Emerging out of semi-nowhere — well, Northwich — the Charlatans were saddled with a name that lent itself to jibes about their quality and the early burden of being a one-hit wonder with “The Only One I Know.” That all changed when Some Friendly, the group’s debut, planted itself at the top of the UK charts in 1990. Drawing on Martin Blunt’s background in mod and psych outfits, Rob Collins’ outrageously funky keyboards and Tim Burgess’ unexpected star quality, Some Friendly combines the joyous bounce of baggy with the good natured immediacy of indie pop, then wraps it up in state of the art production. Some of the lyrics betray Burgess’ sharp-tongued punk background — “You’re Not Very Well,” the opener, expresses anything but sunny sentiments…
Category: *editions*
…Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt met while studying at the University of Hull in 1981. Thorn had already formed the DIY post-punk group Marine Girls and recorded their beloved debut album Beach Party. Meanwhile, experimental singer-songwriter Watt’s debut single – ‘Cant’, produced by Kevin Coyne – was released that year on Cherry Red. The pair started a side project, Everything But the Girl, and released their first EP, Night and Day (led by a cover of the Cole Porter standard) in 1982.
After a couple of years pursuing their respective solo projects, Thorn and Watt came together again in 1984 for their debut full-length, Eden, a timeless set of plaintive bossa nova (No 28 single ‘Each and Every One’), shimmering indie-pop (‘Another Bridge’), wee-small-hours jazz…
Following so closely on the heels of the January 2026 concert piece One Moment in Time: Live in the USA, the re-release of Robin Trower’s 1975 Live! might seem a bit suspect. Instead, it serves as a template for such expansive archival projects (not just for this artist’s discography).
Issued in an elaborate 2CD or 2LP package, what was once a mere concession to the marketplace now becomes an essential entry in the venerable guitar hero’s discography. Fifty-some years ago, the constraints of the vinyl audio configuration prevented the 1975 Stockholm Concert Hall performance from being issued in its entirety.
Now, in observance of the half-century milestone, the entire performance, sequenced in the running order of the actual concert’s…
Xerrox Vol. 1 marked a pivotal juncture of Alva Noto’s process-based, multimedia art, when it transformed from precision-tooled, pulsating minimalism to diffuse states of cinematic atmosphere. By the point of its release, 200, Carsten Nicolai had spent over a decade rising to acclaim for his exquisite, methodical glitch works, including contemporary classics in duo with Ryuichi Sakamoto.
But Xerrox Vol. 1 would radically alter his work’s aesthetic away from microscopic, pointillist grammar to explorations of lusher textural and widescreen fascination, systematically sampling and displacing familiar, everyday sounds – advert jingles, phone “hold” tones, film scores – within swelling symphonic structures that exist…
8-CD Box Set – Newly mastered albums with bonus B-Sides and live shows.
After leaving Deep Purple, Ian Gillan retired from the music business to pursue other business ventures including ownership of the Kingsway studio, where in 1974 he began to work on his first post-Deep Purple solo tracks. This combined with a warm reception to his appearance at Roger Glover’s Butterfly Ball live show prompted him to form a new band.
Initially called Shand Grenade, Ian was persuaded by the management to change the band’s name to the Ian Gillan Band. He recruited guitarist Ray Fenwick, bass player John Gustafson, keyboard player Mike Moran and Mark Nauseef on drums, using Roger Glover as producer…
During the late ’70s, the beginnings of a wave of music heavily inspired by the garage rock and psychedelia of the 1960s began to swell. Chalk it up to many factors — the availability of a number of reissues, especially the Pebbles series, a disillusionment with the restrictive rules of punk rock, the passage of enough time so that the era seemed glamorous, the chance to get cheap vintage gear — but the result was an underground that evolved in many interesting directions and even went quite overground at different times. Cherry Red’s 2026 collection This Can’t Be Today: American Psychedelia & the Paisley Underground 1977-1988 looks to document the scene, gathering together the many strands and sounds of the time to present a comprehensive view.
The Beatles are a singularly iconic rock band. While plenty of classic rock groups, like the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, and, most successfully, Queen, continue to rack up tens of millions of monthly Spotify streams, no other band remains as relevant as the Beatles. Many YouTubers build popular channels by explaining musical theory through their songs or by delving into the supposed mysteries of how their music was created.
That makes it increasingly more challenging to find a new perspective on the group. With a Little Help from My Friends: Covers of the Beatles 1967-1970 may well provide some interesting new points of discussion. Does it make for an equally enjoyable listening experience?
This 3-disc box set from Cherry Red Records…
Matinee Acoustic Live at the Prince Albert finds Johnny Moped taking an unexpected turn with an acoustic set that, against all expectations, proves both engaging and highly entertaining. The very idea of a Johnny Moped acoustic performance might raise eyebrows among longtime fans, but the results speak for themselves.
Historically known for their chaotic and unpredictable shows, Johnny Moped have, in recent years, evolved into a far tighter and more dependable live act. That doesn’t mean the band have lost their edge—mistakes still happen, but within the Moped universe, they only add to the charm. What truly drives the performance is the same energy and excitement that has always defined them, and it remains fully intact here.
Rogue Wave began almost by accident.
In early 2002, faced with the sort of existential crisis unique to the newly unemployed, Zach Rogue decided to take some time off from his home base of San Francisco. He set off with a one-way ticket to New York in March with the intention of recording one or two songs with a friend, in an effort to exorcise his demons both artistically and personally. He came away with both a new lease on life and an album’s worth of material that would later become Rogue Wave’s stunning debut, Out of the Shadow.
At the end of 2002, while preparing the album for self-release, Zach rounded out the band’s lineup with the addition of Pat Spurgeon (drums, keys, samples, vocals) Sonya Westcott (bass, vocals)…
Paul Carrack is releasing a concert album recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London on Oct. 24, 2024, in celebration of 50 years of his first hit, “How Long,” recorded with Ace in 1974.
For One Night Only (Live in London) comprises two halves with Carrack joined by special guests SWR big band and orchestra playing songs from the album Don’t Wait Too Long and the second half featuring Carrack with his own band playing all his big hits. They’re joined on two tracks by a 150-piece choir, Funky Voices.
Dubbed by the BBC as “The Man With the Golden Voice,” Carrack’s breakthrough moment came when he wrote and sang “How Long” from his days with Ace. Paul also enjoyed great success as the voice behind numerous hits for…
This is a huge undertaking, an eight-CD set comprising all the band’s official studio albums released between 2006 and 2014, with a few added extras. It features not just the original albums, remixed and remastered (and notably not by Steven Wilson, prog’s ‘go-to’ man for this task), but also rarities, bonus tracks and acoustic reinterpretations, as well as new stereo and immersive mixes. Together, these highlight the journey The Pineapple Thief has been on since taking their early formative steps.
Retracing Our Steps is the second such release commemorating the legacy of The Pineapple Thief, following on from 2023’s How Did We Find Our Way, 1999–2006, which serves as almost the definitive guide to the band and their early…
…the reissue features 20 tracks, including a bonus 7″ with the previously unreleased song “House” and a new remix of “Playboy of the Western World” by Dirick Cummins. The tracks were newly restored from original 1/4” tape reels and mastered by Josh Bonati.
Third Man Records is re-issuing Connie Converse’s only known collection of songs on vinyl and CD so that a new generation can learn her story and sounds. How Sad, How Lovely is an atmospheric collection of folk songs that contain a lingering sense of what could have been.
Her backstory is fascinating as she began recording these intimate songs in 1949 on reel-to-reel, pre-dating the NYC folk scene with inward-looking tunes that struggle against…
Since its inception in 2002, independent label Soundway Records has unearthed coveted musical gems from far-flung corners of the world, with foundations that are rooted in meticulously sourced reissues. A collection of fourteen digital reggae, deep roots and dub rarities from the Nigerian underground, spotlighting a time when Jamaican reggae entwined with Nigerian styles, politics and consciousness, creating a bridge between Lagos and Kingston. Fight the Fire is a companion piece to Soundway’s seminal “Doing it in Lagos” and “Nigeria Special” compilations, celebrating the innovation and musical experimentation of Nigeria in the 80s. Features rare tracks from key figures of the time including Oby Onyioha (with a crucial Burning Spear cover) and Orits Williki.
Dr. John – Live at Rockpalast 1999 is a powerful live document capturing one of New Orleans’ most iconic musical voices in full command of his craft. Recorded on July 9, 1999, at the legendary Loreley open-air stage in Germany.
Known worldwide as The Nighttripper, Dr. John—born Malcolm “Mac” John Rebennack Jr.—was far more than a performer. He was a musical high priest of New Orleans culture, blending blues, funk, R&B, Creole traditions, and voodoo mysticism into a sound that was entirely his own. A six-time Grammy Award winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, his influence reaches far beyond genre boundaries.
Dr. John’s recording career began in 1968 with the haunting debut album Gris-Gris, a spellbinding…
…featuring a new mix of the album by engineers and longtime archival overseers Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J. McRae and Kris Frederiksen plus two discs of mostly unreleased studio material (including session takes, B-sides and backing tracks) along with two discs of live cuts sourced from previous archival releases.
…Queen II, again made by the band and returning producer Roy Thomas Baker (with a new co-producer, Robin Geoffrey Cable, in the mix for several tracks), expanded on the progressive metal style of its predecessor, adding sharper focus to guitarist Brian May’s dense, distinctive tone; the rhythm section of bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor and the vocal harmonies of lead singer Freddie Mercury…
…Original album recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in 2000 and remastered by Bob Weston in 2025 and never-before-released live studio album, ‘True Live Tapes’, recorded by Greg Norman in 2000 and mastered by Bob Weston in 2025.
Before, listening to Don Caballero felt similar to being beaten over the head with a huge baseball bat of pure audible genius: often too overwhelming and complicated for your average music listener to listen to for very long, much less understand. With American Don, it seems that the baseball bat has been traded in for a pillow, and instead of beating they are slowly smothering. Much of the aggressive bite of the music has been simmered out: distortion is much more rare, time…
Curated by Ricardo Villalobos, When There Is No Sun reflects on Afrofuturist icon Sun Ra’s influence on electronic music. The release (issued as a single CD or three 12″s, one of which includes bonus mixes) draws from the Sun Ra Arkestra album Living Sky, as well as My Words Are Music, an album of Sun Ra’s poetry recited by Saul Williams, Last Poet Abiodun Oyewole, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, and others. Detroit techno collective Underground Resistance appears twice, both times with Williams, adding sparse but insistent beats to lyrics about natural blackness and cosmic waves of sound. Chez Damier and Ben Vedren also contribute two tracks based on Ra’s poetry, with “The Three Dimensions of Air” featuring lush kora playing along with restrained…
…features the original album plus ‘Live at Third Man Records’, a 10-song live album.
On his debut for Columbia Records, Pete Yorn wears his heart on his sleeve like Ryan Adams, sings in a husky croon similar to Jakob Dylan, and earnestly plays into passion and emotion like Jeff Buckley. The year 2001 belonged to Yorn, and his critical praise was not unwarranted, with Musicforthemorningafter marking the stunning beginning of a long, varied career. It’s a raw selection of heartland and American trad rock, yet Yorn’s love for Brit-pop is also quite evident, with several breezy acoustic-based songs (“Sense,” “Simonize”) resembling threads of the Smiths. Yorn’s voice may crack at points, but it contributes to the dusty feeling of the entire…
Forty years on and the seismic shift that was 5150 – Van Halen’s first album with Sammy Hagar replacing David Lee Roth and also my first introduction to the band still detonates with a force that few records in the hard rock canon can match.
The 2026 expanded edition, remastered directly from the original master tapes and overseen by the band’s longtime engineer Donn Landee, doesn’t seek to reinvent one of the most commercially dominant albums of 1986, but seeks to honour it, warts and all, and in doing so reveals just how staggeringly alive this record remains.
What the expanded edition offers beyond an outstanding remaster is a genuinely comprehensive document of the album and its era. CD2 gathers the singles campaign in full – edited versions…
…features the original album as well as sessions, B-sides, a live show from the time and a complete disc of demos from Chapel Studios.
Having exorcised enough bile for two bands on their rickety release Interim, The Fall loosen up their attitude, tighten up their delivery, and squeeze out a rocking album that relies heavily on its highlights. Fortunately, there’s plenty, most hitting with the thwack of the “Sparta FC” single or the Light User Syndrome album. “Pacifying Joint” is a punchy exercise in hooks and sheen, “What About Us” is snide Mancabilly of the highest order, and “Blindness” hypnotizes and chugs its way into the Top 25 original Fall tracks ever. Flashiest of the lot has to be a soaring cover of the Move’s hippy anthem “I Can Hear the Grass Grow,”…