Complex – Live For The Minute: The Complex Anthology

Three CD set. First-ever career anthology of Blackpool-based psychedelic/progressive pop group. Complex who self-released one of the world's rarest, most expensive albums. In 1970-71, Lancashire quartet Complex pressed 99 copies of their self-titled debut LP and instant follow-up The Way We Feel in an unsuccessful attempt to land a major label recording deal. Based around the songs of their teenage organist Steve Coe (later the mastermind behind Monsoon's Top 20 hit 'Ever So Lonely'), both albums are now hugely collectable, with a copy of their much-eulogized psych-pop first LP selling in 2015 for an astonishing £10,000. Live For The Minute: The Complex Anthology brings together all of their recordings under one roof for the first time, with those two albums (bolstered by various contemporary out-takes, including the previously-unissued original demo of 'Green-Eyed Lucy') joined by a third CD of subsequent recordings that now gain their first-ever issue.

English synth pop duo Pet Shop Boys have amassed a remarkably consistent and influential catalog, pairing wry cultural commentary with buoyant melodies and lush electronic arrangements that sound like no other. After first emerging in the mid-'80s with "West End Girls" and "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)," Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe quickly established themselves as hitmaking singles artists who were also able to craft emotionally resonant albums, like 1988's Introspective and 1990's Behaviour. The duo navigated the constantly shifting landscape of modern dance-pop with grace and intelligence, moving easily from disco to house music to thoughtful synth pop without losing their distinctive style in the process. Continuing to evolve artistically, Pet Shop Boys incorporated Latin music on 1996's Bilingual, expanded into theater and ballet, and eventually morphed into elder statesmen of electronic pop, producing an array of inventive late-period highlights like 2016's Super and 2024's Nonetheless.