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: R.E.M.
RELEASE: Collapse Into Now
BACKSTORY: The band that so famously crawled from the South returns this week with hits much-hyped, heavily-teased 15th studio album, a 12-track follow-up to 2008’s Accelerate that features guest turns by the likes of Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Peaches. It’s preceded, in the U.S., by single “Mine Smell Like Honey.” (See full tracklist here).
BUY IT: Collapse Into Now via Amazon.com
ARTIST: The Primitives
RELEASE: Never Kill a Secret
BACKSTORY: The reunited C86-era indie-pop outfit — Tracy Tracy, Paul Court and Tig Williams, with Raph Moore filling in for the late Steve Dullaghan — this week issues its first new music in 20 years in the form of a four-track digital EP, which also is expected to be released on 7-inch vinyl as well, but not CD (see details here).
BUY IT: Never Kill a Secret via Amazon.com
ARTIST: Blancmange
RELEASE: Blanc Burn
BACKSTORY: The long-dormant British synthpop of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe return this week, in the U.S., with their fist new album in more than 25 years. The 11-track follow-up to 1985’s Believe You Me was preceded by the single “Drive Me.” (See full tracklist here).
BUY IT: Blanc Burn via Amazon.co.uk
More new releases from The Mission, KMFDM and Exene Cervenka after the jump…
ARTIST: KMFDM
RELEASE: “Krank”
BACKSTORY: The long-running German industrial act returns this week with a new five-track CD single, featuring three mixes of a track called “Krank” and two mixes of the song “Day of Light.” Both are new tracks and neither is expected to be included on the band’s new album, due later this year. The band also has made its first video in nine years.
BUY IT: “Krank” via Amazon.com
ARTIST: The Mission
RELEASES: Neverland, Blue
BACKSTORY: Two mid-period albums by the goth-rock icons are reissued in the U.K. this week, expanded to include B-sides, remixes and covers of John Lennon’s “Instant Karma” and “Pictures of Matchstick Men” by Status Quo. Neverland is a 2CD set with 13 bonus tracks, while Blue features just two bonus tracks a single disc (see full tracklists here).
BUY IT: Neverland, Blue via Amazon.co.uk
ARTIST: Exene Cervenka
RELEASE: The Excitement of Maybe
BACKSTORY: The X co-founder and co-lead vocalist returns this week with her first solo album in two years, a 12-track collection that’s being billed as bringing together “the potential and innocence of young love, the gravity of departure, and the symbolic changing of seasons.” Longtime associate Dave Alvin guests on guitar.
BUY IT: The Excitement of Maybe via Amazon.com
