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 : Gary Numan
RELEASE: Dead Son Rising
BACKSTORY: The synth pioneer this week releases a new album featuring “a mixture of new songs, instrumental tracks and specially commissioned remixes” that he will sell exclusively through his website. Standard and deluxe CD versions are out this week, but a super-deluxe vinyl/CD/DVD set has been delayed a week. (See tracklist here.)
BUY: Numan.co.uk (CD)
ARTIST : Various
RELEASE: “1991: The Year Punk Broke”
BACKSTORY: The concert film that chronicled Sonic Youth’s 1991 tour of Europe with opening act Nirvana finally is released on DVD for the first time this week. The much-anticipated film — directed by Dave Markey — also features footage of Dinosaur Jr, Ramones, Babes in Toyland and Gumball, and will come with more than an hour of bonus features, including the unreleased featurette “(This is Known As) The Blues Scale,” plus previously unreleased Sonic Youth and Nirvana performances of the songs “Inhuman,” “White Kross,” “Orange Rolls/Angel’s Spit,” “Eric’s Trip,” “Chapel Hill” and “In Bloom.”
BUY: Amazon.com (DVD)
ARTIST : Art of Noise
RELEASE: Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise
BACKSTORY: ZTT this week issues a CD/DVD expanded reissue of the synth group’s 1984 debut, featuring the original album supplemented by live BBC sessions plus a DVD featuring music videos, TV commercials and live performances.
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
ARTIST : Blondie
RELEASE: Panic of Girls
BACKSTORY: The New Wave legends — anchored by original members Debbie Harry, Chris Stein and Clem Burke — this week release their long-in-the-works ninth studio album in the U.S. as an Amazon.com exclusive, several months after it came out in the U.K. The album was preceded by first single “Mother” (see tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, MP3)
ARTIST : The Raincoats
RELEASE: Odyshape
BACKSTORY: We Three Records this week reissues the U.K. post-punk act’s second album, originally released in 1981, on both CD and 180-gram audiophile vinyl. The album, with new liner notes by Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, features the songs “Shouting Out Loud,” “Only Loved at Night” and “Dancing in My Head.”
BUY: Amazon.com (CD, vinyl)
ARTIST : The Human League
RELEASE: Credo
BACKSTORY: The first album in a decade form the synthpop vets — leader Philip Oakey and singers Joanne Catherall and Susan Ann Sulley — receives a belated U.S. release this week. The 11-track disc is the band’s first effort since 2001’s Secrets (see full tracklist here).
BUY: Amazon.com (CD)
