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 : Depeche Mode
RELEASE: Delta Machine
BACKSTORY: The synthpop legends return this week with their first new album in four years and 13th overall, a Ben Hillier-produced, 13-track collection preceded by lead-off single “Heaven” and its follow-up “Soothe My Soul” (stream full album).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital, vinyl)
ARTIST : Wire
RELEASE: Change Becomes Us
BACKSTORY: The U.K. post-punk survivors this week release their fourth post-reunion album and 13th overall, a 13-track collection that “began as an exploration of unrecorded material originally written in 1979-80,” according to the band (see full tracklist).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)
ARTIST : The House of Love
RELEASE: She Paints Words in Red
BACKSTORY: The reunited Creation Records standouts this week release, in the U.K., their fifth record overall and second since reuniting in 2005, a 12-track album preceded by lead-off single “A Baby Got Back On Its Feet.” The album arrives in the U.S. on April 6 (stream first single).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Edwyn Collins
RELEASE: Understated
BACKSTORY: The former Orange Juice frontman returns this week with his follow-up to 2010’s Losing Sleep, an 11-track set out in the U.K. in full formats but released in the U.S. as a digital-only set. The album was preceded by the first single “Too Bad (That’s Sad)” (stream full album).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD, digital, vinyl), Amazon.com (Digital)
ARTIST : Crime & The City Solution
RELEASE: American Twilight
BACKSTORY: Australian Simon Bonney’s art-rock group — which, during the ’80s, included members of The Birthday Party, Swell Maps and Einstürzende Neubauten — this week releases its first new studio album since 1990′s Paradise Discotheque (stream full album).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, vinyl, digital)
ARTIST : The Wonder Stuff
RELEASE: Oh No It’s… The Wonder Stuff
BACKSTORY: Miles Hunt and Co. return this week, in the U.K., with their seventh studio album and first in seven years, an 11-track set of original songs paired with a CD featuring 10 covers of songs by the likes of The Primitives, Duran Duran, Pop Will Eat Itself, UB40 and Dexy’s Midnight Runners.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : The Waterboys
RELEASE: An Appointment with Mr Yeats
BACKSTORY: The first new studio album from Mike Scott and Co. since 2007 gets a belated U.S. release this week (it was out in the U.K. in 2011). The 14-track set features songs Scott created from the lyrics of Irish poet W.B. Yeats for the stage show of the same name (full tracklist and samples here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, digital)
ARTIST : Simple Minds
RELEASE: Celebrate — The Greatest Hits+
BACKSTORY: The British band this week releases, in the U.K., a new career-spanning best-of that arrives in both a 2CD, 36-song format as well as a 3CD, 50-song edition with each version featuring a pair of new songs: “Broken Glass Park” and “Blood Diamonds” (see full tracklist).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (2CD, 3CD, digital)
ARTIST : The Primitives
RELEASE: Everything’s Shining Bright: The Lazy Recordings 1985-1987
BACKSTORY: The reunited C86-era jangle-pop outfit this week releases, in the U.K., a two-disc, 40-track set collecting the band’s early singles, a handful of demos, a 1987 live set and a “lost” album comprised of an aborted early session for the band’s 1988 debut Lovely (see full tracklist).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : Midge Ure
RELEASE: The Works
BACKSTORY: The Ultravox frontman this week releases, in the U.K., a new 2CD, 32-track best of that features album cuts, singles, live tracks and mixes, including “If I Was,” two versions of “Dear God” and a live version of Visage’s hit “Fade to Grey” (see full tracklist).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : Transvision Vamp
RELEASE: Pop Art, Velveteen
BACKSTORY: The first two albums by the British alt-rockers — Pop Art and Velveteen, originally released in 1988 and 1989, respectively — this week receive, in the U.K., expanded 2CD reissues, with the original albums paired with bonus B-sides, radio sessions, demos and live cuts.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk (Pop Art, Velveteen)
