This week’s releases include new albums from Sparks and Pere Ubu, a Wedding Present compilation, and reissues from The Waterboys, Danny Elfman and more.

England’s Glastonbury festival will return this summer with sets by The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pet Shop Boys, The Waterboys, Crowded House, Primal Scream and more.

Mike Scott is back this summer with a new album from The Waterboys, the 14th full-length LP from the group, called Good Luck, Seeker, that is preceded by what he’s calling a “seven-minute mash-up manifesto” of a single, “My Wanderings in the Weary Land.” Hear it right here.

Matthew Seligman, the highly inventive bassist for The Soft Boys who went on to record with Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, The Waterboys, Peter Murphy, Morrissey and more, and who played with David Bowie at Live Aid, died Friday after being in a coma for two weeks with COVID-19, his longtime friend Dolby announced,

This is a round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted.  This week’s releases include titles by Sebadoh, The Waterboys, Stray Cats, Primal Scream, Sting and Morrissey.

Mike Scott returns with a new album by The Waterboys this May, a 10-song collection entitled Where the Action Is — the title is inspired by the chorus to Robert Parker’s northern soul classic “Let’s Go Baby” — that follows up the band’s hip-hop inspired double album Out Of All This Blue. Details here.

Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted. New titles out this week include studio LPs from Sparks, The Waterboys, The Dream Syndicate and Living Colour.

The Waterboys have offered up the second taste of the band’s upcoming double albumin the form of “Payo Payo Chin,”another example of bandleader Mike Scott’s promise to employ more modern production values and styles in his new music. Stream the new song right here.

The Waterboys will release their 12th album, a double record entitled Out of All This Blue, in September, a collection of 23 new songs that bandleader Mike Scott says show influences of soul, hip-hop (yes, hip-hop), R&B, funk and swamp-rock. Scott also confirmed The Waterboys will tour the U.S. in 2018.

Two years after announcing work on a new The The album, Matt Johnson is releasing his first full-band music under that moniker in the form of “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming,” an etched one-sided 7-inch single to be issued next month as part of Record Store Day in the U.K.

The Waterboys have a long history of covering Prince’s epic “Purple Rain” in concert, and here’s another great take on that classic: Mike Scott and Co. on Friday performed a stripped-down cover of the song live on the air during the BBC’s “Chris Evans Breakfast Show” — which you can watch in full here.

This week’s new releases include a brand-new studio album from Mike Scott and The Waterboys, plus expanded CD reissues of Jellyfish’s two studio albums, as well as vinyl reissues of classic albums from the Pixies (‘Doolittle’), Rollins Band (‘Weight’) and Information Society (‘Information Society’).

This week’s new releases include the slightly slimmed-down 6CD version of the new Waterboys’ ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ box set of demos and unfinished tracks, plus a reissue of Soulsavers’ album with Dave Gahan and the belated CD release of Tears For Fears co-founder Curt Smith’s new solo album.