There must have been something to that whole "holiday weekend" theory because we probably have four times more titles this week than we did last week. Are any of them any good? Let's not waste any time, let's take a look:
R.E.M.
Fables Of The Reconstruction (Deluxe Edition)
Fables is the third album from R.E.M.'s vintage, glorious years with indie label IRS to receive the deluxe treatment. Both Murmur and Reckoning were remastered and a second disc was added to each. In both cases, they were concerts from the respective tours for those albums (the Murmur show wasn't the complete Toronto performance).
Fables is getting remastered but instead of a live show from the Fables tour, we're getting "demos." My understanding is these aren't demos in the sense of rough outlines of what the songs from Fables were created but are actually rehearsals of the band trying to learn the songs before the tour. Among these demos are a couple songs that never made an album and have never been officially released. I'm less excited about this package than I was for the first two reissues. I'm going to have a love/hate reaction to the remaster as there will be too much bass and compression but there will also be some improvements. Yes, I'll buy it but they better do better when they reissue Lifes Rich Pageant.
Crowded House
Intriguer
This is solely for Blogcritics music writer extraordinaire and loyal reader Tom Johnson. If I don't mention this release, Tom will because as I mentioned he is a loyal reader and commenter and also happens to be a huge fan of Crowded House and all things Finn (and that's Finn as in Neil Finn, not Finland; I'm pretty sure Tom has no problems with Finland but I shouldn't speak for him).
Concrete Blonde
Bloodletting (20th Anniversary Edition)
This one's for me. I'm not a Goth. I don't know precisely how you define the culture but I know I was nowhere in it. I wasn't down with them and they weren't actively recruiting me. Concrete Blonde routinely got painted with the Goth brush and I'm sure there are elements of that in their music (they sing about vampires, right?) but what I heard was an alt-rock band with an incredible vocalist named Johnette Napolitano. I won't pretend I understand everything they were on about, but I loved their sound and Napolitano's voice. I haven't heard this album in ages. Amazon is selling this expanded edition of their best-selling record for $10. I'm willing to pay that to find out how well it has aged.
Article comments
1 - Tom Johnson
It's true, I have no problem with Finland. In fact, I have family in Finland. I don't know if they are Finn-fans, however. They should be. You should be. Everyone probably should be.
2 - Josh Hathaway
I'm glad we could put to rest the Johnson V Finland rumors. Blogcritics, doing it's part for world peace. This ought to get me on the Nobel finalist list with Bono. I'm a great humanitarian.
3 - Tom Johnson
I'm inclined, after a very initial listen, to say that the Fables remaster sounds pretty decent. It's been compressed a bit but not offensively so (it's nothing like Accelerate.) I prefer the MFSL versions of Murmur and Reckoning but I will go with the remaster here simply because the original sounds pretty tired.
4 - Joanie
Concrete Blonde? WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOO! And in the same week as Crowded House.