Weekend Wround-Up: Queen Sets in September, Trent is Angry and Notable Links

• Queen have confirmed their last batch of expanded studio albums – The Works, A Kind of Magic, The Miracle, Innuendo and Made in Heaven – to be released in the U.K. on September 5 from Island/UMC. Another Deep Cuts compilation will be released as well, as seen above; neither that set nor the bonus material have gotten confirmed track lists. Note that all 15 remastered studio albums will be out before the second batch of reissues hit American shelves.
• It usually pains me to agree with Nine Inch Nails honcho Trent Reznor – the musician who rallied so hard against the superficiality of the Grammys had no problem picking up an Oscar for the score to The Social Network last year – but his latest cause is a particularly worthy one. The musician took to Twitter to urge fans not to buy a recent reissue of Pretty Hate Machine that Universal put out. The set was not sourced from the remastered tapes which were released through UMe last year, nor did the bonus track on said remaster appear. Look, maybe I’m just naive, but what does a label stand to gain from reissuing a catalogue album so soon after re-releasing it in the first place?
• Another one from the “strange tales of the industry” department: the reissue of Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying? sold 1,800 copies in its first week. Not sure whether that’s worthy of mention, nor if that’s even a good number for a major-label catalogue title. I’ve seen some reports damning that number, but indie reissue labels sometimes limit titles to around that quantity, and you don’t see them struggling publicly. The music business doesn’t always make sense, is what I’m trying to say.
• Let’s end on a happy note, shall we? A nice article about High Moon Records and their upcoming reissues of Love’s Black Beauty and Gene Clarke’s Two Sides to Every Story. Hooray!

Release Round-Up: Week of November 23

With most retailers putting out their new releases today to get a jump on the inevitable holiday weekend blitz, here’s the big catalogue releases for the week a day early!

Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson’s Vision (Epic/Legacy)

A three-DVD set that includes just about any MJ video you could be searching for. Of course, the one unreleased clip just officially hit the Internet, making you wonder what the fuss is all about. Oh wait, it’s Michael Jackson. (Official site)

Jay-Z, The Hits Collection Vol. 1 (Def Jam)

The first domestic compilation by one of the most respected MCs in the game. A deluxe version features five unreleased tracks. The perfect soundtrack to reading his new memoir. (Official site)

The Who, Live at Leeds: 40th Anniversary Edition (Geffen/UMe)

If you haven’t bought Live at Leeds in any of its three previous incarnations, this set adds the complete Hull show in addition to the complete Leeds show and throws in some vinyl and book bonuses. (Amazon)

 

The Rolling Stones, The Rolling Stones Vinyl Box Set 1964-1969 (ABKCO/UMe) / The Rolling Stones Vinyl Box Set 1971-2005 (Rolling Stones/UMe)

Two hefty boxes of wax collecting all the albums, EPs and compilations The Stones ever committed to tape. (Amazon – 1964-1969)

Pet Shop Boys, Ultimate Pet Shop Boys (EMI)

A thin hits compilation made slightly more worthwhile by the presence of a deluxe edition with a well-stocked DVD of Top of the Pops performances and other live treats. (Official site)

Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine (Null Corporation/Bicycle Music Company/UMe)

Trent Reznor remasters and reissues NIN’s debut album with one bonus track. (Amazon)

Mr. Mister, Pull (RCA/Legacy)

Released from the vault after 20 years, Legacy issues a digital (and limited physical) release of the fourth Mr. Mister LP, alongside digital releases of two other Mr. Mister albums (I Wear the Face (1984) and Go On… (1987)) and two LPs by the pre-Mister group Pages. (Official site)

Nine Inch Nails Get “Pretty” Again

Trent Reznor may be considered a music industry maverick among most fans and critics, but even he can’t resist a good old-fashioned reissue.

The musician best known as the sole brain trust behind Nine Inch Nails, is reissuing his first, frequently out-of-print album under the NIN banner, 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine, as a joint venture between The Bicycle Music Company and his former label group at Universal.

Reznor was a janitor at Right Track Studios who used unassigned time at the studio to work on his own tunes. He recorded it all himself, from vocals to guitars to keyboards to samplers. Ultimately, after being rejected by the TVT label, he reproduced his work in studios in New York, Boston and London with topline producers including Flood (riding high as the engineer for U2’s The Joshua Tree), John Fryer (producer of Depeche Mode’s Speak and Spell, Yazoo’s Upstairs at Eric’s and others) and Adrian Sherwood (who’d recently worked with Ministry and Lee “Scratch” Perry). The finished Pretty Hate Machine was accepted by TVT, and it would go on to sell three million copies. (Interestingly, the always-intriguing 33 1/3 book series by Continuum has a volume based on the record slated for March.)

The record went out of print in the 1990s following a well-publicized feud between Reznor and the label and the label’s subsequent bankruptcy in the last decade. Rykodisc did reissue the album, but this set is the first reissue overseen and approved by Reznor himself. (The Bicycle Music Company acquired the rights to the album earlier this year with the intention of putting the album back, to quote Reznor, in “friendly territory.”)

Besides a new digital remaster by longtime NIN engineer Tom Baker and redesigned artwork by NIN art director Rob Sheridan, this reissue adds one bonus track, a B-side recording of Queen’s “Get Down, Make Love.”

Read the press release here (credit to Slicing Up Eyeballs for first reporting the story) and view the track info after the jump.