
Rarities Editions: Half of a Good Idea?
A few weeks before I started this blog, I kept seeing pre-order links for a bunch of catalogue titles from Universal Music Enterprises under the banner of "Rarities Edition." By the time the first batch of them came out in January, I had found out that the sets were essentially the bonus discs from some of UMe's unmistakable Deluxe Edition titles, priced to entice those collectors who wanted those bonus cuts on disc without purchasing (or re-purchasing) a more expensive set. Now at first blush,
That's Why They've Done It Again (UPDATED 3/4)
A break from the usual weekend radio silence to report on a very exciting story over at Slicing Up Eyeballs: EMI's Dutch Web site has added reissues of Duran Duran's Notorious and Big Thing to their catalogue schedule. Both titles have a release date of June 7, and will ostensibly serve as companion pieces to the great, recent deluxe editions of the Duran discography (Rio and a vintage live show, Hammersmith '82, were released last fall, and 2 CD/1 DVD versions of Duran Duran, Seven and the
The Paradox
If you're an avid follower of the music business at large, you know the common narrative that defines the industry: once, record labels signed great talents and earned lots of money and influence off the back of that art. Gradually, that art became secondary to business and excess, and as labels became absorbed into bigger corporations and followed trends instead of setting them, music fans got increasingly put off by the product. By the time rapid technological advances changed the way we
Reissue Theory: The Family, "The Family"
Tuesday was the 20th - count it! - anniversary of I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got, the polarizing breakthrough LP by Sinead O'Connor. There's a fascinating write-up about the record and its aftermath over at Popdose that really shows off what an intriguing figure O'Connor was at the time. It certainly says something that an album with one Top 40 hit (her only one) sold over 7 million copies in its day. Clearly something was up here. I completely forgot that the record was given a double-disc
Reissue Theory: The Art of Noise, "In Visible Silence"
The Art of Noise usually gets lumped into that U.K. '80s esoterica category that a lot of their early labelmates on ZTT (Frankie Goes to Hollywood, 808 State, The Buggles and so on) seem to be in. Their sound was hip, catchy and weird, they say, and maybe a bit too much so for their own good. This is kind of funny, particularly because it's kind of wrong. The Art of Noise were indeed hip, catchy and weird. Their early work on ZTT, like the sample-heavy "Close (To the Edit)" and "Beat Box," set
Back Tracks: Tears for Fears
Not many people dig music from the 1980s. To a degree, I understand why. Sandwiched between the monstrous artistry of album-oriented rock bands of the '70s and the mainstream-busting advances of grunge and rap in the '90s, most of the music of the '80s was characterized by an emphasis on image (i.e.: MTV) and artifice (why hire a drummer when you can buy a Linn LM-1?). But a good song - whether it's a hit or not - will transcend its labels and packaging and hopefully turn into something you'll
Release Round-Up: In Case You Missed Them
Here are a couple of catalogue release tidbits, one that I'm certain is fairly new and a few stragglers I've neglected to mention thus far: Rhino has started taking pre-orders for The Prague Sessions, a new Peter, Paul and Mary compilation. The set features previously unreleased live versions of the folk group's best-known songs, backed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Should be an interesting new way to hear these songs. On March 23, Eagle Records is releasing Live at Knebworth, a
Rumor Mill: More Def Leppard Reissues Coming?
Tonight I was given an interesting tip from a friend, Kevin Alba of Metal Asylum, concerning a potential next wave of reissues from Def Leppard. According to the story (scroll down a bit more than halfway to read), Japan is getting SHM-CD remasters of the band's first two albums, On Through the Night (1980) and High and Dry (1981). Now of course this kind of stuff happens all the time, but what makes it interesting is that both sets are supposed to feature bonus discs with as-yet-unannounced
So Much to Give
Another late breaking release announcement: Hip-O Select has announced the reissue of I've Got So Much to Give, the first record by Barry White. Out of print for years, this remastered disc comes with new liner notes by BW collaborator Jack Perry (who also worked on last year's killer Unlimited box set) and two bonus cuts making their CD debut. And collector's rejoice: it's unlimited! Check out the tracks after the jump.
(Slightly) Turning Back the Clock
Today, Legacy releases a double-disc edition of Supernatural, the massive comeback album Santana released in 1999. Perhaps more than any catalogue reissue I've ever followed, there's something positively mind-boggling about seeing an album that's only a decade old - even one that's a successful, good listen - get the deluxe treatment. You see, while I have been passionate about reissues for much of my music-collecting life, I'm firmly a part of the generation that went from watching Britney