Heavyweight classics, cultural titans and some weirder routes through jazz and lowcore.
We’re starting off this new week via the heads at Be With Records and a pressing of The Keith Tippett Group’s utterly wild Dedicated To You, But You Weren't Listening. A brilliant jazz pianist, composer, arranger and bandleader, Tippett really went somewhere with this one, from its swinging and seriously cool spaces in jazz rock fusion, to some proper out-there avant-garde blasting. I think they call them Marmite records, but any of you explorers up for a trip, this is fantastic! FANTASTIC!
Joan Baez’s iconic Farewell, Angelina gets a real nice pressing this week. Her voice really is stunning, both when she rolls long held notes on the traditionals and sings as clear as a bell on tracks written by Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. Stuck it on, stopped what I was doing, did nothing. Best bit of Monday.
+ Available on 180-gram vinyl with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Housed in a tip-on jacket.
When we wrote a little while back about Bobby Hutcherson’s Total Eclipse for Sunday Classic, we mentioned how much we like the Montara LP from the same period. Well, we really do and that one is now back in print as part of the Tone Poet Vinyl series (produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe tip-on jacket) and is sounding resplendent. Latin vibes and some grooving fusion to lock into, it really has all sorts of good vibes.
Good was the debut album by the Boston-based trio, Morphine. Low sliding bass and squawking sax lifts, it’s a trip for sure and stands up really well on the stereo.
+ Remastered and pressed on Forest Green vinyl.
We then gradually go back in time for some super nice decade-based anniversary editions.
We have a tenth anniversary pressing of Jason Isbell’s Something More Than Free, re-mixed by the legendary Sylvia Massy and remastered onto double Denim colour vinyl. Some serious country vibes and gestures into more jamming blues, especially on Should I Go Missing (originally a b-side) that is included on this 2025 pressing.
Going back twenty years, Domino celebrate Franz Ferdinand’s seminal sophomore You Could Have It So Much Better with a limited edition Orange vinyl pressing and 2025 remaster. This one sounds fantastic.
Also twenty years back, My Morning Jacket’s absolutely stonking Z album gets a very lavish repress which we have been enjoying a great deal over the weekend. It has been remastered from the original tapes by Emily Lazar and includes a bunch of unreleased outtakes and demos. A proper epic.
Also, also twenty years ago was Supergrass’ Road to Rouen, the band’s lush and grandiose fifth LP. The new edition includes previously unheard live and studio recordings, all fully remastered on double Petrol & Forest Green colour vinyl.
And then lastly, thirty years ago (on 2nd October), Oasis’ era-defining (What's The Story) Morning Glory? was released and everyone quickly learned the words to Wonderwall. Reissued on their own Big Brother Recordings, the 2025 edition has been newly mixed by Noel Gallagher and includes five unplugged tracks on 2CD and 3LP (pressed on "Cast No Shadow" clear vinyl) editions, with a subtle and fun revisit to Berwick Street for the front cover.
Lastly for today, Names Records and Two Piers Editions reissue the absolutely fantastic debut LP from The Earlies. These Were the Earlies is such a distinctly British take on psychedelia, full of weird little gestures and slow evolving moods. I think they did that rare meeting of electronic and acoustic better than anyone at the time, a spaced out and dense set of songs with real character and charm. Great stuff.
+ Pressed on double Cream colour vinyl.