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Bleach [Deluxe Edition] / Live at Reading

Nirvana
Bleach [Deluxe Edition] / Live at Reading

[Sub Pop / Universal; 2009]

8.5 / 9.5
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Nirvana's scrappy Sub Pop debut has been reissued with a 1990 live show as a bonus, but the real gem is the legendary 1992 set at Reading, which has finally been given a DVD/CD release. Even when playing to the biggest audience of their career, Nirvana blast through the 25-song setlist with a barrel-down, no-bullshit intensity that suggests it didn't matter if they were playing to 100 people or 100,000. And the CD's career-spanning tracklist-- touching on the best of Bleach, most of Nevermind, choice singles and B-sides, three In Utero previews, and the aforementioned covers-- actually makes it a far superior, more comprehensive introduction for Nirvana newbies than the band's 2002 greatest-hits compilation. Like the Who's Live at Leeds or Cheap Trick's At Budokan, it's an indispensible document of a legendary band at their most invincible.

Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981

Various Artists
Ghana Special: Modern Highlife, Afro-Sounds & Ghanaian Blues 1968-1981

[Soundway; 2009]

8.5
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Ghana Special is a two-disc, 33-track companion to Nigeria Special and a successor to the Soundway label's two Ghana Soundz compilations from several years ago. Where Ghana Soundz focused on heavy funk and Afrobeat, this draws from a much wider spectrum, providing a panorama of the country's pop music. The influences range from local rhythms and age-old songs and the divergent palm-wine and big band highlife styles of Ghana itself to American blues, soul, and funk, European and American rock and psych, Cuban pachanga, and Nigerian Afrobeat. Ghana Special offers a spoil of riches you can dance to in any language.

Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Chosen) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Unheard)

Various Artists
Warp20 (Box Set) / Warp20 (Chosen) / Warp20 (Recreated) / Warp20 (Unheard)

[Warp; 2009]

9.2 / 7.5 / 8.4 / 8.0
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Warp celebrates 20 years in business with a massive box set collection that serves as high-end fetish object while containing a lot of great music. It's true that Warp20 is an expansive, expensive-looking (and, ok, expensive) box set that is in no way for the casual fan. Housed in a 10" slipcase, this thing has physical heft; and with a 192-page book detailing the complete visual history to date of the label, the full Warp set looks more like an item for your shelf. Even the CDs are housed in case-bound 10" folders rather than delicate little sleeves. The set works best when you allow yourself to live in it, to fully explore the label rather than simply skim off the top of it. That's true of any vinyl experience to a degree, but Warp's collection is a true pairing of art and sound, rather than one being supplemental to the other.

The Unforgettable Fire [Deluxe Edition]

U2
The Unforgettable Fire [Deluxe Edition]

[Mercury; 2009]

9.3
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Reissued in expanded form for its 25th anniversary, The Unforgettable Fire remains a special album in the U2 canon. It isn't U2's biggest commercial success (that would be The Joshua Tree) or its most rewarding artistic coup (Achtung Baby), but without it those records would not exist. It's a transitional album of the highest magnitude. The hits-- "Pride", "Bad"-- still hit, and even its sometimes-derided abstractions like "Promenade" and "Elvis Presley and America" contain enough mystery to keep unraveling a quarter-century years later.

Shaft OST [Deluxe Edition]

Isaac Hayes
Shaft OST [Deluxe Edition]

[Stax; 1971/2009]

8.5
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Isaac Hayes' game-changing film score, which launched the soul/funk soundtrack craze in the early 1970s, is given a deluxe reissue. Here, Hayes reached an ideal midpoint between film scoring convention and R&B auteurism, and Shaft is full of cinematic cues and motifs that came naturally to a musician who'd already pushed the boundaries of symphonic soul two years before on Hot Buttered Soul. While his music never really regressed-- Truck Turner, soundtrack or no, might be his best album of the 70s-- Shaft is where Hayes' meteoric popularity peaked. And for damn good reason.

Head [Deluxe Edition] / Goat [Deluxe Edition] / Liar [Deluxe Edition] / Down [Deluxe Edition]

The Jesus Lizard
Head [Deluxe Edition] / Goat [Deluxe Edition] / Liar [Deluxe Edition] / Down [Deluxe Edition]

[Touch and Go; 2009]

8.1 / 9.3 / 9.2 / 7.9
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Though they were not out of the print, the first four full-lengths from the hugely influential noise-rock band have been remastered by Steve Albini and Bob Weston and reissued. While all four albums are packed with ferocious and powerful music and all are worth owning, Goat and Liar are essential, capturing the band at the obvious peak of its powers. They present the Jesus Lizard as one singular, heaving thing, completely in step with one another as lead singer David Yow is free to bellow, wail, and hiss over it all.

Keep an Eye on the Sky

Big Star
Keep an Eye on the Sky

[Rhino; 2009]

9.3
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This 4xCD set from Rhino does what any good box set should do: In tracing Big Star's trajectory from power-pop progenitors to post-pop tinkerers, Keep an Eye on the Sky presents a history of the band that could not be gleaned from the albums themselves, using finished studio tracks along with demos and rarities to give a fuller picture of the musicians, their dynamic, and their songs. This type of repetition can be fatal in some reissues, either offering distinctions only a true diehard could love or valiantly covering up a deficit of unreleased material. But here, the approach goes a long way toward humanizing a band that has been largely mythologized even into the Internet age.

So Tough / Sound of Water

Saint Etienne
So Tough / Sound of Water

[Heavenly; 2009]

8.9 / 7.0
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The expanded 2xCD reissues of the St. Etienne catalogue continue, now touching on career highlight So Tough. In the two years between Saint Etienne's debut, 1991's Foxbase Alpha, and follow-up So Tough, Pete Wiggs, Bob Stanley, and Sarah Cracknell grew confident enough to chase that early morning vibe for a whole LP rather than craft Obvious Chart Hits to cement their status as burgeoning UK pop fixtures. Even the album's catchiest moments -- "Mario's Cafe", "You're in a Bad Way", "Avenue" -- are like sketches snatched from a personal demo reel compared to some of the glitzy indie-bubblegum and D.I.Y. disco on this reissue's second disc of extras and B-sides (cf. "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Join Our Club").

Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth

The Feelies
Crazy Rhythms / The Good Earth

[Domino / Bar None; 2009]

9.1 / 9.1
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Three-chord punk-- apparently too excessive for them-- was boiled down to two-chord devotionals on the Feelies amazing records: The one you've heard so much about but probably never actually heard (Crazy Rhythms) and the one that, weirdly, few people talk about (The Good Earth). Both of them are back, and both are worth a lot of your time.

 

The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses

[Sony; 2009]

10.0
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A badly needed remaster of this landmark debut sounds even fresher than it did 20 years ago-- and thanks to Sony there are now loads of expensive ways to hear it. The one to grab and keep is the 2xCD/DVD version, which features an extra set of demos and a DVD of the group's well-worn Blackpool show.

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