Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed Reissues Announced
Selections from Peter Gabriel and Lou Reed's distinguished catalogs will receive the reissue treatment later this year, as Gabriel puts out the next round of his vinyl upgrades and Reed is honored with a deluxe 17-disc box.
Continuing the reissue campaign he announced last summer, Gabriel is set to release half-speed vinyl remasters for his So, Us and Up albums on July 15. All three titles are being pressed on 180-gram vinyl at 45RPM, and each takes up multiple discs: So will spread out over two LPs, while Us and Up now fill three.
"It has been heartwarming to see the return of vinyl," said Gabriel in a press release. "Even though I loved being free of its limitations in the digital world, there is still a warmth and presence to vinyl that somehow makes it a more natural human companion. It is great to see a new generation learning the secrets of the grooves."
The Gabriel reissues boast gatefold sleeves incorporating original artwork, and will be made available through a numbered limited-edition pressing, with each copy bundled with a download card offering consumers their choice of standard or hi-res digital audio. So, Us and Up are all available for pre-order via Gabriel's official site.
Oct. 7 brings the arrival of Lou Reed - The RCA & Arista Album Collection, a 17-disc box collecting Reed's output between 1972-86. Offered digitally or in a limited-edition deluxe physical package, the set was supervised by Reed and completed just prior to his death in 2013.
"Lou put his heart into remastering these records. They are not smoothed out. Sometimes remastering revealed their details and roughness in the most exciting ways. They leap out at you with their original energy," said Reed's wife Laurie Anderson. "I also love the rare images and the great selection of Lou’s words about his music in this collection. Lou was a superb analyst and sharp critic and the interview excerpts bring back his crazy sense of humor, his generosity and his big view of the world and the meaning of music. Anyone who has loved Lou’s music will be so happy to have this. I’m really grateful to Sony for putting this one out."
In addition to 16 albums spread out over 17 discs, the RCA & Arista Album Collection box offers prints and a poster as well as an 80-page book including photos, interviews, rare artwork and memorabilia.
"Everyone who was in that room or around Lou during this period witnessed a beautiful thing as he enthusiastically relived that whole period of his work with the joy of rediscovery, excitedly pointing out subtleties in sounds he hadn’t heard in years," wrote producer Hal Willner in his RCA & Arista Album Collection liner notes. "In retrospect, reminiscing about these sessions done less than four months before he died, the moments seem even more magnified."
See Peter Gabriel in 1986's Best Rock Albums