This set of exquisitely recorded live concerts of Doc & Merle Watson at The Boarding House in San Francisco is from 4 live shows recorded in 1974 by the legendary soundman Owsley “Bear” Stanley.
The seven-CD, 94-track box set features four Doc & Merle Watson shows recorded by Bear, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 76. They were among the more than 1,3000 recordings – known as “Sonic Journals”- the iconic sound engineer and LSD manufacture left in his massive archive.
“Bear had marked these shows as among the gems in his Sonic Journal archive, in both the quality of the performances and the quality of the sound,” said Bear’s son and Owsley Stanley Foundation president Starfinder Stanley, “which is one of the reasons we chose them as the first project to…

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…develop since his passing.

Doc Watson was a legendary American flat-picking guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music, who won 7 GRAMMY Awards and a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award. He performed with his son, the multi-instrumentalist Merle Watson, for more than 15 years until Merle’s death in 1985. Live recordings from this peak period for Doc and Merle in the 1970s are rare.

1960’s counter-culture icon Owsley Stanley, known as “Bear” to his friends, was an audio innovator who helped create the first high-fidelity concert sound systems for rock and roll. As an early patron and first soundman of the Grateful Dead, he amplified, recorded, and influenced many other seminal artists in the psychedelic music scene of San Francisco and beyond in the 1960s and early 1970s, and was known for his focus on products of the highest quality. From the start, Bear recorded nearly every artist that played through a sound system that he built, trying to capture the music precisely as the audience heard it, using the recordings to help him improve his sound.  The techniques he developed to create what he called his “Sonic Journals” resulted in recordings of unparalleled quality and clarity, capturing the sound of the room like no-one else.

Never the Same Way Once was mastered by Jeffrey Norman of Mockingbird Mastering, a frequent Grateful Dead mastering engineer and one of Bear’s trusted friends and colleagues. State-of-the-art Plangent Process transfer techniques were used to remove subtle timing distortions created by the recording and playback devices (wow and flutter), resulting in the most accurate replication of the music, exactly as it was heard on the night it was played. — owsleystanleyfoundation.org

In 2014, Cherry Red compiled the excellent NME C86 box set that reissued NME’s seminal cassette compilation released in the fateful year of 1986, adding another 22 songs that helped flesh out what was going on all over the U.K. that year.
Two years after the arrival of the NME C86 box, they tackled 1987’s guitar pop and noise pop scenes on the equally fine C87 set. It catches up on many of the artists who featured on the NME C86 comp, like the Primitives, the Weather Prophets, and the Dentists, while also spotlighting plenty of exciting new bands that sprang up in C86‘s mighty wake. The collection features some true indie pop classics like “Pristine Christine” by the Sea Urchins (the first Sarah Records single), “Son of a Gun” by the Vaselines, Talulah Gosh’s self-titled single,…

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…the Wedding Present’s “My Favourite Dress,” Miaow’s “When It All Comes Down,” the Chesterf!elds’ buoyant “Ask Johnny Dee,” and lots more. It gathers up a few rarities like a flexidisc version of the Darling Buds’ “Spin” and the B-side of Kitchens of Distinction’s first single, and there are plenty of bands only a true indie pop obsessive would know like the Submarines, Gol Gappa, and the Caretaker Race, some well worth checking out and some notable for the historical perspective they provide. Not content to just do a stellar job selecting tracks by the jangly, happily melodic bands that were springing up like weeds in an abandoned carpark, the compilers make sure to add a dozen or so angular, arty agit-pop tracks by bands like Bog-Shed, the Dog Faced Hermans, and Stump, then do those fans with more gentle constitutions the favor of sticking them all at the beginning of the third disc instead of sprinkling them throughout.

Again, these bands are well chosen, as are the tracks selected. It’s not an easy job trying to capture a scene, making sure to cover as much of it as possible while still maintaining quality control, but the intrepid duo of John Reed and Neil Taylor really do a brilliant job. Sure, there are minor quibbles that could be voiced and a few notable omissions — the Close Lobsters’ “Let’s Make Some Plans” would have been nice to include — but overall C87 is just about all any fan of late-’80s U.K. underground pop could hope for.

American Epic: The Collection seems destined to win a Grammy award for best historical album. A box set in a bound book format containing five CDs and 100 recordings, The Collection is a handsome companion piece for the PBS documentary music series, American Epic.
In the 1920s, producers and engineers and their newly developed portable electronic recording machines journeyed throughout the United States. They recorded regional musical styles performed beyond the nation’s big metro areas. The recordings included blues, gospel and jug bands and string bands from the South; Cajun and Creole musicians from Louisiana; country performers in Appalachia; Tejano performers in Texas; and Native American chants and Hawaiian songs.

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Despite the age of the American Epic recordings and their engineers’ early technology, the audio quality is impressive and immediate. The talent is undeniable.

There are such obvious choices from the ’20s and ’30s as the Carter Family (“Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”), Jimmie Rodgers (“Waiting for a Train”), Robert Johnson (“Cross Road Blues”) and Mississippi John Hurt (“Louis Collins”).

Most of the artists, however, are obscure. Some of them — especially the Bentley Boys (“Down on Penny’s Farm”) and Bascom Lamar Lunsford (“I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground”) — reveal the roots of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. The collection also features Emmett Miller’s rendition of “Lovesick Blues,” a hit 20 years before Hank Williams’ version; “Blue Doze Blues,” the splendid original recording by Henry Thomas that inspired Canned Heat’s “Going Up the Country”; and “Walk Right In” by Cannon’s Jug Stompers, the song that became a hit 30 years later for the Rooftop Singers.

Although early jazz is noticeably absent from American Epic, Louisiana is represented by Atlanta and New Orleans sessions featuring Cajun and Creole musicians, including Cleoma Breaux, Joseph Falcon and the duo of Amédée Ardoin and Dennis McGee. Shreveport’s Lead Belly appears, too.

American Epic: The Soundtrack, is a 15 song single disc anthology of songs featured in the American Epic film trilogy. Compiled by Lo-Max Records, it includes restored archival recordings from artists such as Memphis Jug Band, The Carter Family, Charley Patton, Joseph Falcon, Lydia Mendoza and others.

The team behind last year’s excellent The Glory Days of Aussie Pub Rock compilation return with another four-CD instalment paying testament to the halcyon days of our nation’s live music scene, and fortunately they have a deep well from which to draw tunes and inspiration.
Most of the obvious culprits are back with another requisitely strong track – think big names such Cold Chisel, The Angels, Split Enz, Midnight Oil, Models, Sunnyboys, Skyhooks, Divinyls, Weddings Parties Anything, Australian Crawl, Hunters & Collectors, Paul Kelly, The Johnnys, The Church and The Saints – this time joined by some notable absentees from Vol. 1 such as Hoodoo Gurus and The Sports.
But it’s the songs that you don’t already know backwards that make these collections so…

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…fascinating. Here we’re gifted a swag of relatively obscure gems including Fraternity’s If You Got It (featuring Bon Scott on vocals), The Hitmen’s Didn’t Tell The Man and Stars’ With A Winning Hand, as well as a swathe of long-forgotten bangers such as Do Re Mi’s Man Overboard, Nick Barker & The Reptiles’ Another Me and even Dynamic Hepnotics’ Soul Kind Of Feeling which remind how good Aussie music lovers have had it for so long.

The Complete Transatlantic Recordings gathers together for the first time the entire Ian Campbell Folk Group catalogue recorded for Transatlantic Records, covering the period 1963-1968. This collection includes 6 studio albums plus related bonus material from the period.
The Ian Campbell Folk Group were one of the most respected, influential and best known British folk groups of the 1960’s. Taking their origins from Aberdeen, the band formed in Birmingham in 1958. They signed to Transatlantic Records in 1963 and proceeded to record the content of this collection over the next 6 years. They topped the bill at the Royal Albert Hall, made numerous TV appearances, attended the Newport Folk Festival in 1964 and were prolific live performers throughout Europe.

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Dave Swarbrick and Dave Pegg who both achieved fame with Fairport Convention, are featured in this collection.

DISC ONE:

This Is the Ian Campbell Folk Group – the band’s debut 18 track album released in 1963.

Across the Hills – the 2nd album featuring 14 tracks released originally in 1964.

DISC TWO:

Coaldust Ballads – a 1965 album released with 17 tracks and on CD for the very first time.

Contemporary Campbells – a 14 track release dating from 1965.

DISC THREE:

New Impressions of The Ian Campbell Folk Group – next in the series was this offering from 1966 featuring 15 tracks.

The Circle Game – the band’s final album for Transatlantic appearing on CD for the first time. It features 14 tracks and was originally released in 1968.

DISC FOUR: BONUS TRACKS

Disc 4 contains all the tracks recorded by the group that don’t appear on the 6 albums listed above. Their singles, Kelly, The Boy From Killane, The Times They Are A Changin’, (which reached 42 in the UK charts), One Eyed Reilly and Guantanamera are included along with their B sides, as are tracks that only appeared on the Transatlantic sampler albums that were released in 1969. Most of these tracks are appearing on CD for the first time.

…Michael Pisaro is an American composer strongly associated with the Wandelweiser movement, whose music is often noted for its quietness, although it is by no means all quiet, and for its willingness to extrapolate a post-Morton Feldman aesthetic of stillness, duration and unabashed beauty. This music is perhaps best understood not by these attributes, but by a shared commitment to get at essentials. Short or long, sparse or dense, acoustic or electro-acoustic, it is guided by a determination not to be burdened by anything that doesn’t need to be present.
This goes hand in hand with a determination to completely engage with what does need to be there. Pisaro’s music has often employed sound…

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…sources (electronic tone generators, field recordings, electric guitars and pounds of rice) and transmission methods (text scores, months-long email huddles with performing musicians) that are new to classical music practice, and he functions well outside classical boundaries — consider the arranged and manipulated natural sounds used on Crosshatches and Continuum Unbound. But he has the academic background and intellectual/technical acumen necessary to operate within said boundaries. He can be as classical as he needs or wants to be, and he’s been dealing with the flagship instrument of European-rooted classical music for a long time.

The Earth and the Sky draws together 11 pieces composed between 1994 and 2016, which is no small feat when you consider that Dutch pianist Reinier van Houdt recorded his performances in 2015. Hey, this is the 21^st century — there’s no reason why a composer can’t use recording technology to continue composing after some tracks have been laid down. Van Houdt sticks mainly to conventional piano sounds, exactingly recorded with a multi-microphone set-up that balances the sounds of instrument and room. Pisaro contributes recordings taken from the grounds where the recording took place, radio noise, and sine waves, which are Pisaro’s signature sound element. The latter seem to vibrate from within the piano’s notes, mutating them into pulsing entities, plumped objects, or simply enhanced editions of themselves. What Pisaro does to those notes parallels what he does to classical music. He plays it straight, jolts new live into it and modifies it at the genetic level. Van Houdt is an apt confederate in this endeavor. He came to the conservatory already steeped in experimental practice, but learned there to love Chopin and Liszt, and his choices are guided to this day by what he likes to play. Now there’s a radical notion — play something because it feels good. But that appreciation of the sensual qualities of a note and the silence that surrounds it is the life force that makes this often sparse and expansive music beautiful. Van Houdt comes not to bury the piano’s essential piano-ness but to revel in it. Since he is doing it with Pisaro’s music, his revelry is distilled to essentials of solidity and space, movement and stillness. Pisaro and van Houdt come not to topple the monolith but to polish it until it reflects them, and my, doesn’t The Earth And The Sky shine.

The Original Sun Albums 1957-1964 is an 8-CD package that offers 83 songs as they appeared on the original LPs and along the way includes every Johnny Cash 7-inch single A & B side issued by the label. The bonus disc includes 23 further cuts and features alternate versions, rare recordings and outtakes, all newly remastered from the original Sun master tapes.
If you were to visit Sam Phillips’ legendary Sun Studios in Memphis, you would no doubt be entertained by one of the studio’s current tour guides, who would willingly demonstrate to you just how Johnny Cash achieved his famous guitar sound; by placing a dollar bill between the fretboard of the guitar and the strings. This very distinctive sound is now as legendary as the studios themselves…

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…and the seven albums that were originally released on the Sun label between 1957 and 1964 have been gathered together in one package for the first time, sounding just as fresh today as they did at the time of their original release.

…the eight discs include all seven original albums, the complete Sun 45s and a collection of rare recordings, such as the brilliantly shambolic ‘You’re My Baby (Little Woolly Booger)’, which sees Cash in playful mood. The 83 songs include one or two duplications, such as ‘I Walk the Line’, which appears on the first LP, Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar and also again on The Songs That Made Him Famous, Johnny Cash Sings Hank Williams (curiously enough), and a fourth time on the RARE! collection. If the immediately recognisable voice of the ‘Man in Black’ is the focal point here, then there is also something enduring about the almost naive muted guitar twang of regular guitar player Luther Perkins, which although was overshadowed by more dexterous guitar players to come, still remains the iconic sound of the time. Despite the seemingly prolific output for Sun, recording such classics as ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, ‘Cry Cry Cry’, ‘Hey Porter’ and ‘Rock Island Line’, which opens this set, Cash was only with the label barely a year, leaving for CBS at the end of 1958, yet it’s with these sides that Cash is remembered.

Remastered from the original Sun tapes, the box set is therefore an invaluable record of Cash’s formative recording years, which also gives us an insight into the marketing strategy of a small independent label keen on giving Cash fans precisely what they really wanted at the time. Fortunately those fans, along with a new breed of followers, can now hear the entire Sun collection whilst reading the sleeve notes and track listings precisely how they appeared the first time around sixty years ago.

Discussion of the Vibrators tends to center, sometimes tediously, on whether or not they were a punk band (see also Stooges, MC5, Television, etc.). Points in favor: their late-1970s, London-based run, a hard-bashing, guitar slashing sound, the brevity and punch of many of their songs, the favor of John Peel and certain wardrobe-ish similarities.
Points against: the band started playing a few years before the advent of punk and early singles like “Baby, Baby,” are too pop to qualify. So the argument tends to run on the rails of, were the Vibrators actual punks or did they incorporate those sounds as part of the zeitgeist?  You can make a case for this band becoming a good deal rawer and more visceral as time went on, and whether that represents natural development or…

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…a calculated lunge at punk-hood depends on how cynical you are, and frankly, how much you care. This four-disc box set, including the first two records, a collection of Peel sessions and a really ripping live set from 1977, tracks this development pretty clearly, and, unless you’re the purest of purists, it’s way too much fun to piss you off.

The first disc, an expanded version of 1977’s Pure Mania, captures the original line-up — Ian “Knox” Carnochan, bassist Pat Collier, guitarist John Ellis, and drummer John ‘Eddie’ Edwards — just as they emerge from a proto-punk rock chrysalis. It includes “Baby, Baby” still probably the band’s best known single, and hands down, the closest that the Vibrators ever came to a silly love long, and a “Whips and Furs,” that sounds less like the Sex Pistols and more like Thin Lizzy. But it also has the blistering “London Girls,” the sped-up anthemry of “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” and the Stooges-esque “No Heart.”  “Wrecked on You,” with its short, sharp riff and its “Wrecked on you…ooh ooh” distills lust and anomie into a catchy shout-along chorus. The Vibrators song “Stiff Little Fingers,” on this album, is where the Irish band got their name.

The second album, V2, is rougher and tighter, from the aircraft sounded intro to the title track through the dystopian march “Troops of Tomorrow,” which closes the disc. The Vibrators were living in Berlin when they recorded V2, apparently as a sort of marketing gimmick (the label thought it would make them more interesting), but even so, some of the darkness and decadence of late 1970s Germany seems to have rubbed off. “Automatic Lover” with its drill-bit riff and fast melodic chorus sounds very much in line with first album Clash. The expanded version here also includes “Judy (Knock You in the Head)” the Vibrators’ last single for Epic.

The BBC session material also moves from relatively poppy early sessions (“Dance to the Music” the early R&B-flavored single “We Vibrate”) through harder-hitting later material. The disc peaks with  Peel session from June 1978 (“Automatic Lover,” “Destroy,” “Troops of Tomorrow” and “Fall in Love”) though an Old Grey Whistle Test from April 1977 is very good as well.

The real highlight, though, comes in a live set recorded at the Marquee in London in late July of 1977. The band flies through short, incendiary songs, hair on fire, parts flying everywhere. In this four disc set, you end up hearing the hits (“Baby, Baby” “London Girls,” “Automatic Lover”) three and four times — and they never sound better than here. In an interview for Amped Distribution, drummer Edwards explains that “We were there for three nights and all sold-out with sweat dripping of the ceiling. We had more in than Jimi Hendrix they said at the time and it was about 110 degrees on stage. We had to pin down the stands and monitors and put big fans in for the second and third nights because it was so hot and rowdy.”

After V2, the Vibrators struggled for airplay, though they made more albums and a band called the Vibrators (Edwards is the only original member) continues to play and record to this day. Though perhaps not one of the genre-defining punk bands of the late 1970s, this disc makes the case that they were definitely part of the movement, and if they didn’t start out that way, they embraced the sound and made an impact with it. — dustedmagazine

Though associated with the Post-Glam mid-70s, Fox had roots that reached way back into the ’60s.
American Kenny Young was the key figure in the band and already had a busy career from the early part of that decade onwards. He had great success as a songwriter, penning (along with Arthur Resnick) the Drifters’ classic “Under the Boardwalk” which was a huge hit in 1964 and was covered by many other acts subsequently (including the Rolling Stones and the Undertones).
Not to be outdone guitarist Herbie Armstrong was a member of Belfast’s garage monsters the Wheels, contemporaries of Van Morrison’s Them and best known for the single “Bad Little Woman”. Just prior to his involvement in Fox he was part of a duo with another ex-Wheel Rod Demick and recorded…

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…the album “Little Willie Ramble”(!) which was well received but a slow seller (it was re-released on RPM a few years back to a good reception).

Young discovered Aussie singer Susan Traynor (then part of folk band Wooden Horse), the future Noosha Fox, whilst recording a solo album. The six piece band came together during 1974, portraying a kind of Roxy Music/Sparks/”Cabaret” jaded elegance with Noosha’s coy, unusual voice being the band’s sonic trademark and her glamourous “film star” image perfect visual compliment. With Young and co being musical magpies who could shift gears from one genre to another and back again in the same song, they were the perfect band for the time.

Fox were met with almost immediate success with their debut single (the oddball but addictive “Only You Can”) and self-titled album both reaching the UK Top Ten and gaining critical acclaim. The first disc here is that debut LP (plus some bonus tracks including Noosha’s solo single “Georgina Bailey”/”Pretty Boy” which hit the charts 3 years later). The strange but alluring 60s Soul/Blues treatment of the classic oldie “Love Letters” welcomes us in but also sets out the band’s stall; steering clear from being mere pop poppets by dint of their strange charm and unconventional approach. They really were the “state of the art” as far as pop bands went at this juncture and if we for a moment scuff out the imagined “Year Zero” line punk installed we see that Noosha was really in the mode of the kind of unconventional female singer we would see more of as the ’70s went by, in the same way as later Lene Lovich, Toyah, Bette Bright and even Kate Bush were.

“He’s Got Magic” is everything that is good about the band in one neat package. Lurching through changes of rhythm and style with Noosha’s mannered vocal right up front, cajoling the song along until its unique coda, it’s the Phil Spector Wall of Sound transmuted through glam, which adds up to a masterpiece of ’70s pop music. Somehow it missed out on the charts despite have sure-fire smash written all over it. Though not heralded as any sort of genius producer, Kenny Young works wonders – sounds dart in from out of nowhere and then just disappear, things shift and suddenly drop-out and there’s classical leanings among a raft of other influences. All this betrays a restlessness and a constant urge not to do the obvious, which set Fox apart from the also-rans and chancers. This approach works marvellous on this debut, a quality recording.

However after the follow up hit, the gentle, unusual brilliance that is “Imagine Me, Imagine You”, things got rather more difficult for the band. The next album, “Tails of Illusion”, stiffed and Fox spent the rest of 1975 in the chart wilderness as a result. In fairness they did tamper with a winning formula, with other members of the band taking over lead vocals on many of the songs. Noosha being such a focal point for Fox, it must have confused fans somewhat. Here they veer close to the kind of standard Pop/Rock of the time and lost a fair deal of what made them so appealing in the first place (the singalong “For Whatever It’s Worth” is very close to being MOR and the efforts with male leads don’t stand out).

Having said that there are some good songs on here, like the excellent, driving single (with a hint of the Peter Framptons) “Strange Ships” and “Minor Therapy” is also quite wonderful, great breathy vocals complimenting the heady and exotic music. Though “Kupu Kupu” is an epic piece of dreamy pop this was very much “difficult second album” territory and though very lushly arranged and clearly painstakingly produced it represented a backward step. “Tails” comes with two goofy bonus tracks recorded in the 90s, a Ragga(!) reading of “One More Night” with Noosha on lead vocals (more about that song later) and the similar but saucy “2 Rude 4 Words”, curtailing this bafflingly entry in the Fox oeuvre.

Luckily the band found themselves back on form and in the Top Ten with probably their most famous song “S-S-S-Single Bed”. This single that put them in the public eye again, a submerged but tight Funk/Reggae backing track with a great hook-line complimenting the cool, sultry vocal, was just the ticket. Sexy, catchy and meticulously constructed for immediate pleasure – a textbook example of when Pop Music works. “Blue Hotel”, the LP it came from, is a delight from beginning to end with a wistful, evocative undertone to most of the songs. The sleeve provide the perfect image to go with the music, an immaculately-clad Noosha staring out from her Art Deco living room with a slightly rueful look of indifference on her face, sort of “come hither but not too hither”. Like she would either kiss you or kick you, or worse just ignore you.

The title track has a line, “stretched out on my velvet shawl” which tells you most everything about Fox in six words, but great song buffets great song on this LP. Doo Wop, Hawaiian guitar, “theatrical” production numbers, Proto New Wave are all stuffed into the mix and there’s even a faint hint of the Psychedelic Furs in Noosha’s sad, sad voice on “Moustaches On The Moon” and “Almond Eyes”. It all ends with “Make It Like It Used To Be”, a despairing but quite beautiful yearning for better days, leaving not a dry eye in the house.

It’s their best album, with plenty of gorgeous ballads, infectious dance numbers and high specification pop class. A beaut. If there was a minor criticism, the bonus track “Pain And Pleasure”, although being probably the best of the 1990s efforts, doesn’t belong tacked on the end of “Blue Hotel” and perhaps would have worked better on the fourth disc. So it doesn’t detract from this third platter being one of the best “just pre-Punk” albums.

Somehow “Blue Hotel” missed the chart and bar the old Noosha solo track “Georgina Bailey” narrowly missing the Top 40, that was it. The band folded which was a shame because out of all the groups from the early to mid 70s (outside the big boys and girls) Fox seemed best equipped to thrive alongside the New Wave, as they were always willing to take risks and could have modernised their sound without too much need for drastic change. Despite that the band went their separate ways. Noosha’s solo career floundered after that initial mini-hit, Armstrong and Young formed Yellow Dog, who may have given Elvis Costello cause to splutter with the 1978 Pseudo New Wave “One More Night” and Pete Solley was involved with Wreckless Eric’s recordings. Herbie Armstrong even performed on the risible “X Factor” a few years back!

The fourth disc here works as a greatest hits and also rounds up every other waif and stray in the Fox firmament. Always good to hear those singles and also a brief reformation which yielded the single “Electro People” (the theme for the BBC Kenny Everett show) is featured here, a decent update for the band in the 80s. “Model in a Leotard” and “I Want to Be Alone” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Stiff Records’ 1978 release schedule, “Dancing With The Alien” is decent synthpop and “Captain Of Your Ship” retreads one of Young’s songs (a big hit for Reparata and the Delrons) for the 90s Dancefloor.

So it breaks down here to a fine debut LP with some good bonus tracks, a disappointing second where they lost it a bit, a third being a total delight plus a decent round up of what was left over on disc four. Though obviously not on the same level as Sparks or Roxy, Fox were a diverting and original Pop band buoyed by Kenny Young’s great songs and sonic pretentions plus Noosha’s unique vocals and presence. Though inconsistent they were capable of brilliance and “Blue Hotel” is just that, an “on the cusp” album of the New Wave which was as full of appealing oddities as that coming revolution. This set comes with a booklet that has an engaging memoir and interview with band leader Kenny Young and is an excellent catch-all compendium of a forgotten but superior Pop band. In their own peculiar way, Fox were stunning. — LouderThanWar

5CD box including newly remastered versions of ‘On the Third Day’, ‘Eldorado’, ‘Face the Music’, ‘A New World Record’ and ‘Out of the Blue’.
Having signed to Warner Bros, the Electric Light Orchestra wanted no time getting to work on their third album On the Third Day. This was the first album that Roy Wood would play no part in. Jeff Lynne wrote seven of the eight tracks on On the Third Day. The exception was a cover of Edvard Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’. It was reinvented by Jeff Lynne and became a memorable example of symphonic rock. Recording of On the Third took place during April and May of 1973 at De Lane Lea Studios, London and AIR Studios, London. Lynne produced On the Third Day. He was joined by a rhythm section drummer and…

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…percussionist Bev Bevan, bassist Mike de Albuquerque and guitarist and keyboardist Richard Tandy. They were augmented by cellists Mike Edwards and Colin Walker plus violinists Wilfred Gibson and Mik Kaminski, who was the latest new recruit. Marc Bolan added guitar on ‘Dreaming of 4000’ and ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’.

Recording of Eldorado took place at De Lane Lea Studios, in London. Unlike On the Third Day which was recorded in two months, the Electric Light Orchestra took their time recording the album. The recording began in February 1974, with multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lynne producing Eldorado. Lynne was joined by a rhythm section of drummer and percussionist Bev Bevan, bassist Mike de Albuquerque and guitarist and keyboardist Richard Tandy. He had just been made a permanent member of the Electric Light Orchestra. However, he had additional responsibilities on Eldorado. This included arranging the backing vocals, orchestral and choral arrangements. Meanwhile, the other members of the band were playing an increasingly important role. The strings were more prominent on Eldorado. Some of the strings were provided by the Electric Light Orchestra’s string players: cellists Mike Edwards and Colin Walker plus violinists Wilfred Gibson and Mik Kaminski. The strings were arranged by Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy with Louis Clark.

Lynne penned the eight tracks and produce their fifth album Face the Music, which found the Electric Light Orchestra heading to Munich, in Germany. The Electric Light Orchestra’s destination was Musicland Studios, which was owned by the Italian musician, songwriter and producer Giorgio Moroder. When the Electric Light Orchestra arrived at Musicland Studios, in May 1975, there had been a couple of changes in the band’s lineup. Joining multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeff Lynne was a rhythm section of drummer and percussionist Bev Bevan and new bassist and cellist Kelly Groucutt. They were joined by keyboardist Richard Tandy, violinist Mik Kaminski and new cellists Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale. The three new additions joined the backing vocals and orchestra which was conducted by Louis Clark. He arranged the orchestral and choral arrangements with Jeff Lynne and Richard Tandy. By June 1975, Face the Music was complete. For the second time in their career, the Electric Light Orchestra had recorded an album in just two months.

Jeff Lynne, who had settled into the role of songwriter-in-chief and producer wrote the eight tracks that would become A New World Record. Just like Face the Music, A New World Record was recorded at Musicland Studios in Munich. The Electric Light Orchestra arrived at Musicland Studios in July 1976 to record A New World Record. It was the same lineup that had recorded Face the Music. Multi-instrumentalist and producer Jeff Lynne was joined by a rhythm section of drummer and percussionist Bev Bevan and bassist and cellist Kelly Groucutt. They were joined by keyboardist Richard Tandy, violinist Mik Kaminski and cellists Hugh McDowell and Melvyn Gale. Backing vocals and an orchestra which was arranged and conducted by Louis Clark augmented the Electric Light Orchestra

Their seventh studio album Out of the Blue was the most ambitious album of the Electric Light Orchestra’s career. It was a seventeen song double album penned by Jeff Lynne. This Jeff Lynne wrote over a three-and-a-half week period he spent in the Swiss Alps. To record Out of the Blue, the Electric Light Orchestra returned to Musicland Studios, in Munich for a third time. Between May and August 1977, Electric Light Orchestra recorded the seventeen songs. By then, the band’s lineup had changed. Lynne was joined by a rhythm section of drummer and percussionist Bev Bevan and bassist and cellist Kelly Groucutt. They were joined by keyboardist and guitar Richard Tandy and violinist Mik Kaminski. Cellist Hugh McDowell is credited but didn’t appear. Melvyn Gale is also credited, but his only role was a playing the jangling, tack piano on Wild West Hero. Augmenting the Electric Light Orchestra, were an orchestra conducted by Louis Clark. He joined with Lynne and Richard Tandy to arranged the orchestral and choral arrangements. After two months, Out of the Blue was completed in August 1977. — dereksmusicblog

A selection of 5 classic studio featuring the albums: “Howlin’ Wind” (1976), “Stick to Me” (1977), “Squeezing Out Sparks” (1979), “The Up Escalator” (1980), “Struck By Lightening” (1991).
Stereotyped early in his career as the quintessential angry young man, Graham Parker was one of the most successful singer/songwriters to emerge from England’s pub rock scene in the early ’70s. Drawing heavily from Van Morrison and the Rolling Stones, Parker developed a sinewy fusion of driving rock & roll and confessional folk-rock, highlighted by his indignant passion, biting sarcasm, and bristling anger. At the outset of his career, his albums crackled with pub rock energy, snide witticisms, and gentle insights, earning him a devoted following of fans and critics, who lavished praise…

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…on his debut, Howlin’ Wind.

His third album, Stick to Me, had to be re-recorded quickly after the original tapes were discovered to be defective prior to its scheduled release. As a result, Stick to Me received mixed reviews upon its fall 1977 release, which derailed Parker’s momentum slightly. Furthermore, Elvis Costello, a fellow pub rock survivor who possessed not only a more pop-oriented style of songwriting, but also a more dangerous persona, soon eclipsed Parker in popularity.

Squeezing Out Sparks, Parker’s first album for Arista, put a halt to that decline. Sporting a slicker, new wave-oriented production — it was the first of his records not to have any involvement from Nick Lowe — the album was greeted with terrific reviews and, on the strengths of radio hits like “Local Girls,” it became his most successful album, reaching number 40 on the American charts and selling over 200,000 copies. Parker was poised for a major breakthrough, but that didn’t happen. He followed Squeezing Out Sparks in 1980 with the Jimmy Iovine-produced The Up Escalator, which was considerably slicker than its predecessor.

Parker’s final album for RCA — and his last album to chart — was the stripped-down Struck by Lightning (1991), and while it was critically praised, it didn’t find an audience outside of his cult.

Marvin Gaye’s period as an auteur from 1971 onwards overshadows his earlier work within the Motown machine. While it’s easy to assume he was a cog in the wheel back then, he was as creatively active as most artists on the label.
He co-wrote “Dancing in the Street”. His productions with The Originals presaged What’s Going On by some time. He resisted the image of the all-dancing showbiz guy Tamla’s talent teachers urged on him – perhaps because he didn’t have a dancer inside twitching to get out. He was always a personality, albeit one forced to go with the flow. This collection shows just how well the machine worked for him until he tired of it.
One problem for any compiler would have been how some of these records fitted the story arc:…

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…much of Gaye’s 60s success came in harness with female duettists and this is as much their tale as his. This collection buys into it. Hence we have Take Two with Kim Weston, a match made in paradise (though we now know even better was around the corner). The pair could turn Cheddar into gold – they even make a supperclub rendition of Secret Love acceptable. Their version of The Four Tops’ “Baby I Need Your Loving” is wonderfully subtle, and the title track and “It’s Got to Be a Miracle” remain blissful.

As for the three albums with Tammi Terrell (not forgetting Valerie Simpson, deputising for the terribly poorly Terrell over much of the last LP, Easy), this is lovey-dovey soul at its pinnacle. The definitive (yes, it is) Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, California Soul (not the trendy version, but surely the best), Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, You’re All I Need To Get By… these ought to be mawkish, but these singers don’t mawk, like they don’t rauc. As for The Onion Song, it might have been written as a fashion-conscious sop to the love-in, but it became part of 1970’s pop landscape thanks to the sheer joy it delivered.

As for Marv solo, 1966’s Moods Of is unbeatable. Gathering material from the previous eight months, it’s on fire. I’ll Be Doggone, Little Darling (I Need You), One More Heartache (surely his greatest 60s 45), Ain’t That Peculiar, Take This Heart… you ought to own this album; it’s the perfect mod-soul package. In the Groove (1968) pales by comparison; it’s a fine record, as anything with a core of I Heard It Through the Grapevine, Some Kind of Wonderful and Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever must be, but the best of Marvin’s efforts at this time focused on Tammi. The following year’s MPG found Marv’s mood darkening; even the sunshine of Too Busy Thinking About My Baby casts a shadow. That’s the Way Love Is was the equal of I Heard It Through The Grapevine and performed almost as well commercially, but isn’t as well-remembered today. It’s A Bitter Pill to Swallow and The End of Our Road are symptomatic of a downcast atmosphere that even a cover of This Magic Moment, implausibly the second song in, can’t quite leaven. The superb sombre sleeve, Gaye smiling like a tired politician, suggests trouble.

Which leaves That’s The Way Love Is, oddly sharing a title track with a previous album. It’s full of Whitfield-Strong songs such as Cloud Nine, which attempts to outpower The Temptations’ take but which comes across as cabaret psych, and I Wish It Would Rain, another trying-too-hard overproduction. Balancing them out are Gonna Give Her All the Love I’ve Got, How Can I Forget and a beautiful reading of Abraham, Martin and John.

The next move was What’s Going On and the supposed changing of the times (though Marv would soon cut a duet LP with Diana Ross). Don’t ignore what went before; here are some names: Norman Whitfield, Barrett Strong, Tammi Terrell, Kim Weston, Ashford & Simpson, Smokey Robinson, Lamont Dozier, Clarence Paul… oh, and Marvin Gaye. If they’re not top notch, who is? — recordcollectormag

This three-disc set brings together the single CD releases of the Amar Quartets critically acclaimed and popular set of Paul Hindemith‘s complete String Quartets.
Somewhat surprisingly, the first volume of Naxos’ collection of Hindemith’s seven string quartets doesn’t begin with the String Quartet No. 1 in C major, Op. 2, presumably because of the series’ space requirements, but skips ahead to the String Quartet No. 2 in F minor, Op. 10, and the String Quartet No. 3 in C major, Op. 16. These youthful works reflect the composer’s ingenuity and love of parody, particularly of Romantic clichés, though his humor is still respectful of the conventions of the genre and never slapstick.

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The second quartet at times veers off into wildly chromatic modulations worthy of Max Reger, and some dissonant counterpoint that is fairly experimental, though these excursions are balanced with episodes of unclouded tonality and playful repartée. The third quartet is even more sophisticated, offering a mix of serious thematic argumentation and lively exchanges between the players, and revealing a more consistent and organic approach to developing material. The Amar Quartet, named after the quartet Hindemith founded in 1922, is outstanding in its interpretation of Hindemith’s changeable and often enigmatic music, and the musicians play with exceptional vigor, sensitivity, and presence. While Hindemith’s reputation has suffered in recent years, due to a perception that his music is too cerebral, this album will give listeners an opportunity to reassess his work, and to appreciate his considerable wit and inventiveness.

Like the two Quartets in volume I, the opening Fifth, written around the same time, follows in the great tradition of Beethoven. Though chromaticism is very marked and tonality itself sometimes has only the loosest of grips, German musicologist Giselher Schubert goes as far as to say, in his booklet notes, that the elaborate double fugue of the first movement “at its best can complement Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge, op.133” – a far from overstated assessment. Fittingly, Hindemith wrote this work whilst on tour with the original Amar Quartet, who then gave an immediate first performance in Vienna in 1923. Hindemith wrote his last two Quartets, both in E flat, twenty years later in America, towards the end of the Second World War. The music is no less friendly. The Sixth in fact looks back on and borrows material from Hindemith’s own Second, Third and Fourth Quartets, dating back to the 1910s and 1920s. Hindemith’s part-writing throughout is unremittingly inventive, almost breathtaking in its scope and intricacy. Yet for all the sophistication, there is always clarity and concision of thought, and a regard for tradition-nurtured audiences.

…third volume in its series on Naxos, the Amar Quartet brings the cycle to a close with the String Quartet No. 1, Op. 2, a four-movement work strongly flavored with Brahmsian themes and Romantic sonorities, and the String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22, a suite of five pieces that reflects the searching eclecticism of the 1920s. Of the two, the latter work is recognizably Hindemith’s in his distinctive use of chromatic harmony and ever-modulating tonality, and it has become the most popular of his quartets, largely because of its expressive directness and robust energy.

Disc 1
 String Quartet No. 2 in F Minor, Op. 10
1. I. Sehr lebhaft, straff im Rhythmus 00:06:15
2. II. Thema mit Variationen: Gemächlich 00:10:32
3. III. Finale: Sehr lebhaft 00:16:26
  String Quartet No. 3 in C Major, Op. 16
4. I. Lebhaft und sehr energisch 00:10:28
5. II. Sehr langsam – Äußerst ruhige Viertel 00:13:09
6. III. Finale: Äußerst lebhaft 00:07:49

Disc 2
 String Quartet No. 5, Op. 32
1. I. Lebhafte Halbe 00:06:21
2. II. Sehr langsam, aber immer fließend 00:10:43
3. III. Kleiner Marsch: Vivace, sempre crescendo 00:01:59
4. IV. Passacaglia 00:11:14
  String Quartet No. 6 in E-Flat Major
5. I. Sehr ruhig und ausdrucksvoll 00:05:31
6. II. Lebhaft und sehr energisch 00:04:15
7. III. Ruhig. Variationen 00:08:20
8. IV. Breit und energisch 00:06:28
  String Quartet No. 7 in E-Flat Major
9. I. Fast 00:02:55
10. II. Quiet. Scherzando 00:02:34
11. III. Slow 00:06:02
12. IV. Canon: Moderately fast – Gay 00:04:51

Disc 3
 String Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 2
1. I. Sehr lebhaft 00:15:13
2. II. Adagio 00:12:37
3. III. Scherzo 00:06:52
4. IV. Ziemlich lebhaft 00:06:43
  String Quartet No. 4, Op. 22
5. I. Fugato: Sehr langsame Viertel 00:06:37
6. II. Schnelle Achtel: Sehr energisch 00:05:09
7. III. Ruhige Viertel: Stets fließend 00:07:16
8. IV. Mäßig schnelle Viertel 00:02:12
9. V. Rondo: Gemächlich und mit Grazie 00:04:44

…box set features 5 CD’s and 68 tracks remastered from original tape sources: “Wear It’s At” (1974), “We Can Do It” (1975) “Rubettes” (1975), “Sign of the Times” (1976) and “Baby I Know” (1977).
Formed in 1973 in England, The Rubettes were originally organized as a session outfit by Wayne Bickerton of Polydor A&R. Inspired by the successes of Sha Na Na, Mud, and Showaddywaddy, they combined glam rock presentation with a rock & roll revival sound. Their first release, 1974’s Sugar Baby Love, was an instant smash, remaining at number one in England for five weeks while denting the U.S. charts at number 37 in August, and remains their best-known record.
The Rubettes’ original lineup featured John Richardson on drums, Mick Clarke on bass,…

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…Bill Hurd and Peter Arnesen on keyboards, and Tony Thorpe on guitar. Vocalist Paul DaVinci left the band just before “Sugar Baby Love,” replaced by Alan Williams. Their name, like their music, was selected to consciously tap into ’50s America iconography, and the revival sound bore fruit in the U.K. on several more singles: The “Sugar Baby Love” soundalike “Tonight” was a strong follow-up, and “Jukebox Jive” and “I Can Do It” went Top Ten there as well. None charted in the States, though, and the band, which had evolved from prefab status to full-fledged band, moved from glammy nostalgia into more serious territory. They turned many a head with 1976’s “Under One Roof,” a sensitive portrayal of a gay man disowned and later murdered by his father; along with Rod Stewart’s “The Killing of Georgie,” it was one of very few songs tackling the difficult topic of homophobia. At the time some speculated that the song had been designed to be so uncommercial as to get the band dropped from their label. If so, it worked all too well, as the Rubettes soon fell silent in the face of dwindling success.

Disc 1
1. Way Back in the Fifties
2. Rock Is Dead
3. Tonight
4. The Way of Love
5. Rumours
6. Your Love
7. For Ever
8. Sugar Baby Love
9. Teenage Dream
10. Rock and Roll Survival
11. When You’re Sixteen
12. Saturday Night
13. You Could Have Told Me (Bonus Track)
14. Silent Movie Queen (Bonus Track)

Disc 2
1. I Can Do It
2. The Sha – Na
3. Something’s Coming Over Me
4. The Family Affair
5. It’s Just Make Believe
6. Dance to the Rock ‘N’ Roll
7. Juke Box Jive
8. Don’t Do It Baby
9. I’ll Always Love You
10. At the High School Hop Tonight
11. Wo Goddam Blues
12. Beggar Man
13. When You’re Falling in Love (Bonus Track)
14. If You’ve Got the Time (Bonus Track)

Disc 3
1. Judy Run Run
2. Little Darling
3. My Buddy Holly Days
4. Put A Back Beat To That Music
5. It’s Better That Way
6. Play The Game
7. Foe – Dee
8. I’m Just Dreaming
9. Out In The Cold
10. Miss Goodie Two Shoes
11. When You’re Around
12. Dark Side Of The World
13. With You (Bonus Track)
14. I Still Love You (as Alan & John) (Bonus Track)
15. Love Bonds (as Alan & John) (Bonus Track)

Disc 4
1. Sign Of The Times
2. Dancing In The Rain
3. You’re The Only Girl On My Island
4. The Way You Live
5. Not Now My Dear
6. You’re The Reason Why
7. I Think I’m In Love
8. I Really Got To Know
9. Julia
10. Highway – Man’s Lament
11. Take Good Care Of My Baby (as Alan & John) (Bonus Track)
12. The Price Of Living (as Alan & John) (Bonus Track)

Disc 5
1. Summertime Rock ‘N’ Roll
2. Baby I Know
3. I’m In Love With You
4. Ooh La La
5. Ladies Of Laredo
6. Rock ‘N’ Roll Lady
7. Allez Oop
8. I Wanna Be Loved
9. Under One Roof
10. Rock ‘N’ Roll Queen
11. Ladies Of Laredo (Radio Version) (Bonus Track)
12. Married (as Richards N Williams) (Bonus Track)
13. Who Makes The World Go Round (as Richards N Williams) (Bonus Track)

CD 1:
Tracks 1-12 originally released in October 1974 (Polydor 2382 306 Super)
Track 13 originally released on a single in Februari 1974 (Polydor 2058 442)
Track 14 originally released on a single in July 1974 (Polydor 2058 449)

CD 2:
Tracks 1-12 originally released in April 1975 (State ETAT 001 Super)
Track 13 originally released on a single in November 1974 (Polydor 2058 529)
Track 14 originally released on a single in February 1975 (State STAT 1)

CD 3:
Tracks 1-12 originally released in November 1975 (State SUPER ETAT 4)
Track 13 originally released on a single in June 1975 (State STAT 7)
Tracks 14-15 originally released on a single by Alan & John in November 1975 (Polydor 2058 666)

CD 4:
Tracks 1-10 originally release in June 1976 (State ETAT 6)
Track 11 originally released on a single by Alan & John in January 1976 (Polydor 2058 710)
Track 12 originally released on a single by alan & John in January 1976 (Polydor 2058 729)

CD 5:
Tracks 1-10 originally released in April 1977 (State 2308 012)
Track 11 originally released as a DJ only single in April 1977 (STAT 44 DJ)
Tracks 12-13 originally release as a single under the name Richards N Williams in February 1977 (2058 841)

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry emerged from the fertile musical breeding ground of Leeds in 1982, formed by frontman, guitarist and lyricist Chris Reed initially as a vehicle to express his own angst ridden emotions; Reed gathered with him Mark Sweeney, along with bassist Steve Smith and drummer Mick Brown (who would later join The Mission), the band set about recording various rough demo’s, such was the quality of the material the band were offered a number of deals, they opted to go with York based Red Rhino Records – a wise choice, Red Rhino being one of the founding members of The Cartel, a distribution network set up in conjunction with Rough Trade that enabled bands and labels to compete with major labels.
In September 1982 ‘Beating My Head’ was…

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…released – if you could get past the appalling sleeve you were treated to the Lorries propulsive brooding rock, a swirling mix of aggressive beats and slash guitar refrains underpinning Reeds distinct clipped vocal; the single did well making the Top 10 of the as then burgeoning Indie Chart. A change in personnel, saw Dave Wolfenden join the fold – the partnership of Reed and Wolfenden would be the backbone of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry through their most productive period, numerous singles were released including ‘Monkeys On Juice”, which reached No. 9 on the NME indie chart – not included on the band’s debut album Talk About the Weather though included here as part of 10 bonus tracks to compliment the debut album, you also get the 12” version of ‘Hollow Eyes’ which was a clear favourite in the then developing UK goth scene, though often unfairly drawing comparisons with neighbour’s the Sisters of Mercy.

‘Talk About the Weather’ sold particularly well and encouraged to release two further singles ’Chance’ and ’Spinning Round’ the later clearly demonstrating the bands desire to move away from the goth tag and head towards the more complete sound that the likes of Killing Joke were producing at the time. Second album Paint Your Wagon released again via Red Rhino in 1986 is here in its entirety along with 12 bonus tracks, the developmental leap is evident; Reed and Wolfenden coming together had given Reed the exact vehicle he needed to realise his vision, album opener ‘Walking On Your Hands’ has elements that would later go on to be seen in the subsequent EBM genre, it really motors along at that pace; a single ‘Cut Down’ and a four track EP ‘Crawling Mantra’ followed – both included her, again welcome additions and allowing the casual buyer to complete his entire RLYL collection in one go! Interestingly ‘Crawling Mantra’ was issued under the name ‘The Lorries’ – it only happened this once.

Major label in disguise Situation 2 (Beggars Banquet) then stepped in for the album Nothing Wrong, which offered distribution in the UK/Europe and the USA via RCA; maybe there were internal pressures, but ahead of the recording new bass player Leon Phillips and drummer Mark Chillington joined the band – this combination saw the band again broaden their outlook, a richer (more expensive) sound being the welcome result, take the single ‘Open Up’ not included on the original album – aside from gaining an NME Single of The Week the track showed a more doom laden direction, complete with Reeds reduced pace almost deadpan vocal delivery, whilst Wolfenden weaves layers of dense guitar – shards of colour guiding you through the angst; we get both the original and the 12” of ‘Only Dreaming’, we also get within the accompanying booklet comments from Wolfenden who is fairly scathing about the albums original sleeve which featured an African bushman… ’Nothing Wrong’ features occasional dialogue from various African Bushmen on a few tracks, apparently from a TV documentary entitled Testament to a Bushmen. Clearly RLYL were doing enough to keep RCA happy, the band were regularly touring in Europe gaining success in Germany and having ‘Nothing Wrong’ issued in Japan (with a sleeve to Wolfenden’s approval)

Blow followed in 1989 and continued to offer more of the bands brooding hypnotic sounds, however it lacked the raw aggression of earlier releases – perhaps due to being recorded in differing studios over a period, the album flows…just not in the right direction. The public concurred and the album sold poorly – certainly for the standards set by RCA and RLYL were dropped.

Cherry Red have assembled all four albums, associated singles, B-sides and remixes – a total of 73 tracks. — LouderThanWar

Stax Records celebrate its 60th anniversary with a string of releases designed to highlight the label’s history and legendary soul sound and reunite its long-divided catalog. The Stax Classics series boasts 10 new hits compilations from the label’s biggest artists: Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, The Staples Singers, Sam and Dave, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, Carla Thomas, Booker T. & M.G.’s, The Dramatics and Albert King.
…this initiative will be carried out by both owners of the Stax catalogue: Rhino/Warner Music Group, which controls much of the label’s Atlantic-distributed output from 1957 to 1968, and Concord Bicycle Music, handler of the Stax masters released from 1968 to the mid-1970s, when the label declared bankruptcy.

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Founded by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (whose surnames gave the label its moniker), Stax Records was to the South what Motown was to Detroit: a pioneer in locally sourced, gritty soul and R&B. With crack house band Booker T. & The MG’s at the fore (an integrated group which included keyboardist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and drummer Al Jackson, Jr.) and a stable of stars like Sam & Dave, Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, there seemed little Stax could not achieve. The label weathered major setbacks in the mid-’60s, notably the tragic loss of Redding in an airplane crash and a split with distributor Atlantic Records when they were sold to Warner Bros. The independent Stax soldiered on with legends like William Bell, The Staple Singers and Isaac Hayes, all of whom helped define ’70s soul in many ways.

Stax Classics: Booker T. & The MG’s (Stax/Atlantic/Rhino, 2017)

1. Green Onions
2. Hip Hug-Her
3. Jellybread
4. Time is Tight
5. Tic-Tac-Toe
6. Boot-Leg
7. Mo’ Onions
8. Soul Dressing (Single Version)
9. Groovin’
10. Melting Pot
11. Soul Limbo
12. One Mint Julep

Tracks 1 and 7 from Green Onions (Stax/Atlantic, 1962)
Tracks 2 and 9 from Hip-Hug-Her (Stax/Atlantic, 1967)
Tracks 3, 5 and original version of Track 8 from Soul Dressing (Stax/Atlantic, 1965)
Track 4 from UpTight (Stax, 1969)
Track 6 from Stax single, 1965 and The Best of Booker T. & The MG’s (Stax/Atlantic, 1968)
Track 10 from Melting Pot (Stax, 1971)
Track 11 from Soul Limbo (Stax, 1968)
Track 12 from And Now! (Stax/Atlantic, 1966)

Stax Classics: Otis Redding (Stax/Atlantic/Rhino, 2017)

1. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay
2. These Arms of Mine
3. Try a Little Tenderness
4. I’ve Been Loving You Too Long
5. Mr. Pitiful (Single Version)
6. Respect
7. Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
8. Pain in My Heart
9. Just One More Day
10. That’s How Strong My Love Is
11. Security
12. Satisfaction

Track 1 from The Dock of the Bay (Volt/ATCO, 1968)
Tracks 2, 8 and 11 from Pain in My Heart (ATCO, 1964)
Tracks 3 and 7 from Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul (Volt/ATCO, 1966)
Tracks 4, 6 and 12 from Otis Blue/Otis Redding Sings Soul (Volt/ATCO, 1965)
Original version of Track 5 and Track 10 from The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (Volt/ATCO, 1965)
Track 9 from The Soul Album (Volt/ATCO, 1966)

Stax Classics: Sam & Dave (Stax/Atlantic/Rhino, 2017)

1. Hold On, I’m Comin’
2. Soul Man
3. I Thank You
4. Soothe Me
5. When Something is Wrong with My Baby
6. You Don’t Know Like I Know
7. Don’t Knock It
8. I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down
9. You Got Me Hummin’
10. A Place Nobody Can Find
11. Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody
12. I Take What I Want

Tracks 1, 6 and 12 from Hold On, I’m Comin’ (Stax/Atlantic, 1966)
Tracks 2 and 7 from Soul Men (Stax/Atlantic, 1967)
Track 3 from I Thank You (Atlantic, 1968)
Tracks 4-5, 9 and 11 from Double Dynamite (Stax/Atlantic, 1966)
Track 8 from Stax/Atlantic single, 1967
Track 10 from Stax/Atlantic single, 1965

Stax Classics: Carla Thomas (Stax/Atlantic/Rhino, 2017)

1. B-A-B-Y
2. Tramp
3. Something Good (is Going to Happen to You)
4. I Like What You’re Doing (to Me)
5. ‘Cause I Love You – Carla and Rufus
6. Let Me Be Good to You
7. Comfort Me
8. When Tomorrow Comes
9. What is Love?
10. Pick Up the Pieces
11. I’ve Got No Time to Lose
12. I Play for Keeps

Tracks 1 and 6 from Carla (Stax/Atlantic, 1966)
Track 2 from King & Queen (Stax/Atlantic, 1967)
Tracks 3 and 8 from The Queen Alone (Stax/Atlantic, 1967)
Tracks 4 and 12 from Memphis Queen (Stax, 1969)
Track 5 from Satellite single, 1960
Tracks 7, 9 and 11 from Comfort Me (Stax/Atlantic, 1966)
Track 10 from Stax/Atlantic single, 1967

Stax Classics: William Bell (Stax, 2017)

1. I Forgot to Be Your Lover
2. Private Number (with Judy Clay)
3. You Don’t Miss Your Water
4. Lovin’ On Borrowed Time
5. A Tribute to a King
6. My Baby Specializes (with Judy Clay)
7. Save Us
8. All for the Love of a Woman
9. My Whole World is Falling Down
10. I’ve Got to Go On Without You
11. Everybody Loves a Winner
12. Gettin’ What You Want (Losin’ What You Got)

Tracks 1 and 9 from Bound to Happen (Stax, 1969)
Tracks 2 and 6 released as Stax/Atlantic single, 1966
Tracks 3, 8 and 11 from The Soul of a Bell (Stax/Atlantic, 1967)
Tracks 4, 10 and 12 from Relating (Stax, 1973)
Track 5 from Stax/Atlantic single, 1968
Track 7 from Phases of Reality (Stax, 1972)

Stax Classics: Albert King (Stax, 2017)

1. Born Under a Bad Sign
2. The Sky is Crying
3. I’ll Play the Blues for You (Part 1)
4. That’s What the Blues is All About
5. Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven
6. Crosscut Saw
7. Can’t You See What You’re Doing to Me
8. Breaking Up Somebody’s Home
9. Blues Power (Live)
10. The Hunter
11. Don’t Turn Your Heater Down (with Steve Cropper & Pops Staples)
12. Travelin’ Man

Tracks 1, 6 and 10 from Born Under a Bad Sign (Stax, 1967)
Track 2 from Years Gone By (Stax, 1969)
Track 3 and 8 from I’ll Play the Blues for You (Stax, 1972)
Tracks 4 and 12 from I Wanna Get Funky (Stax, 1974)
Track 5 from Lovejoy (Stax, 1971)
Track 7 from Stax single, 1970
Track 9 from Live Wire/Blues Power (Stax, 1968)
Track 11 from Jammed Together (Stax, 1969)

Stax Classics: Johnnie Taylor (Stax, 2017)

1. Who’s Making Love
2. Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone
3. I Believe In You (You Believe In Me)
4. Steal Away
5. Somebody’s Been Sleeping in My Bed
6. Testify (I Wonna)
7. Take Care of Your Homework
8. Cheaper to Keep Her
9. I Got to Love Somebody’s Baby
10. We’re Getting Careless with Our Love
11. Love Bones
12. I Am Somebody (Part 2)

Tracks 1 and 7 from Who’s Making Love… (Stax, 1968)
Tracks 2 and 12 from One Step Beyond (Stax, 1970)
Tracks 3, 8 and 10 from Taylored In Silk (Stax, 1973)
Track 4 from Stax single, 1970
Track 5 from Stax single, 1967
Tracks 6 and 11 from The Johnnie Taylor Philosophy Continues (Stax, 1969)
Track 9 from Wanted: One Soul Singer (Stax, 1967)

Stax Classics: The Staple Singers (Stax, 2017)

1. I’ll Take You There
2. Respect Yourself
3. If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)
4. Long Walk to D.C.
5. Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)
6. The Weight
7. We’ll Get Over
8. Touch a Hand (Make a Friend)
9. City in the Sky
10. This World
11. Be What You Are
12. Oh La De Da

Tracks 1-2 and 10 from Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (Stax, 1972)
Tracks 3, 8 and 11 from Be What You Are (Stax, 1973)
Tracks 4 and 6 from Soul Folk In Action (Stax, 1968)
Track 5 from The Staple Swingers (Stax, 1971)
Track 7 from We’ll Get Over (Stax, 1969)
Track 9 from City in the Sky (Stax, 1974)
Track 12 from Wattstax: The Living Word (Stax, 1972)

Stax Classics: Isaac Hayes (Stax, 2017)

1. Theme from Shaft
2. Walk On By (Single Version)
3. Never Can Say Goodbye (Single Version)
4. The Look of Love (Single Version)
5. By the Time I Get to Phoenix (Single Version)
6. I Stand Accused (Single Version)
7. Run Fay Run
8. Do Your Thing (Single Version)
9. Wonderful (Single Version)
10. Hyperbolicsyllabicsequedalymistic
11. Soulsville (Single Version)

Track 1 and original versions of Tracks 8 and 11 from Shaft: Music from the Soundtrack (Enterprise, 1971)
Original versions of Tracks 2 and 5 and Track 10 from Hot Buttered Soul (Enterprise, 1969)
Original version of Track 3 from Black Moses (Enterprise, 1971)
Original version of Track 4 from …To Be Continued (Enterprise, 1970)
Original version of Track 6 from The Isaac Hayes Movement (Enterprise, 1970)
Track 7 from Tough Guys: Music from the Soundtrack of the Paramount Release “Three Tough Guys” (Enterprise, 1974)
Track 9 from Enterprise single, 1974

Stax Classics: The Dramatics (Stax, 2017)

1. In the Rain
2. Whatcha See is Whatcha Get
3. Get Up and Get Down
4. Hey You! Get Off My Mountain
5. And I Panicked – Ron Banks & The Dramatics
6. Your Love Was Strange
7. The Devil is Dope
8. Thank You for Your Love
9. Toast to the Fool – Ron Banks & The Dramatics
10. Fall in Love, Lady Love
11. Fell for You
12. Gimme Some (Good Soul Music)

Tracks 1-3, 8, 10 and 12 from Whatcha See is Whatcha Get (Volt/Stax, 1971)
Tracks 4, 7 and 11 from A Dramatic Experience (Volt/Stax, 1973)
Tracks 5 and 9 from Dramatically Yours (Volt/Stax, 1974)
Track 6 from Volt/Stax single, 1969

Innovative Dutch rock band Focus see their albums collected in a new and comprehensive 13CD box set called Hocus Pocus Box.
Aside from the very recent Focus 8.5 (issued on their own label in 2016) this new box set collects all ten studio albums from those purveyors of progressive rock / jazz / classical, starting with 1970’s Focus Plays Focus / In and Out of Focus moving all the way through to 2012’s Focus X.
1973’s live album At the Rainbow is also present and correct, as is 1976’s compilation Ship of Memories and the 1985 studio album from original members Jan Akkerman and Thijs van Leer, called simply Focus. The final disc is the ’93 compilation The Best of Focus. This features 16-tracks and includes the US single version of Hocus Pocus.

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Disc: 1 – Focus Plays Focus/In and Out of Focus (1970)
1. Focus… (Vocal)
2. Black Beauty
3. Sugar Island
4. Anonymus
5. House of The King
6. Happy Nightmare (Mescaluine)
7. Why Dream
8. Focus… (Instrumental)

Disc: 2 – Focus 2/Moving Waves (1971)
1. Hocus Pocus
2. Le Clochard
3. Janis
4. Moving Waves
5. Focus II
6. Eruption

Disc: 3 – Focus 3 (1972)
1. Round Goes the Gossip
2. Love Remembered
3. Sylvia
4. Carnival Fugue
5. Focus III
6. Answers? Questions! Qustions? Answers!
7. Elspeth of Nottingham
8. Anonymus II

Disc: 4 – At the Rainbow (1973)
1. Focus III (Live)
2. Answers? Questions! Qustions? Answers! (Live)
3. Focus II (Live)
4. Eruption (Live)
5. Hocus Focus (Live)
6. Sylvia (Live)
7. Hocus Focus – Reprise (Live)

Disc: 5 – Hamburger Concerto (1974)
1. Delitae Musicae
2. Harem Scarem
3. La Cathedrale De Strasbourg
4. Birth
5. Hamburger Concerto
6. Early Birth

Disc: 6 – Mother Focus (1975)
1. Mother Focus
2. I Need a Bothroom
3. Bennie Helder
4. Soft Vanilla
5. Hard Vanilla
6. Tropic Bird
7. Focus IV
8. Someone’s Crying…What?
9. All Together….Oh That!
10. No Hang Ups
11. My Sweetheart
12. Father Bach

Disc: 7 – Focus con Proby (1978)
1. Wingless
2. Orion
3. Night Flight
4. Eddy
5. Sneezing Bull
6. Brother
7. Tokyo Rose
8. Maximum

Disc: 8 – Ship of Memories (1976)
1. P’s March
2. Can’t Believe My Eyes
3. Focus V
4. Out of Vesuvius
5. Glider
6. Red Sky at Night
7. Spoke the Lord Creator
8. Crackers
9. Ship of Memories
10. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version)

Disc: 9 – Focus (by Jan Akkerman & Thijs van Leer) (1985)
1. Russian Roulette
2. King Kong
3. Le Tango
4. Indian Summer
5. Beethoven’s Revenge (Bach-One-Turbo-Overdrive)
6. Ole Judy
7. Who’s Calling

Disc: 10 – Focus 8 (2002)
1. Rock & Rio
2. Tamara’s Move (Allegroadagio-Allegro)
3. Fretless Love
4. Hurkey Turkey
5. De Ti O De Mi
6. Focus 8
7. Sto Ces Raditi Ostatac Zivota?
8. Neurotika – Rehearsal Take
9. Brother
10. Blizu Tebe
11. Flower Shower

Disc: 11 – Focus 9/New Skin (2006)
1. Black Beauty
2. Focus 7
3. Hurkey Turkey 2
4. Sylvia’s Stepson – Ubatuba
5. Niel’s Skin
6. Just Like Eddy
7. Aya-Yuppie-Hippie-Yee
8. Focus 9
9. Curtain Call
10. Ode to Venus
11. European Rap(sody)
12. Pim
13. It Takes 2 2 Tango
14. Brazil Love

Disc: 12 – Focus X (2012)
1. Father Bacchus
2. Focus 10
3. Victoria
4. Amok in Kindergarten
5. All Hens On Deck
6. Birds Come Fly Over (Le Tango)
7. Hoeratio
8. Talk of the Crown
9. Message Magic
10. Crossroads

Disc: 13 – The Best of Focus (1993)
1. Hocus Pocus
2. Anonymus
3. House of The King
4. Focus – Instrumental
5. Janis
6. Focus II
7. Tommy
8. Sylvia
9. Focus III
10. Harem Scarem
11. Mother Focus
12. Focus IV
13. Bennie Helder
14. Glider
15. Red Sky at Night
16. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version)

A Boy from Tupelo rounds up all the known existing Elvis Presley recordings from 1953 through 1955, a sum total of 53 studio takes and 32 live performances. The subtitle of the triple-disc set is The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings but it could as easily been dubbed The Sun Years, as the first two discs not only contain all the masters Elvis released for Sam Phillips’ legendary Memphis label, but all the outtakes, the four alternate mixes of Sun material released by RCA, and the four acetates Presley privately cut for Phillips’ Memphis Recording Service. The third disc is devoted to live material, primarily recorded at the Shreveport radio show Louisiana Hayride, but there are also some tracks recorded at concerts and radio stations in Texas and Mississippi. A lot of this third disc has…

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…shown up on prior Presley compilations, usually collections targeted at the hardcore Elvis fans, but A Boy from Tupelo presents all this music in a logical, orderly sequence that suits Legacy’s previous big Presley boxes, such as 2011’s Young Man with the Big Beat: The Complete 1956 Masters. If A Boy from Tupelo doesn’t seem as revelatory as that five-disc box, blame it on the fact that apart from the live recordings — which are cleaned up, but often can still seem pretty rough — this is heavily recycled material. Elvis’ Sun sessions were first reissued as a 16-track LP called The Sun Sessions in 1976, which was trumped 11 years later by the CD release of The Complete Sun Sessions — which itself wound up getting usurped in 1999 by the double-disc Sunrise. Additionally, this music can be found on 1992’s five-CD The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Complete 50s Masters, the massive 2010 box The Complete Elvis Presley Masters, and 2016’s The RCA Album Collection, albeit spread over some of that set’s 60 CDs, so no matter how well executed A Boy from Tupelo is — and it’s very well done, boasting a handsome, detailed book and clean sound — it can’t help but feel a little old hat. Still, those consumers in the market for the earliest Elvis will be satisfied by this, as it not only has everything in one convenient box but the addition of the live material does provide a nice coda to the familiar Sun sessions.

Nightlife is a loose concept album — more of a song cycle, really — about nightlife (naturally), a collection of moods and themes, from love to loneliness. In that sense, it’s not that different from most Pet Shop Boys albums, and, musically, the album is very much of a piece with Very and Bilingual, which is to say that it relies more on craft than on innovation. Depending on your point of view, this may not be such a bad thing, since Pet Shop Boys specialize in subtle craft and masterful understatement. Such skills serve them well when they’re essentially following familiar musical territory, which they are on Nightlife. At its core, the record is very much like Very — a clever, skillful updating of classic disco, highlighted by small contemporary dance flourishes,…

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…and infused with a true sense of wit, sophistication, and intelligence. Pet Shop Boys do this music better than anyone else ever has, and they’re at the top of their form here, but it’s hard to shake the initial impression that they’ve done this before. Each individual song works beautifully, from the wistfully dejected “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Any More” to the exhilarating Village People homage “New York City Boy,” but as a whole, Nightlife seems less than the sum of its parts. Repeated listens reveal the songs’ charms, yet Nightlife coasts on its craft a bit too much, which makes it feel like one of their second-tier albums.

The three-disc set Nightlife: Further Listening 1996-2000 was issued in 2017; in addition to the original Nightlife tracks on disc one, the set included two bonus discs featuring previously unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, demos, and more.

Disc 1: Remastered original album (released as Parlophone 72435 21857 2 6, 1997)

1. For Your Own Good
2. Closer to Heaven
3. I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore
4. Happiness is An Option
5. You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk
6. Vampires
7. Radiophonic
8. The Only One
9. Boy Strange
10. In Denial (feat. Kylie Minogue)
11. New York City Boy
12. Footsteps

Disc 2

1. Vampires (Demo) *
2. For All of Us (Demo) *
3. Call Me Old-Fashioned (Demo) *
4. Friendly Fire
5. Believe/Song for Guy (feat. Elton John) *
6. Sail Away
7. It Doesn’t Often Snow At Christmas (Fan Club Mix)
8. Nightlife
9. Playing in the Streets *
10. Tall Thin Men *
11. Radiophonic (Demo) *

Disc 3

1. Somebody Else’s Business
2. Silver Age
3. Screaming
4. For All of Us **
5. The Ghost of Myself
6. Casting a Shadow
7. I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore (The PSB Extension)
8. Was It Worth It? (Live) **
9. Lies
10. Paris City Boy (Full French) **
11. Positive Role Model
12. Somebody Else’s Business (Extended Mix) **

Disc 2, Tracks 4 and 8 from bonus disc included with Release (Sanctuary Records 06076-84554-2 (U.S.), 2002)
Disc 2, Track 6 and Disc 3, Track 9 from “You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk” single – Parlophone CDRS 6533, 2000
Disc 2, Track 7 from Pet Shop Boys Christmas single PSB97, 1997
Disc 3, Tracks 1 and 11 from Disco 3 (Parlophone 72435 82140 2 4, 2003)
Disc 3, Tracks 2-3 from “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore” single – Parlophone CDRS 6523, 1999
Disc 3, Track 4 offered as free download, 2000
Disc 3, Tracks 5-6 from “New York City Boy” singles – Parlophone CDR/CDRS 6525, 1999
Disc 3, Track 7 from “I Don’t Know What You Want But I Can’t Give It Anymore” U.S. promo single – Sire 35022-2, 2000
Disc 3, Track 10 from EMI promo single PARIS BOY 2, 2004
Disc 3, Track 12 from vinyl version of Disco 3 (Parlophone 72435 81458 1 6, 2003)

…in addition to the original “Release” tracks remastered on disc one, the set included two bonus discs featuring previously unreleased tracks, alternate mixes, demos, and more.
The Pet Shop Boys have never made a bad album, but with Nightlife, they started to seem a little worn out, as if they had explored their sound as far as it would go. But Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe are among the smartest, pop-savvy groups to ever record, so they not only realized they were stagnating, they knew what to do about it, bringing Tennant’s Electronic partner and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr for several songs, and moving the group toward careful, considered, mature pop for their eighth album, Release (another pun-worth title, worthy of Please). For most artists,…

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…the adjective “mature” would seem an epithet, but here it’s an accurate description for this elegant, eloquent, knowing music — it’s maturation achieved through experience and worldliness, not an exorbitant bank account. On that level, this is about the most mature pop album released this decade, exhibiting a refined sense of craft and a keen sense of purpose, marrying the particular sentiment of a song with the right production.

It’s hard to call Release an album of its time, since it hardly falls prey to trends, but it’s aware of its time — an album that’s proudly out of step with the particulars of hipness, but knows what they constitute, knows what they feel like, knows what modernism means for somebody who’s lived their life with the burden of being hip, whose always felt a compulsion to stay on top of things — and feeling that desire fade as you get older. So, that means that while Release occasionally sings of the new — synth lines, vocoders, beats, a song designed to respond to Eminem’s homophobia (the exquisite “The Night I Fell in Love”) — it’s from the vantage of people who have lived through all of this before, and know particulars will pass while the song remains the same. The great thing is, even if this sentiment has been present in previous Pet Shop Boys albums, they have brought the dance-club to the background (partially due to Marr’s presence) and have brought the songs to the forefront, resulting in a record that feels like the Pet Shop Boys, even when it doesn’t sound like them. And that’s a good thing, since it retains their greatest attributes while giving them a new spin, and it makes for the best Pet Shop Boys album in nearly ten years.

Disc 1: Remastered original album (released as Parlophone 7243 5 38150 2 8, 2002)

1. Home and Dry
2. I Get Along
3. Birthday Boy
4. London
5. E-Mail
6. The Samurai In Autumn
7. Love is a Catastrophe
8. Here
9. The Night I Fell In Love
10. You Choose

Disc 2

1. Between Two Islands
2. Searching for the Face of Jesus
3. Time On My Hands
4. Motoring (Demo) *
5. Love Life **
6. Transparent
7. Sexy Northerner
8. The Night is a Time to Explore Who You Are (Demo) *
9. Closer to Heaven (Slow Version)
10. Run, Girl, Run (Demo) *
11. I Didn’t Get Where I Am Today
12. Always
13. Home and Dry (Ambient Mix)
14. Bright Young Things (Demo) *
15. Kazak *
16. A Powerful Friend (John Peel Session – 10/2/2002) *
17. If Looks Could Kill (John Peel Session – 10/2/2002) *

Disc 3

1. Try It (I’m In Love With a Married Man)
2. Here (PSB New Extended Mix)
3. If Looks Could Kill
4. A Powerful Friend **
5. Party Song
6. No Excuse (Demo) *
7. Blue On Blue
8. Jack and Jill Party (Demo) *
9. Baby (Demo)
10. Flamboyant (Demo)
11. Miracles
12. Flamboyant (7” Mix)
13. Numb (Demo)
14. In Private (feat. Elton John)
15. Alone Again, Naturally (feat. Elton John) *
16. Reunion (Electro Mix) *
17. Bright Young Things
18. We’re the Pet Shop Boys
19. It’s a Sin (Barfly Version)

Disc 2, Tracks 1-2 from “I Get Alone” single – Parlophone CDRS 6581, 2002
Disc 2, Track 3 and Disc 3, Tracks 1-3 from Disco 3 (Parlophone 72435 82140 2 4, 2003)
Disc 2, Track 5 and Disc 3, Track 4 from Parlophone 7″ single R 6518, 2010
Disc 2, Track 6 and Disc 3, Track 18 from “Miracles” single – Parlophone CDRS/CDR 6620, 2003
Disc 2, Tracks 7 and 12-13 from “Home and Dry” singles – Parlophone CDRS/CDR 6572, 2002
Disc 2, Track 9 from bonus disc included with Release (Sanctuary Records 06076-84554-2 (U.S.), 2002)
Disc 2, Track 11 and Disc 3, Tracks 10 and 12 from “Flamboyant” singles – Parlophone CDRS/CDR 6629, 2004
Disc 3, Track 5 from “Numb” 7″ single – Parlophone R 6723, 2006
Disc 3, Track 7 from “Minimal” DVD single – Parlophone DVDR 6708, 2006
Disc 3, Track 9 from “Leaving” single – Parlophone CDR 6879, 2012
Disc 3, Track 11 from PopArt (The Hits) – Parlophone 72435 94837 2 6, 2003
Disc 3, Tracks 13 and 17 from “Numb” single – Parlophone CDRS 6723, 2006
Disc 3, Track 14 from “Minimal” single – Parlophone CDR 6708, 2006
Disc 3, Track 19 from PopJustice: 100% Solid Pop Music – Fascination FASC003, 2006