southmetromusic

A decade after its initial release of only 300 copies, Tipper's Forward Escape is being offered once more in vinyl format to the legions of fans who sought this vaunted platter for their collection since. Blissfully naive the pressing would be so well received, the 300 copies Tipper self-funded was intended more a physical nod to the album artwork from Android Jones than as the highly sought after and rare collectible these became later. This 2024 'redux' adds a bonus track (Gratis) and updated mixes of each track to separate it from the original release, and the artwork has also received a re-working from the original artist (thus preserving the valuation of those 300 rare copies that have received mythical status in the reselling market over time).

Neck Deep's current outlook is "Don't Overthink it." The songs on upcoming self-titled album "are just fun, and we're not taking ourselves too seriously. We've basically done 90% of the production and recording ourselves... We've pretty much built this record fro the ground up with little to no outside help By that factor alone, it's the most Neck Deep record there's ever been, or at least since our first record, Wishful Thinking. It's the first time since then that we've done everything ourselves" explains Ben Barlow.

Marking 40 years of The Jesus And Mary Chain, ‘Glasgow Eyes’ was recorded at Mogwai’s Castle of Doom studio in Glasgow, where Jim and William continued the creative process that resulted in their previous album, 2017’s ‘Damage and Joy’, becoming their highest charting album in over twenty years. What emerged is a record that finds one of the UK’s most influential groups embracing a productive second chapter, their maelstrom of melody, feedback and controlled chaos now informed more audibly by their love for Suicide and Kraftwerk and a fresh appreciation of the less disciplined attitudes found in jazz. Jim Reid says, “But don’t expect ‘the Mary Chain goes jazz.’ People should expect a Jesus and Mary Chain record, and that’s certainly what ‘Glasgow Eyes’ is. Our creative approach is remarkably the same as it was in 1984, just hit the studio and see what happens. We went in with a bunch of songs and let it take its course. There are no rules, you just do whatever it takes. And there’s a telepathy there - we are those weird not-quite twins that finish each other’s sentences.” ‘Glasgow Eyes’ not only extends The Jesus and Mary Chain's story, but feels simultaneously like a return to roots. From the incendiary ‘Psychocandy’ debut and its classic ‘Just Like Honey’ onwards, the Reid brothers steadily became the misfits who made good without compromise.

The Black Crowes and producer George Drakoulias revisit their classic second album, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. They’ve gone through the archives to create a deluxe edition featuring unreleased studio recordings, rare b-sides, a February 1993 concert, and a newly remastered album. Highlights include a new mix of the Memphis soul classic “99 Pounds”; the previously unreleased studio recording “Miserable.”

Deluxe 4LP box set includes: a reproduction of the original 132 page promotional hymn book featuring insights on the record and band’s state of mind from both Chris and Rich Robinson and sheet music for the 9 Chris and Rich compositions.  Along with the box there are 4 12″x12″ lithographs of images from the southern Harmony photo shoots. The project has been overseen by Chris and Rich Robinson and album producer George Draklouias. There are 14 unreleased recordings, including 2 studio recordings, a live concert from February 1993 and the never heard before live in-studio performance recorded at the end of the Southern Harmony session along with b-sides and the original album, now remastered. 

Torchbearers for British guitar music, The Vaccines - Justin Young (lead vocals, guitars), Árni Árnason (bass, vocals), Timothy Lanham (guitars, keys, vocals) and Yoann Intonti (drums) - are back with their sixth studio album Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations. The title comes from a misremembered lyric from Don McClean's "American Pie," a song that for Young fittingly evokes the death of innocence and the American Dream. After he moved to Los Angeles - a city the band has grown up being captivated by - he was forced to wrestle with the disillusionment that comes when expectations, dreams, and reality don't quite meet. Yet, though Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an album about reconciling with loss, it's also filled with gratitude for the people and places we once loved.

"Pink carnations symbolise gratitude and tell a person they’ll never be forgotten," says Young. "So whether it's the loss of a lover, or a friend, or even just a dream, the record is a reminder that they’ll live on in whatever capacity the mind allows them to. And it's a reminder to keep on dreaming.”

Produced by Andrew Wells (Halsey, Phoebe Bridgers) with Mixing from Dave Fridmann (Tame Impala, The Flaming Lips), Pick-Up Full of Pink Carnations is an immediately anthemic addition to the band's discography. With a mammoth five UK Top 5 albums – including a Number 1 with 2012’s Come of Age – and a fierce live reputation forged through arena-filling headline shows and unforgettable slots at Glastonbury and Reading/Leeds, The Vaccines continue to be a vital band in the British rock canon.

Live Forever is the second solo mixtape by American singer/rapper Lil Peep. It was first released on December 2, 2015, two months after his first mixtape, Lil Peep; Part One. The mixtape was preceded by two singles: "Flannel" and “Haunt U”, and three additional singles were issued posthumously. The mixtape was later re-released on the seventh anniversary of the mixtape's release in 2022. Now available for the first time on vinyl, CD, and cassette

“The band was once described as a 'fucking nightmare' to be around, whilst we are lovely people we do embrace the chaos that comes with all of this so found it fitting to title our next album as such. The songs themselves mainly follow this theme but relate to all aspects of life. Lyrically, it is more of the same... no metaphorical meanings, no fantastical story telling, no pretentious bollocks.... Just tales of a life lived as it will always be.”

Real Estate’s sixth full-length album Daniel was recorded in an ebullient nine-day spree in RCA Studio A, in Nashville with celebrated producer and songwriter Daniel Tashian. In 11 compulsively tuneful songs, they connect the uninhibited wonder of their earliest work with the earned perspective of adulthood.

Martin Courtney actually learned of Tashian through his daughter, who adored an album he’d produced, Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour. The band reached out and spotted an instant connection despite their distinct wheelhouses—the Grammy-winning Nashville country-pop guy who’d helmed several smashes and the Northeast indie rock quintet with narcotic guitars. Real Estate had been thinking about R.E.M.’s Automatic for the People and ’90s “soft-rock radio,” the background music of their youth. Tashian helped lead them back toward it, toward an improved edition of the less self-conscious band they’d been at the start.

Several days into recording, all five members of Real Estate were discussing album titles when someone suggested “Daniel,” simply because it seemed funny to bestow a human name upon a record. Was it for Daniel Tashian? Maybe. Was it a nod to The Replacements’ Tim? Possibly. Was it the sign of a band that has now been around long enough to take its music seriously without taking itself or its perception too seriously? Absolutely.

10th Anniversary Expanded Deluxe Edition of The Marshall Mathers LP2. It features 11 bonus tracks, including B- sides and instrumentals. Originally released on November 5, 2013, the album serves as a sequel to The Marshall Mathers LP released in 2000. It features the singles “Berzerk,” “Survival,” “Rap God,” “Headlights” and “The Monster,” which reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album won Eminem a record sixth GRAMMY Award for Best Rap Album and is now certified 4x platinum. 4 LP set on 180g black vinyl.

Following acclaimed Topical Dancer album with Charlotte Adigéry, here comes Letter To Yu, Bolis Pupul’s debut solo album, produced by fellow Belgians, Soulwax. It’s no coincidence that Bolis Pupul’s music sounds the way it does. Born in Belgium to a Chinese mother and Belgian father and raised in Ghent, Bolis’ electronica is a joyous cross-cultural assemblage. The creation of the album is built around Bolis’ trip to Hong Kong earlier this year, made to reconnect with his mother’s roots.