The Sound of Arrows just posted this picture to their Twitter. While it in no way guarantees that we will actually be getting an album during the 2011 calendar year, it does show that one exists and increases the possibility of it coming some time in the near future. If it all goes tits up - which is still has the possibility of doing, lets be honest - there's something to search for.
(Of course, we also know a third JJ72 album exists and they've somehow managed to keep that one under wraps for all these years.)
Color me (incredibly) cautiously optimistic. And to think all of this excitement stems from a 2-year old 3:45 single that I didn't even like that much at first:
NPR is streaming the new PJ Harvey album this week ahead of its release. Despite what the glowing reviews are saying it's not terribly good, however a mediocre new PJ Harvey is better than no new PJ Harvey I suppose. ("In The Dark Places" has a bit of an "It's You" vibe going for it and the title track thankfully does not have that stupid "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" sample in it, but that's about all the good I can pull from it for now.)
Far more interesting is 'Hotel Shampoo', the new LP from SFA's Gruff Rhys which is also streaming this week courtesy of his website. I haven't been able to drum up much excitement for this one for some reason - still a bit burned from 'Dark Days/Light Years' I guess - but the album continues in the breezy pop vein of 2007's 'Candylion' and is pretty solid from start to finish. (I'm personally waiting for the lo-fi follow up to 'Yr Atal Genhedlaeth' but I might be alone on that one.) It's definitely the better bet of the two, but truthfully both are probably just force of habit at this point.
The machine has kicked into overdrive and there is yet another version of the La Roux album is coming our way.
I suppose that's not entirely fair as the album itself hasn't been re-packaged and re-sold to us numerous times, just the singles. (How many "In For The Kill" and/or "Bulletproof" remix packages are there?) According to the official site, February 8th will bring is the digital-only release of the Gold Edition - to tie in (a bit late) to the Gold Tour, I imagine. While they get points for not making us buy the album again for the bonus material, they lose points for attempting to re-sell us a number of tracks we've bought numerous times before. The track list will be:
01 In For The Kill (featuring Kanye West) [I really hoped this was one going to disappear...] 02 Finally My Saviour [aka "Saviour", which we had to re-buy the album on iTunes to get, grumble grumble] 03 Under My Thumb [which we bought the 'Sidetracked' compilation for, and it's not even that great in the first place] 04 I'm Not Your Toy (Jack Beats Remix) [possibly not released in the US before, I forget, but we've still got it a few times over] 05 In For The Kill (Skream's Let's Get Ravey Remix) [STOP! IT! WITH! THIS! REMIX!] 06 Quicksand (Boy 8-Bit Remix) [also possibly not released in the US before, but it was the only reason we bought the re-release of the single] 07 Bulletproof (Zinc Remix) [while not as bad as the Skream "In For The Kill", we've bought this one many times over already] 08 Tigerlily (Demo) [THANK YOU! Something genuinely new.] 09 Bulletproof (Intimate Session at Abbey Road, Acoustic) [this could be nice - it works surprisingly well acoustic] 10 In For The Kill (Vevo Lounge Version) [this is really nice as well]
I understand that there is a limited amount of material to work with AND I would also much rather see them flogging the same old same old in an attempt to get a bigger market share than to completely disappear into oblivion, however it really is kind of insane how many times they've re-packaged some of these mixes. I'm not really sure who this is aimed at either - those who obsessed over each and every single as they were coming out (raises hand) are going to be pissed they have to buy this all again for a few new treats, those who came later to the game and want to go obsessive can still very easily track down most of these on their original homes, and those who thought the Kanye West version was a good idea don't care about the rest of this.
Ahh, well. As long as there's the option to pick what you want rather than having to download the whole thing, I guess it would be worse. They really need to go away and start working on LP2, though.
Mirrors have finally announced details of their debut album...sort of. You can piece together all the information from various places.
Anyways, it's called 'Lights And Offerings' - which was kind of an open secret, the band had never really confirmed it yet there were samplers with the title and tiny versions of the artwork on various promo mix CDrs that were out and about - and Recordstore is reporting it is 10 tracks long. 10 tracks is the perfect album length - 5 songs on each side - so that's very exciting. Also, "Lights And Offerings" itself is not amongst the 10 tracks - I love when title tracks appear as b-sides so I'm a fan. These songs are in the line-up:
01 Fear Of Drowning 02 Look At Me 03 Into The Heart 04 Write Through The Night 05 Ways To An End 06 Hide And Seek 07 Somewhere Strange 08 Something On Your Mind 09 Searching In The Wilderness 10 Secrets
If you're crafty you already have 8 of the 10 tracks up there in some version or another so you know this has the potential to be an album of the year. Recordstore is offering signed copies with a free mixdisc but the band mentioned a fancy deluxe edition on their Facebook so I'd hold off on the pre-order for a bit. (There also HAS to be an LP release. There just has to.)
The video for "Into The Heart":
Fantastic. I'm so excited for this one I can hardly stand it.
2010 saw me spending a lot of money. Paired with that, while going through album purchases at the end of the year to make a year-end list, I came across many things that I had bought but listened to maybe once or twice - not necessarily because I didn't like it, more because there was so much to take in - and, in a few cases, things I had totally forgotten I purchased. So I decided to take the month of January off from purchasing new music - partially to pay the bills, partially to further explore some forgotten 2010 releases, partially to go through those massive fan-made Blur deluxe editions. (I cheated a little. I have some credit at the iTunes store so I bought the Anna Calvi single after reading about it - the blatant PJ Harvey-isms are a bit distracting, but at the same time she apparently isn't interested in making an album like that any more so it's good someone is - and then there's the use-it-or-lose-it credit on eMusic, but no new money has been spent so far.) Anyways, it wasn't that difficult as not much has come out this month that was really all that interesting - there was the Klaxons deluxe edition this week but there's only two tracks on it I don't already have so waiting isn't that difficult, next week is the Fujiya & Miyagi album but I'd like to wait to hear some more of it before I commit, and the Anna Calvi album came out but I really can't decide - so it appears to have been a good month to do that. However, the calendar is quickly filling up for February and March with lots and lots of really, really good stuff. Let's take a look.
02/02: Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo - Japanese CD with 2 bonus tracks (from the UK 12"/DL singles that aren't available in the US - grrr)
02/07: PJ Harvey - The Words That Maketh Murder - 7" (Already available as a download in the UK sans b-side - the US got "Written On The Forehead" for some reason, despite it already being available as a free download from Polly herself. Fuckers.) The Boxer Rebellion - Step Out Of The Car - 7" (Exclusive b-side not on any of the myriad of formats of the album.) The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still - UK CD release (Recordstore is offering signed copies to the first 100 orders while HMV has an exclusive 4-track bonus CD.) 02/08: The Boxer Rebellion - The Cold Still - US iTunes download with 3 bonus tracks, none of which overlap with the HMV bonus disc, which is both nice and obnoxious. (Is there a physical version planned for the US? I can't seem to find one.) Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo - US CD for those who don't want to go the Japanese route.
02/14: Mirrors - Into The Heart - 7" (No word on b-side yet, but Richard X produced single version!) 02/15: Mirrors - Into The Heart - US download (I'm assuming, though no one actually has it listed yet.) PJ Harvey - Let England Shake - CD/LP (Second US vinyl release in a row for PJ - hooray! Also, the iTunes pre-order bonus track is the b-side from the 7" so no need to go that route.)
02/21: nothing of interest 02/22: Designer Drugs - Hardcore/Softcore - CD (Good remixers don't always equal good album artists, but this is worth investigating.)
02/28: Elbow - Neat Little Rows - 7" (Finally, new Elbow!) 03/01: nah
03/07: Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys! - CD (And, I'm assuming, LP. No word on a US release yet.) 03/08: R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now - CD (Could be iffy but worth checking out.)
Also somewhere in there will be the physical release of Duran Duran's 'All You Need Is Now' with extra tracks - please don't fuck it up, it's pretty perfect as it is - and the single release of the title track from last year's Manic Street Preachers album. Also possible is the first single from The Whip's second LP due in the Spring, long-awaited new material from Battles, a dub version of Steve Mason's 'Boys Outside' LP called 'Ghosts Outside' and a single from the Kills record that is out on April 4/5. Active Child is in the studio working on new material though no release has been set, Hunx & His Punx have a proper full-length in the works, Florrie as a second EP and Annie collab in the works (which may or may not be the same thing) and Björk may or may not deliever LP7 in the first half of the year - and which point I may or may not care, she's burned through A LOT of good will over the past five years or so. Also, in the "I'll believe it when I see it" category, that stupid Sound of Arrows album is supposed to be out in the Spring but it may have been delayed - again - the Fall. So I'll see you in 2015 to discuss that one.
All in all, 2011 is shaping up quite nicely. Anything I missed?
It is becoming increasingly more common for album re-issues to be as exciting - if not more so - than new album releases. 2010 was no exception and delivered a number of highly anticipated, long-overdue album remasters (sometimes for the worse) and expansions (always for the better). Here are the five I enjoyed the most in 2010, listed alphabetically by artist:
a-ha - Hunting High And Low (Remastered and Expanded)
First off, Rhino takes the remaster crown of 2010 for delivering three of the five packages on this list - and a number of others I had interest in but not the cash to support. (Rhino Handmade ain't cheap, folks.) First up is a gorgeous sounding 2-disc expansion of a-ha's fantastic debut. Disc one contains a lush-sounding subtle remaster of the album proper followed by a period remix of each of the 4 singles, some making their CD debut. (The ones that aren't were previously available on tricky to track down Japanese EPs, so essentially they're all making their easy-to-obtain CD debut.) The second disc starts out with a demo version of each of the album's tracks in the original running order, followed by the period b-sides and a selection of never further-developed demo tracks. (Most of the b-sides were from that batch so it all goes together well.) It's understandable why the band is viewed as a one hit wonder in the US, but this really is a spectacular debut - "Take On Me" really is one of the weakest tracks on it - and should be in the collection of anyone that is a fan of the period. Thanks to Rhino, you now have the definitive version of the album as a one-stop go-to. (Follow-up 'Scoundrel Days' got a similarly structured expansion, but I've never been as big a fan of that one outside of "Cry Wolf". It didn't stop me from purchasing it, of course...)
The Cure - Disintegration (Deluxe Edition)
Rhino contribution #2. To be honest, 'Disintegration' is far from my favorite Cure album - I can rarely make it through the entire thing in one listen, it's just. so. heavy. - and the bonus material on these Cure reissues hasn't exactly been anything you need to listen to more than once. That said, this thing is jam-packed with pretty much all the 'Disintegration' you are ever going to need. The set itself contains a disc for the album, a bonus disc with the now-standard home and studio demos with a few obligatory never-fleshed-out demo ideas and a third disc with the 'Entreat' live album expanded to cover all of the album's tracks. Thanks to the wonder of the internet, we also got another pair of virtual bonus discs in an alternate set of demos and rarities that streamed from the official site and another live run through of the album captured in Dallas on the album's tour. A lot of overlap - and, perhaps, more than a touch of overkill - but you can't say they skimped on extras for this one. Now give us 'Mixed Up' and I can stop buying these stupid things. ;)
Duran Duran - 'Duran Duran', 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', 'Notorious' and 'Big Thing' Deluxe Editions
We've talked about these before, but I think it's safe to say that 2010 was the year of the return of Duran Duran. (Well, I suppose it started in late 2009 with the 'Rio' reissue.) Anyways, these were obviously going to be here so we'll move on.
The Monkees - The Birds, The Bees and The Monkees (Rhino Handmade Edition)
Rhino delivers again with another long-awaited expansion. (Technically this came out before the a-ha reissues, but as far as this list is concerned they fall after.) Anyways, Rhino did 2-disc deluxe editions of the first four Monkees albums - containing even more newly unearthed rarities as well as the mono mixes of the LPs - a few years back, but the campaign totally died leading up to the important one. Long the holy grail of Monkees collectors, the mono mix of their fifth LP was the last to be produced - and in very small numbers - so not many had heard it. It also featured some pretty substantial differences from the stereo mix that were in danger of being lost to time. Apparently the hold up was a mix of soft sales for the first four - it was far from the first time they had been reissued and they weren't exactly cheap, to be fair - and the missing master tapes for the mono mix. In swoops the Handmade division with a minty copy of the LP to do a vinyl transfer of the missing tracks, more period rarities than you can shake a stick at and a lavish lenticular box to throw 3-discs worth of late-1967/early 1968 period Monkees in. Probably not as overkill as the Cure set but you also will never need another version of "Lady's Baby" as long as you live. (Later in the year, Rhino Handmade delivered a 3-disc expansion of 'Head' - which sounded and looked great at the time. However, stretching six songs worth of alternate material over the course of 3-discs proved to be a better idea in theory that execution - and that is even after filling the third disc with a period radio interview. They did a bang-up job on the box, though, replicating the reflective mylar cover for the first time since the original Colgems LP. They definitely get an "A" for effort.)
R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction (Deluxe Edition)
The R.E.M. remaster campaign continues with a fresh look at their third LP. I'm no R.E.M. expert by any means so I'll leave the commentary to others, but this set is both an improvement, a no-change and a step back from the first two. Improvement: the second disc contains a demo run-through of the album plus three - two songs that eventually found homes on later albums and one genuinely unreleased song. No-change: the mastering still kind of sucks and this doesn't sound very good. Step back: the packaging! Yes, it's nice, but it doesn't match the previous two and that's annoying.
And that, as they say, is that. I'm finally ready to fully embrace 2011 - and only eleven days late!
Nothing's ever simple, right? Anyways, the following are the twelve releases that make up my 10 favorite albums of 2010:
Honorable Mention: Ash - The A-Z Series Key tracks: "Arcadia", "Space Shot", "Instinct", "Binary", "There Is Hope Again" Ash has always been a singles band at heart, so for them to attempt 26 singles over 52 weeks made sense. Obviously it didn't turn out as perfect as it sounded - the quality expectedly dropped off a bit in the back half of the project and not every track was really single-worthy - but that they could carry it through to the conclusion AND get such a relatively high success rate made the entire thing worthwhile. Plus, it was super fun getting a new Ash "single" every other Sunday.
Honorable Mention: Alphabeat - The Beat Is... Key tracks: "The Beat Is", "DJ", "The Spell" Released at the end of 2009 as 'The Spell' in native Denmark, Alphabeat's dance-pop-tastic second album saw a delayed release in the UK in March with a name change, slight track order re-jig and obligatory bonus track. If the self-titled album was a throwback to 80's Europop then "The Beat Is..." has both feet firmly planted on the early 90's dance floor, taking inspiration from Snap!, C+C Music Factory, Technotronic and the like - "Always Up With You" even features the cheesy house piano at the intro. The revolution didn't quite take off as the album was a bit of a dud everywhere except its home country - and my iPod, obviously - but it was a worthy effort.
10: Prince - 20Ten Key Tracks: "Laydown", "Compassion", "Lavaux" Yes, really, a Prince album and - despite the terrible album art, stupid distribution and Prince's paranoid/insane ramblings that "the internet is over" - a really good one at that. His best album since...well, that's kind of pointless, but it is worth noting that it's his most solid album effort as a whole since he decided to stop fucking around with free jazz and instrumental improv and get back to business with 2003's 'Musicology'. The re-introduction of the Linn drum machine didn't hurt either - "Compassion" comes out of the gate sounding like a '1999' out-take and the album never lets up from there. It is hurt a bit without a "Black Sweat"-sized JAM - though "Lavaux" is essentially a "Mountains" rewrite for a mid-album high - but we've got his most thoroughly enjoyable album in quite some time.
09: James - The Night Before Key tracks: "Mother's A Clown", "Crazy", "It's Hot" The James revival carries on with a fantastic mini-album. Part of a two mini-album set - the second, "The Morning After", didn't quite reach the heights of this one - it is helped by its brevity as it doesn't run out of steam by going on too long like the otherwise excellent 'Hey Ma!' did. It's a bit annoying that the album's best track was only available as a low bit-rate download to purchasers of the album - I'm all for bonus tracks as downloads, but 128kpbs mp3s? Really? - and then didn't reappear on the US compilation of the two albums later in the year. (To be fair, the other bonus track only appeared on the iTunes version - as an album-only download, of course.) Formatting frustrations aside, another excellent addition to the James discography.
(The US totally got the better artwork: Mirrorball Kitty Attack!)
08: Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today Key tracks: "Round And Round", "Menopause Man", "Can't Hear My Eyes" I wasn't familiar with Ariel Pink before a demo version of "Menopause Man" appeared on the 4AD Record Store Day 12", but I was instantly enthralled with the odd mix of hi-fi pop and lo-fi bedroom recording the track presented. Proper lead single "Round And Round" was another instant love, even with it's odd song structure and sound a little too close to 70's soft rock, and the album is a fascinating hodgepodge of genres thrown together that somehow manages to hold together as a cohesive whole.
07: The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night Key tracks: "Chicago Train", "And This Is What We Call Progress", "Albatross" Shoegazing is alive and it lives in Montréal. OK, not really - the shoegazing tag gets thrown around so much these days that it's essentially useless - but this is one captivatingly beautiful record of woozy guitar noise and boy/girl vocals. I don't even remember how I was introduced to it - I saw the album sleeve image somewhere on line and was taken in by an absolutely glowing review - but I am very glad it has cast its spell on me. (On a side note - and nothing against the previous records on the list - but its a bit ridiculous that a record this great can only sit at the 7th spot on the list. 2010 was a gooooood year.)
06: Erykah Badu - New Amerykah: Part Two (The Return Of The Ankh) Key tracks: "Window Seat", "Turn Me Away (Get MuNNY)", "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" It didn't arrive on time - obviously - but it was well worth the wait. She couldn't make a record more extreme than '4th World War' so what was one to do? Go back to the past and make her warmest record since 'Baduizm', that's what, but mixed with the immediacy and at times uncomfortably personal feel of the first volume. A bit like her 'Lovesexy' to '4th World War''s 'Black Album' - oh, yes. (It even gets away with a Wings sample - WINGS!) Next time, please don't stay away so long.
05: Steve Mason - Boys Outside Key tracks: "Understand My Heart", "Am I Just A Man", "Boys Outside" I was never really a fan of The Beta Band and therefore certainly wasn't familiar with the following solo material under any number of monikers, but throw in a Richard X production credit and I am all ears. (Also, Joe knows what I like all too well.) The definition of a grower, Steve Mason's solo debut under his own name is one gorgeous, soul bearing singer/songwriter/downtempo-electro record. (Kind of. Right?) It's a bit front loaded with the more uptempo numbers - "Am I Just A Man" is straight-up Tears For Fears, or maybe that's just me - which makes the back half seem to sag a bit, but once it sinks in it's there for good. I am very excited for the dub record in the coming year. (Also, I know finances and everything were involved but I was massively disappointed that the North American acoustic tour was canceled. And don't get me started on how the singles were released/formatted/distributed - although big points for 4 singles off a record. The perfect example of how digital distribution has made collecting harder rather than more convenient, and for seemingly no reason at all.)
04: Duran Duran - All You Need Is Now Key tracks: "Girl Panic!", "Being Followed", "Blame The Machines" Yeah, it's been out for less than a month at this point so maybe this is excitement talking, but Duran Duran are back in a big way with this one. And not just any Duran Duran - because, let's be honest, they've been a number of different bands over the years. This is, as promised in the almost year-long lead up hype, a classic Duran Duran record to sit alongside the first three LPs, the alternate follow-up to 'Rio' that Mark Ronson promised. (Even if it does sound more like the alternate follow-up to 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' to these ears, but I've always been partial to that one.) There's no doubt they're borrowing from the past here - closer "Before The Rain" does more than borrow from "The Chauffeur", "The Man Who Stole A Leopard" is a fleshed-out "Tel Aviv", "Being Followed" borrows the melody from the chorus of "Last Chance On The Stairway" and I wouldn't believe that "Girl Panic!" wasn't a lost 1981 Night Version if I didn't know any better. And so on and so on. The important thing, though - and what makes the record an absolute blast - is that the band sound like they're having fun. They know this is the record their fans wanted - and bless Ronson for getting that message through to them - and they sound more than happy to deliver. I can't wait for the tour.
03: These New Puritans - Hidden Key tracks: "We Want War", "Attack Music", "White Chords" This was unexpected. I was a big fan of 'Beat Pyramid' when it came out - and think it has gotten better over the years - but that album was in no way a preparation for this. While I won't say that this sounds like nothing else out there today as others have - because I'm sure that's not true - I will say that TNPS conviction to turning a pop record on its ear is the strongest I heard from any band this year. Because let's be honest, this is a pop record at heart - albeit it one orchestrated by children's choirs, full orchestras, brass ensembles and melons being crushed with sledgehammers to sound like heads being crushed, all anchored by a 7-minute lead single with a mind-warping video. Pretentious? Yes. But as a means to an end to creating an amazing album, there was - ahem - nothing else quite like it this year. (Side note one: While the lead-up to the album was perfect - the single! the album mega-mix! they even chose the right second single! - they totally shot the campaign to hell afterward by making the absolute worst decision whenever possible. The "Attack Music" video looked like a Placebo single sleeve come to life - not pretty - and no physical single was weak. Then a bunch of shit MC remixes. Then an era-wrapping remix 10" - inappropriate format, really - that contained said shit MC remixes and a pair of remixes we already bought at least once while there were some decent ones waiting for a proper release. Who's in charge, here? Side note two: Records 3, 2 and 1 are all pretty much tied and were pretty much the sound track to my 2010. You need them all.)
02: School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire Key tracks: "Heart Is Strange", "Dust Devil", "Camarilla" Ahh, yes. The record that turned me into a 12-year-old in my anticipation. I can safely say that I haven't looked forward to a record as much in a very, very long time and it did not disappoint at all. It's really hard to talk about this record without gushing - why stop now? - but I think it's safe to say that this is as close to the pure School of Seven Bells vision as we're ever going to get, especially with Claudia leaving the band under mysterious circumstances earlier this year. Even a completely heart-breaking tour couldn't ruin it - though every time I listen to it, I can hear how it should have sounded live and it re-opens the wounds a little bit. If this is the end of the road then we ended with perfection.
01: Active Child - Curtis Lane EP Key tracks: "I'm In Your Church At Night", "When Your Love Is Safe", "Wilderness" Kind of cheating being a 6-track EP and all, but nothing got me as excited this year as discovering Active Child. (Thanks again, Joe.) The songs here all sound like they've been a part of me for years - they feel lived in and comforting, like climbing under a blanket to drift to sleep on a cold winter's day...and if that sounds like a bunch of overdramatic bullshit, then so be it, but that's how it is. I absolutely cannot wait to see what comes next.
So there it is - 2010 in record form. 2011, you have some mighty big shoes to fill.
End-of-year-list-making-a-few-days-too-late - hooray! The first - of probably many - is of 10 records that I highly enjoyed in 2010, however for some reason didn't feel compelled to include them in my 10 favorite records of the year. There could be many reasons - perhaps I didn't spend enough time with it as I was busy with something else on repeat, perhaps the rest of the record didn't shine as brightly as *that* single, or perhaps it was all around enjoyable but just not as enjoyable as 10 other records during the year. Whatever the case, I'd highly recommend checking out any and/or all of the following releases, which are presented in alphabetical order:
The Chemical Brothers - Further The Depreciation Guild - Spirit Youth Florrie - Introduction EP Grinderman - Grinderman 2 The Hundred In The Hands - The Hundred In The Hands Klaxons - Surfing The Void Liars - Sisterworld Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon Team Ghost - You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me & Celebrate What You Can't See EPs
That looks about right - kind of surprised Prince managed to overtake School of Seven Bells at the end, and once again I thought Ash would finish higher.
Here's to 2011 and new LPs from Elbow, The Whip, Boxer Rebellion, PJ Harvey, Dragonette...
Elbow delivered an early Christmas present today by sharing on their Facebook that their fifth album will be titled 'build a rocket boys!' - LOVE the exclamation point! - and will be released in the UK on March 7th. (A bit earlier than I thought it would be, so bonus surprise!) The artwork is over there and the tracklist, thanks to play.com, follows:
01: Lippy Kids 02: The Birds 03: With Love 04: Neat Little Rows 05: Jesus Is A Rochdale Girl 06: The Night Will Always Win 07: High Ideals 08: The River 09: Open Arms 10: The Birds (Reprise) 11: Dear Friends
No word on a vinyl release or first single yet, but I'm sure we'll know soon. They mention a surprise to come on Boxing Day - perhaps we'll have a new Elbow track to ring in the new year with?
The new Duran Duran is "out there", a good week before its official iTunes release on December 21.
Having spent the past day with it on pretty constant repeat, I can say that it truly is the return to the sound of the first three LPs it was rumored to be.
In fact, I'd say a few of the songs were recently unearthed out-takes from the 1981-1983 period if I didn't know any better. Album closer "Before The Rain" could have been rejected for 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' for sounding too close to "The Chauffeur", "Being Followed" is a dead ringer for a follow up to that albums' "Shadows On Your Side" and "The Man Who Stole A Leopard" takes the creepy synths from "Tel Aviv" and develops them over a sprawling 6 1/4 minute suite. While it doesn't have a direct reference like others, "Blame The Machines" is such a mid-80's concept and even comes complete with a robotic female vocal breakdown at the end.
Best of all is "Girl Panic", a total throwback to those early Night Versions:
A. Maze. Ing.
Now, I'm a fan of 'Astronaut' - which I didn't realize was so unpopular with the Duran Duran fanbase until reading the anticipation for this album - which I thought was a good representation of what the core Duran Duran sound would be updated for the 2000's. 'All You Need Is Now' tops it by being an aural time machine back to the early-80's and would not have sounded out of place as the follow-up to 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' had the band not splintered as it did. (We then, of course, wouldn't have gotten 'Notorious' and 'Big Thing' - both of which I love - so this way we've ended up getting the best of both worlds.) I only hope that the 12-track physical version doesn't spoil it by being too long, which was 'Astronaut''s downfall. I suppose we shall see in February. One runs the risk of early excitement leading to hyperbole - me? never! - but I think it's safe to say that this is (backhanded compliment alert!) the best album they've made in 20 years and is truly worthy of the Duran Duran name.
Previewed on their US tour last fall, "Step Out Of The Car" is the first full taste we have of their third full-length, 'The Cold Still', which is due in February. It's a nice mix of the indie-scrappery of debut 'Exits' plus the majestic sweep of 2009's 'Union' and bodes very well for the album. (Not that there were really any doubts, but still.)
As of now, only Juno appears to have the track for sale and even then it's region blocked so we in the US are out of luck for the time being. The video is up on their YouTube channel, so that will have to suffice for now:
...to #58. Certainly it deserved better, but I suppose one would have to actually promote a single - and release it at a logical time, not weeks after it first becomes available - to achieve chart success.
Dean and I were talking: there's an album hidden in 'Surrender' and 'Come With Us' to equal the first two Chemical Brothers LP. Find it.
Challenge accepted!
This is my tracklist, show me yours:
4:54 [a1] Come With Us 7:18 [a2] Out Of Control 8:35 [b1] It Began In Afrika (Electronic Battle Weapon Version) 4:49 [b2] Hey Boy Hey Girl 4:46 [b3] Galaxy Bounce (Tomb Raider Version) 5:20 [c1] Music: Response 4:16 [c2] Under The Influence 6:23 [c3] Star Guitar 6:32 [d1] Hoops 8:39 [d2] The Sunshine Underground
Most importantly, this allows "The Sunshine Underground" to shine as the epic,"Private Psychedelic Reel"-esque album-ender it truly is rather than stifling it in the middle of an awkwardly sequenced LP. Also: it puts the full version of "Galaxy Bounce" - surely the best track from the 'Come With Us' period - on an album rather than a too short, anti-climactic edit. Win/win.
(Sadly, despite a handful of amazing tracks, there's not a full LP to salvage from the messes that are 'Push The Button' and 'We Are The Night'...or is there?)
Going on thirty years ago, if someone had told you that not only would Duran Duran still be around but that EMI would be issuing lavishly packaged (and fittingly period-appropriate) deluxe editions of their first five albums - first five! they survive past the first? - there's no way you'd believe them.
However, here we are in October 2010 and that's exactly what has happened. Rolled out in waves over the course of the past year, we have now been treated to multi-disc and -format editions of the five albums that Duran Duran - and, later, Duranduran - put out during the 1980's. In a very pleasant surprise, they were - for the most part - put together by someone who clearly did their research and offer plenty of bang for your buck...especially when you take the digitally available supplementary material. That's right - 2 CDs and a DVD a piece can't hold all the Duran-ness. Nerd alert!
The first to show its face was a 2-disc set of 'Rio' last Fall, which I've been over before. Pretty much everything about the set was perfect and gave high hopes for the rest.
Unfortunately, it was a bit of two steps forward, one step back from then on out. The first self-titled LP and 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' joined us in the Spring and the cracks were already starting to show. First, the bad: the sound quality on these things is pretty wretched. Now, I'm no hardcore audiophile, though I am less than pleased with the so-called "loudness wars" and these things suffer big time. Forget taking it to 11 - this is taking it to about 15. And on top of that, there's the small matter of an audio glitch at the beginning of "Girls on Film" that causes a very noticeable stutter and false start to the track - something that would've taken about 15 seconds for QC to trim off with an audio editor. (Hell, I did it myself.) Even worse is EMI's knowledge of the error and refusal to fix it as it isn't part of the music or something like that. I beg to differ.
Anyways, if you're looking solely for an audio upgrade of these two, save your money. If you're looking for bonus material, boy are you in luck...for the first album, anyways. Disc one collects the period b-sides - all excellent, all readily available on the 'Singles 81-85' box and/or 3CD set, but all nice to have in one place. CD2 collections two sets of pre-album demos - no previously unreleased songs, but the demo of "Tel Aviv" is very, very different from the moody instrumental that we know and love - a BBC Radio Session with an early version of "Like An Angel" as a highlight, and a pair of extended mixes a piece for the album's two biggest singles. If you spring for the 3-disc edition, you also get a DVD with - *deepbreath* - the album's videos (including DVD debuts for "Careless Memories" - SO DATED - and "Night Boat"), a fluff day in the life featurette, and - best of all - a whole slew of period TV performances. Seriously, the Top of the Pops performance of "Planet Earth" makes the whole set worth it. The hair! The miming! Did I mention the hair! I mean, really, Simon has one little strand of his bangs crimped - amazing. It has to be seen to be believed. (I can say with all honesty that despite the pretty terrible sound and completely unforgivable audio glitch, that one performance made the whole purchase worth it.) On top of all of that, the whole thing comes packaged with five 5x5 postcards - one for each band member, obviously - and a replica of the poster that apparently came with the original Japanese LP, all packaged in a nice lift top box.
I really, really wish I could lavish similar praise upon 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger', my favorite Duran Duran album. (Yeah, what of it?) While there are no obvious audio glitches on the main album, it still suffers from insane brickwalling so an audio upgrade is out. It doesn't, however, have the bonus material to make it a must-have. There's a second disc, of course, but it is made up almost entirely of tracks available in the previously mentioned singles box - the only new to CD material are a pair of live tracks from the US "Reflex" 12". No demos, no newly unearthed alternate mixes, nothing previously unreleased at all. Rumors of a set of demos for this album have floated around for years and this would have been the perfect time to roll some of those out. Boo!
The DVD is also not nearly as exciting. Similar to the first DVD, it contains the album's videos (all of which were on 'Greatest') and a pair of Top of the Pops performances for "Is There Something I Should Know" and "The Reflex". By this point, though, the fame machine has obviously taken its toll on the boys and these performances are nowhere nearly as fun to watch - you can very clearly see they're just going through the motion because they've made the charts yet again. Rounding out the DVD is the digital debut of 'As The Lights Go Down', the concert-only version of the "Arena" movie. I'm personally not a big fan of watching concert films so my enjoyment of this one was limited - I watched it for a bit before ripping the audio and adding it as a third disc to the playlist on my iPod. It does come in a similarly nice box to the first album, so that's a plus, but I can't really recommend this one.
Both of the sets are supplemented in the digital world with a period concert. Sadly, the 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger'-era choice was merely an audio version of 'As The Lights Go Down'. However, I would highly recommend the BBC concert chosen to represent the debut - "Late Bar" and "Khanada" both get airings, as well as an early version of "Last Chance On The Stairway". Well worth the $10 for the download.
If 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' is my favorite Duran Duran album, 'Notorious' is a close second and it received the deluxe treatment a few weeks ago. It was rumored a few years back for its 20th anniversary, so we've - or, I've - been waiting for this one for a while. Similar to the 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' set, the audio portion of the release offers nothing in the way of previously unavailable material. It does, however, provide the CD release of the main mixes from the "Mastermixes" 12", which is nice to have. (The dubs are available digitally - more on that later.) DVD-wise, there's the period videos (DVD debut for "Meet El Presidente"), a TOTP performance of the title track (which is more fun than the 'Seven'-era performances but still not up to those around the debut) and the 'Working For The Skin Trade' concert film. A pair of group shots replace the departed Taylors on the postcards in the box - thank you for some level of consistency, even if everything doesn't match up - and you've got a very nice package for an underrated album.
There is a bit of a bright spot - and I mean a bit. The sound quality has been fixed...kind of. They're still brickwalled, but the kind folks at EMI have very nicely dropped the maximum level a few dBs so they're not as loud. Well, it's a start, though still not a worthwhile audio upgrade.
Finally, 'Big Thing' joined the group along with 'Notorious'. I can't lie - I love this record as well. It's a total mess and doesn't really accomplish what the band set out to do - to be taken more seriously, I suppose - but it's all the better for it. Also, they've restored the original version of "Drug" to the running order, however it was apparently always available as a bonus track on most previous CD editions as the Marshall Jefferson Mix. I think. The wording on exactly what they did here - included in a personal note from John Taylor on one of the sets post cards - is a bit confusing and I'm not entirely sure I got that right.
The bonus material is a bit hit and miss. The good: a new-to-us 7" and 12" mix of "Big Thing" (which, it seems, was going to be a single at one point) and a 6+ minute version of the sole original b-side for the period, the lovely "I Believe / All I Need To Know". The not so good: the tracks that aren't extended mixes of the singles are just edits of album tracks and/or terrible spoken word pieces used in the tour, and they were all in the second singles box. Not a 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger'-esque failure and, to be fair, they were merely collecting what was released at the time, but it is kind of disappointing to be reminded of these things.
The DVD once again collects the videos (DVD debut for "Do you believe in shame?", which was the wrong third single choice if ever there was one) and a new to home video live concert filmed in Milan.
On the digital side, there are once again period concerts available - fortunately, neither of them duplicate what's on the DVD this time. Even better, each contains at least one song from at least one of the side projects done Duran-style - the 'Notorious'-era show features Arcadia's "Election Day" and Power Station's "Some Like It Hot" and 'Big Thing' rolls out the latter's cover of "Bang A Gong (Get It On)". Also available this time are remix EPs to collect the mixes that didn't fit on the physical sets. The 'Notorious' EP gets an alternate mix or dub for each of the three singles as well as "American Science" and "Vertigo (Do The Demolition)", while the 'Big Thing' EP collects the dub of "I Don't Want Your Love' (why, why, WHY wasn't this called "I Don't Want Your Dub"?) and a trio of "All She Wants Is" dubs. They're both borderline overkill - OK, three dub mixes of "All She Wants Is" is totally overkill - but they're nice to have available if you want them.
(It's worth noting that Arcadia's "So Red The Rose" received a similar 2CD/1DVD reissue after the first three but before the last two - chronological correctness! - but it was packaged in a standard fat-boy case rather than a lavish box. Regardless, it collects pretty much everything you could want related to the Arcadia project - I'm not entirely sure there's anything not included but I'm sure someone could prove me wrong - and is worth tracking down as well.)
So overall, a far nicer treatment of the Duran Duran back catalog than could have been reasonably expected and - despite a few issues - a very lovingly and well-put-together set of reissues. I highly recommend all but 'Seven and the Ragged Tiger' - if you're even thinking you want them, you probably do - though can you really have that gap in the middle where it should be? (They're starting to pop up second hand, so that might be your best bet for that one.)
I don't normally say this, but please stop the campaign now. I really don't want to feel pressured into buying a 3-disc set for 'Liberty'.
As I mentioned earlier, These New Puritans have a campaign-summarizing EP coming out in November entitled 'Hidden Remixes'. They announced the track list today and it looks something like this:
A1. Introduction A2. We Want War (SBTRKT Remix) A3. Main Attrakionz 3000 B1. Hologram (Salem Remix) B2. We Want War (Ghost Hunter Remix)
Suckfest. We already bought the - admittedly excellent - SBTRKT Remix on the 'Hidden' bonus EP, though it will be nice to have a physical release of the also pretty good Ghost Hunter remix. That Salem remix appeared on RCRDLBL a few months back and is a total pile, which leaves that Main Attrakionz 3000 thing the only unknown.
Except it's not, as you can listen to it thanks you the wonders of YouTube. I warn you, it's not for the feint of heart:
Garbage. So much for saving the singles campaign at the end with an excellent catch all release. Thanks for nothing.
On a related note, two mixes of "White Chords" have shown up kind of randomly. There's the Forest Swords Remix on RCRDLBL and FACT has a Mordant Music Remix. Neither are amazing but both are perfectly listenable - and loads better than either of the non-"We Want War" mixes we're getting on the proper release.
Some free music to start the week off right. First, kind of out of nowhere Gruff Rhys made a new single available for the cost of an e-mail from his website. Entitled "Shark Ridden Waters", it sounds a bit like 'Candylion' visiting the set of a 60's beach party movie and is a vast improvement over SFA's 'Dark Days/Light Years' but still a bit underwhelming. There's supposedly an album coming early next year, but until then you can also pre-order the 12" directly from him - though no mention of a track list yet. I'm curious to see how this surprise develops.
Also seemingly out of nowhere, A Sunny Day In Glasgow have made their third full-length album, entitled 'Autumn, Again', available for a free download. You can also donate money towards the cause via a Paypal link and/or order an LP version.
The Sound of Arrows just posted this picture to their Twitter. While it in no way guarantees that we will actually be getting an album during the 2011 calendar year, it does show that one exists and increases the possibility of it coming some time in the near future. If it all goes tits up - which is still has the possibility of doing, lets be honest - there's something to search for.
