Album: Warm Leatherette (Deluxe Edition)
Label: Universal
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Display Width: 200Grace Jones
Warm Leatherette (Deluxe Edition)
Warm Leatherette was one of Grace Jones’ poorest-selling albums. But it was one of her best and most important, as this deluxe reissue makes clear. Up until its release in 1980, Jones had been a mildly successful disco queen. But she was always destined for more than that. Island Records’ founder Chris Blackwell sent Jones to his studio in the Bahamas and put together a band led by the great reggae rhythm section Sly & Robbie. They all had the wisdom to inject Jones’ music with a new wave edge, exemplified by the title track, a cover of a cult British synthesizer hit about car crash erotica. The rest of the song selection, featuring coyly sassy takes on Roxy Music, the Pretenders, and Tom Petty, allowed Jones to create the androgynous dominatrix persona that made her a trendsetter for decades to come. Warm Leatherette was nothing short of the moment when a true icon was born. — John Bergstrom
Album: Boys For Pele
Label: Rhino
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Tori Amos
Boys For Pele
Tori Amos’s 1992 debut Little Earthquakes may be her most widely known work, but venture into the deep legions of so-called “Toriphiles” and you will find 1996’s Boys For Pele to be perhaps her most beloved release of all. Amos’s third album finds her at her most deliberately unhinged and obscure: the 18-track opus features a number of harpsichord-driven dirges and veers wildly from hysterical exorcisms to broken balladry. It alienated many listeners at the time, and initiated the winnowing of Amos’s fanbase into only the most devoted of cult followings. For everyone who dismissed Amos as a nut, though, there is a person who will tell you that Boys For Pele quite literally saved their life. With a title that suggests offering ex-boyfriends/The Patriarchy to a Hawaiian volcano goddess, the album is often mythologized among fans as rage and vengeance personified. Beneath the fury of “Professional Widow” and “Blood Roses”, however, is a quiet, broken soul seeking only self-reparation, as expressed in the somber beauty of “Horses”, “Hey Jupiter”, and “Putting the Damage On”. The album is a beacon for anyone who has ever found themselves shattered, abused, or marginalized, and for that it lives on as a seminal work of the 1990s. — Andrew Paschal
Album: The Hour of Bewilderbeast (15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Label: XL
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Badly Drawn Boy
The Hour of Bewilderbeast (15th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
It’s easy to forget how amazing Badly Drawn Boy’s first album was today, 16 years later. Despite critical accolades across the board, Bewilderbeast seems to have been nearly forgotten after Badly Drawn Boy couldn’t maintain the same quality level as a career. But the reissue is a great reminder how nearly every one of the album’s 18 tracks works beautifully. From alt-rock and indie-pop singles (“Everybody’s Stalking”, “Pissing in the Wind”) to brief instrumental interludes (“Bewilder”, “Blistered Heart”) the songs on the album refuse to stick with one style but somehow remain united by earworm melodies and Damon Gough’s quiet, compelling vocals. And the digressions remain thrilling, from the opening chamber orchestra of “The Shining” through the piano pop of “Magic in the Air” to the disco of “Disillusion.” As a reissue, the loaded second disc gives a glimpse of material that didn’t quite make the cut to the main album, and most of the time it’s obvious why these other songs just weren’t there in terms of style or quality. It’s fascinating in its own way and does a great job of filling in the edges of what Badly Drawn Boy was doing at this time. — Chris Conaton
Album: Fantasma
Label: Lefse
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Cornelius
Fantasma
Cornelius’ Fantasma has a genre, the Japanese nostalgia-fueled “Shibuya-kei”, but what it actually feels like is the producer taking conventions of trip-hop, alternative rock, pop, and electronic music, jamming them into a pressure cooker, and producing a dense, surrealist final product that is as difficult to describe as it is easy to indulge in. Originally released in 19XX, Fantasma opens with the fairly straightforward breakbeat-heavy “Mic Check” before spending the next 12 tracks (16 including bonus cuts), reveling in its oddball charm. For example, “Micro Disneycal World Tour” is part early Beck, part “Welcome to Duloc” from Shrek, while “Star Fruits Surf Rider” sounds like the end credits of an old Nintendo game if it was performed by the Flaming Lips. Cornelius is a true visionary; not only did he have the vision to see combinations other producers could not, but he had the gall to make his less logical ideas work through sheer force of will. The musical landscape in 2016 is diverse and eclectic, but Fantasma is still breathtakingly and painstakingly odd. — Grant Rindner
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Title: Avocet (Special Edition)
Label: Earth Recordings
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Bert Jansch
Avocet (Special Edition)
Earth Recordings has embarked on an ambitious reissue series focusing on revered UK folk guitarist and singer-songwriter Bert Jansch. It will be hard to top the treatment they’ve given his unique 1979 work Avocet. An instrumental concept album about British water birds, the reissue boasts remastered sound, an excellent essay by Jansch biographer Colin Harper, and new, improved artwork. Jansch is joined by violinist / mandocellist / flautist Martin Jenkins and bassist Danny Thompson on six tracks ranging from the 18-minute title song through the shimmering, almost psychedelic “Bittern” and “Kingfisher,” which prominently features Jenkins’ soaring violin. The natural interplay between the musicians creates a feeling of flight and the oft-mysteriousness of nature. Favorably received upon release and now a long-time fan favorite, this new version of Avocet reintroduced a landmark album and made it even better. — Rob Caldwell
Album: Screamadelica (Collector’s Edition)
Label: First International / Ignition
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Primal Scream
Screamadelica (Collector’s Edition)
Judging by Primal Scream’s first two albums at the end of the ’80s, not a single soul could have predicted that a titan like THIS would come next. The first track is truly a come-up, where the previously pretty-much-exclusively-jangly-rock band sheds their skin and launches into an oft-psychedelic, always-emotive and grooving release. In the same way that most of its tracks quote or directly sample other media from the years before its release, Screamadelica provided monumental inspiration for dance music that came to hold supreme rule throughout the ’90s (as well as the notoriously drug-fueled club-goers that went bonkers for it). When the opus isn’t pounding away with its programming towards the tail end, they reveal their analog base layer when earnestly describing the ache of “comin’ down”. The classic album is guaranteed to help power your Ups and bring you back from your Downs, and this year’s reissue of the 20th anniversary edition from 2011 contains a boatload of treasures for any fan: Kevin Shield’s remaster of the original album; the Dixie-Narco EP from a few months after Screamadelica‘s original release (featuring the somehow-unused but flooring title track); a cavalcade of remixes; and a live set from the band all the way back in ’91. Still today — at our seeming singularity of mega-simplified instantly-gratifying DAW loops — the long, rising-and-falling-and-rising release that won the first-ever Mercury Prize remains a must-hear album. — John DeLeonardis
Album: Health and Efficiency / Deceit
Label: Light in the Attic
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This Heat
Health and Efficiency / Deceit
The music of This Heat was and always will be timeless, but it’s hard to ignore the parallels between the swelling, Orwellian despotism of today and that of 35 years prior. The pre-post-apocalyptic paranoia that trickled through veins of Brits Charles, Charles and Gareth in those weird ’80s now seems to gush through the global, corporeal consciousness of our Soviet-run contemporaneity — what with imminent ecological catastrophe at the hands of man’s greed and negligence. This timely reissue of This Heat’s most seminal work crisply and cleanly frames that unnervingly familiar ideology. And as with Allan McCollum’s Plaster Surrogates of the subsequent year, we’re left to wonder whether the frame is mere simulacrum. Take a gander at the opening bars of Deceit‘s “Shrink Wrap”, a cyclonic self-remix of the unnervingly stilled opener, “Sleep”, or at “A New Kind of Water”, an ode to the putrefied, precious resource that sustains us… for now: “We finance clinics to research / A cure for cancer, our least vague fear / A new kind of water, a new way of breathing”, a choir of Charleses sings. Then bury yourself in the alarming dune of tape shreds that compose the Health and Efficiency EP, which uncannily forecasts the alt-swagger of Sonic Youth by over a decade. This Heat unquestionably knew too much. Now we do too. — A. Noah Harrison
Album: Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection
Label: Alligator
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Various Artists
Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection
It’s been 45 years since Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers entered a Chicago recording studio to cut the album that would change the face of American music forever. That self-titled release came out in August 1971 and launched an American institution, Alligator Records. Label boss Bruce Iglauer ran the operation from an efficiency apartment in the Windy City. In the subsequent decades, his imprint would issue roughly 300 titles, including releases from Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, and Lil’ Ed and The Blues Imperials, among many, many others. When quality blues records were hard to come by, and majors turned their attention to the latest fashions, Iglauer stuck it out, giving a loyal fan base music they didn’t know they were missing. To see the Alligator logo on an album’s spine meant you were getting something handpicked from a friend who loved that music as much as you did. Maybe even more. — Jedd Beaudoin
17 – 10
Album: Lolita Nation
Label: Omnivore
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Display Width: 200Game Theory
Lolita Nation
Known in recent years for fronting the band Loud Family and writing the well-received list book Music: What Happened?, the late Scott Miller started his career leading Game Theory, one of those ’80s indie bands many people have heard of but — thanks to their two decades out of print status — haven’t heard. What a band! Miller’s love of guitar pop and guitar tones was near encyclopedic. On Game Theory’s fourth album Lolita Nation, regarded by many as their masterpiece, he centered his songs in the complex tunes and studio experiments of the Beatles, but he wasn’t some hippy dippy flower child; his songs are unimaginable without the sharp edges and DIY scrappiness of punk. (Indeed, the second disc of this reissue includes several covers, including the Sex Pistols, the Stooges, and the Hollies’ power pop masterpiece “Carrie Anne”.) The masterful melody of “We Love You Carol and Alison” seems never to stop climbing. One song later, “The Waist and the Knees” is raving with three chords and a bizarre breakdown of refracted Miller voices talking to themselves. The rhythm section stomps and Shelley LaFreniere fleshes out the arrangements with a rainbow of synth colors. In true Beatlesque fashion, there’s also some bizarre collage cut-up stuff happening. I’d call Lolita Nation one of its decade’s hidden gems, except it’s really long. — John Langhoff
Album: Kaleidoscope World (Deluxe Reissue)
Label: Flying Nun
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The Chills
Kaleidoscope World (Deluxe Reissue)
The world became a little more kaleidoscopic in 2016 with the reissue of the Chills’ 1986 collection of singles, EP cuts, and compilation tracks, Kaleidoscope World. Now expanded to 24 tracks, including live cuts and more early rarities, the album further emphasizes the broad range of styles the band explored. Their biggest hit, the gothic pop “Pink Frost,” is here as well as the breezy “I Love My Leather Jacket,” which dented the charts as well. Elsewhere, they ricochet from surf rock in “Hidden Bay” to punk on “Bite” and “Flame Thrower” to the sing-along acoustic “Bee Bah Bee Bah Bee Boe.” A “jaunty gloom” runs through Kaleidoscope World and this juxtaposition of cloudy and sunny that defines so many of the band’s songs is what lends an intrigue and individuality to this collection. They may have been hard to pin down stylistically, but they did it all so well that this early phase of the Chills’ career has maintained a remarkable longevity and is an integral part of their recorded legacy. — Rob Caldwell
Album: The Modern, Chess & Veejay Singles Collection 1949-62
Label: Acrobat
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John Lee Hooker
The Modern, Chess & Veejay Singles Collection 1949-62
John Lee Hooker’s The Modern, Chess, and Veejay Singles Collection 1949-62 is unique compared to the many other Hooker compilations and albums in that it collects all the singles, A-sides and B-sides recorded and released by him on these three labels during the period covered. The well-captured tracks are presented in chronological order with detailed session and releasing info for each song, so it’s possible to hear John Lee Hooker’s recording evolution leading up to his first albums, as well as how he collaborated with different producers. It’s got early versions of his hits, so you can be a “Boogie Chillun” singing “Boom Boom” while you do the “Crawlin King Snake”, but it also has many other lesser played tracks.
The aesthetically unappealing packaging and presentation of the 101-song four-disc set, which includes a brittle generic jewel case and a cheaply produced booklet with pixelated graphics and photos is more than made up for by the compilation’s written and audio content. Disc two is especially intriguing, including cuts put out by Chess and Modern, and demonstrating some great recording studio experimentation, especially his work with producer Bernard Besman. Songs such as “I’m in the Mood”, “Walkin’ the Boogie” and “How Can You Do It?” feature overdubs of Hooker’s voice and tape effects applied to his already sculpted guitar sound. “Rock Me Mama” and “Chills All Over” are standout tracks on this disc, pairing John Lee’s rocking steady rhythm and his overdubbed deep voice with organ and xylophone, an odd effect that works to elevate these singles.
These flashes of technical brilliance recede as the set progresses and the tracks become more familiar in technique and presentation. As Paul Watts notes in his informative essay, by the fourth disc in the set, Hooker’s idiosyncratic stylings are smoothed out by working with session players and new producers forging the sound that later Anglo-American and Anglo-British groups imitated. That sound can be heard in full force on the final five songs of this collection, nicely wrapping up a diverse set of tunes that demonstrate John Lee Hooker’s infectious slippery timing, brilliant use of repetition and blistering guitar work. — NA Cordova
Album: New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1977-1982
Label: Soul Jazz Recordings
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Various Artists
New York Noise: Dance Music from the New York Underground 1977-1982
New York Noise set out to chronicle New York’s underground avant-garde scenario: the birth of no wave, the negation of punk rock and, most importantly, in such a short period of time, the unfolding of a culture which, by its own terms, wasn’t a “culture” according to those day’s requirements. No wave was, above all, the denial of culture. The compilation is broad in scope. Its appeal goes from the Dance’s “Do Dada” (opener), a considerably more pop release, to the experimental nature of Mars’ “Helen Fordsdale”, whose guitar riff and dissonance might or might not have contributed as (in)direct influence to Sonic Youth’s “Teenage Riot”. Which is to say that, while it might be hard to categorize the music carried in the compilation — besides the vague terminology contained in expressions such as “post-punk” and “no wave”, and the fact this music was made all during the same period and in the same location — it doesn’t mean its influence can’t be traced. Despite the notion that people had lost sight of no wave as the ’80s went by. — Danilo Bortoli
Album: Highlife-Jazz and Afro Soul
Label: Knitting Factory
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Fela Ransome-Kuti & His Koola Lobitos
Highlife-Jazz and Afro Soul
Three discs’ worth of early Fela Kuti music make up this essential collection of highlife music that previously only existed in the collection of a Japanese chemist with a good eye for rare African vinyl. More carefree and upbeat than the Afrobeat he would mainly pioneer in the 1970s, Kuti’s take on highlife still has more substance and complexity than most highlife of the time, with Tony Allen’s instinct for rhythm strong even in its early days and Kuti’s trumpet-driven melodies infectious.
Such a thorough collection doesn’t come without some caveats; the sound quality on most of these tracks tends to get a little rough, though never to the point of making it impossible to listen to them – or to dance along, always a necessary part of the Fela Kuti experience, especially with his Koola Lobitos involved. It’s a small price to pay; this is an embarrassment of riches for any fan of highlife, Afropop, or big band music in general, and an important historical record in the history of Afrobeat. — Adriane Pontecorvo
Album: Ramones (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
Label: Rhino
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Ramones
Ramones (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)
In continuing my beating of the Ramones drum (relax, it’s the 40th Anniversary), the finest reissue of 2016 is very easily the Deluxe Limited Edition (only 19,760 available) from Sire and Rhino of their debut, self-titled album. We all know how perfect the music is but the art and quality of the actual tangible product is second to none. Gorgeous hardcover of the original artwork, the book and updated liner notes, three compact discs, and a vinyl record is not too shabby and well worth the price tag. Mono and stereo mixes of the complete album and the singles and the glorious demoes are the ace in the hole. A true Cretin will relish in the ‘fly on the wall’ listening opportunity while the previously unreleased live set is a gem in and of itself. Who can resist a Ramones set played incredibly too fast and at just the perfect decibel? Guitars are not dead, folks, we just need all you angry voters in emotional exile to pick them back up and write some songs instead of crying and not taking your final exams. It’s great to feel sad, angry, and voiceless, in fact it makes for fantastic art. Make it! — Scott Zuppardo
Album: Mono Box: The Complete Specialty and Vee-Jay Albums
Label: Speciality
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Little Richard
Mono Box: The Complete Specialty and Vee-Jay Albums
Arguably the most surprising aspect of Little Richard’s career is simply how much his music changed, and this evolution is easy to hear on Fantasy Records new five-disc complete box set. The first disc is the Georgian’s debut album, and one can pick out the energy and rollicking 12-bar blues rhythms that would remain a staple in a musical career that would span over half a century and influence everyone from Bob Dylan to the late and great Prince. Hits like “Tutti Frutti” and “Long Tall Sally (That Thing)” have their first appearance on this album, songs that would later be joined by the singles “Good Golly, Miss Molly” and “Lucille” on Little Richard’s self-titled sophomore release. These tracks make another reappearance on disc five’s His Greatest Hits compilation as live versions, giving each song even more character and flavor than the studio versions.
Although Little Richard’s biggest hits are mostly found on the first two discs, it’s discs three and four that are the most enjoyable as complete albums. The former, The Fabulous Little Richard, feels slower, with female backing vocals that accentuate the doo-wop and R&B landscape of the ’50s. The sleepy, dreamy and almost gloomy mood of “The Most I Can Offer (Just My Heart)” and “I’m Just a Lonely Guy (All Alone)” sound as if they were made by a completely different artist than the one who composed “Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey (Goin’ Back to Birmingham)”. Even at his loudest on this album, “Kansas City”, Little Richard feels much more tamed than the flamboyant showman that were on the previous two discs, and shows that the Macon superstar is much more than the one-trick pony that most people consider him as nowadays. — Emmanuel Elone
Album: A Storm in Heaven / A Northern Soul
Label: UMe
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The Verve
A Storm in Heaven / A Northern Soul
In the Verve’s biggest hit, a song so unstoppable the band could barely hold on to it, Richard Ashcroft claimed to be a million different people from one day to the next. In the ’90s, the Verve were three different bands from one album to the next. The Verve that most people know from Urban Hymns was but the last of that trio of identities, the one in which they finally achieved mainstream success. The first two Verves, however, make for a more compelling story, and arguably, more compelling music. Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury launched out of Wigan, England, as shamanic star sailors with A Storm in Heaven. When their space rock odyssey began to take its toll on the group, they reentered Earth’s orbit bringing back with them a bleak but powerful Northern psychedelic sound. The stories behind the making of A Northern Soul are the stuff of legend, but it’s the music that deserves to be held legendary. These multi-disc reissues, which collect pretty much every worthy recorded song from this prodigious era, are a generous testament to that. — Ian King
9 -1
Album: Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music
Label: Numero Group
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Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music
Numero’s latest Wayfaring Strangers compilation, Cosmic American Music gathers 19 tracks from the late ’60s and early ’70s that are too outsidery to be country-rock, although that’s the closest genre you’d find to lump them under, had Gram Parsons not rejected that label in favor of the one that names this set. The disc contains a variety of sounds, but it maintains a steady west coast brightness, sometimes folkie, sometimes hippie, and sometimes cowboy-hatted rocker (and often with a pedal steel guitar). The Byrds and Parsons certainly have an influence on the artists presented here, but it’s an assortment of people going their own ways, usually a little weird, but always effectively. Some of the performances, like “Not Down This Low” could have become AM radio staples, but others, like Bill Madison’s eight-minute buffalo epic push the cosmic enough that no explanation is needed for their underground status. Taken together, it makes a stellar case for the vibrancy of one detour off rock’s Highway One. — Justin Cober-Lake
Album: Music of Morocco: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959
Label: Dust-to-Digital
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Various Artists
Music of Morocco: Recorded by Paul Bowles, 1959
Housed inside a cigar box decorated with Arabesque print, Dust-to-Digital’s Music of Morocco offers what is perhaps one of the most definitive experiences of North African music yet recorded. This is the North Africa of novelist Paul Bowles, and the music of these four discs strangely captures a very close and intimate feeling of traditional Moroccan sounds while engaging in the music at an observational remove. Recorded by the writer between the summer and winter of 1959 in Morocco, what can be heard on this release are the clandestine sounds of a culture completely in tune with nature. Music of Morocco is the sound of the many diverse ethnic and regional styles of Moroccan music, and it is a fully rounded overview of what this part of North Africa has to offer. Here, there is a wealth of stories to be told by hand in the rough and raw drumming of the bendirs and tabls (Berber percussion); the landscapes are arid and the sounds feel caked with the dust rising in the fervour. — Imran Khan
Album: Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism and the Phonograph 1890-1900
Label: Archeophone
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Various Artists
Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism and the Phonograph 1890-1900
This collection of 102 performances originally recorded and released on wax cylinders provides an object lesson in how the information revolution has opened up a window into the archaic technologies of the past. Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism and the Phonograph 1890-1900 represents the culmination of over a decade’s work in compiling both the songs and the stories behind them. Producers Richard Martin, Meagan Hennessey, and Michael Devacka have created a masterpiece of curatorship and scholarship here. The three CDs are divided into three categories: first, commercial sacred music recorded by professionals and marketed by the industry’s early labels; the second disc contains “celebrity” recordings, hymns sung by the best-known among the traveling preachers and singers of the great camp meetings, anchored by all of the surviving recordings of Ira D. Sankey, Dwight L. Moody’s renowned hymnist; finally, and most interestingly, the third disc offers a collection of sacred amateur recordings including the only known recording of the blind hymn composer Fanny Crosby. Martin’s scholarly essays, collected in the 400-page book that houses the CDs, are exemplary and enlightening works of scholarship. A true gateway into the Victorian parlor, if these scratchy but well-preserved old songs don’t figure into your daily listening, the stories behind them and the miracle of their preservation will leave a lasting impression. — Ed Whitelock
Album: Mirage (Deluxe Edition)
Label: Rhino
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Fleetwood Mac
Mirage (Deluxe Edition)
Of the Buckingham/Nicks Fleetwood Mac albums, Mirage had long been overlooked because it lacked much of a backstory. Without the interpersonal intrigue of Rumors or the drug-fueled excess of Tusk, Mirage dutifully went to the top of the charts in 1982, but had always been viewed as something of a placeholder. This reissue, though, showed that time had been kind to it. The clean, streamlined production meant the album sounded surprisingly fresh and free of synthesized early ’80s trappings. “Hold Me” and “Gypsy” turned out to be two of the era’s most sublime singles. In hindsight, one could hear how they managed to influence the sound of indie dreampop as well. The rest of the album more than held up. Relatively few reissues offer a truly new perspective, but Mirage was a timely reminder of how easy it was to take Fleetwood Mac’s considerable strengths for granted. — John Bergstrom
Album: Off the Wall
Label: Sony/Legacy
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Michael Jackson
Off the Wall
Pop music does not get any better than the 41 minutes of perfection that comprise Michael Jackson’s epochal solo breakthrough. His first of three colossal collaborations with Quincy Jones, the 21 year-old Jackson liberated himself from his Motown and Jackson 5 past with a dazzling exploration of funk, disco, soul, and pop, and its impact has not diminished one iota in the decades since. It’s young, pure, full of life, and in Jackson’s case, a snapshot of a happy time, on the cusp of mega-stardom that would happen three years later, and eventually cast a pall over the rest of his life and music. The new reissue of Off the Wall is a splendid one, accompanied by a DVD featuring Spike Lee’s documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, a loving testimonial to one of the greatest albums ever made. — Adrien Begrand
Album: Close to the Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984
Label: Cherry Red
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Various Artists
Close to the Noise Floor: Formative UK Electronica 1975-1984
“The music… is from a time that will never be repeated. It is raw and uncompromising, angry and desolate, the antithesis of rock ‘n’ roll. Music by and for a blank generation.” That’s how music critic Dave Henderson describes the formative period of UK electronica, in the introduction to a new and impressively curated four-CD compilation of the period (spanning 1975-1984). Close to the Noise Floor charts the emergence of proto-synthpop, techno, and ambient exploration, featuring 60 of the period’s seminal musicians and tracks. Released through Cherry Red Records, and coupled with a gorgeous book of notes and commentary from Henderson, the compilation reminds listeners of the importance of an “exciting”, “shambolic” period, one in which today’s music was born. — Hans Rollman
Album: The ECM Recordings
Label: ECM
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Steve Reich
The ECM Recordings
Steve Reich turned 80 this year. ECM celebrated by reissuing his first three LPs for the label in a new box that allows listeners to immerse themselves in the master’s awe-inspiring style. Music for 18 Musicians is probably his most oft-cited work and for good reason: It’s a piece that simply rewires our brains with its gorgeous pulses, expansions and contractions. Though nearly one-hour in length, it feels like it’s over all too soon. Octet is comprised of three deep-reaching compositions, including the titular piece, which will probably resonate with fans of the avant rock that was emerging from New York City on the cusp of the 1980s. Tehillim, probably the composer’s holiest of pieces, rounds out the collection and gives clues to the full reach of his wide, wide imagination. This collection is as good a place as any to start embracing Reich and the period that saw him fully connect with his particular vision. — Jedd Beaudoin
Album: Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings
Label: Stax
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Otis Redding
Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings
James Brown may be considered the Godfather of Soul, but Otis Redding is and always will be its king. For further proof, look no further than these exceptional, historically invaluable recordings showing 24-year-old Otis Redding fully in command of the music, the stage and, most crucially for 1966, the audience. While 1968’s posthumously released In Person at the Whisky a Go Go cherry-picked some of the highlights from the run, Live at the Whisky a Go Go: The Complete Recordings affords 21st century listeners the chance to experience the whole of each night in real time, warts and all. He may be nearly half a century gone, but the music of Otis Redding remains in 2016 as thrillingly vital and perfect as the moment in which the words first left his lips. Live at the Whisky a Go Go is a testament to his brilliance and status as the King of Soul and is thus, in a word, essential. — John Paul
Album: Complete Third
Label: Omnivore
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Big Star
Complete Third
Big Star’s calamitous, shambolic, beloved third album has been the subject of record geeks and obsessives for decades, and Complete Third is a collection worthy of their mania. What’s more, the collection completely recontextualizes the crazed recording sessions that birthed one of the strangest records ever released. From demo to final product, Complete Third offers a portrayal of Alex Chilton not as a drug-addled lunatic stumbling his way into broken brilliance but as the sharp, determined songwriter that he was, wrestling to find a way to express his inner demons. Third is challenging, difficult and ultimately rewarding because that’s what it was always meant to be. While certain things changed as a result of different collaborators or Chilton’s evolving muse, the album’s most impactful moments are presented on Complete Third practically unchanged from demo to final product. Here, Third is shown for what it really is: a deliberately crafted work of mad genius. — Kevin Korber