NewsOut This Week / 14 October 2016
XTC / Skylarking (CD+blu-ray combo)
Andy Partridge continues to set the bar very high with XTC reissues that offer more content that rival sets at much lower prices. Imagine a Kate Bush Hounds of Love set like this Skylarking deluxe? Not so much a reissue, more an autopsy on the album, with the results delivered via 5.1 mixes, complete alternate version of the album, demo and ‘worktape’ sessions and more. Buy it! 
Oasis / Be Here Now (reissue)
That awkward moment in your reissue campaign when you have to ‘celebrate’ albums that just aren’t very good. Oasis‘ third long-player Be Here Now is reissued this week. Maybe the CD of demos might reveal what could have been… or not. The usual overpriced super deluxe box is available.
Phil Collins / The Singles (3CD or 4LP box)
Phil Collins‘ ‘Take A Look At Me Now’ reissue campaign is a classic example of why not to give the artist control of archival releases. The whole thing has been half-hearted and misguided. Seriously, what do they know about what sells, or what fans expect? This hits set, which appears to close the campaign, contains no particular rarities or *those* 12-inch versions missing from the reissues. Like the album deluxe editions, I’m sure it will sound good, but it’s a bit boring.
Pink Floyd / Wish You Were Here (vinyl reissue)
Pink Floyd‘s unfeasibly good follow-up to The Dark Side of the Moon, 1975’s Wish You Were Here is being made available again on vinyl.
Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein / Stranger Things sountrack
Sublime music created for a sublime TV series. There are actually two volumes of the Stranger Things soundtrack and a myriad of vinyl special editions in various territories.
Suzanne Vega / Lover, Beloved: Songs From an Evening With Carson McCullers
The ninth studio album from Suzanne Vega is based on the singer-songwriters’ play about the American author Carson McCullers and features ten original Vega songs, mostly co-written with composer Duncan Sheik. She’s on tour in the UK right now.
Peter Gabriel / Growing Up Live
This Peter Gabriel blu-ray+DVD features over six hours of content, including Growing Up Live, Still Growing Up Live and documentaries Unwrapped and Growing Up On Tour: A Family Portrait.
David Bowie / A Reality Tour (3LP box)
Sony issue this three-LP edition of David Bowie‘s A Reality Tour on blue vinyl in a lift-off lid box. Very cheap on Amazon Italy, incidentally.
Depeche Mode / 101 (2LP vinyl)
A double heavyweight vinyl reissue of Depeche Mode‘s classic 1989 live album. Violator, Music For The Masses and Black Celebration also reissued on the format.
Mike Oldfield / Original Album Series (5CD box)
A Tubular Bells heavy, five disc Mike Oldfield album collection.
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Just a heads up… due to a last minute legal issue there are two versions of the deluxe Oasis set. The first version has “Trip Inside (Be Here Now)” 4:38 as track 8 on Disc 3. However, that demo apparently includes an uncleared Rolling Stones sample, so at the last minute it was replaced with an untitled instrumental demo running 3:38. There is no indication of this on the packaging. Apparently both versions are turning up in the shops!
Interesting… just checked my promo CDs and CD 3 has Trip Inside (Be Here Now).
Yeah, it must have been a VERY late change if there are versions of the commercial set in shops with Trip Inside. They must have made the decision after production was already underway!
Just been emailed by Amazon.co.uk about my Skylarking BR order – they now don’t have an estimated delivery date, mucho apologies etc.
Anyone else had this?
The Bowie set is not currently available at Amazon Italy but Amazon Spain now has it for under £22 (plus postage).
Does anyone have information on the 3 lp set of The Who Live at Leeds which is being released on the 21st? I pre ordered it but still don’t know what it contains.
From eBay listings (no track list on The Who’s official website), it’s apparently a double rather than a triple and seems to have the same contents as the expanded 1995 CD.
1 Heaven And Hell
2 I Can’t Explain 2:16
3 Fortune Teller 2:34
4 Tattoo 2:51
5 Young Man Blues
6 Substitute 2:07
7 Happy Jack 2:13
8 I’m A Boy 2:40
9 A Quick One, While He’s Away 8:25
10 Amazing Journey/Sparks 7:34
11 Summertime Blues
12 Shakin’ All Over
13 My Generation 14:45
14 Magic Bus 7:22
Please note though, that this info is something I’ve gleaned off the net, rather than an official statement; perhaps sellers on eBay don’t know what the content is either. Maybe it’s a half speed mastered release of an eighty minute kazoo solo Keith Moon performed to the town hall cleaners after the group went home. Three LPs seems an odd number; if they planned to include all of the ‘Tommy’ material, then 4 LPs would be required. Highlights from ‘Tommy’?
Looking at the ridiculously selected Oldfield OCA-set i couldn’t help but notice that this week also sees the release of an OAC-set by the wonderful but underrated Thomas Dolby, including the long deleted soundtrack to the movie “Gothic” and his first 4 albums. Although it’s not a SDE imho it would make sense to highlight this on your site as well, Paul.
Just bought the ‘Collector’s Edition’ releases of ‘The Golden Age of Wireless’ and ‘The Flat Earth’, plus a dirt cheap, second-hand copy of ‘Astronauts and Heretics’, then they release this box! Never mind, they’ll still get my cash, even for something that contains four CDs I already own . I’ve seen second-hand copies of ‘Gothic’ on CD with an asking price of anything between £35-£150, so acquiring it for £14 seems a bargain to me. Alas, the cheapskates at Warner still haven’t seen fit to include individual index points for the tracks on ‘Gothic’, just Side One and Two. Hey, Stan and Reg Warner, get someone onto it…..
Cheap tat in cardboard sleeves with no remastering at all. Would love remasters of Aliens & Astronauts but it looks very unlikely.
SOOO looking forward to the XTC Skylarking set! I received an email from Burning House this morning that my copy has been posted–that means I “might” get it by Friday release day (I’m in Seattle, Washington). These deluxe sets that Ape has been putting out are SOOO worth the money. The only way to make them better would be for them to include a bigger booklet; given the price it’s totally understandable that they don’t. Plus the form factor (standard CD jewelcase side) makes it fit in with the rest of the CDs.
BTW, keep up the excellent work, Paul. SDE is my go-to site for the most up to date info on reissues etc.!
I meant “standard CD jewelcase size.”
Thanks!
I am really looking forward to the Phil Collins Vinyl to drop on my mat (figuratively speaking). Ok it’s not perfect for the completists but it seems a thing of beauty to me as a casual Collins listener who just happens to have all of the albums.
I am a huge Oldfield fan however and there does seem to be a “Return to Ommadawn” finished and looking for a release date. So whilst the 5 CD box is pointless for me it might be the ideal size for the casual listener, the 5 albums featured are all excellent with Voyager being amongst the very best of Oldfield’s later work (IMHO). The weakest album there is TBIII (I was at the launch of II & III – freezing cold for II and absolutely pissed on for III).
If Return to Ommadawn is half as good as it’s parent, it’ll be cracker, TBII is a superb album and I am hoping that O2 lives up the sequel label. I do wonder whether Mike is quite comfortable now and his anger / depression / anxiety etc. is mostly gone. His best work comes when he is at his most fragile.
I thought Amarok was intended to the “sequel” to Ommadawn.
AFAIK yes, that’s what was intended when Mike started to put together Amarok, and that is the (pre-internet) perception of what it should be from interviews with people like the late Karl Dallas. It was supposed, at the very outset, that Mike would re-visit the themes from Ommadawn, and he kinda did, but Amarok then took on a life of it’s own and the Ommadawn II theme was dropped. Amarok still remains to me a brilliant album and the album closest to Ommadawn in ideas and structure. But when you hear Tubular Bells I and TBII and the themes they share you can see that the idea of O2 was lost along the way to making Amarok, which stands alone. I think anyway.
Also Collaborations seems a very odd title to pick given the “Boxed” album of the same name. I just hope it isn’t collaborations with the guys who messed up all of the remixes for Songs of Distant Earth and Sentinel. I think Ibiza got under Mike’s skin a little too much whilst trying to remain “Current”. Those are just awful remixes.
I think his main aim was to drive Richard Branson and Simon Draper round the bend by not letting them call it ‘Tubular Bells II’ and then calling his first album for Warner exactly that. ‘Amarok’ is clearly ‘Ommadawn II’ in all but name. Virgin wouldn’t promote it, Mike retaliated by putting up his own money for the infamous ‘Spot the Secret Message’ contest, Morse code that translated as ‘FUCK OFF RB’ about 48 minutes into the album. I think the relation between Branson and Oldfield are a bit more cordial nowadays.
Indeed, it’d make more sense to re-release ‘Boxed’ as a four LP set, rather than just the one album, but then who knows the thinking behind Mile’s back catalogue management. My old copy’s getting a bit tired after 36 years, a new release wouldn’t go amiss.
Indeed we ought to have a competition, Paul are you listening, Which box set falls apart the easiest? My original copy of Boxed is in a right old state, the 3 coloured inner sleeves are all white to match the 4th and I spent my early teens sticking every clipping of Mike’s I could find into the box, so it’s patched with yellowing old sellotape glue. But I can even top that with Three or Four Light Years. The ELO boxes I have, every corner has gone. Life has just got the better of it. I think you could put Four light years into a hermetically sealed container for 20 years and the corners would still come out broken.
Mike Oldfield hat a waste of time a The Studio Albums: 1992-2003 Box set was released in 2014 which had 8 albums in £20.20. The new one released this week only 5 albums (the first 5 from the 2014 boxset) £14.00.
Makes you wonder if these will ever get the deluxe treatment.
Islands and Earth Moving are next after the Discovery and Killing Fields of this year.
There was a “rumour” that Mike was recording a new album called Ommadawn 2
‘Return to Ommadawn’ was slated for an August release, still no news about it that I can see. Mind you, Mike’s dad Raymond expired on the 11th of August, I imagine that would have had some bearing on the release. Or perhaps Mike thinks the Ommadawn title is cursed. Mike’s mum Maureen passed away when Mike was working on the original album in 1975.
There’s a pre-order up on Amazon for a vinyl re-issue of ‘Collaborations’, I assume it’s just a stand alone release of the fourth David Bedford/singles/odd spare track LP that was included in the ‘Boxed’ set.
I really like Be Here Now actually, there’s some cracking tunes on there.
Agreed – it was actually the album that got me interested in the band.
At least Liam Gallagher still agrees with us.
I agree. The album itself plays as rather an over-indulgent, inconsistent mess – however, 3 of my top 5 Oasis tunes are from this album, so the sparks of genius that ARE there must be pretty special. I think most of the dislike for this album comes from the fact that it was made during the period which saw the first glimmers of the death of Britpop so an ‘experimental’ album by the genres ‘shining beacon’ was the likely scapegoat.
Also, universally praised on release yet the harsh criticism only really came once the visionary Urban Hymns was released one month later, and to be fair most albums seem flawed once Richard Ashcroft shows you how it should be done. It’s just a shame Be Here Now gets most of the flack because it was so relevant at the time.
Instead of yet another pointless in my opinion release of 101 on vinyl when are we ever going to get this on CD remastered ? I know there was SACD released over ten years ago but it goes for silly prices now.
You have issues with the sound quality Neil?
Put the album in a sound editor and add ton’s of compression, normalize it to +1 DB, Voila you have a remaster
Why would anybody want to add tons of compression to it ? I’m talking about a proper remaster which can be achieved instead of all that brickwalled crap.
Proper would be nice, but in this day and age, I agree standard affair remasters blow
I have a interest in that new Erasure and Dead or Alive box, But not sure I want to piss my money away on overly compressed audio
Paul, thanks for you reply. It’s just that it is the big day for all Depeche Mode fans tomorrow and I thought that, since 101 is first time on 180 grams (for all other albums it’s the 3rd time) there might have been a little more buzz. It is indeed a ‘Sacred’ day every four years. Have a nice day.
Andy, it’s not a special edition. It’s just a re-issue of the original 101 vinyl, now on 180 gram. What annoys me a little is that Paul does not pay much attention to it, but really wants us to buy the DM box sets in his shop. Please note, that I am a big fan of this site and have spend more money than my wife knows on box sets and deals, but I can’t stop thinking that you are not a DM fan. Is that correct Paul? Anyway, I do very much appreciate your work.
Every time something comes out (Delta Machine, Live in Berlin, Video Singles etc.) it is covered. I have today now highlighted the vinyl reissues. So I am not sure the facts support your assertion that I don’t pay attention to DM stuff. I’m a big Depeche Mode fan, as it happens. Music For the Masses is one of my favourite albums EVER.
My first ever introduction to the SDE website was a review on the Depeche Mode Remix collection.
I can’t think of a single release by DM that has not been covered on the SDE website!
I’ve always found this site very informative regarding Depeche Mode releases, I remember there being a detailed page for the Live In Berlin box and it not being released on blu ray, also the forthcoming video collection has been covered really well.
@Jesper…have you tried the “Search” function on the site? Must not have as it populates more than enough (“…I just can’t get enough”) coverage for even the most die-hard Mode fans. Mr. Sinclair providing excellent deals on some of their previous box sets is further exclamation of his NOT ignoring Depeche Mode. Seems the only good thing that came out of this was to find out his fondness for “Music for the Masses” – a good choice indeed. Saw that tour with Nitzer Ebb in support here in the States! My first Mode show was in ’85 when I was 15, I paid $12.50 to see them at the Aragon Ballroom (Chicago, IL.) so I believe I am of Paul’s vintage – don’t need to fight anyone’s battles but I’m pretty passionate about this site and did want to correct you. SDE Rocks!!
Thanks! Funnily enough I didn’t see them on that tour (I would have been 17) but my 15 year old sister did! I now regret not going :)
Is it worth noting that the 101 vinyl still omits a bunch of songs that are on the CD, just like the original vinyl. If i recall correctly, they were picked up on the 12″ of Everything Counts (live) which was obviously the single that supported the album.
Absolutely correct. Sacred, Nothing and A Question Of Lust are not featured on the 2xLP set.
Did you forget Yes, Tales from Topographic Oceans?
No, that came out last week.
Boom!!