The Breakdown: Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails, Opeth, U2

One last big blast of what the industry hopes are massive, can't-miss releases before the shopping season begins - it's pretty obvious looking at the list this week. It's all greatest hits and weird repackagings the likes of which we would never see any other time of the year. However, it's also the day that brings two of the biggest re-releases of the entire year, the ones that will likely not end up under many music freaks Christmas trees - they'll have already bought these themselves.

Genesis - Live Over Europe and 1983-1998 (Box and Individual releases): Given the fact that I've seen absolutely no talk about Live Over Europe, I'm going to assume that few really care about this live album that documents the reunion tour from this past summer. It looks almost to be buried by the label with no warning whatsoever of its impending release - it's just here with no fanfare, and given the lukewarm responses to the shows, that's no surprise.

On the other hand, the second installation in the remix/remaster campaign curiously focuses on the band's least appealing period, from the self-titled 1983 album through the final, Phil Collins-less Calling All Stations in 1997. It's as if the label actually wants to show you that they're really not tuned in at all. This box of material that few fans are dying to get is readied for the hot Christmas season while the box that all the fans are eager to wrap their ears around, the Gabriel years set, lingers in limbo . . . ?

As it is, the material on these albums has been remixed from the masters to update their sound, so they won't sound exactly how you remember them, and each album has a DVD with surround-sound versions of the album tracks. If you opt to buy the box, you get not only the requisite book but also a disc of bonus tracks (and the surround DVD of those as well.)

Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the SameCD and DVD: I remember one of the fundamental disappointments when getting into Led Zeppelin was, sadly, this live album. It was just a mess. Sprawling, rambling, incoherent, it just didn't jell, and there was good reason: it had been chopped up to fit on two pieces of vinyl and was never readjusted for CD. We could go on and on about the video version of it, the fantasy segments of which were a complete surprise when my friends and I rented it one night as teens just getting into the band. Confused is about the only word that comes to mind. "What is going on here? Why are his eyes glowing? Why is he sword fighting? Why are we watching cars?" Now, having seen it via VH-1 Classic a few times, those fantasy segments merely look quaint and a bit charmingly self-absorbed.

Article Author: Tom Johnson

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