New releases? Check. Deluxe-edition reissues? Check. Box sets, live albums and tribute discs? Check, check and double-check. Next week’s list of new releases ticks all the boxes. Let’s get started:
The Blips
Again
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Back in late 2019, Taylor Hollingsworth, Wes McDonald, Will Stewart, Eric Wallace and Chris McCauley collided in Birmingham, Alabama’s Ol’ Elegante recording studio and wrote an album in three sessions. Their self-titled debut, The Blips, struck lightning. And here we are with The Blips’ Again. Back with more boogie, beast and beauty. This band swaggers like The Rolling Stones, haggards like Merle, and snots like Mike Ness. Again carries you on a not-too-long trip through a varied landscape of far out, well made and dusty rock songs that stick to your black boots and go with you when you go. While there are four different lead singers and writers throughout this album, it is apparent Again is executed by a band, rather than disparate musicians playing along on a track in a cold studio. A band that sweats.”
Danny Brown
Quaranta
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Detroit spitter Danny Brown is a fan favourite for a reason. Few MCs have taken true-blue lyrical ferocity and draped it in a persona as arresting as Danny’s. By the time he released breakout album XXX, he was spearheading a movement of avant-garde internet hip-hop that we still live in the shadow of today. Quaranta, Brown’s sixth studio album, peels back the curtain to unveil the inner monologues of an artist who’s mystified fans for over a decade. According to Brown, Quaranta is the spiritual sequel to XXX (2011), that infamously catalogued a life lived on the edge at 30. Quaranta’s core mission statement is of growth, pain, progression, and the view from atop the hill.”
Stewart Copeland
Klark Kent Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Featuring newly remastered versions of all the original non-album singles, the full 1980 self-titled album, plus two previously unreleased studio recordings, Klark Kent showcases Police dummer Stewart Copeland on all of the instruments and vocals. The CD and digital formats include 12 previously unreleased demo versions. The first solo project by a member of The Police, Klark Kent’s innovative music, released on Kryptone Records, began in 1978 as a series of singles and culminated in a 1980 self-titled album.”
Luther Dickinson
Magic Music For Family Folk
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars’ new solo album, Magic Music For Family Folk, features Dickinson’s rendition of favorite songs from his childhood by The Meters, Staple Singers, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt, Doc Watson and more. The album also includes guests Yola, Allison Russell, Lillie Mae, Sharde Thomas, Sharisse Norman, as well as Dickinson’s mother and children. Dickinson says, “This collection of my childhood favorites was recorded for fun, at home, with family and friends, in the spirit of sharing. As a new father, I needed music that my family and friends could enjoy that’s also suited to my funky taste and organic, acoustic aesthetic. Having daughters altered my listening habits and it was hard to find records that we all liked, so I had to make one. Everyone is welcome.”
The Dwarves
Concept Album
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Punk rock veterans The Dwarves return with a sprawling, genre-defying trip through the underbelly of rock ’n’ roll, pop, punk, thrash, garage, surf, metal and experimental noise with their trademark transgressive lyrics and shocking visual imagery. Featuring the celebrity drumming of Josh Freese (Foo Fighters) and dozens of rock luminaries, the high production value and lowbrow humor of The Dwarves is a breath of fresh air amidst the cookie cutter cryfest of cancellation modern rock has become. And if you’re not careful, you just might catch something!”
Bob Dylan
The Complete Budokan 1978
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: A deluxe box set celebrating Bob Dylan’s 1978 world concert tour and the 45th anniversary of the artist’s first appearances in Japan, The Complete Budokan 1978 presents two full shows recorded on 24-channel analog tapes at Tokyo’s Nippon Budokan Hall on Feb. 28 and March 1, 1978 and offers fans 36 previously unreleased performances. The Complete Budokan 1978 will be available in four-CD, eight-LP (Japan only) and digital configurations. Also available: Another Budokan 1978, a two-LP edition featuring 16 unreleased tracks from the box set. For his 1978 performances, Dylan (rhythm guitar, harmonica, vocals) led an ensemble featuring Billy Cross (lead guitar), Ian Wallace (drums), Alan Pasqua (keyboards), Rob Stoner (bass, vocals), Steven Soles (acoustic rhythm guitar, vocals), David Mansfield (pedal steel, violin, mandolin, guitar, dobro), Steve Douglas (saxophone, flute, recorder), Bobbye Hall (percussion), Helena Springs (vocals), Jo Ann Harris (vocals), and Debi Dye (vocals). The original Bob Dylan At Budokan album was produced by Don DeVito, who also helmed Dylan’s Street-Legal, recorded and released during the 1978 world tour, featuring the same musicians.”
Juliana Hatfield
Sings ELO
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “ELO songs were always coming on the radio when I was growing up. They were a reliable source of pleasure and fascination (except for Fire On High, which scared the heck out of me). With this album of covers I wanted to get my hands deep into some of the massive ’70s hits but I am also shining a light on some of the later work (Ordinary Dream from 2001’s Zoom album, Secret Messages and From The End Of The World, both from the ’80s). Overall, I stuck pretty close to the originals’ structures while figuring out new ways to express or reference the unique and beloved ELO string arrangements. An orchestra would have been difficult or impossible for me to manage to record, nor did I think there was any point in trying to copy those parts as they originally were. Why not try to reimagine them within my zone of limitations? In some cases, I transposed string parts onto guitars, or keyboards, and I even sung some of them.”
Thee Headcoats
Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats (Already) Reissue
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even!” is a term of surprise by Snagglepuss, a bright pink lion, who starred in his very own Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The term was famously employed by The Downliners Sect on the intro to their top tune Leader of The Sect. (It originally came out on Sub Pop Records in 1990) because a young Steve Turner, of Mudhoney fame, when a young lad visiting England with his father, happened across Thee Mighty Caesars playing at The Cricketers Public House at the Oval. Fast-forward five years and he is telling the Seattle grunge mob all about how great we are. We were then invited to play with Mudhoney on their first Sub Pop jaunt in the U.K. Bruce Pavitt, the Sub Pop visionary, saw our mass appeal and asked if we’d knock out an LP for Sub Pop. He also asked me to sign a contract. I replied: “What’s a contract, can you eat it?” By this good chance we still owned the LP. Sub Pop did the cover without asking — a bit of a shocker! This cover is near to what we would have done ourselves. The two extra tracks would have been on the original LP, but they got swiped as 45s by small labels desperate to get a bit of gold.”
Madness
Theatre Of The Absurd Presents C’est La Vie
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The governing principle behind Theatre Of the Absurd Presents C’est La Vie, is: Let Madness be Madness. The result is an album of typically timeless brilliance that also reflects the wonky years of its creation, these 14 songs representing the cream of the bumper crop of tunes the group cooked up, whittled down this punchy, focused set. There are moments of ineffably catchy pop excellence (drummer Daniel “Woody” Woodgate’s beguiling, bittersweet carousel Round We Go, Chrissy-Boy’s anarchic anthem to perhaps-justified paranoia, Run For Your Life), while the album is bookended by two of Suggs’ finest compositions. After a disparate couple of years which saw the band at their most polarised and fragmented, Madness reunited in an industrial unit in Cricklewood at the beginning of the year, where Suggs, Mark, Chrissy Boy, Mike, Lee and Woody realised that what united them was always bigger than what divided them. Emerging re-energised and reinvigorated with a fresh bounce in their nutty step, the result was their most harmonious recording experience to date. For the first time ever, a brand new album came into the world that they were all completely agreed on.”
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus & Max Roach
Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “On May 15, 1953, five of jazz’s most influential musicians — Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Max Roach and Bud Powell — gathered at Toronto’s Massey Hall for what would result in their first and only known recording as a quintet. While only a small audience was able to experience it in person, this historic evening was captured on tape. The resulting album, The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall, would become one of the genre’s most essential and celebrated releases. Now, Craft Recordings commemorates the 70th anniversary of this singular concert with Hot House: The Complete Jazz at Massey Hall Recordings, a definitive collection that presents the entirety of the evening’s recorded material by the members of this quintet.
Dolly Parton
Rockstar
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “For the upcoming Rockstar album, Dolly Parton has joined forces with some of rock music’s most legendary artists along with today’s biggest stars for her first-ever rock album. Inspired by her 2022 induction into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, Dolly teamed up with an all-star roster of musicians for the 30-song collection, which includes nine original tracks and 21 iconic rock anthems.”
The Polyphonic Spree
Salvage Enterprise
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “The phoenix symbolizes a new beginning. The fire burns off the last vestiges of the past as the bird spreads its wings and takes flight into the future. The Polyphonic Spree harness the flames of rebirth on their 2023 full-length offering, Salvage Enterprise. Led by frontman, founder, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and visionary Tim DeLaughter, the group embark on their next season. They’re reverent of their history, yet they’re also ready for an even brighter tomorrow. “Across all of the music I’ve done, lyrically there’s a sense of desperation and a moment of convincing myself I’m going to make it through regardless of how the music dresses up,” notes Tim. “On this one, I struggled with the amount of vulnerability I was experiencing and was willing to share both musically and lyrically, but ultimately decided to let it play out. Now that it’s done, I’m happy with the dance between the two. It’s a ‘rising-from-the-ashes’ record.”
Thin Lizzy
Vagabonds Of The Western World 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “This year marks the 50th anniversary of what is widely regarded as Thin Lizzy’s breakthrough album: Vagabonds Of The Western World, featuring their first U.K. Top 10 single Whiskey In The Jar, along with The Rocker, which would go on to be one of the band’s signature tunes — and the last song they performed at their final show in 1983. Vagabonds Of The Western World was Thin Lizzy’s third studio album and was initially released on the Sept. 21 1973. It was the first to feature artwork by Jim Fitzpatrick, the creator of the famous red and black portrait of Che Guevara, who would go on to work with the band on classic albums such as Nightlife, Jailbreak, Johnny The Fox, Black Rose and Chinatown.”
Frank Zappa & The Mothers
Over-Nite Sensation 50th Anniversary Edition
THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In 1973, Frank Zappa and The Mothers were once again on the move. Coming off a year laden with a pair of well-lauded high watermarks — July 1972’s jazz-fusiony solo masterstroke Waka/Jawaka and November 1972’s big-band Mothers progression The Grand Wazoo — Zappa wanted to next convene another revised Mothers collective, rethink some long-throw compositional tracts, and begin exploring the differences inherent in the form and function of his songwriting. In turn, Zappa also decided to bring his own singing voice more to the lead vocal fore than ever before, as well as refine the scope of his guitar playing. And thus, September 1973’s Over-Nite Sensation was born. A stone cold classic, Over-Nite Sensation has long been viewed by both the cognoscenti and layman as being a gateway album entry into the Zappaverse at large, serving as a mighty grand place to enter into the breach along with his followup March 1974 solo release, Apostrophe(’). It was also the first album by Zappa to be released in Quadraphonic surround sound, an ever-evolving sonic medium Zappa would continue to explore throughout his career on the cutting edge”.
