The Discs (Are Out Tonight): Bowie’s Newest LP Expanded to Three-Disc Set

Of all the comeback stories in 2013, perhaps none may have been more intriguing than the master of comebacks, David Bowie. The legendary rocker kicked off his 66th year with a surprise announcement: his first album of new material in a decade. Recorded in secret over a two-year period with producer Tony Visconti, The Next Day was met with critical acclaim – our own Joe Marchese called it “an angry, electric exploration of where he is now, where he was then, and where he will likely be…not a reinvention, but rather a resurgence.”

Joe in fact noted some 30 tracks were reportedly recorded for the album – and, in another surprise, a triple-disc reissue of the album will bring some of those tracks to light, along with other bonus material. The Next Day Extra features a bonus CD featuring four previously-released cuts (three from a deluxe CD package released alongside the album and another Japanese-only bonus track), two new remixes of album cuts “Love is Lost” (remixed by James Murphy of LCD Soundsytem) and “I’d Rather Be High,” and four new songs: “Atomica,” “The Informer,” “Like a Rocket Man” and “Born in a UFO.”

The set is rounded out with a region-free DVD collating all of the visually arresting videos made for the album’s singles, “Where Are We Now?,” “The Stars (Are Out Tonight),” the title track and “Valentine’s Day.” It all comes in a cleanly-designed Barnbrook package featuring two booklets – one with lyrics and one featuring stills from the videos. (For those who just want the bonus tracks without buying the set again, a digital EP will be released presenting that second disc, minus the tracks from the deluxe edition.)

The Next Day Extra materializes into stores on November 4. Pre-order links are not live, but the full rundown of the set is after the jump.

Back to Ocean Boulevard: Eric Clapton’s “Give Me Strength: The ’74/’75 Recordings” Expands Three Vintage Albums

What’s better than one deluxe edition of an Eric Clapton album?  How about three?  And how about if they’re housed in one package?

On November 26 December 10, Universal Music Group will unveil the 5-CD/1-Blu-ray box Eric Clapton – Give Me Strength: The ’74/’75 Recordings, featuring remastered and expanded versions of 461 Ocean Boulevard, There’s One in Every Crowd and E.C. Was Here, plus additional material and a Blu-ray of surround mixes.  Housed in a hardbound 60-page book, the box set is an exhaustive compendium of Clapton’s seminal “comeback” recordings between April 1974 and June 1975.  Give Me Strength follows Universal’s past boxes dedicated to Derek and the Dominos’ Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and Clapton’s 1977 Slowhand, and includes:

• 88 remastered, remixed, rare unreleased and live recordings, including session outtakes, from studio albums 461 Ocean Boulevard and There’s One in Every Crowd, and live album E.C. Was Here on 5 CDs;
• A new, never-before-released 5.1 surround sound mix of 461 Ocean Boulevard by Elliot Scheiner, and original quadraphonic mixes of 461 Ocean Boulevard and There’s One in Every Crowd.

When Clapton scored in 1974 with 461 Ocean Boulevard and its chart-topping single “I Shot the Sheriff,” both on Robert Stigwood’s RSO label, the guitar god was emerging from a period of relative inactivity.  Following the November 1970 release of Derek and the Dominos’ sole long-player Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs and the ensuing tour at the end of that year, Clapton kept a low profile for much of 1971 and 1972 to battle an ongoing drug problem.  (His participation in The Concert for Bangla Desh was one appearance during that dark period.)  Two January 1973 concerts yielded the September release of Eric Clapton’s Rainbow Concert, on which he was joined by fellow rock royalty including Pete Townshend, Ronnie Wood, Ric Grech, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi.  In early 1974, he found time to appear in Ken Russell’s starry film adaptation of Townshend’s Tommy.  But Clapton signaled that he truly was out of the darkness – for the time being, at least – with the arrival of 461 Ocean Boulevard, so named for a Golden Beach, Florida residence where the cover photograph was shot.

We have plenty more after the jump, including the full track listing and pre-order links!

Hey, Ho, Let’s Go: Rhino Boxes Up Some Ramones Records on CD

Rhino continues its affordable/collectible album box set streak with New York’s own Ramones.

The Sire Years 1976-1981 is just that: a box collating Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, Tommy and (from 1978’s Road to Ruin onward) Marky’s first six albums for Seymour Stein’s label – three hours of classics from one of the defining bands of the punk rock movement. Ramones (1976), Leave Home, Rocket to Russia (both 1977), Road to Ruin, the Phil Spector-produced End of the Century (1980) and Pleasant Dreams (1981) are all included here.

While it’s a solid addition to your or someone else’s collection, it should be noted that this box will not feature any of the great bonus tracks Rhino dug up for a lengthy series of Ramones remasters in 2001 and 2002. (An additional two albums for Sire, Subterranean Jungle (1983) and Too Tough to Die (1984), were also expanded.) The label confirmed this to us late last week, adding that the same mastering from those reissues will be preserved on this set.

The approximate price per disc for the box is not that different from picking up the expanded remasters in a store, so if bonus tracks aren’t necessarily your thing, The Sire Years 1976-1981 is yours to pick up on October 29. You can order it at Amazon U.S. and Amazon U.K.