I`m Not There

R.E.M.’s eleventh studio album, Up, is being reissued for its 25th anniversary. The 1998 album features the singles ‘Daysleeper’, ‘Lotus’, ‘Suspicion’ and ‘At My Most Beautiful’ and was the band’s first album without drummer Bill Berry. The deluxe edition comes in 2CD and 2CD+blu-ray variants both with a previously unreleased, 11-song live set from the band’s ’99 taping for the TV series ‘Party of Five’. The blu-ray with the 3-disc edition is disappointing – it isn’t much different from the DVD-A issued 18 years ago. It includes the same 5.1 mix, a hi-res stereo mix and a few videos. There’s no new Atmos Mix, for example.

"Arias for mezzo soprano", it says, and authentically minded readers may already have noted that most of them would be sung by a countertenor these days, being originally for castrati. A little while ago I reviewed a record, "Arias for Farinelli", by Vivica Genaux, which came with a fascinating essay by René Jacobs in which he argued that the nearest we can get these days to the sound of the castrati is not the countertenor, which he rudely says should really be called a "falsettist", but the mezzo soprano, who is able to reproduce the strong, warm chest tones in her lower range which contemporary commentators tell us were at the base of the castrato voice production, the voice becoming sweeter and softer as it goes into the higher range.

Elvis Presley - Elvis Country (I'm 10,000 Years Old) (1971) {2012 2CD Set, 40th Anniversary Legacy Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 572 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 212 Mb
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© 1971, 2012 RCA Records / Legacy | 88691904392
Rock / Contemporary Pop / Country / Rock & Roll

The Elvis Presley series of Legacy Edition multi-disc packages continues its focus on important phases of the king’s recording career at RCA Records. Forty years after its release in 1971, Elvis Country, an LP that found him getting back in touch with the Nashville country music mainstream, is the lynchpin for Elvis Country: Legacy Edition, the newest entry in the series. Included in the new package on CD one is the original 12-song Elvis Country (“I’m 10,000 Years Old”), first released in 1971. Three bonus tracks are drawn from the original recording sessions of June and September 1970. On CD two, from the June sessions, comes the original 11-song Love Letters From Elvis also with three bonus tracks from the original sessions.

Eddie Bo - Baby I'm Wise: The Complete Ric Singles 1959-1962 (2015) {Ace Records CDCHD 1429}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 180 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 115 Mb
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© 1959-62, 2015 Ace Records | CDCHD 1429
Rhythm and Blues / Deep Funk / New Orleans R&B / Boogie-Woogie

All nine of Eddie’s Ric 45s plus several originally unissued masters making their CD debut. The years 1959 to 1962 were a musically fertile period in Eddie’s career, yet his Ric recordings are often overlooked in favour of his later funk classics. The tracks here show just what a great singer and songwriter Eddie was in his youthful prime, and how unlucky he was not to have made it as big as, say, his Crescent City compatriot Lee Dorsey.

This album was released in 1973 following the amazingly original albums 'Back To Front' and 'Himself' released in 1972 and 1971. It seems the 70s are O'Sullivan's vintage era and it is astonishing he could keep writing so many songs of highest quality and originality. Like the previous album, this one includes, not only hit songs like 'Get Down' and 'Ooh Baby', but also heart-warming and memorable songs like 'Where peaceful waters fllow', 'Afriend of mine' and 'They've only themselves to blame'. One of the characteristics of this album is the unabashed sense of humour and striking melodies which go very well with the witty lyrics in the songs like 'I'm a writer not a fighter', 'Who knows perhaps maybe' and 'If you love me like you love me'. This is certainly one of the best albums by O'Sullivan.