Some of my all-time favorite albums have been given some pretty incredible treatment this year, and it’s hardly halfway over!
The Replacements began getting the reissue treatment on their early albums this year. Let It Be, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash, Stink and Hootenanny have all been remastered and sound great. A very clear improvement over the originals, and each one comes with a slew of bonus tracks that are worth checking out. As if I needed more reasons to constantly listen to Let It Be. I really hope they continue with this remasters, I would love to see Tim get this treatment.
I just made a thread about it, but Liz Phair’s Exile In Guyville was just remastered and comes with a few bonus tracks and a DVD. It’s one of the greatest albums of the 90’s and I’m glad to see it’s back on shelves.
Everyone in the world should grab the reissue of Dennis Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue. On top of being one of those “great forgotten album” rock and roll stories, this is seriously better than any solo work by any Wilson brother (hell, if you ask me it’s better than most of the Beach Boys catalogue). The first disc is Pacific Ocean Blue, and the second disc is the previously unavailable second Dennis Wilson album, Bambu. It’s a pretty incredible set, I couldn’t recommend it more strongly to anyone who digs pop music, or is alive. You can buy it for your mom or your snobby pop music historian friend, and they’ll both be thrilled!
My favorite reissue of the year so far, though, has been the deluxe edition of The La’s self-titled album. The first disc is the catchy and wonderful britpop album from one of pop music’s hardest perfectionists, but the second disc is where this reissue truly shines. The album is famous for its story of being recorded several times with several different producers, finally released using takes from what the band considered to be the weakest recording session with Steve Lilywhite. I’ve always loved the album, so I figured it was just the band being snobby (Lee Mavers could give Morrissey a run for his money), but listening to the second disc blew me away. It’s made up of tracks from recording sessions with other producers, mostly the sessions with Mike Hedges, which Mavers claims are the sessions that came closest to the sound he was going for. I can’t even listen to the “original” release anymore, this second disc is mindblowingly good. Every melody stands on its own nomatter which production decisions are made, and it just goes to show how solid Mavers’ songwriting is. It gave my love and appreciation for the album a completely new perspective, and isn’t that really what reissues are about? (Besides getting you to buy the same album twice)
On top of all this? My Bloody Valentine is supposed to be releasing a box set this year. Inside of this magic box will be Isn’t Anything and Loveless remastered by Kevin Shields himself, as well as a bunch of early EPs.
I’m sure there are a bunch of reissues I’m forgetting here, so please remind me. But damn, already, what a year! How can one even be expected to listen to the new stuff that’s coming out when we keep getting these awesome new reissues?