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 : The Jesus and Mary Chain
RELEASE: Psychocandy
BACKSTORY: The Scottish noise-pop legends this week begin their U.K. reissue campaign via the Demon Music Group with 2CD/1DVD editions of the band’s first two albums, released in 1985 and 1997. See full tracklists here, and video previews of the two reissues here.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (Psychocandy
ARTIST : The Waterboys
RELEASE: An Appointment with Mr Yeats
BACKSTORY: Mike Scott returns this week with his band’s first new album in four years, a 14-track set featuring songs Scott created from the lyrics of Irish poet W.B. Yeats for the stage show of the same name that he and his bandmates performed in 2010 and earlier this year. A U.S. release is due in 2012. (See tracklist and hear samples here.)
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD
ARTIST : Throwing Muses
RELEASE: Anthology
BACKSTORY: Venerable label 4AD celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Muses’ debut with the band’s first-ever compilation, a 21-song set released in the U.K. that will come with, in its initial limited release, a hard-back book and a bonus disc packed with 22 additional B-sides and rarities. (See full tracklist here.)
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD
ARTIST : Madness
RELEASE: A Guided Tour of Madness
BACKSTORY: The British ska-pop institution this week releases a 3CD/1DVD anthology (billed as “a non-stop, one-step jamboree treasure hunt”) featuring 70 singles and album tracks, plus a PAL-format DVD featuring the band’s “comeback” concert at Madstock in 1992. The set also includes a 72-page booklet with new interviews, unseen photos and the first issue of the band’s Nutty Comic, originally published in 1981. Finally, each set also includes instructions to participate in a geocaching treasure hunt.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (Box set
ARTIST : 808 State
RELEASE: Blueprint
BACKSTORY: The famed British dance act this week receives a 17-track best-of set in the U.K., a collection that spans the late-’80s through the present, including hits “Pacific State, “In Yer Face” and “Cubik,” plus nine previously unavailable recordings. The set features a 20-page booklet with interviews and a detailed history of the group.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD
