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: Joy Division
RELEASE: +-: Singles 1978-80
BACKSTORY: The U.K. arm of Rhino Records this week celebrates the life and music of iconic frontman Ian Curtis — who took his own life 30 years ago this past May — with a new limited-edition box set collecting 10 newly remastered 7-inch singles, including some created just for this set, by the classic postpunk act. (See tracklist here.)
BUY IT: +-: Singles 1978-80 via Amazon.co.uk
ARTIST: The Cure
RELEASE: Entreat Plus
BACKSTORY: The expanded live album included in the 3CD Disintegration reissue is released in Europe this week by Universal Music as a limited-edition, marble-vinyl 2LP set (a black-vinyl U.S. version is due Jan. 11). Warning: Customers from North America can’t buy from this site. (See video here.)
BUY IT: Entreat Plus via Universal Music
ARTIST: Dead Can Dance
RELEASE: Box Set I
BACKSTORY: This 4LP box set, out this week, features the 4AD band’s already-reissued first two albums — Dead Can Dance (1984) and Spleen and Ideal (1986) — and the four-song Garden of the Arcane Delights EP (1984), plus a brand-new release: the four-track John Peel Session 19.11.83 (See tracklist here).
BUY IT: Box Set I via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Freebass
RELEASE: It’s a Beautiful Life
BACKSTORY: This week’s belated U.S. release of the debut from defunct bass supergroup (Peter Hook, Gary “Mani” Mounfield and Andy Rourke) — released digitally last spring and on CD in the U.K. in September — comes with a 13-track bonus disc featuring instrumental versions and remixes. (Enter to win a copy here.)
BUY IT: It’s a Beautiful Life via Amazon.com
See more new releases from Einstürzende Neubauten and Ministry after the jump…
ARTIST: Einstürzende Neubauten
RELEASE: Strategies Against Architecture IV
BACKSTORY: The pioneering German avante-garde industrial act — which just canceled its 30th anniversary tour of North America — this week releases, in the U.S. (it came out in the U.K. last month), the fourth in its ongoing series of retrospective compilations, this time collecting 26 songs over two CDs spanning the years 2002 to 2010.
BUY IT: Strategies Against Architecture IV via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Ministry and Co-Conspirators
RELEASE: Undercover
BACKSTORY: Al Jourgensen this week releases in the U.S. (it came out in the U.K. in October) a new compilation that combines a mix of the industrial giant’s best-loved hits and new cover versions of songs by the likes of AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix and Amy Winehouse. It’s nearly identical to the recent Everyday is Halloween compilation.
BUY IT: Undercover via Amazon.com
