Music Week's round-up of the latest album reissues and catalogue releases.
VARIOUS
The 70s Pop Annual (Demon DEMRECOMP 007)/The 80s Pop Annual (DEMROCOMP 008)/Classic Rock Anthems II(DEMROCOMP 006)
With year-to-date sales up more than 30% to something in excess of 3m, vinyl is heading for its best year since at least 1990, and one of the companies driving its growth is Demon. Its latest offerings are released just in time to take advantage of the lucrative Christmas market, which is expected to see many households return to the vinyl fold. All three albums are packaged in striking gatefold sleeves with their contents spread across 2 180gm platters of heavyweight vinyl. With the purpose of such good quality vinyl being to provide the highest fidelity with deeper grooves providing superior bass response, The 70s Pop Annual and sister release The 80s Pop Annual are on the edge of torpedoing their intentions, with each housing 30 tracks, meaning that grooves are shallower and closer together than might be ideal. Happily, they still sound excellent, and provide a real taste of the decades in question with the 1970s set including legendary acts like ELO, Meat Loaf, The Jacksons Odyssey and T. Rex, while the 1980s set offers Toyah, Adam & The Ants, The Bangles, Kim Wilde and Dead Or Alive. As its title suggests, Classic Rock Anthems II is the follow-up to the first Classic Rock Anthems set which was released last year, and is set to be just as successful, with melodic US rock bands like Toto, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Journey and Survivor present and correct, alongside Run-DMC's rock/rap version of Walk This Way (feat. Aerosmith) and the album's only UK representatives Bonnie Tyler (Holding Out For A Hero) and Mott The Hoople (All The Young Dudes). With 20 tracks, there are five on each side, so sound quality is fine. One potential pitfall with all three albums is that they draw heavily on catalogue from Demon's main licensor Sony Music - but thankfully there was enough good repertoire for that not to be an issue.
THE EAGLES
Hotel California (Asylum/Rhino 0081227933258)
With worldwide sales estimated to be in excess of 32 million, including more than 2m in the UK, The Eagles' fifth album, Hotel California, is one of the 20 biggest albums of all-time and struck the ideal balance between country and rock. To belatedly mark its 40th anniversary - which was actually December 1976, making it 41 years old next month - this deluxe edition of the album features a newly remastered version of the original set; a second CD containing a previously unreleased concert recording from October 1976, featuring early live versions of some of its songs alongside others from the group's canon; and a Blu-ray audio disc featuring 5.1 surround sound and hi-resolution 24 bit stereo mixes of the album. The discs are housed in a handsome 11"x11" hardback book featuring rare and unseen photographs from the era, a replica tour book and a poster, making it a perfect Christmas present. All well and good - but what about the music? Thankfully, it still sounds great. Eight months in the making, the album opens with the tantalising title track, a No.1 single in America which marked the emergence of drummer Don Henley as the band's strongest vocalist. New Kid In Town is equally strong but a little less intense, while Life In The Fast Lane is a hard-rocking affair with some psychedelic effects. Victim Of Love and Pretty Maids All In A Row remain very strong supporting cuts while The Last Resort is a moody, episodic track, and the perfect way to close a perfect album.
VARIOUS
Let's Do The Boogaloo (BGP CDBGPD307)
Perhaps not responsible for as many cash-in records as its terpsichorean sister the twist, the boogaloo nevertheless flourished as a source of joyous soul, jazz and Latin dance music in America in the mid-sixties. There have been other compilations of boogaloo music, but this one - comprising 24 songs recorded between 1965 and 1968 - concentrates on the crossover between black and Latin forms of the idiom. An infectious and ill-defined genre that started in Chicago, according to the liner notes, it is nevertheless possible to get a good flavour of it - and pass an enjoyable hour - by listening to this album. It gets off to a terrific start with the frenetic Ready Steady Go from Prince & Princess; takes a funky turn with Mongo Santamaria's Mongo's Boogaloo; gets an endorsement from the previously twist-crazy Chubby Checker on Hey You! Little Boo-Ga-Loo; and wanders into the barrio with Willie Rosario & His Orchestra's Watusi Boogaloo. Uplifting and edifying, it comes with a 16 page booklet, with extensive liner notes and illustrations.
