Nirvana - A Better Box 1985-1994 (4 CD) [FLAC]

 

Nirvana - 1985-1994 - The Elmo Collection - A Better Box

Nirvana
The Elmo Collection: A Better Box (V1.0)
December 20, 2016

David Bowie - A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) [8 CD, 2017]

A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) is a box set by English singer-songwriter David Bowie, released on 29 September 2017. A follow-up to the compilations Five Years (1969–1973) and Who Can I Be Now? (1974–1976), the set covers Bowie's career from 1977 to 1982.

1977 - Low (00:39:04)

1977 - ’Heroes’ (00:40:25)

1977 - ’Heroes’ E.P. (00:19:25)

1978 - Stage 2CD (01:13:43)

1978 - Stage 2CD (2017 Edition) (01:37:08)

1979 - Lodger (00:34:58)

1979 - Lodger (2017 Tony Visconti Mix) (00:35:06)

1980 - Scary Monsters (00:45:48)

The Beatles - The Beatles And Esher Demos (4 LP, 2018) [24-96]

The end of May, 1968: the Beatles meet up at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s bungalow in Esher. Just back from India, gearing up to go hit Abbey Road and start their next album, the lads bang out some rough acoustic tunes into George’s newfangled Ampex reel-to-reel tape deck. The result is one of their weirdest and loveliest unreleased recordings: the Esher demos. There’s nothing else in their music quite like this. Most of the 27 songs ended up on the White Album, yet there’s none of that record’s tension and dread.

Marc Bolan & T Rex - Unchained Home Recordings & Studio Outtakes 1972–1977 (8 CD, 2015/FLAC)

 

In 1973, alone and with an acoustic guitar, Marc Bolan recorded the revealing “This Is My Life”. Over its five minutes, a strummed elegy akin to the T Rex B-side “Baby Strange” evolves from a finger-picked blues. The lyrics name-check B.B. King, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Goode” and mention a visit to New York State, playfully rhymed with steak.

“Everything I did when I was going to school was just an imitation of Carl Perkins singing ‘Don’t be Cruel’,” he sings, no doubt well aware the Elvis Presley hit did not figure in Perkins’ usual repertoire. Once Presley hit big, Perkins was firmly relegated to playing second fiddle. Bolan was subverting history’s hierarchy. “This Is My Life” found Bolan reflecting on who he was and who he had become.

A home-recording, it was caught on tape for the sake of it. Bolan had a new song, so he set his equipment up to capture it: what he had just written could have charted or become a future classic, so he hit the record button. But, its fascinating lyrical self-analysis aside, “This Is My Life” was no classic. Instead, it was a rambling musical sketch for filing away alongside the other demo tapes and was not meant to be heard, and certainly not intended for release.

R.E.M. - Monster Movies (2 CD, 2019) [FLAC]

 R.E.M.'s 1994 album, Monster, was, as the band declared at the time, "a 'rock' record, with the rock in quotation marks." In contrast to the sound of its two predecessors - 1991 s Out Of Time and 92 s Automatic For The People - the music of Monster consisted of distorted guitar tones, minimal overdubs, and touches of 1970s glam rock. The album topped the charts in both the US and the UK. In January 1995, R.E.M. set out on its first tour in six years. The tour was a huge commercial success, although health issues plagued the group - on March 1st, Bill Berry collapsed on stage during a performance in Lausanne, Switzerland, having suffered a brain aneurysm. Michael Stipe required emergency surgery for a hernia and Mike Mills needed abdominal surgery mid-tour. Despite the above, the band generally performed superbly, with one of the stand-out shows taking place at The Milton Keynes Bowl in the UK, on July 30th, which was broadcast live nationally on UK FM Radio, and synched too, back home in the U.S. Previously unreleased this exceptional performance is now available for the first time on this double CD set.