Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs.
Prefab Sprout
RELEASE: Crimson/Red
BACKSTORY: The reclusive Paddy McAloon returns this week, in the U.K., with a brand-new 10-song album, his first since 2009 release of Let’s Change the World With Music, a collection that actually had been mostly recorded in the early ’90s as an aborted follow-up to Jordan: The Comeback.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Lee Ranaldo and The Dust
RELEASE: Last Night on Earth
BACKSTORY: The former Sonic Youth guitarist returns this week with his second album since that band seemingly, if not officially, split up. The new record is the first to feature his new band name, and includes Alan Licht on guitar, Tim Luntzel on bass and fellow former SY-er Steve Shelley on drums.
BUY: Amazon.com
Steve Nieve
RELEASE: ToGetHer
BACKSTORY: The original keyboardist for Elvis Costello & The Attractions this week releases a duets album that features the vocals of Costello, Sting, Vanessa Paradis, Laurie Anderson, Ron Sexsmith and more on a collection of 16 originally penned songs.
BUY: Amazon.com
The Stranglers
RELEASE: Skin Deep: The Collection
BACKSTORY: Music Club Deluxe this week releases, in the U.K., a new two-disc, 29-song best-of set for The Stranglers, featuring “Golden Brown,” “Always the Sun,” “Midnight Summer Dream,” “No Mercy,” “Shakin’ Like a Leaf,” “Here and There,” “Since You Went Away,” “Skin Deep” and more.
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Madness
RELEASE: Take It Or Leave It
BACKSTORY: The nutty ska-pop act this week releases, in the U.K., a new two-disc package featuring a digitally restored version of its 1981 docuementary film and the 26-track soundtrack CD, which “provides an interesting perspective on the band’s early work.”
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Pop Will Eat Itself
RELEASE: Dos Dedos Mis Amigos
BACKSTORY: PWEI this week reissues its industrial-flavored 1994 album in an expanded set featuring remixes and alternate versions, plus a second disc featuring A Lick of the Old Cassette Box, an unreleased 12-track album recorded by the band in 1996 but ultiamtely abandoned (until now).
BUY: Amazon.co.uk
Propaganda
RELEASE: The Best of Propaganda
BACKSTORY: The German synthpop group is anthologized with a new 2CD best-of, featuring 24 songs that include “Duel,” “Dr. Mabuse,” “P-Machinery,” “Dream Within a Dream,” “The Murder of Love,” “Sorry for Laughing” and more. It also comes with a fold-out poster.
BUY: Amazon.com
