This week’s new releases include ‘The Seer,’ a new 2CD set from Swans, plus a soundtrack to the film ‘Lawless’ by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, a covers album from Juliana Hatfield, CD reissues of the This Mortal Coil catalog, a collection of synthpop remixes and the first new album in 22 years from Manchester’s The Distractions.

Welcome to the Week in Rock, where we round up all of the headlines posted on this site over the past week. This edition includes items about Midnight Oil, The Stone Roses, John Lydon, This Mortal Coil, The Specials, Pet Shop Boys, World Party, Mission of Burma, The Smiths and more — plus the latest Auto Reverse mixtape.

In August 2010, Beggars Archive announced a series of This Mortal Coil reissues, including a CD box set, new vinyl editions of the collective’s three albums and a Blu-ray disc that was to feature all three records in high-def stereo. Nearly two years later, the box set and vinyl reissues are out, but not the Blu-ray.

As 2011 quickly winds to an end, we’re happy to roll out the first of four days’ worth of results from our second-annual Slicing Up Eyeballs Readers Poll, in which nearly 500 of you cast ballots for your favorite new, reissued and freshly compiled music of the year. First up: Your Top 10 compilations, box sets and/or live albums.

Our round-up of the past week’s highlights on Slicing Up Eyeballs includes posts about Duran Duran, Big Country, Peter Gabriel, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo, Pet Shop Boys, R.E.M. and Brian Eno, Morrissey, Killing Joke and The Stone Roses — plus our free November mixtape.

This week’s new releases include a new HD, career-spanning box set from This Mortal Coil, plus new albums from The Mission’s Wayne Hussey and former Ministry member Chris Connelly, plus a new Brian Eno EP.

This week’s headlines at Slicing Up Eyeballs — you know, in case you missed anything — included a lot of news about the now-defunct R.E.M., plus items on Public Image Ltd., The Jesus and Mary Chain, This Mortal Coil, Scruffy the Cat and Siouxsie and the Banshees.