Reissues by Prince, Underworld & The Rolling Stones

PRINCE
Sign '☮' The Times (originally released 1987)
HIS PURPLE majesty arguably released his greatest album in Sign  'O' The Times, his ninth studio album and undoubted masterpiece. Purple Rain may get all the plaudits but his first album without his backing band The Revolution is greater, not just in length, but also in scope as Prince went from apocalyptic funk (on the title track), to playful pop (on Starfish & Coffee), to ballads (Adore) and religious epics (The Cross). How it came to be is one of Rock and Pop's most interesting back stories and to understand it is to gain a far wider appreciation of why this release is so important.
      Firstly though let's do the basic math: whilst the album itself is a 16 track double album, the super deluxe release is 92 tracks (!), a full 8hrs 2 mins of music. Even if you discount the last 18 tracks of live recordings and 13 of the tracks for being alternative takes or mixes of the tracks that already feature on the original album, this is still hugely impressive. Even for Prince who was known to be a workaholic, this is an outrageous amount of music. So how did this come to pass?
      The original album's genesis starts in December 1985, a few days after finishing Parade when he recorded the title track to a project he'd call Dream Factory but really starts in earnest when after finishing the film Under The Cherry Moon, Prince built his own home studio in Paisley Park and was able to accelerate how often he recorded. He also wanted to incorporate Wendy, Lisa and the entire Revolution band members, ultimately to make the album a Revolution album, not a Prince album. Indeed opening the album would have been a beautiful 2 minute solo piano piece played by Lisa entitled Visions which we hear here for the first time (well not entirely it was released albeit under a different name, Minneapolis #1 on the deluxe version of Wendy & Lisa's second album Eroica). Alas, the project - a double album that was sequenced and mastered ready to go - was aborted after Wendy & Lisa informed Prince they wanted to leave. Excited by recent film exploits, Prince turned to a new film project entitled The Dawn which whilst not going anywhere did yield several songs which are found here. Prince recorded a funk track called Housequake which incorporated the high pitch vocal technique he used on Erotic City a few years earlier. Such was the success of this recording - it's one of the funkiest things he ever did - he explored it further, gave himself a alter-ego - Camille - and put together short 8 track album in quick time. By now he had so many songs that he rechristened the new album Crystal Ball and turned it into a triple with its name taken from a recent 11 minute magnus opus that Prince felt especially pleased with.
Alas Warner Bros balked at the size of the album when Prince presented it to them and was told to par it down to a double album. The result was Sign 'O' The Times and this release celebrates all of those aborted projects and we get to see all the music that was passed by:

If I could describe it in one sentence, it's Prince's Greatest Hits 1987 or at least his Very Best of because it is effectively a cherry picking of all the above aborted albums that Prince was working on during this time. And so whilst it is his masterpiece, it just misses out on full marks because of the slight lack of cohesion of Disc 2. It seems churlish but if there's a throwaway track it's in the middle here - Strange Relationship - featured on the extras in older form complete with long sitar intro. The extras also include a few Prince by number tracks but with the sheer size, there are so many that are extraordinary - no wonder Prince fans are so excited!!

Rating: Original album 9 / Extras 10

Underworld

Drift Series 1 (originally released 2019)

TO BREAK up the monotony of record/tour/record every 3 years, in May 2018 British Rave act Underworld presented The World of Underworld where they would reflect on their back catalogue whilst simultaneously releasing new art and this included Brilliant Yes That Would Be recorded and released over a few days. By winter 2018, this evolved into a year long experimental music and video project called Drift where they decided to give themselves a real challenge: release a new piece of music every week for an entire year. So they did just that, whatever they were doing or wherever they were, every Thursday they released a new track and the best of these were compiled into a 10 track sampler released last November. It was one of the albums of the year but somewhat went under the radar with little fanfare or nominations (a lack of a Mercury music prize nomination was particularly galling). Indeed the achievement itself went somewhat under the radar too bar an article in Mixmag. Not only was this feat an unprecedented achievement but the creative challenge actually spurred on Underworld to raise the bar and release their best music since their peak as a trio back in the Nineties with Born Slippy and Second Toughest in the Infants:

      Now the full collection of work from Drift has been released which each Episode's music and video as well as collaborative features with The Works and a series of live recordings documenting how they played them in concert. Whilst one might think the sampler would capture the ten best tracks, actually there are several tracks which are as good as those captured in the sampler. Tracks such as Low Between Zebras and Dune continue Underworld's legacy of releasing superb chillout music such as Second Hand and River Of Bass whilst tracks such as Seven Music Drone take their recent forays into film soundtrack and couples it with killer claustrophobic bass lines to produce one of the best electronic pieces of music in the last few years.

      After a few quiet years and breaks taken by both band members, the idea to push themselves and not sit still provides a strong argument that the journey is always more important than the destination. Something that in hindsight makes a lot of sense as it ties in neatly with the bands previous themes of travel and being 'on the move'. The destination or output had nevertheless been aw-inspiring as they have released some of the best music of their career, whilst giving fans access to their creative process and the results - both musically and visually, surely something many artists should be thinking of incorporating in this modern world. Serendipity would have it too that the timing of it is extraordinarily lucky given we're now all in a period of inertia as the pandemic rumbles on. So go ahead and pick this up, if you're already a fan this'll blow you away. Even if you're not, the sheer scale of the project - 49 tracks/7hrs of music! - can't be ignored. Be in awe of what many had forgotten a musical artist could do, namely record and release great music, in a short space of time.

Rating: Original album 8 / Extras 9

The Rolling Stones

Goat's Head Soup (originally released 1973)
The reissuing of the Stones' back catalogue continues in earnest with perhaps one of their more low-key efforts. Whenever their albums are discussed, their 5 classic album run from 1968's Beggars Banquet to 1972's Exile On Main St. is often and quite rightly mentioned but little else. However to dismiss Goat's Head Soup would be to miss out on some forgotten gems and the period of transition that they were going through.
      The Stones were exiled, and it seemed they became more exiled with each passing year. So they decided on Jamaica for their next adventure and to move away from roots and embrace funk. And whilst it isn't a classic album by any stretch but there are classic songs to be found and indeed I've always had a soft spot for the underrated Dancing With Mr. D which opens the album. It's edgy, a bit groovy and seems to carry the same voodoo vibe as their own Sympathy For The Devil. 100 Years Ago follows and is the first appearance of Billy Preston and his famous funky clavinet sound - it works well and the song is very whimsical, in the way that the best Beatles songs were. The song really takes off though when Mick Taylor takes the guitar to another world with a gem of a solo and then Jagger sings "laaaazy bones, ain't got no time to waste away" as the song reaches the middle eight: it then slows right down to a halt before Preston starts hitting the keys and Taylor again soars with his second guitar solo of the song - gosh he must have been arguably the best guitarist at this point. We had lost Hendrix, Peter Green had gone AWOL and Clapton and Jimmy Page would get the all plaudits but for me it's Taylor that takes that accolade as world's greatest guitar player, if only for a short time in 1973:

      Coming Down Again follows which is Keith's stark song about well you can guess. It's heartfelt but merely ok. Billy Preston reappears on single Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) which is one of the funkiest things they ever did. Alas the song title perhaps didn't help in the sales stakes, but when the horns come in it at the start of the outro it really kicks into a gear and I think it works. The ubiquitous Angie follows which is by far the most well known song here - of course it's very good if a little overplayed (unsurprisingly Radio 2 chose it to promote the album). It's a classic song undoubtedly but I think personally it's lost some of its impact due to overexposure.

      Silver Train opens Side 2 (in old money) and it's the first track that doesn't quite work - it sounds like Stones by numbers and more of a B-side. The blues continue with Hide Your Love which is better but still not in the same league as the blues we know they can create such as Midnight Ramble and Ventilator Blues. Taylor's magical guitar somewhat saves the day. One of the most underrated songs follows and is a showstopper - Winter may be the best song on the album, it's beautifully sung by Jagger and echoes those feelings of resignation one feels in the cold winter months. Can You Hear The Music is slow psychedelia and okay. Star Star ends things in a bluesy slightly bizarre fashion as Jagger sings the "You're a starf*****, starf*****, starf*****" in the chorus. It's a rare moment where The Stones let their guard down and standards - I think it just doesn't work, is crass and has certainly not aged well.
      Overall the album is what it is, a gutsy stab at a fifth album in six years and at that rate it was always going to be a struggle to continue their rich vein of form, particularly off arguably their best album in Exile On Main St.  They recorded a number of great songs (including some demos that would go onto be finished latter on Tattoo You) but also too many average songs - by Stones standards at least. The first half is fantastic but the second certainly isn't. The bonus disc is interesting but offers no undiscovered treasures bar a mildly interesting cameo from Jimmy Page.

Rating: Original album 7 / Extras 6