Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs.
ARTIST : Midnight Oil
RELEASE: Essential Oils
BACKSTORY: The Aussie rockers this week release a new 2CD, 36-track best-of that serves as a truly career-spanning overview of the band’s catalog, sampling cuts from 1978′s self-titled debut through 2002 swan song Capricornia. The album is out on CD and digitally in the U.K., but only in digital format in the U.S. (see full tracklist).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD, digital), Amazon.com (Digital)
ARTIST : Claudia Brücken
RELEASE: The Lost Are Found
BACKSTORY: The former Propaganda and Act singer returns this week, in the U.K., with a new collection of cover songs produced by Stephen Hague (New Order, OMD) and including renditions of songs by David Bowie, Pet Shop Boys, The Band, Electric Light Orchestra, Bee Gees, Julie Cruse and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Fear
RELEASES: The Fear Record
BACKSTORY: The classic Los Angeles punk act, which burst onto the scene in 1977, this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of its debut studio album The Record by re-recording the full 14-track set, which features songs such as “Let’s Have a War,” “New York’s Alright If You Like Saxophones,” “Gimme Some Action” and “I Love Livin’ in the City.”
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Frankie Goes to Hollywood
RELEASE: Frankie Said: The Very Best Of
BACKSTORY: ZTT Records this week releases, in the U.K., a new single-disc, 16-song best-of from its smash Liverpool act, including hit singles “Two Tribes,” “Relax” and “The Power of Love,” plus other tracks including “Welcome to the Pleasuredome,” “Watching the Wildlife,” “Warriors of the Wasteland” and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : The Sisters of Mercy
RELEASE: Floodland
BACKSTORY: Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s Silver Label this week reissues the goth rockers’ classic 1987 sophomore album on limited-edition audiophile vinyl. The record includes “Lucretia My Reflection,” “Dominion/Mother Russia,” “Driven Like the Snow,” “This Corrosion,” “Flood I” and “Flood II,” “1959” and more.
BUY: Amazon.com (Vinyl)
When I saw the headline for this post, I thought that someone had actually coughed up the three million bucks that Andrew Eldritch had demanded for a new album all those years ago.
The cover to the Midnight Oil release is pretty hideous. Although the remastered tracks are nice!