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: U2
RELEASE: “U2 360° at the Rose Bowl”
BACKSTORY: American U2 fans disappointed that this summer’s 360° Tour leg has been postponed until 2011 can pick up this new live DVD/Blu-ray set beginning Thursday. Available in several configurations — with a super-deluxe edition due June 22 — the set captures most of the band’s massive Rose Bowl concert last fall, with extras that include, depending on the edition, backstage footage, a behind-the-scenes documentary, several music videos and a bonus track of “Breathe,” the concert’s opening number, which isn’t on the main DVD.
BUY IT: “U2 360° at the Rose Bowl” via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Andy Bell
RELEASE: “Call On Me”
BACKSTORY: The Erasure singer this week releases the first single off his new solo album, Non-Stop, which follows on June 8. The CD single features the original album version of “Call On Me,” plus four remixes of the track, including one by Bell’s bandmate Vince Clarke. The disc also includes the non-album B-side “Had It All.”
BUY IT: “Call On Me” via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Television Personalities
RELEASE: A Memory Is Better Than Nothing
BACKSTORY: Dan Treacy’s long-running and highly influential C86-era U.K. indie-pop act returns this week with its latest album, a 13-track effort that features lead-off single “She’s My Yoko,” plus tracks such as “People Think We’re Strange,” “The Girl in the Hand Me Down Clothes,” “Come Back to Bed” and “Walk Toward the Light.”
BUY IT: A Memory Is Better Than Nothing via Amazon.com
ARTIST: King
RELEASE: Steps in Time
BACKSTORY: The 1984 debut from the short-lived British New Wave act — which still managed to land five U.K. Top 40 hits, including the No. 2 single “Love & Pride” — is reissued in a new remastered edition this week, filled out with seven bonus cuts, including remixes of “Love & Pride,” “Won’t You Hold My Hand Now.”
BUY IT: Steps in Time via Amazon.com
U2 = most boring band ever. They have such a vast catalog, yet crank out the same pre-formatted greatest hits setlist night after night. Maybe Bono’s back died of boredom.