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. A veritable bonanza of titles feature an expanded album by Sting, two classic Madonna 12"s, a George Michael-produced rarity, a first-time duet by a country legend and a soul icon, a new recording of a late-period classic from Hollywood's most famed composer, and so much more! Sting, Ten
Today, we're looking at three recent releases from Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint! Grapefruit is continuing its series of 3-CD clamshell cases with two titles spotlighting the 1970s. Riding the Rock Machine: British Seventies Classic Rock, available now, is certainly one of the broadest such releases in Grapefruit's series. Compiler David Wells sets out his mission statement in straightforward fashion: "[Such] is the reductive nature of radio station playlists and Spotify recommendations
Motown's Rare Earth imprint intended to bring the sound of rock to the home of The Supremes, The Miracles, Martha and The Vandellas, The Temptations, and Four Tops. The imprint was named after a white rock band from Detroit and its artists were both home-grown and licensed from other parties. In the latter category was Toe Fat, a U.K. psych-rock band built around the talents of Cliff Bennett, formerly of the beat group Cliff Bennett and The Rebel Rousers. Both of Toe Fat's albums - issued on
British rockers Uriah Heep will compile a new box set to mark their five decades together. 50 Years In Rock celebrates the proto-metal group's extensive career with 23 CDs and one LP featuring the group's studio albums of original material plus their 1973 Live album. A handful of albums - none of which feature bonus tracks from various reissues over the years - will be combined onto one CD, with their individual artwork "intertwined" on the CD mini jackets. (Artist Roger Dean has also
What do Deep Purple, The Move, Hawkwind, Fleetwood Mac and The Yardbirds all have in common? Though each of those five bands carved out distinct musical identities, all incorporated elements of psychedelia in their early hard-rock explorations. A new 3-CD box set from Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint offers an in-depth chronicle of the music that planted the seeds of progressive rock and metal. I'm a Freak, Baby is, as per its subtitle, A Journey Through the British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock
It's 2012, a new year full of new catalogue opportunities - and yet another batch of our favorite ridiculous, vaguely pointless series of compilations, UMe's ICON. The generic collections pack nothing but hits into an 11-track set list, enabling the uninitiated to get a simple primer of their favorite artist for maybe $8 and change. This time around, the batch is very rock-oriented (mid-'80s Deep Purple, Anthrax, Cinderella, Uriah Heep) with some traces of late-'90s rap and R&B (Dru Hill,