Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs.
R.E.M.
RELEASE: 7IN-83-88
BACKSTORY: R.E.M. this week issues a new box set collecting reproductions of the band’s 11 original IRS Records 7-inch singles, released between 1983 and 1988, from “Radio Free Europe” to “Finest Worksong.”
BUY: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Various artists
RELEASE: Millions Like Us: The Story of the Mod Revival 1977-1989
BACKSTORY: Cherry Red this week releases a 4-disc box set chronicling the mod revival of the late ’70s and 1980s, featuring music from The Scene, The Untouchables, The Odds, Mi5, The New Hearts and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Cracker
RELEASE: Berkeley to Bakersfield
BACKSTORY: David Lowery’s post-Camper Van Beethoven act returns this week with its 10th studio effort, an 18-track double album that features the original Cracker lineup recording for the first time in nearly 20 years.
BUY: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
The Jam
RELEASE: Setting Sons: Deluxe Edition
BACKSTORY: The Jam’s fourth album, originally released in 1979, is reissued in a 2CD expanded edition in the U.S. this week. A super deluxe edition box set already has been released in the U.K. as well.
BUY: Amazon.com
Belly
RELEASE: Star
BACKSTORY: Plain Recordings this week delivers the first-ever U.S. vinyl release of the 1993 debut from Tanya Donelly’s post-Throwing Muses band. The album, featuring the alt-rock hit “Feed the Tree,” is on 180-gram vinyl.
BUY: Amazon.com
The Lemonheads
RELEASE: Come on Feel the Lemonheads
BACKSTORY: Music on Vinyl this week reissue Evan Dando and Co.’s 1993 effort on 180-gram audiophile vinyl. The album features “It’s About Time,” “Big Gay Heart,” “The Great Big No” and “Into Your Arms.”
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Boris Blank
RELEASE: Electrified
BACKSTORY: This new two-disc anthology, out this week in the U.S. and last week in the U.K., chronicles decades’ worth of work by Boris Blank, one half of the pioneering electronic duo Yello (“Oh Yeah”).
BUY: Amazon.com
