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: Bad Religion
RELEASE: 30th Anniversary Box Set
BACKSTORY: The long-running Southern California punk legends this week mark their 30th anniversary with a hefty and handsome box set from Epitaph Records featuring all 15 of their studio albums — from 1982’s How Could Hell Be Any Worse? to this year’s The Dissent of Man — pressed on red 180-gram audiophile vinyl.
BUY IT: 30th Anniversary Box Set via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Sonic Youth
RELEASE: Sister
BACKSTORY: The New York noise-rock lifers continue their series of audiophile vinyl reissues with their 1987 album, available this week through Original Recordings Group on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl — in black and a limited-edition purple marble pressing. The band’s 1985 album Bad Moon Rising will follow next, later in January.
BUY IT: Sister via Amazon.com
ARTIST: The Chameleons
RELEASE: Acoustic Sessions
BACKSTORY: The beloved post-punk act this week reissues, in the U.K., 2000’s Strip and 2002’s This Never Ending Now — a pair of albums that found the reunited band re-recording acoustic versions of past songs — as a single 2CD set, expanded by the inclusion of four bonus tracks recorded live in the studio at Seattle’s KEXP radio station.
BUY IT: Acoustic Sessions via Amazon.co.uk
ARTIST: Holly Johnson
RELEASE: Blast
BACKSTORY: The Frankie Goes to Hollywood frontman’s 1989 solo debut is reissued this week in the U.K. as an expanded 2CD/1DVD set, with the remastered album and a bonus disc featuring remixes, B-sides and rarities — including the entire 1990 Hollelujah remix album. The DVD includes all of the album’s music videos.
BUY IT: Blast via Amazon.co.uk
