The Colour Purple

The Smashing Pumpkins return with a new double album. The LP features 20 tracks, including the title track Cyr and The Colour of Love, and was recorded in the band’s native Chicago with Billy Corgan serving as producer. Cyr marks Smashing Pumpkins’ second LP since their semi-reunion with guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlain, following 2018’s Shiny and Oh So Bright, Vol. 1 / LP: No Past. No Future. No Sun. The album is also the band’s first with Sumerian Records, who recently signed them.

Bliss: The Decca Originals: a new collection of Decca recordings of Blisss music, including tracks previously unreleased on Decca CD as well as the complete version of the Violin Concerto with Alfredo Campoli. The career of Arthur Bliss was launched in London in the 1920s with provocative ensemble pieces such as Rout, but it was established by the Colour Symphony which Sir Edward Elgar invited him to write for the Three Choirs Festival. Bliss gradually became an establishment figure, appointed Master of the Queens Music in 1953 and a fluent maker of music celebrating Englishness (such as Welcome the Queen, 1954) at a time when notions of national identity were coming under scrutiny as never before.

The unreleased material has many entries, an example, such as a demo, take and rehearsal recorded 1960-1969. Some records were not published in the official album and bootlegs.