Record Rack: A round-up of the week’s new albums, expanded reissues and/or box sets, appearing each Monday on Slicing Up Eyeballs. All releases due out this Friday unless noted.
Depeche Mode
RELEASE: Speak & Spell: The 12″ Singles, A Broken Frame: The 12″ Singles
BACKSTORY: Depeche Mode this week begins a new series of box sets collecting audiophile-quality vinyl 12-inches of the singles released off of each of the group’s records, starting with the band’s first two LPs.
BUY: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Pet Shop Boys
RELEASE: Behaviour, Very, Bilingual
BACKSTORY: The Pet Shop Boys this week reissue their fourth, fifth and sixth albums in expanded “Further Listening” editions with a hefty array of bonus material, including remixes, live tracks and demos.
BUY: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Morrissey
RELEASE: This is Morrissey
BACKSTORY: The former Smiths frontman’s latest best-of collection, a 13-track set released on CD last month, arrives on vinyl this week. Includes “Ouija Board, Ouija Board,” “Jack the Ripper,” “Speedway” and more.
BUY: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- This week’s new releases: James returns with 15th album ‘Living in Extraordinary Times’
- This week’s new releases: ‘C89’ box set, U2, Thomas Dolby, Art of Noise, The Colourfield
- This week’s new releases: Public Image Ltd. box set, Soul Asylum expanded reissue
- This week’s new releases: Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey, Kim Gordon’s Body/Head
I wish those Depeche Mode sets were on CD and a bit cheaper.
You and me both! They look very nice, though
Comprehensive CD box sets were released in the 90s and early 00s, and all of the CDs are available individually. Check Discogs or eBay.
This is true, but the mastering of the first three boxes was to a different level than the last three. Also, the sets end at Exciter. if they remastered the past sets and continued the series, I’d be all in! Also, I think it’s time for a new singles collection. I was sure we’d see one after Playing the Angel. Ah well.
I have been looking for the CD box sets as well. The other added bonus is they would compile songs from a all of the singles and add them all to one CD, so you don’t have to buy two or three singles to have all the versions. I am really hoping we see box set CD releases in the future!
I recall iTunes had a massive collection broken up into a few parts back in the mid-00’s.
If Depeche Mode did another singles collection it would be the worst of the three – with the exception of Dream On, Precious and Wrong (none of which hold a candle to the 81-98 period) they’re singles have been awful. Tracks like I Feel Loved, Martyr, Hold to Feed and Sooth My Soul are not worthy of inclusion on a retrospective collection.
I’m still a fan but Spirit was a very dreary affair and sometimes I wish they had split after Exciter, which was their last interesting album.
They are so predictable now too, as the upcoming live DVD was shot, yet again, in Berlin. Wow, way to shake things up lads…
To be honest, he’s never been the same since overdosing on heroin and coming back to music. Their music had never been the same…. Since Ultra.
Sorry for my poor spelling, Hole To Feed and Soothe My Soul ; )
I’d also like to add that I think Erasure have done a better job of maintaining their legacy over the last 15 years or so. Like Depeche Mode their heyday is long gone but at least they continue to make very uplifting music and concentrate purely on making the best records they can rather than just writing a bunch of songs every four years as an excuse to go on tour.
Anyway, peace to all of you.
After Ultra, I do like parts of Playing the Angel and Exciter and that is about it. The Only When I Lose Myself EP was quite good, too.
Although it is cool that they continue to release records, the last three have been pretty week.
In a crowded range of mediocre Morrissey compilations, ‘This Is Morrissey’ certainly plumbs new depths of pointlessness.
Awful, just awful.
I’m only interested in the Pet Shop Boys reissues. They had already been released in 2002, but I didn’t buy Bilingual because it didn’t include unreleased tracks. Now I’ll buy it just to complete my collection.