Bruce Springsteen See Hear Now

Imagine that years after your favorite television series had ended (be it Seinfeld, The Sopranos, Stath Lets Flats, Twin Peaks or any other), you learned that additional episodes had been shot during the show’s best years and were about to be released in pristine quality. Would it matter that you had already watched dozens of episodes from the same season?

Bruce Springsteen has always been steeped in mainstream pop/rock music, using it as a vocabulary for what he wanted to say about weightier matters. And he has always written generic pop as well, though he's usually given the results away to performers like Southside Johnny and Gary "U.S." Bonds. Sometimes, those songs have been hits - think of the Pointer Sisters' "Fire" or Bonds' "This Little Girl Is Mine." Occasionally, Springsteen has used such material here and there on his own albums; some of it can be found on The River, for example. But Human Touch was the first Bruce Springsteen album to consist entirely of this kind of minor genre material, material he seems capable of turning out endlessly and effortlessly - the point of "I Wish I Were Blind" is that the singer doesn't want to see, now that his baby has left him; "57 Channels (And Nothin' On)" is about TV…

Now Voyager is the second solo album to be recorded by Barry Gibb, although it was his first to be released. Gibb had recorded an entire album in 1970 called The Kid's No Good, which never received official release. The album contains his biggest hits "Shine, Shine" and "Fine Line". The album also included the Olivia Newton-John duet "Face to Face", which was released as a promo single. In 1986, Gibb recorded his third solo album Moonlight Madness, which remains unreleased, leaving Now Voyager his only officially released album. Gibb co-produced the album with Karl Richardson, who worked with the Bee Gees from 1976 to 1979. Richardson worked with Barry until 1986, his last project with Barry being Moonlight Madness.

Status Quo are to release another batch of deluxe two and three CD releases via Universal Music. Under the spotlight this time are the '1+9+8+2' album released to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the bands formation, 'Back To Back' from 1983, which features the last studio performances of original bass player Alan Lancaster before he left the band in late 1985, 'In The Army Now' (originally released in 1986) and its 1988 follow up, 'Ain't Complaining' which are all due for release by UMC/Mercury on Friday 28th September 2018.