And Don’t It Feel Good (To Have an Update)

Way back in the early days of The Second Disc, we reported on a set of remasters from Katrina and The Waves due for an April release. Only somewhat recently did we realize the release date had passed – but unlike most reissues that get announced and forgotten about, these actually came out.

Well, sort of, anyway. As of this writing, all four reissued LPs (Kimberley Rew’s The Bible of Bop, featuring tracks from The Waves, The Soft Boys and The dB’s; The Waves’ debut EP, Shock Horror! and both Katrina and The Waves and Katrina and The Waves II, which predated the band’s remixed and re-recorded 1985 LP (also called Katrina and The Waves) for Capitol, which spun off the hit version of “Walking on Sunshine”) are available on CD in the U.S. on Kyboside Records.

So far, only The Bible of Bop and Katrina and The Waves are available digitally, with the remaining two slated for digital release over the next two weeks. That same day of Shock Horror‘s digital release in the U.K. (May 23), the four will be available for physical purchase in the U.K. And if you decide to purchase them all digitally directly through the band’s Web site (where all this info is coming from), you’ll get a free copy of a new anthology disc they’re planning.

To top it all off, I’m getting conflicted reports that these sets might be limited, so act fast if you want them. Hit the jump to check the specs!

More Reissues Cutting Through

A Flock of Seagulls aren’t the only ’80s act getting a reissue from Cherry Pop. The label is prepping May 24 reissues of the first two records by another one-hit-wonder-with-a-whole-lot-more, Cutting Crew.

Though they’re best known for “(I Just) Died in Your Arms,” the band enjoyed two other Top 40 hits (“One for the Mockingbird” and “I’ve Been in Love Before,” a Top 10 single) and a minorly-successful sophomore release in their day. Cherry Pop is releasing both of these records – Broadcast (1986) and The Scattering (1989) – with a handful of bonus cuts each. Notably, Broadcast includes the original U.S. mixes of those big hits (as opposed to the now more-common U.K. lineup, which used three alternate mixes) and some live cuts; The Scattering includes three unreleased demos for all the Cutting Crew fans out there. And both have new artwork and newly-penned liner notes by CC vocalist Nick Van Eede.

Pre-order the albums here and check the jump for full track details.

Better Tending to the Flock

The U.K.-based reissue label Cherry Pop Records announced an upcoming reissue of Listen, the sophomore LP by seminal New Wave band A Flock of Seagulls, for a June 22 release. The set features the original album plus two remixes and three B-sides.

Now, a lot of catalogue fans have taken issue with Cherry Pop reissues – some of their reissues (as is regrettably the case with other smaller labels) don’t sound like they’re even mastered from the original tapes, and the bonus track situations sometimes confuse completists looking for every commercially released track. This post is not about those issues (although there are some non-LP tracks that seem to be missing from this set).

Listen is Cherry Pop’s second A Flock of Seagulls reissue, after an expanded version of the band’s 1984 record The Story of a Young Heart. That begs the question: where is the reissue of the band’s self-titled debut – you know, the one with “I Ran (So Far Away),” the band’s most enduring hit?

The Second Disc is all for reissue labels digging up curiosities from bigger labels. But let’s not forget the impact of those hits, too. Ponder that as you hit the jump and check out not only the track list for the new edition of Listen but a special Reissue Theory look at how that first record might look from Cherry Pop.