Beastie Boys
Ill Communication
GRAND ROYALE/CAPITOL
LISTEN/BUY: Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | Rough Trade
The 30th anniversary, vinyl and cassette only edition of Ill Communication presents the high-watermark of the Beasties’ 90s imperial phase. Complete with four sides of bonus material and a field recording of the band playing basketball in the studio.
“...Beastie Boys were behind the times in a totally prophetic way, and it’s a joy to go back to their future. ★★★★” Read MOJO’s review in full.
The Police
Synchronicity
UMR/POLYDOR
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Vastly expanded reissue of The Police’s fifth album Synchronicity charts the strange, fractured recording of the group’s swan song, and their most commercially successful record.
READ MORE: The Police interviewed: “There’s at least a 0000000.1 per cent chance of getting back together.”
“... listening back to it now, it remains a pretty weird mainstream record, by an altogether underrated group. ★★★★” Read MOJO’s review in full.
John Lennon
Mind Games: Ultimate Collection
CAPITOL/UME
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John Lennon’s fourth solo album was shunned by critics and the record buying public alike when it was released in 1973. However, this extravagant reappraisal reveals new pathways within the former Beatles' most overlooked LP.
READ MORE: 20 Ways John Lennon Changed The World
"... the Mind Games you get instead, in this lavish, rejuvenating treatment, is the several brighter, bolder albums it might have been, on the way to the one that fell flat in 1973. ★★★★” Read MOJO's review in full.
David Bowie
Rock ’N’ Roll Star!
PARLOPHONE
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After endless reissues, The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars returned once more under cover of Rock ’N’ Roll Star!, a 5-CD, one audio-only Blu-Ray, two-book box set, shining fresh light on the creation of pop music's greatest fantasy.
READ MORE: Inside David Bowie's final night as Ziggy Stardust: "Everyone was being so outrageous!"
"... there’s no doubt that with Ziggy Stardust, Bowie achieved what he’d set out to do. ★★★★" Read MOJO's review in full.
Nico
The Marble Index/Desertshore
DOMINO
The Marble Index
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Desertshore
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A thing of dark, majestic beauty. Mastered from the original analogue tapes, The Velvet Underground enigma's visionary LPs The Marble Index and Desertshore get a long-awaited reissued on vinyl.
READ MORE: Nico Remembered: “She was so strong and she’d had such a full and rich life.”
"... Nico summons dreamlike images from deep inside herself, in search of something vast and eternal. ★★★★★" Read MOJO's review in full.
Alice Coltrane
The Carnegie Hall Concert
IMPULSE!
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Alice Coltrane’s landmark 1971 performance at the Carnegie Hall in aid of her guru Swami Satchidananda finally received an official release this year. A remarkable communion of spiritual transcendence captured for the ages.
"What began as a benefit for Swami Satchidananda and evolved into a summoning of John Coltrane’s spirit now stands as a tribute to the liberating force of Alice Coltrane herself. ★★★★" Read MOJO's review in full.
The Waterboys
1985
CHRYSALIS
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Mike Scott re-navigates the year of The Waterboys' 1985 classic This Is The Sea across 95 tracks, 64 previously unreleased. Deep, very deep.
READ MORE: Mike Scott Interviewed: "Bob Dylan heard The Whole Of The Moon and he liked it..."
“... one of the many pleasures of these six CDs is how rigorously 1985 exposes the creative process. ★★★★” Read MOJO's review in full.
Can
Live In Paris 1973
SPOON
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Volume four of Can’s live chronicles finds Cologne’s mythic improvising super power doing something truly unexpected... actually playing their songs!
READ MORE: Damo Suzuki Remembered: “Life is so short, so face in front of you, not backside.”
"...as this time-portal demonstrates, their potency as a power force, ideal and totem endures and will endure. ★★★★” Read MOJO's review in full.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
Dume
REPRISE
BUY: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Neil Young’s ransacking of his archives continued throughout 2024. Perhaps the biggest treasure of all unearthed was this long-spoken about radical expansion of 1975's Zuma as a double LP. Becoming less about Young’s break-up with Carrie Snodgress, the new rebuilding leans harder into his phantasmagorial visions of Aztecs and Incas.
"... Dume prompts a heretical thought: it might actually be better than Zuma. ★★★★" Read MOJO's review in full.
Paul McCartney & Wings
Band On The Run 50th Anniversary Edition
CAPITOL
LISTEN/BUY: Spotify | Apple Music | Amazon | Rough Trade
This year's 50th Anniversary Edition of perhaps Paul McCartney's greatest post-Fabs achievement included some fascinating extras, including rough works in progress and stripped back 'underdubbed' mixes shorn of Tony Visconti's string arrangements.
READ MORE: Paul McCartney Interviewed: “Can you imagine trying to start another band after The Beatles?”
"... what cannot be revealed, however, is what’s always been obvious – namely, McCartney’s sturdiest collection of vocal melodies since The Beatles. ★★★★★" Read MOJO's review in full.