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 : Swans
RELEASE: The Seer
BACKSTORY: Michael Gira and Co. return this week with their second post-reunion effort, a sprawling double-disc set that features three songs longer than 19 minutes, including one that exceeds a half-hour. Akron/Family, Low’s Alan Sparhawk and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O guest on the album, which Gira says is 30 years in the making.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, vinyl, digital)
ARTIST : Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
RELEASE: Lawless: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
BACKSTORY: The head Bad Seed and his bandmate this week release the soundtrack to the Prohibition-era film “Lawless” that combines songs written for the movie and an unlikely collection of covers of songs by the likes of the Velvet Underground and Grandaddy, with vocal help from Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, Mark Lanegan and Willie Nelson.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Juliana Hatfield
RELEASE: Juliana Hatfield
BACKSTORY: The former Blake Babies member and occasional Lemonheads member this week releases a new 12-track collection covers by the likes of Foo Fighters (“Learn to Fly”), Teenage Fanclub (“Cells”), Credence Clearwater Revival (“Bad Moon Rising”), Ryan Adams (“Do I Wait”), Liz Phair (“Friend of Mine”) and more.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
ARTIST : This Mortal Coil
RELEASE: It’ll End in Tears, Filigree & Shadow, Blood
BACKSTORY: The newly remastered editions of the three studio albums by Ivo Watts-Russell’s 4AD collective — originally released in 1984, 1986 and 1991 — that were compiled in last year’s discography-spanning box set are reissued this week in the U.K. as individual releases, each housed in Japanese-style CD sleeves.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (It’ll End in Tears, Filigree & Shadow, Blood)
ARTIST : Various Artists
RELEASE: Electrospective: The Remix Album
BACKSTORY: Part of EMI’s ongoing electronic-music celebration, this two-disc collection, out this week in the U.K., “charts the development of the remix from extended version to full re-construction,” with tracks by such notables as Depeche Mode, OMD, Heaven 17, Yazoo, Talk Talk, Malcolm McLaren, Erasure, Simple Minds and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : The Distractions
RELEASE: The End of the Pier
BACKSTORY: The reunited Manchester punk/New Wave act — featuring original members Mike Finney and Steve Perrin — this week releases, in the U.K., its second album, a full 22 years after debut Nobody’s Perfect. The new album features such tracks as “I Don’t Have Time,” “Wise,” “Girl of the Year” and “Boots.”
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
The Roxy Music box drops in the U.S. on Tuesday, too!
I like the typo in “The Seer” post. It’s like a Gira lyric. ;)
Oops.