Release Round-Up: Week of October 22

Tears for Fears, The Hurting: Deluxe Edition (Mercury/UMe)

The landmark debut album from the U.K. hitmakers celebrates its 30th anniversary with a new double-disc deluxe edition stocked with rare single-only material and a deluxe box set version with a bonus disc of John Peel sessions and the In My Mind’s Eye live concert film on DVD.

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
3CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Van Morrison, Moondance: Expanded Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino)

Though Van would rather you not buy this box, it features his classic 1970 album (newly remastered and in a new 5.1 surround sound mix on the Blu-Ray) plus three discs of session outtakes.

1CD remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
4CD/1BD:  Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

The Waterboys, Fisherman’s Box: The Complete Fisherman’s Blues Sessions 1986-1988 (Parlophone)

This six-disc set features every take from the making of this celebrated album from Mike Scott’s band. A deluxe version features the original album on vinyl and a further bonus disc of songs that influenced the album – all of which will be broken down in full in a post later today!

6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
7CD/1LP: Amazon U.K.

Ten Years After, Recorded Live: Expanded Edition / Robin Trower, State to State: Live Across America 1974-1980 / UFO, “Hot ‘N’ Live”: The Chrysalis Live Anthology 1974-1983 (Chrysalis/Rhino)

These three hard-rockin’ releases from the Chrysalis vaults are ready to purchase this week – or you can win them from us!

Ten Years After: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Robin Trower: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
UFO: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

XTC, Nonsuch: Expanded Edition (Panegyric)

The band’s 1992 album, featuring modern rock hit “The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead,” features a new stereo and surround mix by Steven Wilson, plus a host of audiovisual extras.

CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
CD/BD: Amazon U.K.

Sparks, New Music for Amnesiacs: The Ultimate Collection (Universal U.K.)

One of the pioneering acts in quirk rock have a swag-filled five-disc career-spanning box set tangible object in the market. (Amazon U.K.)

Woody Guthrie, American Radical Patriot (Rounder)

A stunning 6CD/1DVD/1LP box set includes, for the first time, all of Guthrie’s historic recordings for Alan Lomax, plus scores of rarities – including a rare early Bob Dylan recording, too. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Queen, The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: Deluxe Edition (Eagle Rock)

The life of the late Queen frontman was celebrated in one of the greatest benefit concerts of all time – and this expanded version features, for the first time on DVD or Blu-Ray, tribute performances from the first half of the concert.

3DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Matt Monro, The Rarities Collection (Parlophone)

Three discs of rarities from the legendary crooner; most were originally released on The Rare Monro and/or Matt Uncovered: The Rarer Monro, but many have been sonically upgraded, with more rarities included herein! (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Laura Nyro, Smile: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic)

Nyro’s 1976 release, issued after a four-year absence, is expanded with three rare demos. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Donna Summer, Love to Love You Donna (Verve)

Classic Donna Summer tracks, newly remixed by modern dance acts and producers, plus an unreleased collaboration between Summer and longtime producer Giorgio Moroder.

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

TLC, 20 (Epic)

A new compilation from the acclaimed ’90s R&B girl group features a new track, “Meant to Be,” penned by R&B singer Ne-Yo. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

WE HAVE A WINNER! Chrysalis Live Classics from Ten Years After, Robin Trower and UFO!

KEITH PETTIPAS, THESE THREE SETS ARE YOURS! E-mail or Facebook message us and they’ll be on their way!

Rhino Turns Chrysalis Acts Up Live and Loud! Deluxe Sets Coming From Ten Years After, Robin Trower, UFO

Just a couple of months back, on July 1, Warner Music Group announced that it had completed the acquisition of the Parlophone Label Group from Universal Music Group. The transaction was set in motion as a result of the break-up of EMI, and with its completion, WMG now holds not only the Parlophone label itself but the Chrysalis/Ensign, EMI and Virgin Classics labels. We’ve seen projects already announced from the new Parlophone, including a Matt Monro rarities release due in the U.K. this September. We can now reveal that numerous Chrysalis titles are also in the pipeline, including Steven Wilson’s remix and reissue of Jethro Tull’s 1970 Benefit, and three more exciting seventies rock reissues from Ten Years After, Robin Trower and UFO.

Ten Years After soared to stardom in America following its smoking performance at Woodstock in August 1969. Over the next five years, the British blues-rockers charted eight Top 40 albums in their native England and earned a sizeable following stateside, as well. Alvin Lee, Chick Churchill, Leo Lyons and Rick Lee released the double-LP Recorded Live in 1973. Captured in European locales including Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris with the Rolling Stones’ mobile truck, Recorded Live preserves Ten Years After at its peak. Originally issued on Chrysalis in the U.K. and on Columbia in the U.S., the classic set is being expanded by Rhino with a full seven previously unissued performances including stabs at Lightnin’ Hopkins “I Woke Up This Morning” and Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.” The remastered and expanded Recorded Live arrives on October 7 in the United Kingdom and one day later in the United States.

After the jump, you’ll find the scoop on more previously unissued live goodies coming from Robin Trower and UFO! Plus: complete track listings and pre-order links!

In Case You Missed Them: EMI Budget Boxes from Robin Trower, Kevin Ayers

In the past few months, EMI has released or announced more of their budget box sets which collect swaths of complete albums and rare tracks over multiple, low-frills discs. In particular, today we spotlight two such sets from two virtuosic British musicians.

In February, the label released Farther On Up the Road: The Chrysalis Years 1977-1983 by Robin Trower. The London-born Procol Harum guitarist cut a steady amount of solid blues-based albums after leaving the “Whiter Shade of Pale” band in 1971, eventually paring his sound down to a power trio with vocalist/bassist James Dewar and drummer Reg Isidore. Bill Lordan would replace Isidore behind the drum kit starting with 1975’s For Earth Below; this trio is largely what’s heard on Farther On Up the Road, except for two of the final albums of Trower’s Chrysalis tenure.

On 1981’s B.L.T., he was joined by legendary Cream bassist Jack Bruce (the trio’s last initials make up the quirky album title); Bruce played on subsequent disc Truce, released later that year, with Isidore rejoining the group on drums. This set features every album from In City Dreams (1977) to Back It Up (1983), along with two non-LP B-sides.

Meanwhile, EMI will release in April a bigger, if slightly more frustrating, such set for Kevin Ayers, noted psychedelic musician and a founder of Soft Machine, a noted band in the genre. Ayers amicably left the shapeshifting band in 1968 (toward the end of his time in Soft Machine, he played with a then-unknown guitarist named Andy Summers, later the axe-man for The Police) and focused on an eclectic solo career. His time as one of the first artists on the Harvest label (a distinction shared in part with Pink Floyd) saw a great many collaborators in his musical life, including Syd Barrett and Mike Oldfield.

While The Harvest Years 1969-1974 includes Ayers’ first five solo records (including The Confessions of Dr. Dream and Other Stories, which was released by Island, not Harvest), it does not include every bonus track featured on expanded editions of these albums released by EMI in the mid-2000s. Many are included, however – all non-LP single sides and several rounds of BBC sessions (previously released on a non-EMI U.K. compilation in 2005) make up the bonus material.

The Trower box is available now; the Ayers box will be released April 26 in the U.K. and a week later as an import in the States. Both can be previewed after the jump.

Two, Rolling Stoned: Taylor and Trower Classics Coming From Iconoclassic

One of the most buzzworthy music events of 2010 undoubtedly was Mick Taylor reuniting on disc with The Rolling Stones to contribute new guitar parts to their expanded Exile on Main Street. Even years after leaving the Stones, Taylor remains beloved for his contributions to such classic albums as Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and of course, Exile. Iconoclassic Records has announced a project sure to excite fans of the incendiary axeman with the July 26 reissue of his solo 1979 album, Mick Taylor. But that’s not all. On the same date, the label will reissue Robin Trower Live, a document of another blues-rock guitar god in his prime.  (Iconoclassic’s third July release is Mark, Don and Mel 1969-1971, which compiles the early hits of Grand Funk Railroad.)

Mick Taylor first rose to prominence on a number of recordings by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, so when the Rolling Stones emerged from their dabbling in psychedelia and were reconnecting with their blues roots, it was Taylor whom they called. Taylor’s contributions to the Stones catalogue are appreciable; just play Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out or watch Gimme Shelter to experience how electrifying he could be. Taylor has even claimed to have co-written songs including “Moonlight Mile” and “Sway,” although the Glimmer Twins ceded no credit to him. So in 1975, Mick stunned the music world by announcing his departure from the band. After a brief stint in the Jack Bruce Band and a number of guest appearances, Taylor began his solo career, proper, with the release of 1979’s Mick Taylor. As Iconoclassic so accurately describes, “Mix Stonesy rock and blues with Jeff Beck’s Blow by Blow and the resulting stew will sound something like Mick Taylor’s eponymous debut.” Though his fluid, vibrant playing takes center stage on the album, he was supported by a number of fine musicians in the best 1970s supergroup style. These include Lowell George (Little Feat), Pierre Moerlen (Gong) and keyboardist Jean Roussell (Cat Stevens). Taylor also wrote every track on the album solo, excepting one co-write with Colin Allen. Taylor retreated from the studio after this album, however, and didn’t emerge until 1990 with a new blues collection including a take on “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” Iconoclassic returns Mick Taylor to print on CD in an edition remastered by Vic Anesini. Kris Needs contributes new liner notes, and the promo-only single version of “Leather Jacket” (with different guitar parts) has been added to the line-up as a bonus track.

For all the news on Robin Trower Live! plus track listings and discographical information for both titles, just hit the jump!