Release Round-Up: Week of February 14

Barry White, Let the Music Play: Expanded Edition (Hip-o Select/Mercury)

What’s Valentine’s Day without a little satin soul? Numerous bonus tracks abound on a new pressing of this underrated gem of an album.

Captain Beefheart, Bat Chain Puller (Zappa)

The original, intended edition of the Captain’s lost album.

Cotton Mather, Kontiki: Deluxe Edition (The Star Apple Kingdom)

An underrated work of ’90s power-pop, expanded with a bonus disc of rarities and unreleased materials that was funded entirely through Kickstarter!

Pulp, It / Freaks / Separations: Deluxe Editions (Fire)

Before they signed to Island and caught a Britpop wave, Jarvis Cocker and company released these three albums, all newly expanded with rare and unreleased tracks.

Bryan Adams, Cuts Like a Knife / Dio, Holy Diver (Audio Fidelity)

Two classics of the ’80s newly mastered on 24KT gold CDs.

Phoebe Snow, Phoebe Snow / Joe Walsh, But Seriously, Folks… (Friday Music)

The latest audiophile vinyl offerings from our friends at Friday Music.

The Beach Boys, Pet Sounds (Mobile Fidelity)

The first MoFi/SACD pressing of a most classic of albums.

Pulp on Fire: Early U.K. Albums Expanded for February Release

Yesterday’s announcement of the lineup for the three-day Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in April was met with typical fanfare associated with major festival announcements. And why not? A veritable who’s who of rising stars and legends across a wide swath of genres will be performing, including Radiohead, The Black Keys, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, Bon Iver, Madness, Squeeze, The Shins, ex-Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher, the newly-reunited At the Drive-In, James, Florence and The Machine, Girl Talk and several dozen other excellent acts.

Another major name on the bill: Pulp, beloved Britpop outfit, who recently reunited last year to perform a clutch of festival dates in Europe. Their Coachella set is their first major performance of the year, and a great sign to all who were awaiting their moves for the new year. But not only are Jarvis Cocker and company hitting the road, they’re revisiting their early catalogue next month with reissues of their first three albums on the Fire Records label.

Before Cocker and band were gathered into the burgeoning Britpop scene in the mid-’90s, alongside guitar-heavy bands like Oasis, Blur and Radiohead, they had spent a tempestuous decade signed to Fire, discouraged by the lack of solidarity with their label and absence of commercial success. (The band’s personal nadir may have been the dark and dreary Freaks, recorded in one week in 1987, after which the band nearly split.) Eventually, the single “My Legendary Girlfriend” gained some press attention in 1991, and the eventual move up to the majors with the release of His ‘n’ Hers (1994) on Island Records was their major commercial breakthrough.

Fire’s forthcoming expansions of It (1984), Freaks and Separations (1991) include a host of non-LP singles and B-sides (in the case of Freaks, the bonus material takes up an entire extra disc). In addition, It and Separations include previously unreleased material.

Each reissue will be available in the U.K. on February 13. Hit the jump to check out the track lists!

Weekend Wround-Up: Pulp and Howard Jones Reissue News, Record Store Documentary In Progress

• NME reports the first three albums by the recently-reunited Britpop legends Pulp will be reissued later this summer. Although It (1983), Freaks (1987) and Separations (1992) (the first originally released on indie label Red Rhino and the other two released through indie Fire Records) will not be remastered, they will feature new artwork and, in the case of the latter two, bonus tracks culled from single B-side material. (It was re-released by Cherry Red in 1994 with three bonus tracks; one of which was included on a subsequent reissue by Fire Records.) The albums will join deluxe reissues of the band’s His ‘n’ Hers (1994), Different Class (1995) and This is Hardcore (1998), released by Universal Music Catalogue in 2006.
• In his latest fan newsletter, Howard Jones touched on the next batch of remastered albums to come, following reissues of his two great dance EPs earlier this year. It’s going to be a rather sizable release; Jones plans to reissue his last three Elektra albums (One to One (1986), Cross That Line (1989) and In the Running (1992)) as one batch, with two – count ’em, two! – discs of bonus material in one box set. Among the intended bonus tracks are new remixes of 1989 singles “Everlasting Love” and “The Prisoner.”
• While this news isn’t exactly reissue-oriented, we know catalogue enthusiasts love record stores. And there’s a pretty neat project about one of the most famous record stores in the works. All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records, is a new documentary about Russ Solomon, who started the modest chain in 1960 only to see it grow into one of the biggest music retailers – and ultimately, one of the industry’s biggest casualties. The project, the directorial debut of actor Colin Hanks (son of Oscar-winning actor Tom), has taken to fundraising website Kickstarter to raise money for the project – and since his page was activated five days ago, has raised over $46,000 on a goal of $50,000. Who says the music-buying public has disappeared?