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 : BoDeans
RELEASE: Indigo Dreams
BACKSTORY: The Wisconsin-bred root-rockers who graduated from the ’80s college-rock scene to more mainstream success — most notably when “Closer to Free” was used as the theme song to the hit TV series “Party of Five” — return this week with their 10th studio album, featuring tracks such as “Blowin’ My Mind” and “Paved in Gold.”
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital), iTunes (digital)
ARTIST : The Wedding Present
RELEASE: “Drive”
BACKSTORY: David Gedge and Co’s 2005 tour of North America in support of that year’s Take Fountain album — which featured the band’s first performances here in eight years — is the subject of a new 139-minute concert film that will be released on DVD in the U.S. this week and in the U.K. later this year (see full tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (DVD)
ARTIST : Dead Can Dance
RELEASE: Aion
BACKSTORY: Recently released as part of Box Set II, the hard-to-classify 4AD band’s 1990 album this week gets an individual release on audiophile vinyl by reissue specialists Vinyl 180. The album features such songs as “The Song of the Sibyl,” “Fortune Presents Gifts Not According to the Book” and “As the Bell Rings the Maypole Spins.”
BUY: Amazon.com (Vinyl)
ARTIST : The Housemartins
RELEASE: Happy Hour: The Collection
BACKSTORY: Although they only issued two studio albums during their mid-’80s career, the UK’s self-proclaimed “fourth best band in Hull” this week will be anthologized in the U.K. with at least their fourth best-of album, although it’s not quite clear whether the new set features any previously unreleased material (see full tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : Christian Death
RELEASE: Only Theatre of Pain
BACKSTORY: The classic 1982 debut from the goth-leaning death-rock act receives a reissue this week with Rozz Williams’ original hand-drawn art and calligraphy, and additional period photo, “all set against a parchment-like background.” The original album is expanded with cuts from the1981 Deathwish EP as bonus tracks.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, vinyl)
