Odds && Sods

The ongoing Motorpsycho archaeology project, which began with a 4CD box set based on 1994 breakthrough album Timothy’s Monster, sidesteps the band’s detour into country rock with The Tussler to pick up the trail with 1995’s Blissard. This new 4CD set contains the original album plus contemporaneous EPs, stray cuts, studio experimentation, and an entire, previously unreleased album…

For roughly half a decade, from 1968 through 1975, the Band was one of the most popular and influential rock groups in the world, their music embraced by critics (and, to a somewhat lesser degree, the public) as seriously as the music of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Their albums were analyzed and reviewed as intensely as any records by their one-time employer and sometime mentor Bob Dylan. Although the Band retired from touring after The Last Waltz and disbanded several years later, their legacy thrived for decades, perpetuated by the bandmates' respective solo careers as well as the enduring strength of the Band's catalog.

Islands is the seventh studio album by the Canadian-American rock group the Band. Released in 1977 to mixed reviews, it is the final studio album from the group's original lineup. Primarily composed of previously unreleased songs from the Band's career (including their 1976 cover of "Georgia on My Mind", which was recorded to aid Jimmy Carter in his presidential bid), Islands was released to fulfill the group's contract with Capitol Records, so that the soundtrack to their film The Last Waltz could be released on Warner Bros. Records. In the CD liner notes, Robbie Robertson compares the album to the Who's Odds & Sods.

Quadrophenia has been reissued before, including a notably remixed version in 1996, but it has never been expanded. The 2011 "Director’s Cut" makes up for lost time by offering two different expanded editions of the album (presented in its 1996 remix): a double-disc edition rounded out with 11 demos - all performed solo by Pete Townshend, two of which are songs that didn’t make the final cut - and a Super Deluxe Edition that adds an early version of the album comprised entirely of Townshend demos, a DVD containing 5.1 mixes from selected songs from the album, and a host of extras highlighted by a 100-page hardcover book featuring many photos, memorabilia from Townshend’s archive, lyrics, and a new, lengthy essay from Pete. While the double-disc edition is quite a handsome thing in its own right - the two discs may be split at an odd point, between “Drowned” and “Bell Boy,” the latter the last song on side three on the original album; the demos more than make up for this quirk - the Super Deluxe Edition is something special…

The Who's catalog was revamped in the mid-'90s, with every title (except My Generation, due to legal entanglements with producer Shel Talmy) receiving new remastering and bonus tracks. Nearly eight years later, Who's Next, one of the group's most beloved albums, was given another remastered/expanded treatment as part of Universal Chronicles' Deluxe Edition series. Now it spans two discs, including a full disc devoted to their legendary show at the Young Vic on April 26, 1971. Reportedly, this is also the first time the original master tapes were used for a CD master as well, and while the difference isn't as dramatically different as it was from the 1984 CD to the 1995 CD, this is a richer, resonant mix, which may be reason enough for some fans to acquire it.

This surprisingly consistent collection of unreleased material compiles a series of demos and outtakes recorded by Ken Hensley, a singer and songwriter best known for his work with Uriah Heep, between 1971 and 1982. Odds and sods compilations are often a dicey proposition, but From Time to Time manages to beat the odds with an effective combination of polished songcraft and inspired performances: The studio outtakes all boast fully realized productions (some even including a string section) and the demos aspire to studio quality thanks to tight arrangements that often differ from the released versions ("If I Had the Time" forsakes the space rock excesses of the Uriah Heep version for a lovely, country-flavored mid-tempo pace).

This surprisingly consistent collection of unreleased material compiles a series of demos and outtakes recorded by Ken Hensley, a singer and songwriter best known for his work with Uriah Heep, between 1971 and 1982. Odds and sods compilations are often a dicey proposition, but From Time to Time manages to beat the odds with an effective combination of polished songcraft and inspired performances: The studio outtakes all boast fully realized productions (some even including a string section) and the demos aspire to studio quality thanks to tight arrangements that often differ from the released versions ("If I Had the Time" forsakes the space rock excesses of the Uriah Heep version for a lovely, country-flavored mid-tempo pace).

It Ain't Easy features a British blues/rock lineup befitting the man behind the Long John Baldry moniker. This album returns Baldry to a decidedly edgier and hipper audience, with a literal cast of all-stars on some of the more adventurous material he had covered to date. This is no doubt due, at least in part, to the involvement of rock superstars Rod Stewart and Elton John. (In fact, John confesses to have taken the last name in his stage moniker from Baldry's first.) Among their contributions to the project, Stewart and Elton divided the production tasks - each taking a side of the original album. Immediately, Baldry sheds the MOR blue-eyed pop soul image. The backing band on Stewart's side include fellow Face and future Rolling Stone, Ron Wood, on electric guitar and acoustic guitarist Sam Mitchell, who appeared on many of Stewart's early-'70s solo albums…

'Nod to the Old School' is a very nice odds and sods disc for their fans, as it compiles new studio tracks, live songs from their 2000 tour, all tracks from the original 1983 EP, soundtrack inclusions, old demo recordings with original guitarist Dave Prichard, who passed away from leukemia and a few other rarities. Among the new studio tracks is a remake of "March of the Saint" as well as three new songs recorded in 2001, an acoustic version of Symbol of Salvation's "Tainted Past", and 'Never Satisfied,' a song apparently recorded during the 'Revelation' sessions. All these songs are superb.