“Blur Present The Special Collectors Edition” will be released on vinyl for the first time ever. Originally released in 1994, as a Japan-only CD, The Special Collectors Edition is a 2LP set pressed on colored vinyl, featuring a collection of B-sides from singles across the band’s first three studio albums – “Leisure”, “Modern Life Is Rubbish“, and “Parklife“.
This b-sides collection was originally only available on CD in Japan ca. 1994 and, much like the remix comp “Bustin’ + Dronin’ that was reissued on wax last year, it was ripe for a wider release for RSD. And much like the Pogues record discussed in this column, this set unlocks the secret greatness of Blur that was hidden away on their many singles.
Plenty of material on this double LP set, like “Inertia,” “Hanging Over,” “Got Yer” and “Luminous” could have easily made the cut of the albums that the quartet were making at the time. I also have to commend Parlophone for how they presented this re-release. They lovingly recreate the silly booklet offering up very British collectibles like a porcelain Henry VII figurine and pressed the music on gorgeous translucent blue vinyl — a colour worthy of the sky or Walter White’s meth.
One of Blur’s choicest rarities, “Blur Present The Special Collectors Edition” was originally released on CD in Japan only, in 1994. Consisting of the B-sides from the Britpop heroes’ singles , it features fan favourites such as “Badgeman Brown and When The Cows Come Home”, and concludes with an a cappella version of “Bank Holiday“, performed in tribute by the band’s fans at Narita Airport in Tokyo. It finally makes its vinyl debut for Record Store Day 2023, in a two-disc edition on blue wax.
Tony Dekker’s music spans nearly two decades as the lead singer and songwriter of Great Lake Swimmers. Over eight albums, multiple EPs, live broadcasts and reissues, the Toronto-based group has established itself as a beloved indie folk act in their native Canada and beyond. Great Lake Swimmers has been shortlisted for the Polaris Prize and nominated twice for the Juno Awards.
The songs that open “Uncertain Country”, the title track and “When The Storm Has Passed”, were recorded at the Oddfellows Temple Hall in St. Catharines, Ontario in September 2020. These jubilant sessions, following five months of unease, were a much-needed release for Dekker and his band. Both songs capture the album’s themes of the elasticity of time and processing change.
These are Demos that ended up as finished tracks. New beginnings, rear-view reflections, and ruminations on the fluidity of time: Great Lake Swimmers’ Uncertain Country captures these feelings — and so much more.
This celebration, 11-songs long, follows a prolonged period of collective anxiety. Though recorded in different locales — and with a variety of musicians — a theme of questioning runs throughout. Even before the world turned upside down, singer-songwriter Tony Dekker felt mired in uncertainty: From the climate crisis and the ever-changing political landscape to deep shifts within the music industry. The “uncertain country” Dekker chose as the album’s theme is not a specific place. Rather, it’s a territory we, as humans, inhabit in the 21st century — a world that, more often than not, is confusing, unfamiliar and unsettling.
Work harder, not smarter: classically bad advice, but when it works, it works. Country Westerns are a force, punk rock lifers playing rock music with hearted-sleeves and punched-guts. Loud and furious but with a nuance that belies their delicate and varied pedigrees.
The Nashville-based, hard-rocking Country Westerns return with their sophomore album “Forgive The City”, bringing with them a classic rock sound that is spiced with punk rock energy.
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Joseph Plunket and drummer Brian Kotzur form the core of the band with bassist Jordan Jones adding some oomph and producer Matt Sweeney (Zwan, Dax Riggs) dropping in a few lead guitar lines as well. The dozen songs presented are stout, touching on camaraderie, hardships, and the struggle to get through this thing called life.
Opening with the earnest straight-ahead rock of “Knucklen’”, Plunket sets the tone with his gruff, road-weary voice, as the band bangs forward with aggressive sounds. The group has a clear punk ethos with songs barely ever touching three minutes, as the hyper drums from Kotzur move things along winningly, such as in the upbeat “Grapefruit” which recalls The Replacements brand of highwire, midwestern rock.
The group can also slow it down with the swaying “Speaking Ill of The Blues”, the slapping laid-back groove of “Money on the Table” and “Wait For It” which pushes Plunket’s vocals front and center. Sounding like a mix of Tim Armstrong and Bob Seeger, Plunket’s harsher sound may not be for everyone, but the world-weary flow hits home; you know he’s lived it, and if he hasn’t, he sure as hell sounds like he has.
released April 28th, 2023
All songs written and performed by Country Westerns.
“Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos” brings together 146 demos from the Stax Records vaults highlighting the strength of songwriting talent at the legendary label. Including 140 tracks that have never been heard before, this collection combines both songwriter demos and in some cases, full blown arrangement into a 7-CD set.
The first three discs contain demos by the Stax songwriters that were recorded and released by Stax artists on one of the Stax family of labels (Stax, Volt, Enterprise, We Produce, Koko, Respect, etc.). The fourth disc contains demos by the Stax songwriters that were recorded and released on record labels Other than the Stax family of labels (Atlantic, Decca, Hi, Chimneyville, etc.).
The final three discs contain demos by the Stax songwriters that were never released anywhere. Including songs from legendary songwriters such as William Bell, Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, Bettye Crutcher and many more this collection includes unheard versions of some of Soul, and music’s, most well-known songs. The collection is packaged in a 7×7 boxset which includes a new essay written by Stax’s original Director of Publicity Deanie Parker and GRAMMY-winning writer Robert Gordon, archival photos and an intro by multi-GRAMMY award winning compilation producer Cheryl Pawelski.
Stax Records, now owned by Concord and distributed by Craft Recordings, was founded by Jim Stewart in 1957 in Memphis, Tennessee. It rose from a small, family-operated company to become one of the most influential soul music record labels in the world, helping create “The Memphis Sound” and launching the careers of icons such as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T.& the M.G.’s, the Staple Singers, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Bar-Kays, and dozens of other artists who helped change popular culture forever. In all, Stax placed 167 hit songs in the Top 100 in Pop and 243 hits in the Top 100 in R&B.
If you really want to know a song, to get to its essence and heart, work backward from the finished piece. Most of us never have the opportunity to hear the seed of a song, a demo that the songwriter either carefully crafted or whipped out quickly in an inspired moment. All of that changed this year when Stax and Craft Recordings dropped the now-Grammy nominated “Written In Their Soul: The Stax SongwriterDemos“. Out of the 146 tracks collected on seven CDs, 140 have never been heard before. Some were never completed past the initial demo recording and others grew into their final form. You know the 1974 Shirley Brown hit, “Woman To Woman?” It was written by songwriter Henderson Thigpen, who demoed it himself. Hearing the song, written from a woman’s perspective and demoed in Thigpen’s own voice, is a gem I would have otherwise never unearthed.
Rock Prog legends Yes have shared more new music from their upcoming twenty-third studio album, “Mirror To The Sky”, which will be released through Inside Out Music on May 19th.
“Steve [Howe] added a beautifully poignant instrumental steel part which starts the journey,” explains vocalist Jon Davison of the new single. “This section emotionally builds and crescendos into a glorious lead way for the vocals to begin telling their story. Billy composed complex and compelling musical themes which I helped to arrange, and we both composed vocals and lyrics, each of us singing our respective parts, making for a rich vocal tapestry.”
“The initial idea came from a musical sketch I’d created using the idea of our ‘connectivity’ in regards to communications in the modern age,” says bass player Billy Sherwood. “It’s very exciting to know Yes are maintaining that edge and energy we all know and love, this track is firing on all cylinders. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did creating it.”
“This is a very important album for the band,” says Steve Howe, Yes’ longest serving member, master guitarist, and producer of “Mirror to the Sky”, the bands 23rd studio album. “We kept the continuity in the approach we established on “The Quest”, but we haven’t repeated ourselves. That was the main thing. As Yes did in the seventies from one album to another, we’re growing and moving forward. In later years, Yes often got going but then didn’t do the next thing. This album is demonstrative of us growing, and building again.” For Yes, that “next thing” is a collection of high energy, intricate, lush and layered new studio songs for an album which adds to the band’s much heralded legacy, while charting a path to exciting future times ahead.
You can watch the band’s animated video for their brand new single, the nine-minute long “All Connected” below.
“Mirror To The Sky” is dedicated to the memory of Yes drummer Alan White, who died in May last year. The album will be available on several formats, all featuring artwork by long-time Yes artist & collaborator Roger Dean, including: Ltd deluxe Electric Blue 2LP+2CD+Blu-ray artbook with poster, Ltd deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray artbook, Ltd 2CD digipak, standard CD Jewel case, gatefold 2LP+LP-Booklet and Digital Album
XTC’s 1978 album “Go2” has been remastered and will be reissued on heavyweight vinyl in May, It was their second album, 1978’s “Go2,” reissued as a double vinyl set which also features the accompanying “Go+ Dub” EP, through Ape House Records on May 19th.
The new reissue, the first time the album has been available for years, will be on heavyweight 200g vinyl and has been newly cut from masters by Jason Mitchell at LOUD mastering and approved by Andy Partridge.
“After the big bang of “White Music”, the rapidly expanding jagged, black and white universe of XTC grew apace,” Partridge recalls. “Colin was writing more, even Barry was writing, before he jumped swiftly into a parallel dimension, and left to join Robert Fripp’s League of Gentlemen.
“Go 2” was the second studio album by XTC released on 6th October 1978. The album’s title was chosen in reference to the board game Go and continues the black-and-white colour scheme from first album, White Music. The “2” was added by keyboardist Barry Andrews.
Originally the Initial 15,000 copies came with a free 12-inch EP, Go+
The album’s cover was designed and implemented by Hipgnosis, an art design team based in London that specialised in creating cover art for the albums of rock musicians and bands
Featuring vocalist Roger Chapman, guitarist John ‘Charlie’ Whitney, drummer Rob Townsend, bassist, violinist John Weider and multi-instrumentalist John ‘Poli’ Palmer on vibes, keyboards and flute, ‘Anyway’ comprised a side of live recordings made at The Fairfield Hall in Croydon in July 1970 and a side of studio tracks recorded at Olympic Studios in the late summer.
Family were always a fine live act, and the performances of songs such as ‘Good News Bad News’, ‘Holding the Compass’ and ‘Strange Band’ showed the band at the peak of their powers on stage. The album’s studio tracks were equally fine, with ‘Part of the Load’, ‘Anyway’ and ‘Lives and Ladies’ being fine examples of the diversity of the band’s music.
originally released in November 1970, the album reached number seven on the UK chart and continued the Family’s run of successful albums.
Featuring an additional 16 bonus tracks drawn from singles and BBC radio sessions. The newly remastered set also includes an illustrated booklet with new essay
“I was finally able to trust myself fully,” says Indigo De Souza of making her masterful third album “All of This Will End”. Across its 11 songs, the LP is a raw and radically optimistic work that grapples with mortality, the rejuvenation that community brings, and the importance of centering yourself now. These tracks come from the most resonant moments of her life: childhood memories, collecting herself in parking lots, the ecstatic trips spent wandering Appalachian mountains and southern swamps with friends, and the times she had to stand up for herself. “All of This Will End” feels more true to me than anything ever has,” she says.
Indigo finds recent inspiration from community and stability. “Up until recently, my life felt chaotic,” she says. “Now, so much of the chaos is behind me. I have an incredible community, I love where I live, and I’m surrounded by truly incredible people who are dedicated to deep connection and joy. My music feels like it’s coming from a centered place of reflection.” Opener “Time Back” deals with the necessary forward momentum she cherishes. It’s a song about rising out of struggle, putting things in the past, and moving on where she sings over comforting synths, “I feel like I’m leaving myself behind / And I’m so tired of crying / I wanna get back up again.” The track later explodes with her voice booming over a stunning arrangement. “You can fall into dysfunction or sadness, or allow other people to hurt you and not have boundaries,” she says. “There was a time in my life when that was a lot of what I was doing. I thought this track was a sweet way to talk about coming back to yourself, to your true self.”
Alongside the all-encompassing emotions captured in the first song, the album is bookended with the heartfelt and nostalgic closer “Younger and Dumber,” which Indigo chose as the lead single.
One of the first songs she wrote for the album, the track began as a way of her speaking to her younger self. “While I was writing about the time when my music first started to take shape, it was also the worst time in my life and the most unstable I’d ever been,” she says. “I wrote this song paying homage to a younger self that didn’t know any better. I was flailing through life, trying to make something stick, and coming to terms with being on earth.” The song is her most intentional yet, where she sings, “You came to hurt me in all the right places / Made me somebody.” Though the track starts as a whisper, it slowly unfolds to something cathartic and explosive as she belts out, “And the love I feel is so very real it can take you anywhere.” With the clarity that comes with experience and healing, Indigo treats her past self with immense kindness. It’s her most stunning offering yet.
Creatively re-energized from having these songs pour out of her so quickly, Indigo and her band went to Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with producer and engineer Alex Farrar, who also worked on Any Shape You Take. “We just clicked so hard,” she says. “We had such an organic energy flow and we felt really inspired by each other.” Tracks like the pummeling “Wasting Your Time” and the muscular single “You Can Be Mean” highlight the band at their most defiant and locked-in.
With lines on the latter like, “I’d like to think you got a good heart and your dad was just an asshole growing up,” Indigo says it’s “about the last horrible guy that I let push me around.” While she lets her band loose in the arrangements, especially guitarist Dexter Webb and drummer Avery Sullivan, these songs come from her own vision. “This time, I was more true to myself and refused to allow other people’s ideas to shape what my songs sound like,” she says. “It also feels really special because Dexter was able to fully express his freaky alien guitar voicings, and played a larger role in the production.”
“All of This Will End” boasts songs that run the gamut of human emotion. There’s pain and sadness, sure, but there’s a triumphant spirit of resilience throughout. Take the single “Smog,” which is exuberant, danceable, and about the exhilaration that comes from breaking out of daily monotony. Elsewhere, she’s introspective, like in the soul-shattering “Always,” which excavates her relationship with her father. But in the single “The Water,” she transforms a childhood memory of visiting her best friend into a meditation on growing up and the fragility of relationships.
Over a programmed drum beat, she sings, “I think about what it was like / That summer when we were young and you did it with that guy in his car.” Though she’s no longer as close to that person as she was when they were kids, there’s power in reminiscing.
In many ways, “All of This Will End” has become a personal motto for Indigo. “Every day I wake up with the thought that this could be the end,” she says. “You could look at it as a sad thing, or you could look at it as a really precious thing: Today I’m alive and at some point, I will not be in this body anymore.
But for now, I can do so much with being alive.” There’s a peacefulness in acceptance throughout. As she sings on the title track, “I’m only loving only moving through and trying my best / Sometimes it’s not enough but I’m still real and I forgive.” She describes the experience of writing this song as “magic,” as if everything about it from the words and melody had felt timeless and intangible and that she was just writing it down. Like the hues of reds and oranges that her mother painted on the LP cover, “All of This Will End” marks a warmer and unmistakably audacious era for her. It’s a statement about fearlessly moving forward from the past into a gratitude-filled present, feeling it all every step of the way, and choosing to embody loving awareness.
Lucinda Williams, a celebrated singer-songwriter known for her powerful storytelling and emotional authenticity is set to release her 15th studio album titled “Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart” on June 30th. This album will follow closely after the release of her highly anticipated memoir “Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You: A Memoir” due out April 25th.
“Stories from a Rock N Roll Heart” features guest appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Margo Price, and Angel Olsen among others. This album features an all star cast of musicians as well, featuring members of Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers and The Replacements. Throughout her career, Lucinda has been honoured with numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association and induction into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame. Rolling Stone describes her as “one of America’s best songwriters.”
The album, which is set to drop on June 30, also features the new single, “New York Comeback,” which Williams has shared this week. The song features backing vocals from Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. Williams, a three-time Grammy Award winner, turned 70 earlier this year. Williams has been going through a tough time as of late. In 2020, a tornado damaged her home in Nashville, followed (two weeks later) by the beginning of the COVID lockdown. Later that year in November, Williams suffered a stroke that partially impaired some of her motor skills on the left side of her body, forcing her to learn to walk again and taking away her ability to play the guitar.
The album Stories From a Rock n Roll Heart is slated for release via Highway 20 Records and Thirty Tigers. It’s Williams’ first album since a November 2020 stroke that impaired some movement and rendered her unable to play guitar. That caused her to shift her songwriting process, according to a press release announcing the album. She now works in closer collaboration with her husband and manager Tom Overby, and also got an assist writing this album from her friend and fellow musician Jesse Malin and her road manager Travis Stephens. The album is dedicated to Replacements co-founder Bob Stinson and features a song paying tribute to him “Hum’s Liquor”, as well as a song celebrating Tom Petty (“Stolen Moments”).
2023 Highway 20 Records marketed and distributed by Thirty Tigers
The Fat Angel Sings 