Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, reissues and/or box sets.
ARTIST: Frankie Goes to Hollywood
RELEASE: Welcome to the Pleasuredome
BACKSTORY: The “25th anniversary” edition of FGTH’s smash-hit debut — which actually was released in 1984 — arrives this week with a bonus disc featuring 13 extra tracks, including rough takes of some of the album’s hits, remixes previously unavailable on CD and a demo of the previously unreleased song “Watusi Love Juicy.”
BUY IT: Welcome to the Pleasuredome via Amazon.com
ARTIST: The Plimsouls
RELEASE: Live: Beg, Borrow & Steal: October 31, 1981, Whiskey A Go Go
BACKSTORY: This previously unreleased live album from the Southern California rockers features 18 songs — including “A Million Miles Away,” “Come On Now” and “I Want You Back” — recorded at the famed Sunset Strip dive.
BUY IT: Live: Beg, Borrow & Steal: October 31, 1981, Whiskey A Go Go via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Buggles
RELEASE: Adventures in Modern Recording
BACKSTORY: The 1982 sophomore album — and so-called “lost classic” — from Trevor Horn and Co. is reissued this week in expanded and remastered form, featuring the original nine tracks plus eight bonus cuts that include B-sides, remixes and previously unreleased demos of “Videotheque” and “We Can Fly From Here,” which Horn wrote for Yes.
BUY IT: Adventures in Modern Recording via Amazon.com
See new releases from Madness, Julian Cope and A Certain Ratio after the jump…
ARTIST: Madness
RELEASES: Absolutely,
BACKSTORY: The second and third albums — released in 1980 and 1981 — from the classic Brit pop-ska act receive double-disc reissues this week, with each album accompanied by a bonus disc stuffed with B-sides, BBC sessions, videos and other extras, plus new expanded booklets with lyrics, photos and fresh liner notes.
BUY IT: Absolutely,
ARTIST: Julian Cope
RELEASE: Peggy Suicide: Deluxe Edition
BACKSTORY: The 1991 solo album — and fifth overall — from the former leader of The Teardrop Explodes receives the double-disc Deluxe Edition treatment, with the original record remastered and backed by a bonus disc featuring 11 bonus tracks, plus new liner notes in which Cope explain the meaning of each song.
BUY IT: Peggy Suicide: Deluxe Edition via Amazon.com
ARTIST: A Certain Ratio
RELEASE: Force
BACKSTORY: The 1986 album from Manchester-bred Factory Records post-punk act — the band’s fifth release overall — is reissued this week in a new single-disc remastered edition with five bonus tracks, including B-sides, a rare remix of “Bootsy” by Robert Racic and “The Runner,” off a limited-edition Italian EP.
BUY IT: Force via Amazon.com
