Vinyl Answers

By Jeff Niesel

Famous for playing weird electronic music before anyone else was playing weird electronic music, the German group Neu! released only three albums before disbanding in 1975. Courtesy of Groeland Records, the band’s first three albums have now gotten the vinyl reissue treatment. They arrive in a deluxe box set that includes a 36-page booklet and a download code for digital versions of the songs. You even get a free Neu! T-shirt. Bonus material includes a previously unheard live recording and a slew of studio outtakes.

Saxophonist John Coltrane made his mark with 1960’s Giant Steps, a prodigious album that established him as one of jazz’s true innovators. In the four years after Giant Steps, he continued to put out innovative albums. Rhino has re-released those discs – Coltrane Jazz, My Favorite Things, Coltrane Plays the Blues and Coltrane’s Sound - on 180-gram vinyl with their original artwork.
Recorded in Montreal and New York over a two-year time period, Arcade Fire’s new album, Suburbs, is one of the year’s most anticipated releases. The follow-up to 2007’s Grammy-nominated Neon Bible, it arrives as a double LP with a download card.
Twenty years ago, the Black Crowes debuted with 1990’s Shake Your Money Maker, an album that quickly established the Southern rockers as a force on the blues/jam circuit. To celebrate their 20th anniversary, the Crowes have revisited their classic tracks on Croweology, a three LP set featuring acoustic versions of their biggest hits.

Since leaving Red House Painters to form Sun Kil Moon, Mark Kozelek has mined his moody, classically inspired side. His latest, Admiral Fell Promises, is just as delicate and finds him playing acoustic guitar throughout. It arrives as an indie store exclusive in two different formats. One is white vinyl and other is black.
Part of the same Daptone Records family that has given us neo-soul singer Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, the Budos Band has issued Budos Band III on vinyl. And speaking of neo-soul singers, Eli “Paperboy” Reed makes his major label with Come and Get It, scheduled to be out on vinyl the same day it’s out on CD.
Street Sweeper Social Club, the on-again/off-again project that features Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello and the Coup’s Boots Riley has released its new EP, Ghetto Blaster, on vinyl.

Metallica continues to reissue its back catalogue on vinyl. The latest album to come out on wax is 1997’s Reload, which arrives as both as a standard vinyl version and as a deluxe version on four 180 gram LPs.

The guys in Iron Maiden maintain that their new album, The Final Frontier, will be their last. It’s available on vinyl the same day it arrives on CD.

Sensitive singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne returns with God Willin’ and the Creek Don’t Rise, his first studio release since 2008’s Gossip in the Grain. It’s out on vinyl the same day it arrives on CD. 

For years, singer-guitarist John Mellencamp recorded for Columbia Records. He left the label a couple of years back and now makes his debut on the folk rock imprint Rounder with No Better Than This, a somber album that sounds like it was influenced by Bob Dylan, his recent touring partner. It will be out on vinyl the same day it arrives on CD.

One of the greatest soundtracks of the ’70s, Curtis Mayfield’s terrific Superfly soundtrack was reissued years ago to mark its 25th anniversary. This month, that anniversary version of the disc finally arrives on vinyl.