Release Round-Up: Week of January 21

The Beatles, The U.S. Albums (Apple/Capitol/UMe)

The centerpiece product of The Fab Four’s 50th anniversary celebration (thus far, anyway) is a 13-disc box featuring the original, unique American releases on Capitol/United Artists from 1964 to 1970 (including six titles from that first year alone). All but the spoken-word documentary album The Beatles’ Story will be available individually, and all but that and 1970’s stereo-only Hey Jude compilation will be available in mono and stereo on the same disc.

The U.S. Albums: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Meet The Beatles!: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Beatles’ Second Album: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
A Hard Day’s Night: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Something New: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Beatles ’65: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
The Early Beatles: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Beatles VI: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Help! Original Motion Picture Soundtrack: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Rubber Soul: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Yesterday and Today: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Revolver: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Hey Jude: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Del Amitri, Waking Hours / Change Everything / Twisted: Deluxe Editions (Mercury/UMC)

Best known in the U.S. for peppy rock radio hit “Roll to Me,” the recently-reunited Glasgow rockers’ first three alternative-friendly albums for A&M are being expanded as double-disc sets with heaps of non-LP B-sides.

Waking Hours: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Change Everything: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Twisted: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Mike + The Mechanics, The Singles 1985-2014 / The Living Years: Deluxe Edition (UMC)

To time with Mike Rutherford’s new memoir, the Genesis guitarist/bassist’s famed side-project (with vocals from Paul Carrack and Sad Café’s Paul Young) is first anthologized with a career-spanning double-disc hits and rarities set, and then an expansion of 1988’s The Living Years (whose title track was the band’s biggest worldwide hit), featuring a new version of the track with vocalist Andrew Roachford and a disc’s worth of live recordings from 1989.

The Singles 1985-2014: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
The Living Years: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Paul McCartney, Off the Ground (MPL/Hear Music)

Sir Paul’s 1993 album gets a no-frills new remaster. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Charo and The Salsoul Orchestra, Cuchi-Cuchi: Expanded Edition / Loleatta Holloway, Queen of the Night: Expanded Edition (Big Break)

Two more expanded albums from the Salsoul label on BBR – one from label queen Loleatta Holloway and the debut album from the famed singer-comedienne.

Charo: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Loleatta Holloway: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Major Harris, How Do You Take Your Love / Margie Joseph. Knockout: Expanded Edition (Funky Town Grooves)

FTG puts the first and only RCA album by ex-Delfonic/”Love Won’t Let Me Wait” singer Major Harris on CD for the first time, while expanding a 1983 album by Harris’ onetime labelmate Margie Joseph.

Major Harris: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Margie Joseph: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Various Artists, Playlist: The Very Best Of (Legacy)

The latest wave in Legacy’s low-price hits series includes some converted greatest hits titles (Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits, Journey’s Greatest Hits Live, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan) but also some new titles – chiefly some newly-curated compilations from Dean Martin, Ronnie Spector, Jermaine Jackson and Ray Parker, Jr. (All Amazon U.S. and U.K. links can be found in the link above!)

Say It Loud, Say It Clear: New Mike + The Mechanics Compilation Stacks Hits and Rarities (UPDATED 10/24)

UPDATE (10/24/2013): This set has been pushed back to January 20, 2014 (and duly retitled) to better coincide with some more Mike + The Mechanics events in the coming year, including a U.K. tour in the winter of 2014, a forthcoming memoir from Rutherford and a planned reissue of The Living Years for its 25th anniversary.

Original post (9/12/2013):Although Phil Collins was the one member of Genesis it was impossible to escape during the ’80s, thanks to an increasingly popular solo career and some phenomenal production credits, he was far from the only one of the trio with a solo hot streak in that decade. This year, Universal U.K. will honor the other major Genesis spinoff – guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford’s Mike + The Mechanics project – with an impressive double-disc compilation.

Singles 1986-2014 traces, in two discs, the complete history of the band, from their mid-’80s hits “All I Need is a Miracle,” “Silent Running” and “The Living Years” to their most recent album, the U.K.-only The Road in 2011. Of course, Rutherford was hardly on his own in the band; the band’s output through 1995 also featured a lineup that included Adrian Lee (of Cliff Richard’s touring band) on keyboards, drummer Peter Van Hooke (chief rhythmatist on Van Morrison’s late ’70s/early ’80s output) and the knockout punch of vocalists Paul Young (the late Sad Café frontman, not the blue-eyed soul singer of the ’80s) and Ace/Roxy Music/Squeeze soul survivor Paul Carrack. (Rutherford, Carrack and Young were the de facto lineup for 1999’s Mike & The Mechanics; after Young’s death, the duo carried on the name for 2004’s Rewired, which Van Hooke co-produced. The Road did reunite Rutherford with producer Christopher Neil, who produced or co-produced all of the band’s classic albums.)

The new set features hits and selections from every one of the band’s studio albums on Disc 1, while Disc 2 features 17 rare B-sides and non-LP tracks – including two unreleased tracks, the new “When My Feet Don’t Touch the Ground,” and “One by One,” an outtake with the vocal talents of both Carrack and Young prominently featured. If you’re a fan, this looks like quite a set.

Look for Singles 1986-2014 on October 21; Amazon U.K. currently lists single and double-disc versions, though it erroneously states the 2CD version to have a DVD. The full specs and pre-order links are after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of October 22

Peter Gabriel, So: 25th Anniversary Edition (3CD Deluxe Edition: U.S./U.K.; 4CD/2DVD/2LP Box Set: U.S./U.K.; Classic Albums: So DVD (U.S./U.K.)/BD (U.S./U.K.)) (Real World)

A year late for the actual 25th anniversary (PG never was one for deadlines), So sledgehammers record shops with a variety of expanded formats, including one of many mega box sets released this year.

The Beatles, Love Me Do (50th Anniversary Single) (U.S./U.K.) (Capitol/EMI)

Originally bungled due to a mispressing, The Fab Four’s debut 45 is replicated and reissued a few weeks after the actual 50th anniversary.

The Doors, Live at The Bowl ’68 (CD: U.S./U.K.; LP: U.S./U.K.; DVD: U.S./U.K.; BD: U.S./U.K.) (Elektra/Rhino/Eagle Rock)

The Lizard King returns with an incendiary audiovisual live set, newly remixed and remastered from the original elements.

Change, Disco Recharge: The Glow of Love/Miracles (U.K./U.S.) (Harmless)

Demon’s dance imprint reissues the two albums by Italian disco studio band Change (whose iconic “The Glow of Love” featured lead vocals by a then-unknown Luther Vandross); both are packed with various edits and remixes from the period.

Clifford Brown, The EmArcy Master Takes, Vol. 2: The Singers Sessions (U.S./U.K.) (Hip-O Select/Verve)

Brownie sits in with Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan and more.

Thelma Houston, The MoWest Album: Expanded Edition (U.K./U.S.) / The Miracles, Love Crazy: Expanded Edition (U.K./U.S.) / The Miracles (U.K./U.S.) (SoulMusic)

From this Cherry Red imprint comes a Motown rarity from Thelma Houston and two albums by The Miracles on Columbia Records.

Art Pepper, Neon Art: Volume 2 (U.S./U.K.) (Omnivore)

The second of three unreleased volumes of Art Pepper on colored vinyl, taken from a 1981 concert in Japan.

Mike + The Mechanics, Mike + The Mechanics (Gold CD) (U.S./U.K.) (Audio Fidelity)

Mike Rutherford’s side project, released before Genesis hit pop pay dirt with Invisible Touch, features the hits “Silent Running” and “All I Need is a Miracle.”

Original Broadway Cast Recording, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (U.S./U.K.) (Verve)

Rupert Holmes’ “Solve-It-Yourself Broadway Musical” is finally back on CD to coincide with the show’s current Broadway revival!  A full rundown on Verve’s reissue is coming soon!

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!