The Fat Angel Sings

Eric Clapton, one of music’s most influential and successful recording artists, joined Reprise Records in 1983, launching a prolific period that spans 30 years and encompasses some of his most celebrated work. An upcoming limited edition, 12-LP boxed set revisits Clapton’s first six albums for Reprise along with an LP exclusive to this collection that features rarities from the era, including a previously unreleased remix of “Pilgrim” by co-writer and long-time Clapton producer Simon Climie.

“The Complete Reprise Studio Albums – Volume I” will be available on September 30th. It contains newly remastered versions of six studio albums pressed on 180-gram vinyl: “Money and Cigarettes” (1983) as a single LP, and “Behind the Sun” (1985), “August” (1986), “Journeyman” (1989), “From the Cradle” (1994), and “Pilgrim” (1998) as double-LPs. “Behind The Sun” and “August” were originally released as single LPs; both are now 3-sided double albums to avoid long LP sides and to maximize the audio quality.

 The final LP in the collection, “Rarities (1983-1998)” brings together eight rare recordings from this era, including live versions of “White Room” and “Crossroads” that were both featured on the B-side on the 1987 single “Behind The Mask.” Another B-side, “Theme From A Movie That Never Happened” (Orchestral), appeared in 1998 on the Grammy-winning single, “My Father’s Eyes.”

All the music included in this collection was mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering and the lacquers for the LPs were cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering.

“Volume I” spans 15 years and touches on some of Clapton’s biggest studio albums. It begins with “Money and Cigarettes”, the guitarist’s eighth solo studio album, which he co-produced with Atlantic Records’ legend Tom Dowd. Released in 1983, it reached the Top 20 in the U.S. and the U.K. and introduced the hit single “I’ve Got A Rock ’n’ Roll Heart.”

Clapton worked with Phil Collins to produce his next album, “Behind the Sun”, which peaked at #8 in the U.K. The album would earn platinum-certification in the U.S. thanks to hits like “Forever Man” and “She’s Waiting.” Collins returned to co-produce the next album, “August”, as well. Certified gold in the U.S., it featured a trio of Top 10 singles – “Miss You,” “Tearing Us Apart,” (a duet with Tina Turner) and the #1 smash, “It’s In The Way That You Use It.” Clapton co-wrote the latter with Robbie Robertson and co-produced the track with Dowd. The song was also featured in “The Color of Money“, the 1986 blockbuster film starring Paul Newman and Tom Cruise.

 “Journeyman”, Clapton’s 1989 follow-up, reached #2 in the U.K. where it was certified platinum. An international sensation, the record was certified platinum in Canada and gold in Argentina, Australia, France, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The album was certified double platinum in the U.S., scoring #1 hits on the Mainstream Rock charts with “Pretending” and the GrammyÒ winning single “Bad Love.” The album had two more Top 10 hits in America with “Before You Accuse Me” (#9) and “No Alibis” (#4).

Following the runaway success of his 1992 live album “Unplugged”, Clapton returned in 1994 with “From The Cradle”. A blues covers album, it featured his versions of songs recorded by some of the bluesmen who influenced him, including Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Freddie King and more. The album was certified triple-platinum in the U.S., where it topped the Billboard 200. It also reached #1 in the U.K., making it his only #1 album in the U.K. to date. In addition, “From The Cradle” won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album. 

The final release on “Volume I” is “Pilgrim”, Clapton’s 1998 Grammy Award winning 13^th solo studio album. It reached the Top 10 in more than 20 countries, including the U.S. (#4) and the U.K. (#3). A passion project for Clapton, the album was certified platinum in America thanks to hit singles like, “My Father’s Eyes,” “Circus,” “Born In Time” (penned by Bob Dylan) and the title track.

The Clash follow up too “Rock The Casbah” with another single featuring a pair of songs from their “Combat Rock” album. The two that made the cut this time are “Straight To Hell” on the ‘A’ side and “Should I Stay Or Should I Go” on the flip. They’ve got a special deal going where early purchasers will get a free sticker with the single and a free stencil with every 12″ disc. 

One would wager that ‘Straight to Hell’ is the densest song that Strummer ever penned. It was written during the end of the recording sessions for “Combat Rock”, during a “mad, creative rush” the day before the band were due to fly out of the city for New Year’s Eve. In 1991, Strummer reflected on the writing process: “I’d written the lyric staying up all night at the Iroquois Hotel. I went down to Electric Lady and I just put the vocal down on tape, we finished about twenty to midnight. We took the E train from the Village up to Times Square. I’ll never forget coming out of the subway exit, just before midnight, into a hundred billion people, and I knew we had just done something really great.”

The music is nothing short of iconic, with its catchy Bossa Nova style. However, the lyrics are what really marks it out as special. Decrying global injustices, each verse takes to discussing the ills of the day. The first verse refers to Margaret Thatcher’s closure of the steel mills in Northern England, which were once the community’s central hub, which loom as a constant reminder of what was. It also talks of the subsequent mass unemployment which has continued to span generations right up until the present.

Although historical hindsight will prove that the public thought different, NME’s Adrian Thrill wrote that the song, “Straight To Hell” is the finest thing that The Clash have recorded since the ‘Magnificent Seven’ two years ago… Though it could well be the other side – the rambling Stonesy ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go,’ that will pick up most of the airplay.” Looking back he referred to The Clash’s last hit “Rock The Casbah” as “abysmal.”

Joe Strummer was nothing short of an icon. The Clash’s frontman was a character who existed in his own individual realm. A champion of social issues, he penned some of the finest protest and punk songs in existence. He followed up his on-stage persona with a burning personal crusade to do his bit in helping to cure the planet of its social, political and environmental ills.

For the US market, the single was flipped with the non-LP track “Cool Confusion,” and is packaged in a unique sleeve. The song does reasonably well in England, going up the charts to #17. It only made it up to #45 on the American charts, even though it’s remembered as one of the band’s biggest hits this side of the Atlantic.

Strangely enough, the song would be re-released in 1991 in England and go all the way to #1 the second time around.”

‘Straight to Hell’ is not only an iconic piece of music, but it is also one of The Clash‘s most emotionally affecting. When you dig into its meaning, its density is nothing short of astonishing. It is a fantastic reminder of Joe Strummer’s temperament, and that sadly, when he died, the world lost one of its most extraordinary characters. Luckily for us though, he lives on through his musical work and all the discourse surrounding his remarkable life. 

Released “September 24th, 1982

The Soft Moon is the moniker of Californian singer-songwriter/musician/producer Luis Vasquez

“The whole point of this record was to share every emotion that I feel,” says The Soft Moon’s Luis Vasquez. “No two songs are the same. It’s about existing in the world as a human being and experiencing many emotions and experiences throughout life.”

And so hence the title “Exister”, a record rooted in the ecstatic joys and crippling lows that life can throw up and how just hanging on and existing is sometimes all we have. “Exister” is my way of saying ‘I’m here, deal with it.’” Vasquez says. “Exister” sees Vasquez throw himself even deeper into the raw emotions explored in his previous work. Like 2018’s “Criminal”, the album represents another step forward for the Soft Moon, as Vasquez processes his pain with a newfound level of honesty, and an uncanny ability to build on the well-established musical ideas he so enthusiastically draws from.

Sonically, this expression is a vast, expansive and potent one. The opening ‘Sad Song’, which unfurls with a dense brooding atmosphere, Vasquez describes as almost a ballad, while tracks such as ‘The Pit’ capture the opposite end of the musical spectrum, exploding as a thundering piece of industrial techno complete with gut-churning levels of bass.

‘Monster’ – a song that follows a human metamorphosis into an unrecognizable and destructive being – seamlessly combines a deeply melodic, almost electro pop, vocal hook with a slow build atmospherics to create something equally beautiful and unsettling. ‘Become the Lies’ explores the devastating consequences of being lied to by your own family and is a post-punk stomper, merging charging basslines, pummelling drums and snaking guitars, all of which combine explosively.

Elsewhere the album runs the gauntlet of everything from ambient to dark wave – features ferocious guest contributions from fish narc and Special Interest’s Alli Logot on ‘Him’ and ‘Unforgiven’ – all while retaining that distinct tone that unmistakably The Soft Moon.

Amidst a starring role in ‘Stranger Things’ and Hollywood flicks, Hawke has blossomed into an increasingly excellent songwriter, It’s fitting that Maya Hawke’s second album ‘Moss’ is being released as wide-eyed youngsters return to their classrooms, blank exercise books ready for another year of learning. “A lot of the songs [on this record] are me writing the songs I wish I’d written when I was 15,” days after describing her new work as a “back-to-school record” on Fallon.

Like days of dusting off textbooks after long, listless summers, ‘Moss’ feels tinged with curious excitement and the vulnerability of starting a new chapter. It comes as perhaps little surprise given her work in hit TV show Stranger Things and recent teen flick Do Revenge that Hawke, daughter of Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, is looking back at her formative years. But ‘Moss’ is familiar and fresh, not just a re-tread of the same qualities that made her 2020 debut ‘Blush’ so beguiling, nor a pastiche with playground clichés.

“I want a gym routine, self-obsessed, hardly dressed teen dream,” Hawke sings on the fingerpicked ‘Hiatus’: “Who cares about sunscreen and loves to make me Wilhelm scream.” It’s wistful and longing, but this return to high school days isn’t one that’s purely rose-tinted. Across 13 tracks, the 24-year-old explores relationships with others, her parents, herself and the world at large, each accompanied by its own distinct, complex palette of emotion.

‘South Elroy’, bright and laden with bursts of electric guitar and little beeps, is drained but lustful, knowing but willing to cast aside common sense to return to a lover who “took all the colour out of my eyes”. The recent dreamy single ‘Thérèse’, inspired by a painting at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, tackles societal ideas of gender and femininity, while ‘Driver’ longs for the return of the nuclear family unit she once knew. “I imagine my mum and dad / Loosely necking in the back of a taxi cab,” she sings softly over melancholy melodies. “I’d give everything I’ll ever have to see them happy / Kissing just like that.”

The latter song highlights the whole point of returning to Hawke’s teen years almost a decade later – that she can use the 20/20 vision of hindsight to capture that time maturely, rather than melodramatically. By the song’s end, she has come to some form of acceptance: “Thinking of you makes me happy / Happy that my father, he got free / That even though it hurt me / He can be whoever the hell he wants to be.”

Just as lyrically ‘Moss’ presents Hawke in wiser form than if she had really written these songs at age 15, sonically it also elevates her from the incarnation of her that created ‘Blush’. That record was sparse and stripped back, its focus on a minimal foundation of acoustic instruments. This time around, she’s taken a more expansive approach, adding in subtle but important touches of synths, electric guitars and strings that signal moments of tension in the songs, or simply flesh them out to lusher, more beautiful versions.

• Release date: September 23rd, 2022, on Mom+Pop Records

Sleater-Kinney have confirmed details of the forthcoming ‘Dig Me Out’ covers album, The cover comes as the first preview the record has been given a title ‘Dig Me In: A Dig Me Out Covers Album’ and release date of October 21st,

The album also featuring Wilco and St. Vincent. The album, a full-length, covers-based recreation of the rock trio’s 1997 album, was first touted earlier this year, with the likes of  The Linda Lindas and TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe confirmed to contribute. We’re excited to share Courtney Barnett’s version of “Words and Guitar.” Thank you to Cristina Daura for creating a fantastic ‘cover’ of the original artwork, and to Kristen Ferguson for animating the lyric video. listen here to Courtney Barnett‘s version of ‘Words And Guitar’ 

In a statement, Sleater-Kinney said: “The artists who appear on ‘Dig Me In’ have not so much covered the 13 original songs, but reinterpreted and reimagined them.

“Through added layers or the subtraction of guitars and drums, they provide a new way into the songs. Fresh rage, joy, pain, reclamation, slyness, and longing. Other interpretations slow down or stretch out the songs, trading urgency for contemplation, weariness or even a hint of ease.”

Through added layers or the subtraction of guitars and drums, they provide a new way into the songs. Fresh rage, joy, pain, reclamation, slyness, and longing. 25% of net proceeds from the album go to SMYRC (Sexual & Gender Minority Resource Center). We are grateful to everyone who helped with and contributed to this project!

This autumn, METZ will celebrate the 10-year anniversary of their massively acclaimed self-titled Sub Pop Records debut with a series of North American shows where they will play the album in its entirety. Next month, METZ are headed out on a tour to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their self-titled debut album. Today, they’re sharing two tracks: “Come On Down” a brand-new one featuring IDLES frontman Joe Talbot, and “Heaven’s Gate” which was previously only officially available on a radio station in the video game Cyberpunk 2077 under the pseudonym Blood And Ice.

“Come On Down’ was originally recorded during the “Atlas Vending” sessions but never fully finished,” METZ’s Alex Edkins said in a statement. “During the pandemic I really gravitated towards the idea of collaboration as a way to fill the void left by the loss of live music.” He continued: I reached out to friends from far and wide in order to get that feeling of community that gigs provide. Joe Talbot (IDLES) is a long time friend who METZ has shared the stage with many, many times, and this song was a very natural and fun way to catch up with him and do something positive with our time off the road.

Talbot said: “METZ have been a band we’ve looked up to since they came into our lives and made things better. I will never forget the first time I saw them or any of the other times. Allowing me to sing with them is a gift and I hope you like it. I love it and I love them. Long live METZ.”

The sonic trajectory of METZ; Alex Edkins (guitar & vocals), Hayden Menzies (drums), & Chris Slorach (bass), captures the journey of a band shedding influences & digging deeper into their core—steady propulsive drums, chest-thumping bass lines, bloody-fingered riffs, & the howling angst of fading innocence. A Deluxe Edition of their ST album feat. 3 tracks from a BBC session is out now.

This updated, thirteen-track album features the original ten songs along with bonus versions of “Wet Blanket,” “Wasted,” and “Get Off” from a BBC Radio 1 session at Maida Vale Studios which originally aired on Huw Stephens’ show in 2013.

released October 6th, 2022

Sub Pop Records

It is thirty-two years since Bill Callahan first emerged with the debut Smog album, “Sewn To The Sky”. While there is barely a bad record in the bunch, listening to Bill’s recent output, we do seem to be living in some boom time, a thick vein of musical gold from an artist at the top of their craft. Both 2019’s “Shepherd in a Sheepskin Vest” and 2020’s “Gold Record” were instant classics, gracing many an album of the year list and drawing almost universally good reviews. Two years on, Bill’s set to share his latest offering in the shape of a new album, “YTI⅃AƎЯ“, out October 14th via Drag City, which Bill premiered this week with a new single, “Coyotes”.

The song was inspired by the time Bill spent living in Coyote Hills, and the inspiration that came from getting to know their titular animal, “the coyotes would start their song at dawn. Dawn and dusk were their main appearance times. Our dog would sleep outside sometimes in the morning and our boy was still bite-size“. As Bill recalls, the coyotes would gradually edge closer to the human world, “predator and prey, blurred. Past and present, blurred”. 

Listening to the track, it seems to be a relatively oblique influence, the coyotes sending Bill’s mind whirring into the passing of time, the way love spans lifetimes, the ageing dog that dreams of running wild with her coyote forebears, the humans, “holding hands through many lives”. The song ends with the repeated refrain, “yes I am your loverman”, in lesser hands it could feel almost trite, yet Bill says it with such gentle tenderness, with the idea of being with someone not just for now, or a lifetime, but for eternity, it seems strangely poignant. Bill Callahan paints such vivid lyrical pictures, that his return can feel like catching up with an old friend, let him take you by the hand and invite you into his “YTI⅃AƎЯ” once more, it’s a very special place to spend some time.

Bill Callahan’s new double album “YTI⅃AƎЯ,” out October 14th, 2022 on Drag City.

This newly remixed & remastered edition of John Mellencamp’s “Scarecrow” features the original album, a full disc of rare & previously unreleased tracks, ATMOS, and new hi-resolution stereo mix of the album + bonus tracks in hi-resolution stereo on Blu-ray Disc, a 180g half-speed LP, an original picture sleeve of the “Small Town” 7” single, booklet, lithographs, poster and an all-new essay by Anthony DeCurtis. The release includes two previously unreleased versions, “Small Town (Writer’s Demo)” and “Small Town (Acoustic Version)”. The boxset including 2 CDs of newly remixed and remastered songs plus previously unreleased bonus tracks and alternate versions, a booklet full of rare photographs and all new liner notes by acclaimed author and music critic Anthony DeCurtis.

“Scarecrow” is the eighth studio album by John Mellencamp. Released in August 1985, The album contained three Top 10 hits, for Mellencamp : “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” “Lonely Ol’ Night” and “Small Town”.   Rolling Stone magazine ranked “Scarecrow” on its list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s, saying: “Scarecrow” consolidated the band’s rugged, roots-rock thrash and the ongoing maturation of Mellencamp’s lyrics.

The band spent a month in rehearsals, playing over a hundred rock and roll songs from the 1960s before going into the studio. According to the record’s producer, Don Gehman, the idea was to “learn all these devices from the past and use them in a new way with John’s arrangements.” The album was recorded at Mellencamp’s own “Belmont Mall” studio in Belmont, Indiana.

The overall theme of the album is the fading of the American dream in the face of corporate greed, songs such as “Face of the Nation,” “Minutes to Memories” and “Small Town” have a “bittersweet, reflective tone. The single “Rain on a Scarecrow” that it’s “solid, riveting rock and roll from an American treasure” and represents an “impassioned plea on behalf of America’s small farmers.

 “Scarecrow” (through Mercury/Island/UME) on November 4th. 

The newly announced Guns N’ Roses ‘Use Your Illusion’ box sets / reissues. There’s 9 different physical formats!. Guns N’ Roses are to reissue their 1991 albums “Use Your Illusion I” & “Use Your Illusion II” across nine different physical formats in November, including 7CD+blu-ray and 12LP vinyl+blu-ray super deluxe editions.

Both albums have been “fully remastered for the first-time ever”, from hi-res 96/24 transfers from the original stereo 1/2-inch analogue masters. “Use Your Illusion I” includes an updated version of the single ‘November Rain’ which features a newly recorded 50-piece orchestra (this has been mixed by Steven Wilson, incidentally).

The 7CD+blu-ray super deluxe features both remastered albums, “Live in New York” (from the Ritz Theatre in May ’91) across two CDs, “Live in Las Vegas” (from the Thomas & Mack Center in January ’92) across three CDs. Both have been newly mixed from the multi-track tapes.

The bonus blu-ray video disc features the complete “Live In New York” concert film, “newly transferred from 35mm film prints to 4K UHD”. Boasting of a 4K transfer and then putting it on a standard 1080p HD blu-ray (which is effectively a 2K medium) is confusing and disappointing. A 4K UHD blu-ray and this standard blu-ray should have been included for the price being asked –  after all this happens all the time in £25 retail 4K film blu-ray releases and this CD box costs ten times that. The concert soundtrack offers Dolby Atmos, 5.1, and 48/24 stereo.

Talking of Atmos, notable by omission are any spatial audio mixes of the studio albums themselves. No Atmos, 5.1 or even hi-res stereo versions are included on the blu-ray. Also, there is no studio outtakes, demos on any of the formats.

The 12LP black vinyl box set features exactly the same audio content as the 7CD+blu-ray. Both studio albums are 2LP sets and “Live in New York” and “Live in Las Vegas” are both 4LP sets. The blu-ray is included with this vinyl package and is identical to the one in the CD box set.

The super deluxe editions are housed with a 100-page hardcover book and are designed with fancy red & blue ‘reveal sleeves’. These sets come with lots of ‘stuff’ like Conspiracy Inc. replica fan club folder (with membership card!), four Conspiracy Inc. 1991/1992 “Use Your Illusion” era replica fan club newsletters, 10 double-design lithos that reveals one of two unique images when inserted into the red & blue ‘reveal sleeves’, 8” x 10” photo prints (x7), four “Use Your Illusion” tour replica cloth sticky backstage passes (x4), a Ritz Theatre 5/16/1991 replica concert ticket (with the original misprinted date of 5/15/1991) and a 24”x36” band poster.

Despite the 12LP vinyl and 7CD sets costing over £400 and £250 respectively, the much cheaper 2CD editions of each album feature exclusive live audio not included in the bigger boxes. This is in the form of bonus discs with live highlights from the Use Your Illusion 1991 / 1992 tour including dates in Paris, London and Rio de Janeiro. So for example, if you are a CD collector and want ‘everything’ (in terms of audio) you have to buy three products: the 7CD+blu-ray super deluxe and both 2CD deluxe editions! That situation is unlikely to impress fans. The 2CD sets come with 24-page booklets.

Other formats are both albums remastered on 2LP black vinyl, a 4LP vinyl box set (D2C-only) and single CD remasters of Use Your Illusion I & II.

Use Your Illusion I & II will be reissued on 11th November 2022, via UMe/Geffen Records.