New releases: The Fixx, Soul Asylum, Black Francis, Susanna Hoffs, Peter Gabriel

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 : The Fixx
RELEASE: Beautiful Friction
BACKSTORY: The New Wave rockers return this week with their first album in nearly a decade and the first featuring the group’s classic mid-’80s lineup — singer Cy Curnin, keyboard player Rupert Greenall, guitarist Jamie West-Oram, drummer Adam Woods and bassist Dan K. Brown — since 1991′s Ink (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)

ARTIST : Soul Asylum
RELEASE: Delayed Reaction
BACKSTORY: The Twin/Tone vets return this week with their first album in six years and first since the death of bassist Karl Mueller, whose spot is filled by ex-Replacements and current Guns ‘N Roses bassist Tommy Stinson. The album features songs such as “Into the Light, “Gravity” and “Let’s All Kill Each Other.”
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital, vinyl)

ARTIST : Susanna Hoffs
RELEASE: Someday
BACKSTORY: The Bangles member this week releases her third solo album and first in 16 years, which is being billed as an “intensely personal song cycle that doubles as a musical love letter to the music of the 1960s.” The album was produced and “orchestrated” by famed producer Mitchell Froom.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)

ARTIST : Black Francis
RELEASE: Live In Nijmegen
BACKSTORY: The Pixies frontman returns this week with a new 24-track live album that focuses on material from 2007’s Bluefinger and 2008’s Svn Fngrs, including such track as “Can’t Break a Heart and Have It,” “Angles Come To Comfort You,” “Your Mouth Into Mine” and “All Around the World.”
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)

ARTIST : Peter Gabriel
RELEASE: “Secret World Live”
BACKSTORY: The former Genesis frontman this week releases, in the U.K. (the U.S. release comes next week), a newly restored, HD version of his Grammy-winning 1994 concert film — filmed over two nights in November 1993 in Modena, Italy, during the tour for 1993′s Us — on both DVD and Blu-ray (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (DVD. Blu-ray)

ARTIST : Blancmange
RELEASE: The Very Best Of
BACKSTORY: The classic synthpop duo this week releases, in the U.K., a new two-disc, 34-track greatest-hits set, featuring album cuts, singles, Peel sessions, remixes and more, including “Living on the Ceiling,” “Lose Your Love,” “I’ve Seen the World, “I Can’t Explain” “Don’t You Love It All” and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)

ARTIST : Stan Ridgway
RELEASE: Mosquitos… Expanded
BACKSTORY: The long-out-of-print 1989 solo album from the former Wall of Voodoo leader is reissued this week in the U.K. with four bonus tracks, including live versions of “Can’t Stop the Show” and “Drive, She Said.” The set also includes “Goin’ Southbound” and the singles “Lonely Town” and “Calling Out to Carol.”
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)