Hoping to reinvigorate her flagging late 60s career, Dusty Springfield was signed to Atlantic and sent to record an album in Memphis, Tennessee with the Memphis Cats studio band, Jerry Wexler and Arif Mardin, all of whom had worked with her hero Aretha Franklin. Including tracks like "Son Of A Preacher Man", "Just A Little Lovin'", "Don't Forget About Me", "Breakfast In Bed" and "Windmills Of Your Mind" amongst other deep soul numbers, the album was Released in 1969 but didn't take off as hoped and had disappointing sales. However, since that time it has come to be seen as Springfield's definitive work and regularly appears in 'best ever records' charts. It's a perfect soul / pop moment from one of the UK's finest singers.

Repress of Wild Wood, Paul Weller's second solo record. Released in September 1993, it made it to number 2 in the UK charts, and contained three UK hits: "Wild Wood", "Sunflower", and "Hung Up”.

As with his solo debut, there’s more than a nod to classic British mod rock here, but there’s also a heavy dose of pastoral folk that combined with the introspective lyrics makes this a wonderfully timeless album.

• Gatefold LP sleeve with colour sticker
• 20 x 30” single sided poster
• Colour inner sleeve with photos and lyrics

Always in tune with soundsystem culture, Massive Attack followed their 1994 "Protection" LP with this brainmulching dub version, produced by the one and only Mad Professor. The project started when the group contacted Mad Professor to deliver a B-side remix for a forthcoming single. After the track was remixed, the band asked Mad Professor to listen to more of the album to explore the possibility of further remixes, the project soon becoming a track by track remix of almost the entire album. Mad Professor heavily edited the original material to form a slow, pulsating mix in which the beat is emphasized, reverb is extensively used and the occasional vocals (many of the tracks are almost entirely instrumental) fade in-and-out in typical dub fashion to create a hypnotic mix. "No Protection" was the most hyped album during dub music's revival in the mid 1990s, bewitching fans with its deep textures and unconventional fx. 

TRACK LISTING

Protection (Radiation Ruling The Nation)
Karmacoma (Bumper Ball Dub)
Three (Trinity Dub)
Weather Storm (Cool Monsoon)
Sly (Eternal Feedback)
Better Things (Moving Dub)
Spying Glass (I Spy)
Heat Miser (Backward Sucking)

Recorded in Neneh Cherry's nursery by a group of self-proclaimed "lazy Bristol Twats", 'Blue Lines" took the hip hop rulebook, ripped it up and used it for roaches. Generally considered the first trip hop album, though the term wasn't coined until several years later, "Blue Lines" was a runaway in the United Kingdom, though sales were limited elsewhere. A fusion of electronic music, hip hop, dub, '70s soul and reggae, the album established Massive Attack as one of the innovative British bands of the 1990s and the founder of trip hop's Bristol Sound. Shifting the 'dance-music' focus from the feet to the head, "Blue Lines" saw hip hop beats collide head on with lilting dub grooves, while dusty samples were dexterously chopped and scratched into fresh rhythms. While tracks like "Blue Lines", "Five Man Army" and "Daydreaming" feature free-flowing rhymes from Daddy G, 3D and Tricky in ATCQ style, Massive Attack approached the American-born hip hop movement from an underground British perspective, packing their innovative beats with elements of jazz-funk and dub. Elsewhere, reggae legend Horace Andy lent his unique voice to the revolutionary grooves of "One Love" and "Hymn Of The Big Wheel" (also featuring Neneh Cherry), while Shara Nelson's soulful vocal capped off album standout "Unfinished Sympathy" perfectly. Now back in press on pristine black wax, "Blue Lines" sounds every bit as good today as it did on its release 25 years ago - timeless.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Safe From Harm
A2. One Love
A3. Blue Lines
A4. Be Thankful For What You've Got
A5. Five Man Army
B1. Unfinished Sympathy
B2. Daydreaming
B3. Lately
B4. Hymn Of The Big Wheel

The albums Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 and Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 feature music's greatest singer-songwriters - George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Bob Dylan - as the legendary band The Traveling Wilburys. 

3 popular studio albums by The Verve are being made available again as deluxe formats and on vinyl. A Storm In Heaven, the bands debut album from 1993, gets a thorough overhaul with this wonderful 4-disc boxed Super Deluxe Edition.

Remastered by Chris Potter (co-producer of the band’s ‘Urban Hymns’) the original album comes amply augmented by all of the legendary pre-album EP tracks, associated acoustic versions, as well as two previously unreleased BBC radio sessions and two excellent previously unreleased studio albums – ‘South Pacific’ and ‘Shoeshine Girl’.

The album will also be available on vinyl.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: There was a lot of excitement around the release of (the)Verve's debut album. This was because they were a completely unique proposition back at the dawn of the nineties. There were elements of Shoegaze, but mainly this was drifting, blissed-out psyche rock. A classic band was born!

A Northern Soul spawned three Top 40 singles – ‘This Is Music’, ‘On Your Own’ and ‘History’.

Absolutely massive album in our shop back in the day. This has deep, heavy grooves, ballads and sky-scraping believer-anthems. It's an incredible record.

Released in September 1981 The Cure's 3rd album is seen by aficianados as probably their finest hour. It is a moody, melancholy, sleek and glacial affair that was clearly influenced by Joy Division but in a very good way indeed! Basically it's more than a tad gloomy, but that's why we love it!

TRACK LISTING

1. The Holy Hour
2. Primary
3. Other Voices
4. All Cats Are Grey
5. The Funeral Party
6. Doubt
7. The Drowning Man
8. Faith

Released in May 1980, this record is the place where The Cure really started to develop their unique early 80's sound. It's sparse, precise and rhythmic, with those gorgeous melodies always on top. This album features 'A Forest' which is still regarded as one of The Cure's greatest ever songs.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: My favourite Cure album. A giant leap forward from the post punky snarl of "Three Imaginary Boys", "Seventeen Seconds" set the scene for the brooding majesty that was to follow. Sombre, stripped back and with a quiet power that was to bettered only (maybe) by Joy Division. While it the features such stark beauty as "A Forest", "M", "In Your House" and "At Night", the whole is a thing of cold magnificence that, in my humble opinion, few, if anyone, ever surpassed.

TRACK LISTING

1. A Reflection
2. Play For Today
3. Secrets
4. In Your House
5. Three
6. The Final Sound
7. A Forest
8. M
9. At Night
10. Seventeen Seconds

This is a heavy, dark, churning, spiralling (whisper it) Goth Rock record that is unremittingly doomy but always melodic. Released in 1982, this is The Cure at their most dramatic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: The sound of one man having a break down. His pain is our pleasure. Sort of!

TRACK LISTING

1 One Hundred Years
2 A Short Term Effect
3 The Hanging Garden
4 Siamese Twins
5 The Figurehead
6 A Strange Day
7 Cold
8 Pornography

The Cure's debut album came out in the summer of 1979 and unlike their subsequent doom and darkness period, it is a fine, catchy piece of clipped, new wave pop. There's a youthful exhuberance here that would slowly dissipate as the band developed.

TRACK LISTING

1 10:15 Saturday Night
2 Accuracy
3 Grinding Halt
4 Another Day
5 Object
6 Subway Song
7 Foxy Lady
8 Meat Hook
9 So What
10 Fire In Cairo
11 It's Not You
12 Three Imaginary Boys
13 The Weedy Burton

"Eminem's masterful second record, 'The Marshall Mathers LP' is all about blurring the distinction between reality and fiction, humor and horror, satire and documentary, so it makes perfect sense that the LP is no more or no less "real" than 'The Slim Shady' LP. It is, however, a fairly brilliant expansion of his debut, turning his spare, menacing hip-hop into a hyper-surreal, wittily disturbing thrill ride. It's both funnier and darker than his debut, and Eminem's writing is so sharp and clever that the jokes cut as deeply as the explorations of his ruptured psyche. The production is nearly as evocative as the raps, with liquid basslines, stuttering rhythms, slight sound effects, and spacious soundscapes. There may not be overpowering hooks on every track, but the album works as a whole, always drawing the listener in." All Music

TRACK LISTING

1. Public Service Announcement 2000
2. Kill You
3. Stan
4. Paul (Skit)
5. Who Knew
6. Steve Berman
7. The Way I Am
8. The Real Slim Shady
9. Remember Me? - RBX
10. I'm Back
11. Marshall Mathers
12. Ken Kaniff (Skit)
13. Drug Ballad
14. Amityville - Bizarre
15. B***** Please II - Nate Dogg
16. Kim
17. Under The Influence - D-12
18. Criminal

On Hole’s second album they rounded off some of the raw edges found on “Pretty On The Inside”. Rumours at the time were that Courtney Loves’ husband Kurt Cobain had ghost written the album. Whether this is true or not, there are nod’s to Nirvana’s sound but Courtney’s rage, cynicism and distinctive vocals make it unmistakeably a Hole album, and arguably their best.

TRACK LISTING

1 Violet
2 Miss World
3 Plump
4 Asking For It
5 Jennifer's Body
6 Doll Parts
7 Credit In The Straight World
8 Softer, Softest
9 She Walks On Me
10 I Think That I Would De
11 Gutless
12 Rock Star

'The Slim Shady LP' is the second studio album and first commercial release from the American rapper Eminem. It was released on February 23, 1999, under Interscope Records and Dr. Dre's Aftermath Entertainment. Recorded in Ferndale, Michigan following Eminem's recruitment by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, the album features production from Dr. Dre, the Bass Brothers, and Eminem himself. The majority of the record's lyrical content is written from the perspective of the rapper's alter ego Slim Shady, whom the rapper created on 'Slim Shady EP' (1997).

TRACK LISTING

1 Public Service Announcement
2 My Name Is 
3 Guilty Conscience [feat. Dr. Dre] 
4 Brain Damage 
5 Paul (Skit)
6 If I Had
7 '97 Bonnie & Clyde
8 Bitch (Skit)
9 Role Model 
10 Lounge (Skit)
11 My Fault 
12 Ken Kaniff (Skit) 
13 Cum On Everybody 
14 Rock Bottom 
15 Just Don't Give A Fuck 
16 Soap (Skit)
17 As The World Turns 
18 I'm Shady
19 Bad Meets Evil [feat. Royce Da 5'9'']
20 Still Don't Give A Fuck

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times."

TRACK LISTING

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe In Me
3. That's Not Me
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting For The Day
6. Let's Go Away For Awhile
7. Sloop John B
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's An Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline, No

Hot Fuss is the debut studio album originally released in June 20014. It has sold over 7 million copies worldwide with 2 million coming from the UK, where it has been certified seven-times platinum.

It was the 26th best-selling album of the decade in the United Kingdom. It is among the top 25 longest charting albums in the history of the UK Albums Chart, with 247 weeks, more than four -and-a-half years.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine
2. Mr. Brightside 
3. Smile Like You Mean It 
4. Somebody Told Me 
5. All These Things That I've Done 

Side 2
1. Andy, You're A Star 
2. On Top 
3. Glamorous Indie Rock And Roll
4. Believe Me Natalie 
5. Midnight Show 
6. Everything Will Be Alright 

The best Beach Boys album, and one of the best of the 1960s. The group here reached a whole new level in terms of both composition and production, layering tracks upon tracks of vocals and instruments to create a richly symphonic sound. Conventional keyboards and guitars were combined with exotic touches of orchestrated strings, bicycle bells, buzzing organs, harpsichords, flutes, Theremin, Hawaiian-sounding string instruments, Coca-Cola cans, barking dogs, and more. It wouldn't have been a classic without great songs, and this has some of the group's most stunning melodies, as well as lyrical themes which evoke both the intensity of newly born love affairs and the disappointment of failed romance (add in some general statements about loss of innocence and modern-day confusion as well). The spiritual quality of the material is enhanced by some of the most gorgeous upper-register male vocals (especially by Brian and Carl Wilson) ever heard on a rock record. "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "God Only Knows," "Caroline No," and "Sloop John B" (the last of which wasn't originally intended to go on the album) are the well-known hits, but equally worthy are such cuts as "You Still Believe in Me," "Don't Talk," "I Know There's an Answer," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times."

TRACK LISTING

1. Wouldn't It Be Nice
2. You Still Believe In Me
3. That's Not Me
4. Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
5. I'm Waiting For The Day
6. Let's Go Away For Awhile
7. Sloop John B
8. God Only Knows
9. I Know There's An Answer
10. Here Today
11. I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
12. Pet Sounds
13. Caroline, No

Culled from various live recordings made between 1989 and 1994, this second posthumous Nirvana record and captures the band at the peak of their powers on stage.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2016 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

What would Record Store Day be without a Frank Zappa release? The good news is that this year there are two on offer and Frank’s third Record Store Day outing in three years originally hails from 1969. Its A-side, ‘My Guitar’, is a more radio-friendly, less controversially-named version of the Mothers Of Invention’s 1970 classic ‘My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama” from ‘Weasels Ripped My Flesh’. Remastered from original mono mix reels, this limited, numbered Record Store Day 2016 title is available on coloured vinyl and comes in an authentic replica cover with original B-side ‘Dog Breath'. 

Forming in New York in 1981, "Goo" was Sonic Youth's major label debut when it was released by DGC in June 1990. An important stepping stone in bringing underground 'alternative' rock to mainstream America, the band were also instrumental in Nirvana signing to Geffen the following year. Probably best known for the single "Kool Thing", sung by bass guitarist Kim Gordon, a 4 star review in Rolling Stone hailed the record as 'a brilliant, extended essay in refined primitivism.' The album's other key tracks are "Tunic (Song For Karen)", a tribute to the late Karen Carpenter, and "Dirty Boots".

TRACK LISTING

1. Dirty Boots
2. Tunic (Song For Karen)
3. Mary-Christ
4. Kool Thing
5. Mote
6. My Friend Goo
7. Disappear
8. Mildred Pierce
9. Cinderella's Big Score
10. Scooter + Jinx
11. Titanium Exposé

"You Know You're Right" was the last song Nirvana recorded and whilst it's far from their best (see: other 13 tracks) it shows just how great they really were. How so? Because it's simply got IT, the 'X' factor, the magic, secret ingredient. All those ensuing years of imitators, all slain in three minutes of glory.You simply believe him, and believe in him.  Yep: 4 Real! Tight but loose, raw and powerful, you know the script. You need to own that song and this is the only place to get it. If you are young or they passed you by before - here's 14 catchy, noisy, perfect songs by one of the greatest bands ever.

TRACK LISTING

1. You Know You're Right
2. About A Girl
3. Been A Son
4. Sliver
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit
6. Come As You Are
7. Lithium
8. In Bloom
9. Heart - Shaped Box
10. Pennyroyal Tea
11. Rape Me
12. Dumb
13. All Apologies
14. The Man Who Sold The World

Remastered from the original analogue masters in 2010, by Yoko Ono and a team of engineers led by Allan Rouse at Abbey Road Studios in London and by George Marino at Avatar Studios in New York. This LP has been newly cut to vinyl from those 96k digital files. Comes as an authentic reproduction of its UK original, in its sound and visual presentation.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Superb second solo album, produced by Phil Spector.

TRACK LISTING

1. Imagine
2. Crippled Inside
3. Jealous Guy - John Lennon, The Plastic Ono Band, The Flux Fiddlers
4. It's So Hard
5. I Don't Wanna Be A Soldier Mama
6. Gimme Some Truth
7. Oh My Love
8. How Do You Sleep?
9. How?
10. Oh Yoko!

D'Angelo's debut album breathed new life into the mid-90s soul / R&B scene, taking inspiration from 70s soul classics, but reinvigorating the sound with hip hop swagger. Recorded using vintage instruments the album ushered in the more organic neo-soul sound, moving away from the crisp electronics of the late 80s / early 90s new jack swing era. Includes the smash hit "Brown Sugar" (has there been a better love song to Mary J?), a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Cruisin'", or the bluesy "Shit, Damn, Motherfucker". A perfect after hours soul seduction album.

This is the first time 'Brown Sugar' has been reissued since 2006!

TRACK LISTING

A1. Brown Sugar 4:22
A2. Alright 5:15
A3. Jonz In My Bonz 5:56
B1. Me And Those Dreamin' Eyes Of Mine 4:46
B2. Shit, Damn, Motherfucker 5:14
B3. Smooth 4:18
C1. Crusin' 6:28
C2. When We Get By 5:48
D1. Lady 5:47
D2. Higher 5:27

'Voodoo' hit store shelves on January 25th 2000, just a few weeks after the New Year celebrations to end them all. But the first great album of the new millennium was born in the 1990s, and its muggy grooves capture the sound of premillennial anxiety. The album is the product of perfectionism, obsession and paranoia. 1995’s debut 'Brown Sugar' had already strategically positioned D’Angelo - born Michael Eugene Archer and Virginia-raised to a Pentecostal preacher father - as the next Hendrix-like deity in black music, after Prince and maybe Lenny Kravitz. But since its release, D’Angelo had become distracted by weed and weightlifting, he’d been shaken by the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG and debilitated by sophomore pressure. In the interim he’d fathered two children, switched managers and jumped to a new record label.

Though inspired by the birth of his children and trips back to Virginia, 'Voodoo'’s roots are in 1960s, 70s and 80s funk and soul; a nostalgic nod to the ideas and inventions of black music trailblazers powered by avant-garde hip-hop and jazz-influenced rhythms. D’Angleo’s aim, he said, was to reclaim R&B. He wanted to be like Sly Stone, George Clinton and Al Green. And most of all, he wanted to be like Jimi Hendrix. Where does a potently focused young man go to remake 'Electric Ladyland'? New York’s Electric Lady studios, of course: in the same rooms in which Hendrix and Stevie Wonder reinvented music decades earlier, and on the same equipment too. In an era in which soul musicians were obsessing over all things synthetic, D’Angelo was looking to the warm sounds of the past. Electric Lady’s Studio C became D’Angelo’s brand new creative laboratory.

TRACK LISTING

Playa Playa
Devil's Pie
Left & Right
The Line
Send It On
Chicken Grease
One Mo' Gin
The Root
Spanish Joint
Feel Like Makin' Love
Greatdayndamornin' / Booty
Untitled (How Does It Feel)
Africa

"The Band's first album, Music from Big Pink, seemed to come out of nowhere, with its ramshackle musical blend and songs of rural tragedy. The Band, the group's second album, was a more deliberate and even more accomplished effort, partially because the players had become a more cohesive unit, and partially because guitarist Robbie Robertson had taken over the songwriting, writing or co-writing all 12 songs. Though a Canadian, Robertson focused on a series of American archetypes from the union worker in "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" and the retired sailor in "Rockin' Chair" to, most famously, the Confederate Civil War observer Virgil Cane in "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down." The album effectively mixed the kind of mournful songs that had dominated Music from Big Pink, here including "Whispering Pines" and "When You Awake" (both co-written by Richard Manuel), with rollicking uptempo numbers like "Rag Mama Rag" and "Up on Cripple Creek" (both sung by Levon Helm and released as singles, with "Up on Cripple Creek" making the Top 40). As had been true of the first album, it was The Band's sound that stood out the most, from Helm's (and occasionally Manuel's) propulsive drumming to Robertson's distinctive guitar fills and the endlessly inventive keyboard textures of Garth Hudson, all topped by the rough, expressive singing of Manuel, Helm, and Rick Danko that mixed leads with harmonies. The arrangements were simultaneously loose and assured, giving the songs a timeless appeal, while the lyrics continued to paint portraits of 19th century rural life (especially Southern life, as references to Tennessee and Virginia made clear), its sometimes less savory aspects treated with warmth and humor." - All Music.

STAFF COMMENTS

Andy says: Just as good as the first, maybe without the same impact. Includes the world-classic "The Night They Drove Old Whiskey Down".

TRACK LISTING

1. Across The Great Divide
2. Rag Mama Rag
3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
4. When You Awake
5. Up On Cripple Creek
6. Whispering Pines
7. Jemima Surrender
8. Rockin' Chair
9. Look Out Cleveland
10. Jawbone
11. The Unfaithful Servant
12. King Harvest (Has Surely Come)

Lynyrd Skynyrd is best known for popularizing the southern hard-rock genre during the 1970s. The band rose to worldwide recognition on the basis of its driving live performances and signature tunes "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird".

Following on from the vinyl box set released in January; the six albums are now available individually with exact reproductions of original artwork to retain authenticity pressed on 180 gram heavyweight audiophile vinyl with download card included.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Ain't The One
2. Tuesday's Gone
3. Gimme Three Steps
4. Simple Man
5. Things Goin' On
6. Mississippi Kid
7. Poison Whiskey
8. Free Bird
9. Mr. Banker
10. Down South Jukin'
11. Tuesday's Gone
12. Gimme Three Steps
13. Free Bird

Although initially successful in the United Kingdom and Australia, Blondie was regarded as an underground band in the United States until the release of Parallel Lines in 1978. Over the next three years, the band achieved several hit singles including "Call Me", "Atomic" and "Heart of Glass" and became noted for its eclectic mix of musical styles incorporating elements of disco, pop, rap, and reggae, while retaining a basic style as a new wave band. 

Following on from the vinyl boxed set released in December; this album is now available individually on 180g heavyweight vinyl and includes download voucher.

STAFF COMMENTS

David says: As a very young man I had 'Blondie - Queen Of The Disco' scribbled on my pencil case. At least I did, until someone much older informed me that they didn't actually play Blondie in discos and that I should rub it off or he'd kick my head in...

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2015 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

A 10” taster from the forthcoming Super Deluxe Edition of their debut long player. 

The Velvet Underground’s classic self-titled third album, originally released in March 1969, by MGM, was a departure from the band’s first two albums in more ways than one. Gone was co-founding member John Cale, and in his place was a 21-year-old with Long Island roots named Doug Yule, who stepped right in. The record was also a stylistic leap, as Lou Reed described to Rolling Stone editor David Fricke, “I thought we had to demonstrate the other side of us. Fricke calls it “a stunning turnaround… 10 tracks of mostly warm, explicit sympathy and optimism, expressed with melodic clarity, set in gleaming double-guitar jangle and near-whispered balladry. Or as the late rock critic Lester Bangs put it, “How do you define a group like this, who moved from ‘Heroin’ to ‘Jesus’ in two short years?”

How indeed do you describe an album which includes such classics as “Candy Says,” Reed’s ode to Warhol superstar Candy Darling; the aching love song “Pale Blue Eyes,” allegedly inspired by a girlfriend at Syracuse University who got away, with lead vocals by Yule; the inspiring “Beginning to See The Light”; the spoken-word narrative and musique concrete of “The Murder Mystery,” and the beautiful Maureen Tucker-sung “After Hours”?

Celebrating the 45th anniversary and following on from the Super Deluxe CD release in 2014, we will be reissuing The Velvet Underground on 180g vinyl.

"If anything, CCR's third album Green River represents the full flower of their classic sound initially essayed on its predecessor, Bayou Country. One of the differences between the two albums is that Green River is tighter, with none of the five-minute-plus jams that filled out both their debut and Bayou Country, but the true key to its success is a peak in John Fogerty's creativity. Although CCR had at least one cover on each album, they relied on Fogerty to crank out new material every month. He was writing so frequently that the craft became second-nature and he laid his emotions and fears bare, perhaps unintentionally. Perhaps that's why Green River has fear, anger, dread, and weariness creeping on the edges of gleeful music. This was a band that played rock & roll so joyously that they masked the, well, "sinister" undercurrents in Fogerty's songs. "Bad Moon Rising" has the famous line "Hope you've got your things together/Hope you're quite prepared to die," but that was only the most obvious indication of Fogerty's gloom. Consider all the other dark touches: the "Sinister purpose knocking at your door"; the chaos of "Commotion"; the threat of death in "Tombstone Shadow"; you only return to the idyllic "Green River" once you get lost and realize the "world is smolderin'." Even the ballads have a strong melancholy undercurrent, highlighted by "Lodi," where Fogerty imagines himself stuck playing in dead-end towns for the rest of his life. Not the typical thoughts of a newly famous rock & roller, but certainly an indication of Fogerty's inner tumult. For all its darkness, Green River is ultimately welcoming music, since the band rocks hard and bright and the melancholy feels comforting, not alienating." - All Music.

Vinyl re-pressing of classic mid 70s period Wings release.

Reissue of previously deleted classic Folk album - Back to Black.

7” single, heavyweight vinyl with ‘etched’ b-side featuring ‘Who Hits 50’ logo.
All stock numbered.

'Mama's Gun' is the second studio album by neo soul singer Erykah Badu, released in 2000. Recorded at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, the album incorporates funk, soul and jazz styles. Covering themes of insecurity, social issues and personal relationships, Badu delivered a highly intimate and personal album that reached Platinum two months after its release. 'Mama's Gun' features substantial contributions from several members of the Soulquarians outfit, of which Badu was a member. It also features guests such as soul singer Betty Wright and trumpeter Roy Hargrove.

The album contains the single "Bag Lady" which, with its colorful, artsy music video, shot to #1 on the R&B charts, and also into the Top 10 on the billboard charts. "Bag Lady" was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance and for Best R&B Song. Also the song "Didn't Cha Know?" was nominated for Best R&B Song.

Rolling Stone magazine applauded her for taking "chances the way Stevie Wonder or Nina Simone did in their prime" and went on to say "she has taken her art to the next level." Entertainment Weekly called the album a "'70s soul homage featuring live musicians and a smooth-funk sound that wouldn't be out of place on a CTI record."

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A
1. Penitentiary Philosophy
2. Didn't Cha Know
3. My Life
4. ... & On

SIDE B
1. Cleva
2. Hey Sugah
3. Booty
4. Kiss Me On My Neck (Hesi)
5. A.D. 2000

SIDE C
1. Orange Moon
2. In Love With You
3. Bag Lady

SIDE D
1. Time's A Wastin
2. Green Eyes

Universal Music are proud to make available the Dire Straits studio album selection as limited edition individual LPs, beatifully presented and repressed on 180 gram heavwight vinyl.

"Adding a new rhythm guitarist, Dire Straits expands its sounds and ambitions on the sprawling Love Over Gold. In a sense, the album is their prog rock effort, containing only five songs, including the 14-minute opener "Telegraph Road." - AllMusic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: Featuring one of the most unusual radio hits ever- "Private Investigations" seemed to vanish completely during it's ultra quiet bits (in those medium-wave radio days!) this record also has Knopfler's most epic song in his canon: "Telegraph Road" rolled between massively melodic guitar passages and doomy/ beautiful verses to wondrous effect.

Universal Music are proud to make available the Dire Straits studio album selection as limited edition individual LPs, beatifully presented and repressed on 180 gram heavwight vinyl.

"Without second guitarist David Knopfler, Dire Straits began to move away from its roots rock origins into a jazzier variation of country-rock and singer/songwriter folk-rock. Naturally, this means that Mark Knopfler's ambitions as a songwriter are growing, as the storytelling pretensions of Making Movies indicate. Fortunately, his skills are increasing, as the lovely "Romeo and Juliet," "Tunnel of Love," and "Skateaway" indicate. And Making Movies is helped by a new wave-tinged pop production, which actually helps Knopfler's jazzy inclinations take hold. The record runs out of steam toward the end, closing with the borderline offensive "Les Boys," but the remainder of Making Movies ranks among the band's finest work." - AllMusic.

STAFF COMMENTS

Martin says: More Springsteen than Dylan, but with a way with melody that was all Knopfler's own. The first side is seamless and features the still brilliant "Romeo and Juliet".

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Includes the rare Monitor Mix of Death Disco and the Extended Dorrell Mix of Warrior.

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"50 years ago, Britain’s pre-eminent blonde bombshell cut one single for Fontana that has become highly sought after by 60s beat and mod collectors and more recently by acolytes of Morrissey. Many of the latter first came across So Little Time on Morrissey’s Under The Influence compilation (2003) and were genuinely surprised that sex symbol DD had recorded what was almost universally regarded as the highlight of the piece. Both sides were co-written by Les Reed and Barry Mason, the team behind such 60s whoppers as Delilah (Tom Jones) and The Last Waltz (Engelbert Humperdinck)."

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Gary Numan Cover.

Arguably the best of the American Recordings series.
Once again Cash worked with Tom Petty on a couple of tracks including the Neil Diamond-penned "Solitary Man".
The album also includes stunning covers of Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave and U2.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: The Rick Rubin produced American Recordings totally rejuvenated Cash's career, and they're all great. This one just edges it for me with amazing covers of Bonnie Prince Billy, Nick Cave and (suprisingly) U2.

TRACK LISTING

I Won't Back Down
Solitary Man
That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)
One
Nobody
I See A Darkness
The Mercy Seat
Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone)
Field Of Diamonds
My Time
Country Trash
Mary Of The Wild Moor
I'm Leavin' Now
Wayfaring Stranger

Originally intended as a concept album, only a few of the finished tracks on their brilliant 1979 LP related to the proposed theme of three close friends growing apart. The ferocious, blunt Thick As Thieves perhaps best captures that painful drift apart. Elsewhere Weller emerges the vitriolic political commentator on the anti war polemic, Little Boy Soldiers and the class war cry of hit single The Eton Rifles.

The Jam exploded onto the punk scene in 1977. Led by guitarist/singer Paul Weller, a young, sharp suited mod, who was inspired by Otis Redding, Dr Feelgood, The Who and the Sex Pistols in equal measure, with bassist Bruce Foxton and drummer Rick Buckler they delivered their ferocious mission statement – In The City. The song hit the Top 40 and fanfared the arrival of a three piece that would over the next five years produce six studio albums and 18 singles including four Number 1s. While their punk contemporaries faded away - The Jam went out with a bang, at the very, very top. Such was the enormity of their split that it even made the TV news. 

And their influence is still as strong today, 30 years after that thrilling debut. After spawning the mod revival with bands like The Chords and The Purple Hearts, they laid the foundations for Britpop (bands like Blur and Oasis crowned Weller the Modfather) and their music can now be heard in the sounds of Arctic Monkeys, Graham Coxon, Dirty Pretty Things, Babyshambles, The Ordinary Boys and Hard Fi. Even hip hop producer Mark Ronson has just covered Pretty Green (from Sound Affects). 

Now, to celebrate the band’s 30th anniversary, Universal Music present the classic albums in exact replicas of the original vinyl editions. 

Strictly limited edition – one print run only.

TRACK LISTING

Girl On The Phone
Thick As Thieves
Private Hell
Little Boy Soldiers
Wasteland
Burning Sky
Smithers-Jones
Saturday's Kids
The Eton Rifles
Heatwave

Featuring a truly eclectic mixture of music, the Pulp Fiction soundtrack album eschews a more conventional score for rock 'n' roll, bubblegum pop, surf sounds and soul, all interspersed with snippets of dialogue from the movie, an approach Tarantino had utilised on his previous movie OST, Reservoir Dogs. The choice of material goes some way to reveal Quentin Tarantino’s obsession with pop culture, and according Rolling Stone, “it's fitting that his films deploy pop music expertly”. Reaching 21 on the US chart, the soundtrack managed to resurrect many long forgotten gems, from Dick Dale’s opening salvo of ‘Misirlou’ through to ‘Surf Rider’ by The Lively Ones. It also launched Urge Overkill into the mainstream with their faithful cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon’, which peaked at 59 in the pop chart.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
Misirlou - Dick Dale & His Del (2:29)
Royale With Cheese (1:43)
Jungle Boogie - Kool & The Gang (3:06)
Let's Stay Together - Al Green (3:13)
Bustin' Surfboards - The Tornadoes (2:26)
Lonesome Town - Ricky Nelson (2:13)
Son Of A Preacher Man - Dusty Springfield (2:26)
Bullwinkle Part 2 - The Centurians (2:30)

Side 2
You Never Can Tell - Chuck Berry (3:12)
Girl You'll Be A Woman Soon - Urge Overkill (3:10)
If Love Is A Red Dress - Maria Mckee (4:57)
Comanche - The Revels (2:12)
Flowers On The Wall - Statler Brothers (2:23)
Personality Goes A Long Way (1:00)
Surf Rider - The Lively Ones (3:18)
Ezekiel 25 17(0:52)

The double Grammy winning album “Breakfast In America” was released by Supertramp in March 1979 and featured the hit singles: "The Logical Song" , "Goodbye Stranger" , "Breakfast in America", and "Take the Long Way Home".

TRACK LISTING

Gone Hollywood
The Logical Song
Goodbye Stranger
Breakfast In America
Oh Darling
Take The Long Way Home
Lord Is It Mine
Just Another Nervous Wreck
Casual Conversations
Child Of Vision

The Sex Pistols front man John Lydon was joined by several big named musicians including Steve Vai, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tony Williams and Ginger Baker to record Public Image Ltd fifth studio album which was released in February 1986. “Album” or “Cassette” or even “Compact Disc”, the album had many names depending on what format you bought it included the hit single “Rise” also known as “Single”.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1. F.F.F. - 2011 Remaster
2.Rise - 2011 Remaster
3. Fishing - 2011 Remaster
4. Round - 2011 Remaster

Side 2
1. Bags - 2011 Remaster
2. Home - 2011Remaster
3. Ease

The follow up to "Five Leaves Left" saw a departure from that albums' pastoralism to a more urban milieu, albeit a idealised romantic one depicted in "At The Chime Of A City Clock". Accordingly the music has a slightly more urgent feel with a greater use of drums and electric guitar. One thing it does share with its' predecessor is a stunning collection of songs, written, played and sung to perfection. A classic of its', or any other, genre.

TRACK LISTING

Introduction 1:33
Hazey Jane II 3:41
At The Chime Of A City Clock 4:42
One Of These Things First 4:46
Hazey Jane I 4:24
Bryter Layter 3:16
Fly 2:56
Poor Boy 6:30
Northern Sky 3:42
Sunday 3:39

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Random Coloured + Numbered

MTV Unplugged in New York was recorded live at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993. The show was directed by Beth McCarthy and first aired on the cable television network MTV on December 14, 1993. As opposed to traditional practice on the television series, Nirvana played a setlist composed of mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Meat Puppets (during which they were joined by two members of the group onstage), and Leadbelly.

180g black vinyl.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
About A Girl
Come As You Are
Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam
The Man Who Sold The World

Side B
Pennyroyal Tea
Dumb
Polly
On A Plain
Something In The Way

The title is a joking reference to the messianic anticipation that built up in the years between the Manchester, England rock band's 1989 debut - which Britain's New Musical Express magazine ranked as the greatest album of the 80s - and this 1995 follow-up. It's also a description of the Stone Roses' sound, a sort of second coming of 60s and 70s blues-rock, re-born with a funk beat. Back in '89 it sounded like a revolution, and it was: crossing Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan with club music, it helped set the template for all British alternative rock to follow, from Blur to the revamped U2.

"Second Coming" consolidates that sound with a see-sawing mix of hard-rock driving songs, with chunky electric guitar riffs and big beats, and acoustic anthems that immediately sound like they've been on the radio for a dozen years or more. The latter group includes "Ten Storey Love Song", a devotional ballad with a Dylan-esque melody, and "Your Star Will Shine", a psychedelic folk ditty that would have fit on an early Bee Gees album. "Good Times" is one of the big-beat numbers, and although it starts out sounding like a very blue Eric Burdon, it builds into a classic shouted-out blues-rock chorus, the kind on which FM radio thrived in the 1970s. "Tears" follows a Zeppelin-esque arc from acoustic to electric folk. Which, no doubt, is the exact route a lot of hard-rock devotees think any second coming should follow.

"A fascinating collection of mostly instrumental live and studio material recorded by the original Mothers of Invention, complete with horn section, from 1967-1969, Weasels Ripped My Flesh segues unpredictably between arty experimentation and traditional song structures. Highlights of the former category include the classical avant-garde elements of "Didja Get Any Onya," which blends odd rhythmic accents and time signatures with dissonance and wordless vocal noises; these pop up again in "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Sexually Aroused Gas Mask" and "Toads of the Short Forest." The latter and "The Eric Dolphy Memorial Barbecue" also show Frank Zappa's willingness to embrace the avant-garde jazz of the period. Yet, interspersed are straightforward tunes like a cover of Little Richard's "Directly From My Heart to You," with great violin from Don "Sugarcane" Harris; the stinging Zappa-sung rocker "My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama," and "Oh No," a familiar Broadway-esque Zappa melody (it turned up on Lumpy Gravy) fitted with lyrics and sung by Ray Collins. Thus, Weasels can make for difficult, incoherent listening, especially at first. But there is a certain logic behind the band's accomplished genre-bending and Zappa's gleefully abrupt veering between musical extremes; without pretension, Zappa blurs the normally sharp line between intellectual concept music and the visceral immediacy of rock and R&B. Zappa's anything-goes approach and the distance between his extremes are what make Weasels Ripped My Flesh ultimately invigorating; they also even make the closing title track -- a minute and a half of squalling feedback, followed by applause -- perfectly logical in the album's context." - All Music.

Elliott's third solo album from 1997 is looked upon by many as his masterpiece. The stripped down sound and vaguely lo-fi production belies the fact it took a year to record and contains some of his most subtle and introspective songs. To pick out one track above the rest is unfair as the whole album is uniformly fantastic; suffice to say "Between The Bars" is one of his most affecting and popular ballads, ending up on the "Good Will Hunting" soundtrack (in a re-recorded form). The whole album heralded the coming of age of a breathtaking talent and instantly became a downbeat indie classic.

"Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)", Brian Eno's sophomore solo outing, is a grab bag of freaky, science-fiction-dipped confections. Filled with a battery of innovative, unsettling effects, the album is darker and more complex than "Here Come The Warm Jets". The artist shows an increasing willingness to experiment with texture, as on "The Great Pretender," whose whirling, oozing keyboard line and synthesized vocals approximate delirium tremens or a hatching hive of maggots, or on "Put A Straw Under Baby," which features the Portsmouth Sinfonia, whose members have no knowledge of their instruments.

Yet Eno's grasp of melody and songcraft is everywhere: on the bouncing, absurdist / philosophical "Burning Airlines (Give You So Much More)," and on straight-out rockers, like the deliciously intense "Third Uncle" (which is propelled by the churning guitar of Roxy Music's Phil Manzenera, and is, arguably, the album's highlight). Concurrent with David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane"-era alien aesthetic, Eno's tunes are even more otherwordly and warped than his glam cohort, making use of the full palette of bizarro synthesizer effects and creepy-cheeky postures. The songs, however, are as inventive and appealing as their treatments, and make for Eno's most solid - and experimental - pop album. "Taking Tiger Mountain" holds up magnificently, even years on in the artist's brilliant career.