CHRISSIE HYNDE – DUETS SPECIAL
Chrissie Hynde isn’t releasing a Pretenders album this year, but she is dropping a duets record with some serious star power. Duets Special features 13 tracks with everyone from Debbie Harry and Cat Power to Dan Auerbach (of Black Keys fame) and the late Mark Lanegan. It’s stripped down, intimate, and full of great melodies. Hynde is no stranger to duets, she usually has friends join her for a show on tour, but she never thought she’d make an album out of it until she was talking to Rufus Wainwright and they talked about recording something. Their “Always on My Mind” cover is delicate and haunting, while “Try to Sleep” with Debbie Harry feels like two legends trading secrets. It’s a great chance to hear some of your favorites playing off of each other.
Stream • Parlophone • Connect: @chrissiehynde
PIXIES – DEMOS: THE PURPLE TAPE
Before Come On Pilgrim, before Surfer Rosa, there was The Purple Tape. These are the Pixies in raw form. The 1987 demos sound like they were recorded in a hallway with a tracklist and a dream. “Broken Face,” “Here Comes Your Man,” “Down to the Well,” they’re all here, just rough and ready. The band’s signature loud-quiet-loud dynamic is already locked in, and you can hear the DNA of grunge forming in real time. It’s noisy, anxious, and weird in all the right ways. If you want to hear the Pixies before they were legends, this is the tape.
SIMPLE MINDS – ONCE UPON A TIME (40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
Simple Minds are celebrating 40 years of Once Upon a Time with a deluxe reissue that finally includes “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” on the vinyl (completionists rejoice!). The 5CD box set is exactly what you would want: original album, B-sides, extended mixes, and the full Live in the City of Light concert from Paris. The remastered sound gives everything a fresh punch and urgency. And if you are all about the little extras, there’s a booklet with rare photos and interviews, and the ruby red vinyl isn’t bad to look at.
Stream • A&M • Connect: @simpleminds
SUGAR – “HOUSE OF DEAD MEMORIES”
The drums roll and rumble, the guitars are heavy and driving, and Bob Mould‘s voice sound urgent. Sugar fans, stop the prayers, there is new music and a reunion (plus, a record store day reissue of their debut, Copper Blue). Their first new music in over three decades, “House of Dead Memories,” sounds like it fell off a dusty shelf from 1992, but was in fact recorded earlier this summer at Tiny Telephone Oakland. The reunion shows come with the caveat that you probably have to travel, there’s only two stops: May 2 and 3 at New York’s Webster Hall, and May 23 and 24 at London’s Kentish Town Forum.
Stream • Granary Music/BMG • Connect: @bobmouldmusic
