Old is the new new, right?
Well, maybe not. But with catalogue as it’s known remaining as a major source of profit for the music industry, don’t expect the trend for reissuing albums to die down any time soon. As ever, some of these are really well done, with care and genuine affection for the work, whilst some are just designed to rip off fans with too much disposable income. Here’s what was covered this year:
Reissues
Best Reissue
The Lemonheads – Come On Feel The Lemonheads (Read about it here)
30 years old and behaving itself as disgracefully as it’s chief songwriter, Come On Feel…turned Evan Dando into a global superstar, a role he was of course entirely unfit to play. Still The Lemonheads most immediate, most consistent and best album, and the extras packed a creative punch.
The Boo Radleys – Giant Steps (Read about it here)
Only beaten by a nose, Giant Steps remains a complex, but astoundingly creative work even three decades on. With a stylistic pan that took in dub, shoegaze, 60’s pop, contemporary indie and many points in between, on it Alan McGee’s least liked signings repaid the faith shown in them by his partner Dick Green in spades.
Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power (Read about it here)
The Furries continued their handsome reissue programe by making us miss them all over again. Phantom Power was a West Coast album, but only if you meant Aberystwyth, the band subtly hitting back at post 9/11 abuses of power and the gathering ecological crisis, whilst still sounding rather lovely.
The Darkness – Permission to Land (Again) (Read about it here)
Poster children for the you can have it all and lose it just as fast rock n’ roll fairytale, Justin Hawkins and co. sold nostaligia in a way so clever that superfically it looked incredibly dumb. The quartet popped when they needed to and metalled when they could, making Permission to Land the definitive nostalgic trip for lovers of eighties hair metal in an unwelcoming new century. The overall delivery was spoiled though by some lazy, throwaway additional material, where a fascinating developmental story could’ve been told.
ABC – The Lexicon of Love (Live) (Read about it here)
Now simply Martin Fry, a suit and a backing orchestra, ABC were once purveyors of superior pop which went against the grain of their moody South Yorkshire contemporaries. The Lexicon of Love was and is perfect for the big band treatment and whilst the warm up act of post –Love hits is mostly for fans only, the main event is a faithful and stylish piece of nostalgia which still stands proudly on it’s own merits.
Compilations
Where Were You: Independent Music From Leeds (1978-1989) (Read about it here)
Bias is everything and of all Britain’s major cities, Leeds’ musical story in the 70’s and 80’s bas been scantly represented to the point of anonymity. A handful of acts touched the mainstream – Gang of Four, Soft Cell, The Sisters of Mercy – but Where Were You? isn’t about or made to commemorate them. You’ll almost certainly never have heard of Rouge, or Pink Peg Slax, The Prowlers or Len Liggins, but across three discs a scene which remained largely under the radar by choice is celebrated in all it’s weird and wonderfulness.
The Redskins – These Furious Flames! Live! 1985-86 (Read about it here)
If any band has ever had a better mission statement than to sing like The Supremes and walk like The Clash then it’s yet to be heard. On this best of culled from two live performances The Redskins are once again confirmed as one of the decade’s most under rated agit-propppers; if you can manage to ignore the Neil Kinnnock related banter this is a sweet sounding document of a great live outfit.
Erasure – Always (The Very Best of Erasure) (Read about it here)
Vince Clarke and Andy Bell’s numbers as Erasure are little short of phenomenal – eight top ten albums in a row between 1986’s Wonderland and 1997’s Cowboy, an estimated 25 million sold to date – and whilst Always understandably leans more heavily to their earlier Imperial period, through out Bell’s operatic tenor is still a fine instrument all of itself.
Inspiral Carpets – The Complete Singles (Read about it here)
Madchester’s curse was that it produced very few bands which had anything resembling durability, so when it quickly died the perception was that its key players had gone with it. The Inspiral Carpets had more substance than many of their peers, although questions remain about whether they would’ve broken out from being cult concerns had the cards dropped a different way. The Complete Singles however leaves all that speculation for later in the form of a very listenable career spanning retrospective, bolstered by a slew of remixes that proved they were more than simply bowl cuts and a working men’s club organ.
The Voice Of Unreason 