Release Round-Up: Week of September 30/October 1

Most titles this week are already out in the States, on account of Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience – 2 of 2 hitting stores on Monday. So without further ado…

Rush, The Studio Albums 1989-2007 / Vapor Trails Remixed (Atlantic/Rhino)

All of the Canadian rock gods’ albums for Atlantic in one box, with 2002’s Vapor Trails newly remixed (and available separately).

The Studio Albums: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Vapor Trails Remixed: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The Bongos, Phantom Train / Richard Barone, Cool Blue Halo: 25th Anniversary Edition / Cool Blue Halo: 25th Anniversary Concert (Jem Recordings)

The Hoboken power-pop group releases a lost classic – an album recorded with Eric “E.T.” Thorngren in 1986 – and frontman Richard Barone reissues his deluxe packages of 1987 solo debut Cool Blue Halo (and a 2012 2CD/1DVD concert in tribute of that album) through the recently reactivated Jem Recordings, which once distributed The Bongos’ earliest works. (Coming later this week: an interview with Richard Barone on Phantom Train and more!)

Phantom Train: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Cool Blue Halo: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Cool Blue Halo 25th Anniversary Concert: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Patti Page, The Complete Columbia Singles 1962-1970 / From Nashville to L.A. – Lost Columbia Masters 1963-1969 / Perry Como, Just Out of Reach – Rarities from Nashville Produced by Chet Atkins / The Lords of the New Church, The Lords of the New Church / Is Nothing Sacred? / The Method to Our Madness / Billy Preston, 16-Yr. Old Soul / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Vol. 21 – Richmond, Virginia 11/1/85

The latest Real Gone batch includes hits and rarities from Patti Page, long out-of-print albums by punk group The Lords of the New Church and more!

Andrew Gold, Andrew Gold/What’s Wrong with This Picture?/All This and Heaven Too/Whirlwind…Plus (Edsel)

Edsel thanks you for being a friend by packing up, in one set, all of Andrew Gold’s pop albums for Asylum and all of the bonus tracks on previous Collector’s Choice reissues. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Patrice Rushen, Patrice/Pizzazz/Posh / Straight from the Heart/Now (Edsel)

Speaking of Edsel sets collecting an artist’s discography, “Forget Me Nots” hitmaker Patrice Rushen has two sets out featuring all of her albums for Elektra plus rare 12″ remixes.

Patrice/Pizzazz/Posh: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Straight from the Heart/Now: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Old 97’s, Old 97’s & Waylon Jennings (Omnivore)

An astounding four-track EP (previously a Record Store Day exclusive) featuring collaborative demos between the Dallas alt-country group and one of the genre’s finest outlaws. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

John Martyn, The Island Years (Universal U.K.)

The U.K. folk star’s entire discography for Island is expanded and collected in a mega 17CD/1DVD swag-filled box. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Gladys Knight & The Pips, Imagination: Expanded Edition / Life: Deluxe Edition (Funkytowngrooves)

The first of several expanded Buddah/Columbia-era albums from FTG; Imagination has immortal hit “Midnight Train to Georgia.”

Imagination: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Life: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Hybrid SACDs from Audio Fidelity: America, America / Sarah McLachlan, Touch / Poco, Pickin’ Up the Pieces / Rush, Hemispheres

Lonely Boy No More: Edsel Honors Andrew Gold with Complete Albums Set

If you’ve been looking for a simple way to acquaint yourself with the soft rock stylings of the late Andrew Gold, Edsel may have just the set for you: a triple-disc, bonus-laden compilation of Gold’s four albums for Asylum Records.

The singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist enjoyed his greatest successes as one of the pre-eminent smooth pop tunesmiths of the late ’70s. “Lonely Boy” was a Top 10 hit in 1977, while follow-ups “Thank You for Being a Friend” and “Never Let Her Slip Away” enjoyed respective chart successes in the U.S. and the U.K. (the latter hitting No. 5 in England, while a cover of the former lives on in syndication as the theme to The Golden Girls). Gold’s impressive CV also included songs for Leo Sayer (“Endless Flight“) and Wynonna Judd (“I Saw the Light“), the band Wax with Graham Gouldman of 10cc (Gold had to turn down an offer to join 10cc in 1981, but the duo enjoyed great U.K. success with a Top 10 single, “Bridge to Your Heart“) and a TV theme success of his own: “The Final Frontier,” sung by Gold but written by actor Paul Reiser and Don Was, played over the opening credits to Mad About You for the majority of its seven-season run. It’s an indelible musical legacy that, sadly, outlives Gold, who passed away in 2011.

Edsel’s “four-fer” not only includes all four Asylum releases – 1975’s self-titled debut, 1976’s What’s Wrong with This Picture? and 1978’s All This and Heaven Too and Whirlwind – but a third disc includes all 20 bonus tracks included on the long out-of-print Andrew Gold remasters released on the Collector’s Choice label in 2005. Alternate versions of “Lonely Boy” and “Thank You” are included, along with various gems that had never been released in any format before.

The clumsily-titled Andrew Gold/What’s Wrong with This Picture?/All This and Heaven Too/Whirlwind…Plus is nonetheless a terrific value for fans of soft rock done right (even at a $25 import price for Amazon U.S. buyers). It’s out September 30 and can be pre-ordered after the jump.

New Box Set Spotlights 10cc and the Things They Did for Love

10cc: smooth rock pioneers? Irreverent architects of “art for art’s sake”? The debate continues this year with the U.K.’s first-ever career-spanning 10cc box set, Tenology, to be released by Universal in November.

The group U.S. audiences know best for the immaculately-crafted “I’m Not in Love” and “The Things We Do for Love” are only seeing half the picture: singers/songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, who were responsible for the poppier songs in the 10cc catalogue, were complemented by the more avant-garde stylings of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. All four members had an impressive curriculum vitae: Gouldman wrote songs for The Yardbirds and The Hollies (including “Look Through Any Window” and “Bus Stop”), and would join vocalist and guitarist Stewart as a member of The Mindbenders (Stewart led the band after Wayne Fontana departed, and sang the group’s massive hit “A Groovy Kind of Love.”) Godley & Creme, who’d sung and wrote tunes in the same circles, further collaborated with Stewart and Goldman as session players at the famed Strawberry Studios in Stockport.

After Stewart, Godley and Creme scored a worldwide hit with the novelty tune “Neanderthal Man” (under the moniker Hotlegs), all four members of the future 10cc earned acclaim as session players on Neil Sedaka’s Solitaire and The Tra-La Days Are Over. Bolstered by their success with Sedaka (and undeterred by the rejection of their first intended single “Waterfall” by Apple Records), 10cc struck out on their own, signing to Jonathan Kings UK Records and almost immediately enjoying British chart success with smart, funny pop tunes like “Donna,” “Rubber Bullets,” “The Dean and I” and “The Wall Street Shuffle,” all Top 10 hits.

Though the band’s fortunes were shining brightly, particularly when the ethereal “I’m Not in Love” peaked at No. 2 in the U.S., Godley & Creme were dissatisfied with the band’s increasingly pop direction and split, releasing the conceptual triple-album Consequences in 1977 and spending much of the ’80s as in-demand directors of music videos (Duran Duran’s “Girls on Film,” The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” and more).

Stewart and Gouldman continued under the 10cc name, but changing music trends meant they did not enjoy the same success as the years went on. (Stewart was also badly hurt in a 1979 car accident, keeping him away from the changing music scene for awhile.) While singer/songwriter Andrew Gold was invited to join the band in the early ’80s, and did in fact contribute his talents to a few tracks, it did little to revive the brand. 10cc were essentially on hiatus by 1984, by which point Stewart began a longtime collaboration with Paul McCartney and Gouldman formed Wax with Andrew Gold.

All four members reunited for 1992’s …Meanwhile, but Godley & Creme would depart once more shortly thereafter. A 1995 album with Stewart and Gouldman, Mirror Mirror, was not a success, though Gouldman still tours under the 10cc name with touring members Rick Fenn on guitar and Paul Burgess on drums (both of whom have played in studio and live with the group during their heyday).

The release of Tenology marks the first such career-spanning box to come from their native land (a 1991 box set released in Japan featured many of their singles and non-LP B-sides for the first time on CD). All four members participated in track selection and interviews with journalist Paul Lester for the set, which features four CDs of singles, album cuts and B-sides and a DVD of live footage and promo videos. Storm Thorgerson’s Storm Studios designed the box art; Thorgerson designed many of the band’s original album sleeves as a member of the design studio Hipgnosis.

If you’re into 10cc, or really smart, polished pop in general, this set looks hard to beat. It’ll be available in the U.K. on November 19. Hit the jump to order your copy and check out the full track list.