Posts Tagged ‘Neil Young’

NEIL YOUNG and the SANTA MONICA FLYERS – ” Roxy Tonight’s The Night Live ” 2LP Vinyl of Unreleased Set Record Store Day 2018

Posted: March 16, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Although listed as a Record Store Day special release in the UK, Neil Young‘s Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live is freely available to order in the USA on double vinyl, and it’s very cheap, too.
The Tonight’s The Night album was recorded in mid-1973 with the ‘Santa Monica Flyers’ who were Nils Lofgren (piano), Ben Keith (pedal steel guitar), Billy Talbot (bass) and Ralph Molina (drums). The album wasn’t released until 1975 but not long after it was recorded Neil and his band head decided to play it live. Here’s what Neil has to say about it:

“We had finished recording and decided to celebrate with a gig at a new club opening on the Sunset Strip, Roxy. We went there and recorded for a few nights, opening Roxy We really knew the Tonight’s the Night songs after playing them for a month, so we just played them again, the album, top to bottom, without the added songs, two sets a night for a few days. We had a great time.”

The ‘added songs’ Young refers to are Borrowed Tune, Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown and Lookout Joe which were added to the studio the album, but not part of those original sessions (or the live performance). Walk On would end up on 1974’s On The Beach.

None of these live recordings have been released before and with Neil Young vinyl notoriously expensive, this double album is a bargain at $26 on Amazon US – that’s about £19.

Roxy: Tonight’s The Night Live is released in the US on 24th April and will also be for sale in the UK on Record Store Day on 21st April.

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NEIL YOUNG – ” Paradox ” OST

Posted: March 15, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Neil Young has confirmed details and release information for his next album: “Paradox”, the soundtrack to a new film in which he stars, will arrive digitally and as a two-record set on March 23rd. It will be available on compact disc beginning April 20th.

According to a news release, Young recorded the music on the MGM soundstage with three different groups: Promise of the Real, an orchestra and another backing band comprised of Jim Keltner, Paul Bushnell and Joe Yankee. In addition, Paradox contains several solo passages played by Young on electric guitar. There are three sides of music on the LP, with the fourth consisting of etched artwork.

Young composed the bulk of the material for the film, which was written and directed by Daryl Hannah, his girlfriend. He collaborated on “Running to the Silver Eagle” with Promise of the Real, the band fronted by Lukas Nelson; Nelson and his brother Micah has worked with Young on “Diggin’ in the Dirt.” There are also covers of Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me To Do?,” the Turtles’ “Happy Together,” Lead Belly’s “How Long?” and “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground.” The latter was written by the Nelson brothers’ father, Willie Nelson, who also provides narration in the opener “Many Moons Ago in the Future.”

Paradox will be screened at SXSW on Friday and will hit Netflix on March 23rd, with a limited theatrical release to be announced at a later date. A news release describes the film as a “fantasy, a loud poem and a whimsical tale of music and love,” adding that Paradox is a “sweetly idiosyncratic personal expression. Sometime in the future-past, a band of outlaws hides out high in the mountains. The ‘Man in the Black Hat’ (Young), the ‘Particle Kid’ (Micah) and ‘Jail Time’ (Lukas) and a band of cowboys and outlaws pass the days digging for treasure while they wait for the full moon to bring its magic, the music and let the spirits fly.”

Check out the trailer below.

EMMA SWIFT / PONY BOY (Marchelle Bradanini) – ” Mellow My Mind / Like A Hurricane ” Split Single (Neil Young Covers) “

Posted: February 25, 2018 in MUSIC
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Nashville label and small press, Cosmic Thug Records, will release a digital split single from Emma Swift and Pony Boy next week featuring two reinterpretations of classic Neil Young songs.

Emma Swift performs a wonderfully poignant version of Mellow My Mind maintains the melancholy of Young’s version but trades the melodrama for her unique voice and a delightfully warbly guitar. and Pony Boy (Marchelle Bradanini)  offers up a slow-as-molasses, haunting take on Like A Hurricane turns the somewhat anthemic original into a mournful lamentation, expressing the underlying sadness of the song.

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Both are great versions and well worth a listen. There is also a rather nice video for Mellow My Mind too. Released by: Cosmic Thug Records

NEIL YOUNG and the SANTA MONICA FLYERS – ” Roxy Tonight’s the Night Live “

Posted: February 24, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Neil Young has revealed the artwork and track listing for the previously announced archival album “Roxy – Tonight’s the Night Live”, which will be released in April.

The album includes live performances of most of the songs included on the classic album “Tonight’s the Night”, which was recorded in 1973 but not released until 1975. (“Borrowed Tune,” “Come on Baby Let’s Go Downtown” and “Lookout Joe,” which are on the 1975 LP, aren’t included on the upcoming album.) You can see the track listing below.

The live tracks were recorded on September. 20th-22nd, 1973, at the first-ever shows at the Roxy venue in West Hollywood, with a band Young named the Santa Monica Flyers — named after their habit of driving home after all-night recording sessions in his 1947 Buick Roadmaster, Black Queen, along Santa Monica Boulevard. The lineup included Nils Lofgren on piano, pedal steel player Ben Keith, Billy Talbot on bass and drummer Ralph Molina.

“We had very recently lost [Crazy Horse member] Danny Whitten and our roadie Bruce Berry to heroin overdoses, so we were missing them and feeling them in the music every night as we played,” Young writes in the liner notes. “Tonight’s the Night was sort of a wake. There was no overdubbing on those nine original songs. They were recorded live, with no clean up. For almost a month we recorded like that, starting around 11PM and playing into the early morning hours. Sometimes we had a small audience. Once Mel Brooks and a few friends came by.

“We drank a lot of tequila, and I wrote Tonight’s the Night’s songs somewhere around the beginning. We had nine songs and played them twice every night for a long time until we thought we had them. … We had finished recording and decided to celebrate with a gig at a new club opening on the Sunset Strip, the Roxy. We went there and recorded for a few nights, opening the Roxy. We really knew the Tonight’s the Night songs after playing them for a month, so we just played them again, the album, top to bottom, two sets a night for a few days. We had a great time.”

Neil Young, ‘Roxy – Tonight’s the Night Live’ Track Listing
“Tonight’s The Night”
“Mellow My Mind”
“World On A String”
“Speakin’ Out”
“Albuquerque”
“New Mama”
“Roll Another Number (For The Road)”
“Tired Eyes”
“Tonight’s The Night”
“Walk On”

A Record Store Day vinyl edition of the album includes two records plus an exclusive print of the band live onstage at the Roxy. That version comes out on April 21st;

CROSBY STILL NASH and YOUNG – ” Southern Man “

Posted: January 29, 2018 in MUSIC
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A deep rift defined the early relationship of guitar gods Stephen Stills and Neil Young. It complicated their first band, Buffalo Springfield, as well as their subsequent four headed-monster, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. The conflict worked to their great advantage, however, in their fiery instrumental interplay. Their dynamic came to a thrilling head on the classic CSNY live album, 4 Way Street  , released in 1971. While the first disc of the double set focused on acoustic tunes, the second saw the band charge through a sustained electric foray. All the songs in the second half featured glorious solos but the greatest, and longest, could be found in 13 and 14 minute takes on Neil Young’s “Southern Man” and Stills “Carry On”. Throughout each, the guitarists thrust and parry, using their instruments as emotional swords. Stephen Stills would spin a dominant solo over the riff while Young would answer back with sniping licks. Then they’d reverse those roles. At times, the players chime, at others clash, creating a play of synchronicity and tension as compelling as a pas-de-deux.

NEIL YOUNG – ” The Thrasher “

Posted: January 27, 2018 in MUSIC
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Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young didn’t do a lot of forward-looking work after 1970’s Deja Vu, but their travails sure inspired Neil Young to write some great songs. The most devastating could be 1979’s “Thrasher,” where he makes it quite clear why he walked away from the supergroup. “So I got bored and left them there,” he sings. “They were just dead weight to me/Better down the road without that load.” Ouch. Broadly speaking, it’s a song about moving forward, even when it’s painful and difficult, to avoid becoming a fossil. He also recalls watching “that great Grand Canyon rescue episode” of a TV show. Some people thought he was talking about The Brady Bunch, but it ran when he was a child so it’s probably a 1950s western.

Up until last year, Young hadn’t played the song since the 1978 Rust Never Sleeps tour, but then out of nowhere he busted it out at a Los Angeles theater show. “I haven’t done it that much in my life,” he said. “Because at a very vulnerable moment I read something about it. Just like the worst fucking review I’ve ever read. So, for all you reviewers, if you feel like your words don’t mean anything, you’re probably right. In that case, they were damaging.” Well, maybe the fact it won this poll will reassure him that “Thrasher” is indeed a beloved song.

from the film “Rust Never Sleeps” (1979)

NEIL YOUNG – ” On The Beach ” Classic Albums Released July 16th 1974

Posted: January 25, 2018 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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On the Beach is the fifth studio album by Neil Young, released in 1974. It was unavailable on compact disc until it was released as a HDCD-encoded remastered version on August 19th, 2003 as part of his Archives Digital Masterpiece Series.

Recorded after (but released before) Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach shares some of that album’s bleakness and crude production—which came as a shock to fans and critics alike, as this was the long-awaited studio follow-up to the commercially and critically successful Harvest—but also included hints pointing towards a more subtle outlook, particularly on the opener, “Walk On”.

While the original Rolling Stone review described it as “One of the most despairing albums of the decade”, later critics used the benefit of hindsight to conclude that Young “[w]as saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it”. The despair of Tonight’s the Night, communicated through intentional underproduction and lyrical pessimism, gives way to a more polished album that is still pessimistic but to a lesser degree. Much like Tonight’s the Night, On the Beach was not a commercial success at the time of its release but over time It’s attained a high regard from fans and critics alike. The album was recorded in a haphazard manner, with Young utilizing a variety of session musicians, and often changing their instruments while offering only bare-bones arrangements for them to follow (in a similar style to Tonight’s the Night). He also would opt for rough, monitor mixes of songs rather than a more polished sound, alienating his sound engineers in the process.

[The best song on the album…] Ambulance Blues:

“Ambulance Blues” closes the album. The melody ‘unintentionally’ quotes Bert Jansch’s “Needle of Death”. In a 1992 interview for the French “Guitare & Claviers” magazine, Young discussed Jansch’ influence:

“As for acoustic guitar, Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi (Hendrix). That first record of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especially taken by “Needle of Death”, such a beautiful and angry song. That guy was so good. And years later, on On the Beach, I wrote the melody of “Ambulance Blues” by styling the guitar part completely on “Do You Hear Me Now?”. I wasn’t even aware of it, and someone else drew my attention to it.”

The second side of On the Beach ends with “Ambulance Blues,” it’s a stunningly brilliant, stream-of-conscious epic that ranks as one of Neil Young’s greatest lyrical achievements, taking on everything from Richard Nixon (“I never knew a man could tell so many lies”) to the sad state of Crosby, Stills and Nash (“You’re all just pissin’ in the wind/You don’t know it but you are.”) But it begins in a better place, looking back on the “old folky days” when “the air was magic when we played.” But time made that magic fade away, and sorrow mixed with pity quickly seeps into the verses. The song sat dormant for a good many years, but in 1998 he made a shocking return at the Bridge School Benefit and then he played it every night on the 2007-’08 theater tour.

If there’s any doubt that Neil Young was super bummed out when he made On The Beach in early 1974, listen no further to the title track that kicks off the second side of the LP. “The world is turnin’,” he sings in the opening lines. “I hope it don’t turn away.” It only gets worse from there as he contends with a radio interview where he winds up “alone at the microphone” before he decides to simply get out of town. “I head for the sticks with my bus and friends,” he sings. “I follow the road, though I don’t know where it ends.” The road took him to a disastrous CSNY reunion tour later that year that did little to lighten his mood, though by the end of the year he met future wife Pegi Morton and things turned around. He played “On the Beach” at a bunch of 1974 CSNY shows, though it’s a super rarity this days. Since 1975 he’s only played it twice: at a 1999 solo acoustic show in Chicago and in 2003 at a Greendale acoustic show in Hamburg, Germany.

“Good times are coming, I hear it everywhere I go,” Neil Young sings on 1974’s “Vampire Blues.” “Good times are coming, but they sure are coming slow.” Featuring guitarist George Whitsell (who played with Crazy Horse in their 1960s band the Rockets) and bassist Tim Drummond scraping a credit card on his beard for a cool sound effect, “Vampire Blues” is a typically bummed-out On the Beach song where Young compares himself to a vampire bat seeking out “high octane” blood. The only time he ever played it live was at an Eagles show in 1974, though it has been rehearsed for his upcoming summer tour.

David Crosby got roped into playing guitar on this creepy On the Beach tune, but the tale of a Charles Manson-like figure freaked him out and to this day he says he doesn’t care for the song. It’s certainly hard to imagine the former Byrd writing a song from the perspective of a murderous psychopath with lines like, “Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars/But I hate them worse than lepers and I’ll kill them in their cars.” But it was a reflection of the difficult time when the (supposedly) peaceful 1960s had given way to the violent, coked-out 1970s. Young hasn’t touched the song since a one-off Crazy Horse gig in 1987.

Personnel:

  • Neil Young – guitar on 1 3 5 6 7 8, vocal, Wurlitzer electric piano on 2, banjo on 4, harmonica on 7 8
  • Ben Keith – slide guitar on 1, vocal on 1 4, steel guitar on 2, Dobro on 4, Wurlitzer electric piano on 3, organ on 5, hand drums on 6, bass on 7 8
  • Tim Drummond – bass on 2 5 6, percussion on 5
  • Ralph Molina – drums on 1 5 6, vocal on 1, hand drums on 7 8

Additional personnel

  • Billy Talbot – bass on 1
  • Levon Helm – drums on 2 3
  • Joe Yankee – harp on 2, electric tambourine on 8
  • David Crosby – guitar on 3
  • Rick Danko – bass on 3
  • George Whitsell – guitar on 5
  • Graham Nash – Wurlitzer electric piano on 6
  • Rusty Kershaw – slide guitar on 7, fiddle on 8

On the Beach was savage and, ultimately, triumphant. “I’m a vampire, babe,” Young sang, and he proceeded to take bites out of various subjects: threatening the lives of the stars who lived in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon (“Revolution Blues”); answering back to Lynyrd Skynyrd, whose “Sweet Home Alabama” had taken him to task for his criticisms of the South in “Southern Man” and “Alabama” (“Walk On”); and rejecting the critics (“Ambulance Blues”). But the barbs were mixed with humor and even affection, as Young seemed to be emerging from the grief and self-abuse that had plagued him for two years. But the album was so spare and under-produced, its lyrics so harrowing, that it was easy to miss Young’s conclusion: he was saying goodbye to despair, not being overwhelmed by it.

NEIL YOUNG & PROMISE OF THE REAL – ” The Visitor “

Posted: December 8, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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“Rage takes many forms in the new songs of Neil Young. If, by chance, you don’t connect with the relatively even-tempered opening track “Already Great” which celebrates the US as “the promised land” & “the helping hand,” perhaps something in the key of caustic sarcasm suits you better? That would be track two, & the bone-rattling, inspired-by-Funkadelic groove “Fly By Night Deal.” On it, Young alternates between the role of a pipeline project manager barking orders like “Move those animals out of here” & an outraged citizen who screams “No more” & laments “no one sees what’s getting lost…”

Sometimes the 72-year-old Neil Young is tender and philosophical about the developments that anger him. Consider “Almost Always.” One minute he’s musing allegorically about birds; the next he’s castigating the sitting U.S. president as a “game show host who has to brag and has to boast about tearing down the things that I hold dear.”

Sometimes Young lets the music do the snarling: Though “When Bad Got Good” has a refrain borrowed straight from Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign – “Lock him up!” – Young doesn’t lean too heavily on it. He often mutters the chant under his breath, like a wily old sage, while he and the musicians of Promise of the Real work out the fine points of a swamp-rock groove that distills rage into delicious high-octane sonic abrasion. And sometimes, particularly on the pasted-together production number “Children Of Destiny,” Young disguises his rage behind the bright sing-song cadences of animated Disney films.

It’s followed by a comically grandiose fanfare played by a 56-piece orchestra, and that’s followed by a large mixed chorus singing flag-waving phrases like “Stand up for what you believe.” Those who thrilled to Young’s 2003 rock opera Greendale will find much to love here.

“Children Of Destiny” is the only overwrought and over-thought moment on The Visitor, Young’s 39th studio album — the album he’s using to launch his exhaustive online archive. The remaining nine tracks offer laments, fervent exhortations and heated diatribes about the rapidly changed world in the aftermath of the last U.S. presidential election. Young has always been quick to indignation, but on The Visitor he is careful to vary his tone, if not the target of his ire. (The quietly competent, and open-minded, musicians of Promise of the Real, now in their third collaboration with Young, help greatly with this.)

Viewed one way, the album amounts to a diverse compendium of tactics an artist might employ to express complex emotions (disbelief, fear, betrayal) upon discovering, as Young puts it on “Stand Tall,” that one’s way of life has been “turned upside down.” In the months since the election, pop culture pundits have talked about the response to Trump from the arts, usually in the form of general questions like “Where are the protest songs?” Neil Young weaves the rhetoric of protest into the stanzas of The Visitor — “Already Great” ends with the galvanizing chant “Whose streets? Our streets!” — and a few songs about man’s stewardship of nature certainly meet the basic definition of protest music.

Official Music Video For Neil Young + Promise of The Real’s “Almost Always” from the new album ‘The Visitor’

NEIL YOUNG – ” The Vaults “

Posted: December 2, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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If you woke up this morning with an insatiable need to feed your ears with nothing but Neil Young’s incomparable back catalogue of music, then you’re in luck, with the legendary Canadian muso today throwing open the doors to his vault and allowing listeners to hear everything he has ever recorded – all for free!

Neil Young first announced the existence of this ambitious archival project back in August, stating that he planned to keep it up to date with every single piece of music he has ever produced. “Every single, recorded track or album I have produced is represented. It is always current,” he said.

“You can browse though the music I made between today’s date and 1963, when I made my first recordings in Canada and it was released as a 45 RPM single. You can zoom in to the timeline and see a particular period in detail, and pull back to view the surrounding years. View all albums currently released and see albums still unreleased and in production just by using the controls to zoom through the years.”

Neil Young Archives Artwork

Now, in conjunction with the release of his 39th studio album, The Visitor, Neil Young has opened the archive for business, giving fans the chance to hear some seriously impressive music.

The Neil Young Archive is now active, and presents everything the legendary musician has put his name to, including information about his film projects and books. Fans are given the chance to peruse Young’s amazing back catalogue for free, whilst information relating to the recording, including the date, studio, location, and personnel involved, is also included.

Most impressively though, the archive also includes a number of unreleased Neil Young records, including Toast, Homegrown, and Chrome Dreams, though they’re not quite yet available to stream. Given Young’s recent penchant for releasing these famously ‘lost’ albums, we probably won’t be waiting too long for them to become available.

View the tutorial video from Neil Young below, in which he reminds fans, “Don’t forget to have a good time, and try not to get lost.”

THIS WEEKS ESSENTIAL NEW RELEASES Friday 1st December 2017

Posted: December 1, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Rolling Stones  –  On Air

On Air is a collection of rarely heard radio recordings from The Rolling Stones formative years. The songs, including eight the band have never recorded or released commercially, were originally broadcast on bygone UK BBC shows such as Saturday Club, Top Gear, Rhythm and Blues and The Joe Loss Pop Show between 1963 and 1965. These flashbacks offer an insight into the band as a vital and constantly surprising live unit. Such was the frequency with which they visited BBC studios in the 60’s, the group constantly set out to offer listeners something different. As well as songs that never appeared on singles or albums, there are seven tracks that were debuted over the airwaves before featuring on albums or EPs.

The group’s take on familiar R&B staples like Roll Over Beethoven, Memphis, Tennessee and Beautiful Delilah (all originated by Chuck Berry) illustrate the verve and energy the Stones regularly brought to their live shows. The BBC would urge them to perform their current singles, and while happy to do so they also relished the opportunity to showcase a fuller picture of their prowess as Britain’s foremost blues outfit, packing clubs and ballrooms night after night.

Among the tracks, first heard ringing out of transistor radios over a period of just under two years, is Come On, the group’s debut single and also the first number laid down for the iconic Saturday Club, hosted by the late, legendary Brian Matthew. Other highlights include the strutting Fannie Mae(originally recorded by bluesman Buster Brown in 1959), Tommy Tucker’s Hi Heel Sneakers, and Bo Diddley’s Cops And Robbers. Nestling among the illustrious and well-chosen cover versions, are raw and vibrant renditions of Stones Jagger / Richards originals, such as (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction, The Last Time and The Spider And The Fly in a form closer to the thrilling immediacy of the band’s live shows than on vinyl. These recordings bring the listener as near as possible to the excitement of the era without actually being there in person. If last year’s collection of new recordings of past masters Blue and Lonesome presented the Stones returning to their roots after more than 50 years, On Air is the perfect “sister” compendium, a lovingly curated and restored treasure trove that puts the listener front and centre in the eye of the original storm. To help recapture the spirit of the songs when they were first performed, the tapes have gone through a process called “audio source separation”, which involved de-mixing the transcripts and allowing engineers at Abbey Road access to the original instrumentation and voices within each track, so that they could be rebuilt, rebalanced and remixed to achieve a fuller, more substantial sound. The end result is the Stones at their most passionate and intense, transporting listeners back to the band’s lean and hungry years when their standing as household names was already assured, and global domination was just 12 bars away.

The variety of radio shows from which the material is compiled is testament to the special relationship the Stones had with the BBC from the very beginning of their recording career. The music speaks for itself, but ‘On Air’ also serves as an important historical artefact, and an essential of the group’s impressively evergreen canon. On Air offer a unique insight into the formative days of The Rolling Stones a few years before ‘The Greatest Rock ‘n’ Roll Band in the World’ became a reality this was a band playing the music they loved so much – Blues, R&B, Soul and even the odd country song. Performing these songs night after night in clubs and dancehalls meant they are all honed to perfection and performed with the genuine love and affection that The Stones have for their musical heritage.

The Rolling Stones’ On Air marks the first wide release of any of the band’s live BBC sessions, recorded during the beginning of their storied career.  An audio companion to the recently published book of the same name, On Air features a bevy of tracks recorded between 1963, when the group appeared on Saturday Club just months after the release of their debut single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Come On,” and 1965, when the band returned to the show armed not only with more great blues and soul covers but a new original, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”  Available in 1CD and 2CD formats, as well as a 2LP vinyl edition (which replicates the contents of the 1CD version).

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Muddy Waters  –  Electric Mud

Third Man Records reissue of Muddy Waters’ fifth studio album Electric Mud, which comes as a continuation of Third Man’s partnership with Universal Music Group and the Estate of Muddy Waters. The album, which Chess originally released in 1968 has not seen a legitimate domestic vinyl release since 2002, despite its enormous influence on generations of blues rockers. It features members of Rotary Connection as Muddy’s backing band and was very controversial upon its release for its fusion of electric blues with psychedelic elements. The album is now recognized as a forward-thinking classic, sampled extensively by artists like The Black Keys and Gorillaz.

Van Morrison  – Versatile

Van the man releases his 38th studio album Versatile, which arrives less than three months after the singer released his 37th studio album Roll With the Punches. While Roll With the Punches, found Morrison reinterpreting the work of blues and soul legends like Sam Cooke, Bo Diddley and Little Walter, Versatile sees the Irish crooner shifting to jazz standards like George and Ira Gershwin’s A Foggy Day and They Can’t Take That Away From Me, Cole Porter’s I Get a Kick Out of You and Unchained Melody, popularized by the Righteous Brothers. Like Roll With the Punches, the covers are interspersed with Morrison originals; the singer penned seven new songs for Versatile, including an arrangement of the traditional Skye Boat Song.

For his second studio album of the year, Van Morrison has turned to the classics.  Versatile features six Morrison compositions alongside jazz vocal standards and other legends of the Great American Songbook.  Of the six Morrison-penned songs, three are originals and three have been previously recorded: “I Forgot That Love Existed,” “Only a Dream,” and “Start All Over Again” – on Poetic Champions Compose (1987), Down the Road (2002), and Enlightenment (1990), respectively.  Flautist Sir James Galway appears on the new Morrison song “Affirmation.”

Neil Young and Promise of the Real  –  The Visitor

In addition to new single Already Great, the 10-track album The Visitor also includes Young’s patriotic Children of Destiny, which the rock legend surprise-released on July 4th. Young recorded that song at Hollywood, California’s famed Capitol Studios alongside Promise of the Real – led by Willie Nelson’s son Lukas – and a 56-piece orchestra; in total, 62 musicians played on the track. The Visitor, also arrives less than a year after Young released his solo Peace Trail in December 2016; earlier that year, Young and Promise of the Real unleashed their double-disc live LP Earth.

Neil Young with the band Promise of the Real for his latest studio album on the same day that he opens his online archives for business.  Songs like “Already Great,” “Fly by Night Deal,” and “When Bad Got Good” show Young as fiercely political and fiery as ever.

U2  –  Songs of Experience 

U2 return with their hotly anticipated new studio album Songs of Experience. Recorded in Dublin, New York and Los Angeles, Songs of Experience was completed earlier this year with its subject matter influenced by Brendan Kennelly’s* advice to Bono, to “…write as if you’re dead”. The result is a collection of songs in the form of intimate letters to places and people close to the singer’s heart: family, friends, fans and indeed himself. Songs Of Experience is the companion release to 2014’s Songs Of Innocence, the two titles drawing inspiration from a collection of poems, Songs of Innocence and Experience, by the 18th century English mystic and poet William Blake. Produced by Jacknife Lee and Ryan Tedder, with Steve Lillywhite, Andy Barlow and Jolyon Thomas, the album features a cover image by Anton Corbijn of band-members’ teenage children Eli Hewson and Sian Evans.

U2 is garnering acclaim for this newest studio album, a follow-up to 2014’s Songs of Innocence.  

Wilco, A.M. / Being There

Wilco revisits its first two albums this week.  A.M., the band’s 1995 debut, is expanded on 1 CD or 2 LPs with eight previously unreleased bonus tracks, including “When You Find Trouble,” the last track recorded by Jeff Tweedy’s previous band, Uncle Tupelo.  The band’s sophomore double album, Being There, morphs into a 5-CD or 4-LP box set by pairing the original album with a disc of 15 unreleased outtakes and alternates plus a clutch of live material recorded in Los Angeles just after the release of the original album. (The vinyl includes a radio set for KCRW-FM, while the CD box has that, plus a lengthy show recorded at The Troubadour a day before that appearance, on November 12th, 1996.)

Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols: 40th Anniversary Edition

UMG revisits the long out-of-print 2012 Super Deluxe Edition of The Sex Pistols’ album in a smaller format still boasting 3 CDs which include the original studio album with 1977 B-sides, a disc of outtakes, and one disc of live material. A DVD has 1977 footage of the band playing live from the infamous boat party held on the River Thames, London, the Winter Gardens, Penzance in Cornwall and the Happy House, Stockholm, Sweden.  A 48-page booklet rounds out the set.  Available today in the U.K., and next Friday in the U.S.

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The Skids  –  Scared to Dance

Deluxe Expanded Edition of the debut album by The Skids. Originally released in March 1979 the album spent ten weeks in the UK National Charts, eventually peaking at No.19. The hit singles Sweet Suburbia (No.70), The Saints Are Coming (No.48) and Into The Valley (No.10) are all featured. This three CD edition contains the original album expanded with nine bonus tracks, a second disc with 12 previously unreleased 1978 studio demos (long sought after by collectors of the band) and a third disc with the complete show from a late `78 show at the legendary London Marquee from which the B-side T.V. Stars (Albert Tatlock!) was taken. Each disc comes in its own cardboard wallet and is housed in a clam shell box featuring original album artwork. A 20-page booklet contains lyrics to the album, pictures of all relevant singles and detailed liner notes.

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Hater  –  Red Blinders

Rough Trade Shops top tip.You can imagine John Peel’s hurriedly inaccurate summation of a cold and unforgiving Swedish winter as he juxtaposes the big-jumper-like welcoming warmth of Hater. Their lush and tempered guitars are an almost Marr-approved Smiths-like foil for Caroline Landahl’s beautifully accented and accentuated vocal – it’s a heartwarming brew. Hater are new to the game. Last year’s well-received debut album, You Tried earned comparisons to Alvvays, The Pretenders and even Jefferson Airplane, eclectic for sure, but that’s just incidental. Their new EP distinguishes their very own super polished and intricate guitar-led dreamy pop. Featuring their first single for Fire, the wonderfully forlorn and truly lovesick Blushing (we’ve all been there) and Rest with its haunting monosyllabic guitar break, a super-clean chiming motif that seems like a closing salvo before it regains momentum and brings proceedings to a suitable climax, welcoming back Landahl for one last chorus. The echoey eeriness of Red Blinders could have come right out of the bubble blowing indie pop hey days of the early ‘80s, while Penthouse is a chunkier c86 groove with a wind blowing through its motorik rhythm.

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The Lovely Eggs  –  Cob Dominos

Repressed on their own Lovely Eggs imprint. Described as unhinged, strange, bizarre, cuckoo and howling mad; but with a growing army of fans including Radio One’s Huw Stephens and Art Brut’s Eddie Argos you’d be crazy not to fall in love with their underground grunge-pop sound. Inspired by everyday life, coupled with a fierce ethos that music should be about magic and art and feeling and fun, the Lancashire duo have more in common with writer Richard Brautigan and artist David Shrigley than they do with their musical peers.

Big Country, – We’re Not In Kansas (The Live Bootleg Box Set 1993-1998)

One of the Scottish alt-rock group’s lesser-known periods is examined in this band-approved 5CD set of recordings of live shows across the U.S. and Europe during their second decade.

Other Re-Issues Releases This Week on Vinyl and CD

Suicide – The First Rehearsal Tapes – Superior Viaduct
Olafur Arnalds – Eulogy For Evolution – Erased Tapes
Bob Dylan & The Band – The Basement Tapes – We Are Vinyl
Bob Dylan & The Band – Before The Flood – We Are Vinyl
The Specials – The Specials – Chrysalis
Special AKA – In The Studio – Chrysalis
Tom Waits – Glitter & Doom Live – Anti
Morbid Angel – Kingdoms Disdained – Silver Lining
Andy Human & The Reptoids – Kill The Comma 7″ – Emotional Response
Protomartyr – Under  Color Of Official Right – Hardly Art

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