Release Round-Up: Week of July 5

Erasure, Wonderland / The Circus: Deluxe Editions (EMI)

Vince Clarke and Andy Bell’s first two albums, expanded with bonus B-sides and remixes across two CDs and DVDs full of live footage. (Official site)

Jim Capaldi, Dear Mr. Fantasy: The Jim Capaldi Story (Universal U.K.)

The late Traffic legend is memorialized in a four-disc box set. (Official site)

Paul McCartney, Driving Rain (MPL/Concord)

Another Macca remaster, this one of Paul’s 2001 album. No frills, but I imagine “Freedom” will get officially included on the track list. (Official site)

Ashford and Simpson, High Rise: Expanded Edition / Switch, Am I Still Your Boyfriend? Expanded Edition / The Pointer Sisters, Hot Together: Expanded Edition / Yarbrough & Peoples, Guilty: Expanded Edition / Prime Time, Flying High: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

A new brace of titles from Big Break Records, with the usual non-LP remixes and B-sides rounding out the albums. There’s more coming from BBR this month; keep your eyes peeled for a round-up post pretty soon. (Big Break)

Various Artists, The London American Label, Year By Year – 1958 (Ace)

Ace’s latest volume in the London American series, which honors one of the U.K.’s most beloved U.S. import labels, includes hits from Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin, Carl Perkins, Eddie Cochran and The Chipmunks! (Official site)

Erasure LPs Get a Little Respect on CD/DVD Sets

It wasn’t easy for Vince Clarke when he set out to form his latest project in 1986. The synth-playing songwriter had a lengthy amount of credits to his name in the previous five years, including the first album by Depeche Mode (of which he was a founding member), two albums with singer Alison Moyet as the synthpop duo Yazoo and a collaboration with producer Eric Radcliffe under the name The Assembly.

When he put out an ad in Melody Maker for a singer for a new project, though, lightning struck once more when Andy Bell, a young man working in a meatpacking plant, answered his ad. With a rich tenor similar in tone to Moyet, the duo began working as Erasure, with Clarke’s usual synth mastery nicely complementing Bell’s vocals. Although audiences were slow to pick up on the band – debut album Wonderland (1986) only dented the U.K. Top 75 and spun off no Top 40 singles – their sophomore record, The Circus (1987) was a smash hit, going Top 10 in the U.K. and yielding four hits, including the Top 10 tracks “Sometimes,” “Victim of Love” and the title track. (It was only the beginning of the band’s most successful period, though; their next four albums through 1994 would top the U.K. charts and third album The Innocents (1988) gave the group their biggest chart success with “Chains of Love” and the gorgeous “A Little Respect.”)

Erasure have gotten the deluxe treatment before; four box sets of the band’s singles were released in 2000 and 2001, and 2009 saw The Innocents remastered and expanded for its 21st anniversary. Now, on July 4 in the U.K., Wonderland and The Circus will receive the same deluxe treatment, presenting each remastered album and scores of extra material on CD and DVD across two CDs and a DVD. Unreleased material includes BBC sessions and a 1986 concert film; the 1987 concert Live at the Seaside also makes its DVD debut, having been released on VHS some years ago.

Both are available for pre-order at Amazon as well as through the band’s official fan club, the Erasure Information Service, which will offer exclusive bundles featuring a limited edition slipcase and T-shirt for each album. The full breakdown is after the jump.