The Fruits of Another: Paul Carrack’s Career Anthologized on Triple-Disc “Collected”

Like some sort of blue-eyed soul version of Zelig, Paul Carrack has been a fixture of British rock for decades. As frontman of pub-rock Ace, he took “How Long” to the U.K. Top 20 and to No. 3 on Billboard‘s U.S. chart. He joined Roxy Music for their reunion album Manifesto in 1979, then sang and played keyboards for Squeeze on their iconic East Side Story album in 1981, which yielded the unforgettable “Tempted.”

Even while eking out a solo career post-Squeeze (enjoying U.S. hits with “Don’t Shed a Tear” and “One Good Reason,” the latter co-written by Squeeze lyricist Chris Difford) he was in no less than three notable bands: Nick Lowe and His Cowboy Outfit, a new venture for the venerable singer/songwriter/producer; Roger Waters’ Bleeding Heart Band, which backed the ex-Pink Floyd leader on the When the Wind Blows soundtrack and Radio KAOS in 1987; and Mike + The Mechanics, the side-project of Genesis guitarist Mike Rutherford where he sang on hits “Silent Running” and the chart-topping ballad “The Living Years.”

As Carrack releases a new album, Good Feeling, this fall, Universal U.K. recently celebrated his diverse career with a three-disc set of Carrack’s work. Collected covers Carrack’s whole solo career, as well as the best of his work with Ace, Squeeze, Mike + The Mechanics and others. For serious collectors, it’s worth noting that the third disc contains a lot of obscurities, including several non-LP B-sides.

Collected is available now, and yours to order from Amazon U.S. and Amazon U.K. (Thanks to super reader Ludo for the tip on this one!) Hit the jump for the full track list!

Release Round-Up: Week of June 21

Peter Tosh, Legalize It: Legacy Edition / Equal Rights: Legacy Edition (Columbia/Legacy)

The first two albums by the onetime Wailer are greatly expanded with rare alternate mixes and other goodies. (Official site)

Ace, Five-a-Side: Expanded Edition / Time for Another/No Strings: Expanded Edition (Cherry Red)

How long can you wait for expanded editions of the whole Ace catalogue? Each set (Five-a-Side as one set and the other two albums in another package) is remastered and expanded with a host of BBC session tracks. (Cherry Red)

Suede, Head Music: Deluxe Edition (Edsel)

We’ve been totally remiss lately about the Suede remasters, which by all accounts are damn good. So let us remind you that an expanded edition of Head Music came out today, with similar expansions of Suede, Dog Man Star and Coming Up already available. And A New Morning will be expanded next week! (Official site)

Carly Simon, No Secrets / Bad Company, Straight Shooter (Audio Fidelity)

The latest Audio Fidelity Gold CDs are Carly Simon’s breakthrough LP (the one with “You’re So Vain,” which I hope Matt Rowe correctly predicts will be expanded in the near future) and Bad Company’s great sophomore album (with “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and “Shooting Star”). (Audio Fidelity)

Various Artists, ICON (UMe)

They just. Won’t. Quit. (Original post with links to all the titles in this batch)

Cherry Red Has Ace in Their Hand

Some time ago, we reported on Cherry Red’s new reissue of an Ace compilation and subsequent intention to reissue all of the band’s back catalogue later in the year. Now, the U.K. reissue label has revealed their titles for June, and all three Ace LPs  are slated for release this summer, each greatly expanded with bonus material.

The Sheffield pub-rockers – best known, of course, for the U.S. Top 5 hit “How Long” and the kickstarting of vocalist Paul Carrack’s career (he’d later join Roxy Music, Squeeze and Mike + The Mechanics) – recorded three albums for Anchor Records between 1974 and 1977; Five-a-Side, Time for Another and No Strings will all be released by the label. The first album will be augmented with a bonus disc comprised of BBC sessions with John Peel and Bob Harris and one rare studio bonus track from a Japanese reissue in 2004. The last two will be packaged together with a third disc of additional live material licensed from the BBC, including another Peel session and two In Concert airings.

All in all, it looks like a pretty great way to sum up the band’s catalogue. All the titles will be out on June 20 in the U.K. and can be ordered at Cherry Red’s website now. Hit the jump to see how long the track lists are!

Cherry Red Fills in Gaps for April

The Cherry Red label group has been insanely busy in recent weeks prepping expanded and remastered albums for consumption in England. We’ve already seen new releases from their Now Sounds, Big Break and Soul Music labels, but April will see a few other worthy titles for your consideration on the Cherry Red, Cherry Pop, El and Iron Bird labels.

First up is a reissue of How Long: The Very Best of Ace, one of the surprisingly few career-spanning sets by pub-rockers Ace. The band’s brief brush with success manifested through the excellent single “How Long,” a No. 3 hit in America. Ace, of course, was the first of many bands to feature vocalist/keyboardist Paul Carrack, who would later lend his talents to Squeeze’s East Side Story (1981) and Mike + The Mechanics in the mid-’80s and ’90s. This compilation, featuring a newly expanded and updated booklet, looks to be the start of a reissue campaign by the label. This one’s due out April 11 in the U.K. and a week later in America.

Coming from the same label on April 25 (again, a U.K. date) is an expansion of The Fall’s The Marshall Suite (1999). Not too dissimilar to the band’s early albums put out as “Omnibus Editions” by Beggars’ Archive, the chaotic post-punk band’s long-out-of-print techno-influenced semi-concept album will be augmented by a disc of B-sides, remixes and BBC sessions and another disc of a live concert for XFM Radio in 1999. This set will feature new liner notes by Daryl Easlea of MOJO.

Cherry Pop has a delightful oddity in a reissue of the debut album by Pepsi & Shirlie. The singing and dancing duo were best known as part of the back-up band for WHAM! in the mid-’80s, but All Right Now (1987) saw the girls collaborating with pop producers Stock Aitken Waterman on a mostly original set featuring U.K. Top 10 hits “Heartache” and “Goodbye Stranger.” In traditional Cherry Pop fashion, B-sides and remixes are the order of the day as expanded material goes, along with two mixes of a previously-unreleased tune from the era, “Who’s Gonna Catch You?” The expansion of All Right Now is also due April 25 in England.

The Iron Bird label, which specials in hard rock and metal reissues, has a “three-fer” collecting the first three albums by Warrant. The Hollywood-based hair-metal rockers rose to fame in 1989 with the No. 2 power ballad “Heaven,” but most fans know them for the poppy, eyebrow-raising “Cherry Pie,” a Top 10 hit from a year later. This two-disc set includes straight reissues of the band’s first three LPs for Columbia – Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich (1988), Cherry Pie (1990) and Dog Eat Dog (1992) – but omits the bonus demos included on previous remasters by Legacy Recordings in the States. Still, for those looking for a bargain way to acquire all of these albums, this is your opportunity when it arrives in the U.K. on April 18.

Finally, an interesting early rock classic comes to El Records with some interesting (if not exactly relevant) bonus material. The Ventures might not be a household name to casual rock fans, but their influence is massive. The Tacoma, Washington duo were instrumental (no pun intended) in the development of guitar-based rock, experimenting with various effects and textures that would become staples of various rock genres. Their hit “Walk, Don’t Run” – easily one of the best surf-rock songs of all time, and an overall favorite of this author – was a deserved success, and set the band on a path of continued popularity and legacy, culminating with an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. El reissues the Walk, Don’t Run album in both the original stereo and mono mixes, but also adds eight selected sides by Bert Weedon, an influential English jazz-rock guitarist who was one of the first to take a rock instrumental, “Guitar Boogie Shuffle,” toward the top of the U.K. charts. It’s a pretty neat history lesson, and it’s out April 18 in the United Kingdom.

Track lists and pre-order links are all available after the jump.