Amongst the lucrative trips down Memory Lane dangled before us so far this year, we've had packages from the likes of Bruce Springsteen (The Album Collection Vol 2 1987-1996 - a snip at £160 on Amazon right now) and the Rolling Stones' Studio Albums - Vinyl Collection: 1971 - 2016 - 'only' £370... As to whether any of this represents true value for money is a matter of personal opinion. Roxy Music's eponymous debut was re-issued in February as a four-disc 'super deluxe edition', which included a 5.1 surround sound remix by my friend Steven Wilson, and priced at £120. The bulk of that cost, I suspect, was the lavish coffee table book that came in the package. More fool me, you might say.
However, these things continue to appeal through a combination of clever marketing and consumers of a certain age susceptible to that marketing. In some cases, they're worth it: musos are drawn to higher quality vinyl formats, like 180g heavyweight and half-speed releases (delivering a superior experience than when previously purchased on vinyl, cassette or early CDs); completists will view box sets of multiple albums as an opportunity to own a comprehensive package of already-owned albums, even better if live recordings and other content are thrown in too.
This has been the principle behind re-issue programs by Led Zeppelin and David Bowie, the former's reissues being personally curated by Jimmy Page and usually including something to justify the cost. In the case of Bowie, the sets Five Years (1969-1973), Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) and A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) have been largely excellent value, chronicling arguably Bowie's richest period of studio creativity, along with live albums providing fascinating snapshots of the artist in varying stages of performance craft. Only a major mastering error with Heroes in the last box set, resulting in Parlophone having to replace copies of the legendary album, put a dampener on the package, which revolved around Bowie's Berlin period.
Now, Parlophone have announced the next release in the posthumous program of Bowie box sets: Loving The Alien (1983-1988). Released on 12 October with both CD and vinyl options, the package covers arguably the weakest period of Bowie's career, but one which might invite new consideration. Let's Dance is sometimes seen as his last great album from the period between the 70s and 80s, chiefly due to the hit singles it generated, but its follow-ups, Tonight and the ironically titled Never Let Me Down (and its disappointing supporting Glass Spider tour) were never received with much enthusiasm. That said, the new package will contain a "brand new production" of Never Let Me Down, featuring new instrumentation by guitarist Reeves Gabrels and bassist Tim Lefebvre (part of the New York jazz collective who played on Bowie's final album, Blackstar).
Elsewhere, the 11-disc CD box and 15-disc vinyl package will include newly remastered versions of Let's Dance, the original Never Let Me Down, the previously unreleased live albums of the Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider tours, Dance, a collection of original remixes, and an album of rarities, B-sides and soundtrack music, RE:CALL 4. Both CD and vinyl packages will include an accompanying book featuring rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers such as Herb Ritts and Denis O’Regan, as well as notes and comments from contributors like producer/guitarist Nile Rodgers and producer Hugh Padgham.
In general, the Bowie reissue packages have represented excellent value for money. With all, they've engendered the reappraisal of albums that have often been exalted unconditionally...with most coming out as even better than first encountered.
Bowie's death in 2016 quite rightly shocked and saddened a large swathe of music fans, a sudden event as enigmatic in some ways as the musician was in his creative life. Tom Petty's death last year was equally as sudden, and while never considered in the same realm of musical ‘art’ as Bowie, his demise at 66 brought the curtain down on a career as prolific as the British icon.
That is the core premise of An American Treasure, a 60-track collection of previously unreleased Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers material that will be released on September 28. The four-CD box set (along with a cutdown two-CD version) has been compiled by Petty‘s family and former collaborators, and will feature studio recordings, live versions of familiar songs, and alternate versions of other album tracks, selected from Petty’s particularly voluminous outputting the 80s and 90s.
While live versions of hits like I Won’t Back Down and Into The Great Wide Open will anchor interest from more casual buyers, it’s the richness of writing across the previously hidden Petty canon that will make An American Treasure so attractive, complementing affinity with his better known songs with a broad dip into the American heartland that he melodically captured via a fusion of pop, rock, guitar-jangle and country - Florida’s Springsteen if you will.
For Phil Collins, however, such exaltation will probably always go wanting. Some simply loathe him, a sentiment I've never truly understood about one of the most gifted drummers of his generation. It doesn't take genius to work out that animosity towards him was built in the late 1980s and pre-Britpop '90s when he was, frankly, everywhere. As he explains in his brutally honest autobiography Not Dead Yet, he sort of stumbled into a solo career, but ended up becoming one of only three artists to have sold more than 100 million albums as a solo artist and member of a group (the others being Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney). By his own admission, he became ubiquitous, a familiarity that bred the contempt, especially from the likes of the music press.
But despite the over-exposure, Collins' total career deserves the reappraisal afforded by Plays Well With Others, a four-CD box set also released on 28 September that pulls together a long and surprisingly broad history of collaborations and contributions. Although, oddly, the compilation includes a few of Collins' own solo and Genesis tracks, there is a far more interesting variety over the four discs.
One of the least appreciated aspects of Collins' career is the amount of session work he did, reflected on Plays Well with cuts such as Argent's I Can't Remember, But Yes, Brian Eno's Over Fire Island (Collins was 'loaned out' to Eno as a reciprocation for the keyboard wizard's work on Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway), John Cale's Pablo Picasso, Robert Fripp's North Star and Robert Plant's Pledge Pin. Also included is Intruder, the opening track from Peter Gabriel's third solo album, and which, effectively, invented the 1980s with its distinct "gated reverb" drum sound - famously applied in the legendary fill on In The Air Tonight - and created by Collins, engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite after Gabriel requested that drummers on the record did without cymbals.
One of Collins' abiding professional and personal relationships was with my music hero John Martyn. The pair's respective divorces - and their booze-sozzled mutual support - were the inspiration for Collins' Face Value and Martyn's Grace And Danger albums, and the latter's Sweet Little Mystery (featuring backing vocals from Collins), Could've Been Me, Ways To Cry, Suzanne and posthumous release Can't Turn Back The Years are all included. Pleasing to see Martyn so prominent, and I hope this mainstream exposure leads people to his back catalogue (much as Collins' work with Martyn led me to discover him for myself).
Despite his history as a prog rock drummer, as well as his love of jazz and jazz fusion (both represented in the package), Collins' 1980s pop ubiquity is also reflected - and sometimes surprisingly so. Everyone remembers him drumming on Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?, but what about Adam Ant's Puss 'N' Boots, Tears For Fears' Woman In Chains and Howard Jones' No One Is To Blame, excellent hits all? Other collaborations, including work with Eric Clapton, David Crosby, Chaka Khan, ABBA's Anni-Frid 'Frida' Lyngstad and Earth, Wind & Fire's Philip Bailey are also faithfully reflected in the package, along with live tracks from the various big name charity concerts Collins became a regular participant in, pre- and post-Live Aid.
In all likelihood, Collins will never catch a break from the too-cool-for-school brigade. This is despite his drumming prowess, first developed as a young boy and which, until physical impairment caused him to stop, should be regarded positively regardless of people's tastes and opinions about Collins the pop star. For that matter, an artist whose career spans everything from progressive rock to jazz workouts with Quincy Jones, deserves the recognition afforded bigger luminaries. It's just unlikely that he'll ever get it.
However, these things continue to appeal through a combination of clever marketing and consumers of a certain age susceptible to that marketing. In some cases, they're worth it: musos are drawn to higher quality vinyl formats, like 180g heavyweight and half-speed releases (delivering a superior experience than when previously purchased on vinyl, cassette or early CDs); completists will view box sets of multiple albums as an opportunity to own a comprehensive package of already-owned albums, even better if live recordings and other content are thrown in too.
This has been the principle behind re-issue programs by Led Zeppelin and David Bowie, the former's reissues being personally curated by Jimmy Page and usually including something to justify the cost. In the case of Bowie, the sets Five Years (1969-1973), Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976) and A New Career In A New Town (1977-1982) have been largely excellent value, chronicling arguably Bowie's richest period of studio creativity, along with live albums providing fascinating snapshots of the artist in varying stages of performance craft. Only a major mastering error with Heroes in the last box set, resulting in Parlophone having to replace copies of the legendary album, put a dampener on the package, which revolved around Bowie's Berlin period.
Now, Parlophone have announced the next release in the posthumous program of Bowie box sets: Loving The Alien (1983-1988). Released on 12 October with both CD and vinyl options, the package covers arguably the weakest period of Bowie's career, but one which might invite new consideration. Let's Dance is sometimes seen as his last great album from the period between the 70s and 80s, chiefly due to the hit singles it generated, but its follow-ups, Tonight and the ironically titled Never Let Me Down (and its disappointing supporting Glass Spider tour) were never received with much enthusiasm. That said, the new package will contain a "brand new production" of Never Let Me Down, featuring new instrumentation by guitarist Reeves Gabrels and bassist Tim Lefebvre (part of the New York jazz collective who played on Bowie's final album, Blackstar).
Elsewhere, the 11-disc CD box and 15-disc vinyl package will include newly remastered versions of Let's Dance, the original Never Let Me Down, the previously unreleased live albums of the Serious Moonlight and Glass Spider tours, Dance, a collection of original remixes, and an album of rarities, B-sides and soundtrack music, RE:CALL 4. Both CD and vinyl packages will include an accompanying book featuring rarely seen and previously unpublished photos by photographers such as Herb Ritts and Denis O’Regan, as well as notes and comments from contributors like producer/guitarist Nile Rodgers and producer Hugh Padgham.
In general, the Bowie reissue packages have represented excellent value for money. With all, they've engendered the reappraisal of albums that have often been exalted unconditionally...with most coming out as even better than first encountered.
That is the core premise of An American Treasure, a 60-track collection of previously unreleased Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers material that will be released on September 28. The four-CD box set (along with a cutdown two-CD version) has been compiled by Petty‘s family and former collaborators, and will feature studio recordings, live versions of familiar songs, and alternate versions of other album tracks, selected from Petty’s particularly voluminous outputting the 80s and 90s.
While live versions of hits like I Won’t Back Down and Into The Great Wide Open will anchor interest from more casual buyers, it’s the richness of writing across the previously hidden Petty canon that will make An American Treasure so attractive, complementing affinity with his better known songs with a broad dip into the American heartland that he melodically captured via a fusion of pop, rock, guitar-jangle and country - Florida’s Springsteen if you will.
For Phil Collins, however, such exaltation will probably always go wanting. Some simply loathe him, a sentiment I've never truly understood about one of the most gifted drummers of his generation. It doesn't take genius to work out that animosity towards him was built in the late 1980s and pre-Britpop '90s when he was, frankly, everywhere. As he explains in his brutally honest autobiography Not Dead Yet, he sort of stumbled into a solo career, but ended up becoming one of only three artists to have sold more than 100 million albums as a solo artist and member of a group (the others being Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney). By his own admission, he became ubiquitous, a familiarity that bred the contempt, especially from the likes of the music press.
One of the least appreciated aspects of Collins' career is the amount of session work he did, reflected on Plays Well with cuts such as Argent's I Can't Remember, But Yes, Brian Eno's Over Fire Island (Collins was 'loaned out' to Eno as a reciprocation for the keyboard wizard's work on Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway), John Cale's Pablo Picasso, Robert Fripp's North Star and Robert Plant's Pledge Pin. Also included is Intruder, the opening track from Peter Gabriel's third solo album, and which, effectively, invented the 1980s with its distinct "gated reverb" drum sound - famously applied in the legendary fill on In The Air Tonight - and created by Collins, engineer Hugh Padgham and producer Steve Lillywhite after Gabriel requested that drummers on the record did without cymbals.
One of Collins' abiding professional and personal relationships was with my music hero John Martyn. The pair's respective divorces - and their booze-sozzled mutual support - were the inspiration for Collins' Face Value and Martyn's Grace And Danger albums, and the latter's Sweet Little Mystery (featuring backing vocals from Collins), Could've Been Me, Ways To Cry, Suzanne and posthumous release Can't Turn Back The Years are all included. Pleasing to see Martyn so prominent, and I hope this mainstream exposure leads people to his back catalogue (much as Collins' work with Martyn led me to discover him for myself).
Despite his history as a prog rock drummer, as well as his love of jazz and jazz fusion (both represented in the package), Collins' 1980s pop ubiquity is also reflected - and sometimes surprisingly so. Everyone remembers him drumming on Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?, but what about Adam Ant's Puss 'N' Boots, Tears For Fears' Woman In Chains and Howard Jones' No One Is To Blame, excellent hits all? Other collaborations, including work with Eric Clapton, David Crosby, Chaka Khan, ABBA's Anni-Frid 'Frida' Lyngstad and Earth, Wind & Fire's Philip Bailey are also faithfully reflected in the package, along with live tracks from the various big name charity concerts Collins became a regular participant in, pre- and post-Live Aid.
In all likelihood, Collins will never catch a break from the too-cool-for-school brigade. This is despite his drumming prowess, first developed as a young boy and which, until physical impairment caused him to stop, should be regarded positively regardless of people's tastes and opinions about Collins the pop star. For that matter, an artist whose career spans everything from progressive rock to jazz workouts with Quincy Jones, deserves the recognition afforded bigger luminaries. It's just unlikely that he'll ever get it.
No comments:
Post a Comment