Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night. While you were sleeping, two of the best gifts of the Christmas 2009 season arrived in stores and I've already pulled both. To everyone who has me on their Christmas list, feel free to send cash instead because you will be hard pressed to find anything I want more than what I added to my music collection this week.
R.E.M.
Live at The Olympia
This set follows almost none of my "rules" for what a live album should be and yet it's one of the best live albums ever, and this is coming from a guy who loves and buys live albums. Yes, it's that good. Yes, you need it.
Live at The Olympia is taken from the band's five-night stand in Dublin, road-testing new material for the album that would become Accelerate. In addition to road-testing the new, they played some rarities that haven't been played in a decade or more. More than once, lead singer Michael Stipe reminds the audience "This is not a show." He's right. It's not. This is not a conventional tour souvenir live record. This is a care package to longtime fans of the band. If you discovered R.E.M. in the '80s and got off somewhere in the '90s, I have two words for you: "Wolves, Lower." This is your invitation to return to the fold. Run, don't walk. Buy this one now!
U2
The Unforgettable Fire (Super Deluxe Edition)
Oh, glory! Be once again bathed in the majesty of U2's first grand experiment, the first record they would make with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The Unforgettable Fire is being re-released in four packages: a single CD including only the remastered album, 2 CD, including the remastered album and a disc of remastered rarities, B-sides, and remixes, a Super Deluxe box set 2 CD/1DVD package that includes both CDs and a DVD of documentaries and live footage from the UnFire era, and a vinyl LP re-issue. I went with the Super Deluxe. I've listened carefully to both CDs and will be sitting down with the DVD this weekend.
The Edge again supervised the remastering and once again, this is a rare example of good remastering in the modern digital age.
A few words on some of the other releases out this week. The bad news: Creed has reunited for a tour and have now unleashed a new album. The good news? I don't think Scott Stapp has had any more kids, so maybe we won't have a sequel to "With Arms Wide Open." See? Ever the optimist. You people only think you know me. In addition to the reunited Creed, we have new music from a reunited Train.
I suppose we should touch on the Michael Jackson This Is It package. This is a soundtrack to a movie that was never supposed to happen, and much of this set is a repackaging of Jackson's hits. There is a glorified demo being touted as a "new single." If you're a completist, that will be enough to draw you in. If not, stick with your Essential Michael Jackson and let this one go.
Here's a full rundown of this week's new releases:
Devendra Banhart
What Will We Be
Broadcast & the Focus Group
Broadcast & the Focus Group Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age
Creed
Full Circle
Gov't Mule
By a Thread
Heavy Trash
Midnight Soul Serenade
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's This Is It
Dolly Parton
Dolly [RCA/Legacy]
R.E.M.
Live at the Olympia [2CD/1DVD]
The Swell Season
Strict Joy
U2
The Unforgettable Fire [Super Deluxe Edition]
Wolfmother
Cosmic Egg
3
Revisions
Matias Aguayo
Ay Ay Ay
Tony Allen/Jimi Tenor
Inspiration Information, Vol. 4
Atreyu
Congregation of the Damned
Between the Buried and Me
The Great Misdirect
Boat
Setting the Paces
James Brown
Live at the Garden [Expanded Edition]
Sara Davis Buechner
Jazz Nocturne: The Collected Piano Music of Dana Suesse
A Day to Remember
Homesick
Dave Douglas
A Single Sky
Melissa Etheridge
A New Thought for Christmas [Deluxe Edition]
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Duets
The Blind Boys of Alabama
Enlightenment
Rosie Flores
Girl of the Century
Garage a Trois
Power Patriot
Egberto Gismonti
Saudacoes
Sarah Lee Guthrie & Family
Go Waggaloo
Everette Harp
First Love
Hem
Twelfth Night
Hudson Mohawke
Butter
Paavo Järvi
Holst: The Planets; Britten: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra
Jay Dee
Dillanthology 3: Dilla's Productions
Jack Johnson
En Concert
Fela Kuti
The Best of the Black President [Deluxe]
Los Lobos
Los Lobos Goes Disney
Nils Lofgren
Cry Tough
Del McCoury
Family Circle
Brian McKnight
Evolution of a Man
Lorrie Morgan
A Moment in Time
Morningwood
Diamonds & Studs
Mother Hips
Pacific Dust
Joe Nichols
Old Things New
Orianthi
Believe
James Sinclair
Charles Ives: Decoration Day; Fourth of July; Thanksgving
Bryn Terfel
Scarborough Fair
Emily Osment
All the Right Wrongs
Pelican
What We All Come to Need
Pink Martini
Splendor in the Grass
Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers: The Greatest Duets
Carly Simon
Never Been Gone
Spirit
The Best of 1968-1977: Fresh from the Time Coast
Squirrel Nut Zippers
Lost At Sea
Rod Stewart
Soulbook
Stephen Stills
Live at Shepherd's Bush
Sting
If on a Winter's Night…
The String Cheese Incident
Trick or Treat: Best of the String Cheese Incident
Taylor Swift
Fearless [Platinum Edition]
Talk Normal
Sugarland
Chip Taylor
Yonkers, NY
Tegan and Sara
Sainthood
Train
Save Me, San Francisco
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Night Castle
Triple C's
Custom Cars & Cycles
Various Artists
John Zorn: Femina
Various Artists
Panama! 3: Calypso Panameno, Guajira Jazz and Cumbia Tipica on Theisthmus 1960-1975
Various Artists
Rainy Day Mind: Ember Pop 1969- 1974
Barry White
Unlimited
Weird Al Yankovic
The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic