Elliott Smith’s sophomore self-titled album turned 25 years old last month, and Kill Rock Stars is celebrating the anniversary by releasing a new deluxe reissue of the LP. Stream it below via Apple Music and Spotify. This deluxe edition features a fresh remaster of all of the album’s tracks, thanks to the official Smith family archivist Larry Crane pulling the from reels, cassettes, files, and DAT tapes to get recordings as close to the original Elliott Smith mix as possible. In addition to the original tracklist, the reissue includes the previously unreleased Live at Umbra Penumbra, capturing a September 17th, 1994 performance at Portland, Oregon’s Umbra Penumbra that’s the earliest known recording of Smith playing a solo acoustic show. “There are fan-traded MP3s out there of this sh...
Shania Twain has announced a special 25th anniversary reissue of her star-making sophomore album The Woman in Me. The Diamond Edition will be available as an LP, or in two-CD or three-CD packages on October 2nd. Twain made her debut with an eponymous 1993 record. She didn’t write or co-write any of the tracks, and not coincidentally, it was something of a flop. But it did attract the interest of Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who at the time was best known for shepherding Def Leppard to their greatest commercial success on Hysteria. Together, Twain and Lange would embark on one of the great partnerships in country songwriting history, as well more than 16 years of marriage. The Woman in Me not only spawned Twain’s first number-one country hit, it produced three more songs th...
Source: Tim Mosenfelder / Getty The Wu-Tang Clan remains one of Hip-Hop’s most viable collectives and the crew’s gritty approach coupled with an innovative plan to transform the industry is a case study of strength in numbers. Raekwon, one of the sharp swordsman of Shaolin today will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his classic solo debut Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and a new interview broke down some of its finer points. Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, and special guest Nas joined Ebro Darden for an in-depth breakdown of the creation of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx and how the album cemented the legacy of all involved. Chief among the goals for the Chef was to put his all into the album and be as authentic as possible. “We was definitely on that mission. That mission was do or die. To try to get from ...
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Electr-O-Pura, the seminal seventh album from indie favorites Yo La Tengo. To honor the occasion, the band will reissue the record on double-LP for the first time this September, offering “the highest quality of audio the album has had on vinyl to date.” They’ve also unearthed a high quality version of their “Tom Courtenay” music video. Released in 1995, it’s believed the clip aired sparingly, “at least once on MTV’s 120 Minutes,” per a statement. It’s since been ripped and shared many times over online, though existing only as a low resolution visual. That is… until now: The video has been “exhumed” from label Matador’s “sub-basement storage facilities”, and for the very first time, is making its high quality premiere on YouTube. This means YLT...
This July marks the 25th anniversary of Elliott Smith’s sophomore self-titled album. To celebrate the occasion, Kill Rock Stars has announced a deluxe reissue of the LP, set for release on August 28th. Official Smith family archivist Larry Crane pulled the closest possible recordings to the original Elliott Smith mix downs from scores of reels, cassettes, files, and DAT tapes to give the album a fresh remaster. The special edition comes housed in a 52-page coffee table book featuring handwritten lyrics, stories from Smith’s friends and collaborators about the era, and two dozen previously unreleased images from photographer JJ Gonson. One of those new photographs is the original image that became the album’s cover art. What’s more, the collection includes the previously unreleased Liv...