No doubt you were just going crazy wondering if and when I would publish my thoughts as to the best music released this year. Who am I to put you through such turmoil? The wait is over.
This year has been, for me, the year of the reissue. Without a doubt, the music that I've listened to the most this year has been music from my past. While that may sound somewhat sad, it couldn't be further from the truth.
Things kicked off with "The Promise" box from Bruce Springsteen. Built around his "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" release, this sprawling box included a remastered version of the original LP, a couple of DVDs that featured a documentary on the making of the reissue and a complete concert from 1979, a live performance of the LP from 2009 and more. The packaging is pretty nice, especially the reproduction of one of his notebooks filled with song lyrics, set notes and scribbles. But the real gift in this box is the two CD collection of un-issued tracks recorded during the original sessions. Bruce and the band went and touched up some of the tracks, some more than others, some not at all. The result is a great lost album - 21 tracks work together as a whole and that stand up to almost anything that he has done before or since.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkness_on_the_Edge_of_Town#The_Promise:_The_Darkness_on_the_Edge_of_Town_Story
The deluxe re-issue of Eric Clapton's first solo album was actually reissued in 2006, but I gave it a listen - via MOG - just a few months ago. It contains a version of the LP produced by Delaney Bramlett, which I assume was passed over by Eric and/or the label for the version produced by Tom Dowd that was originally released. I really like this version. There is something more "organic" to the production that fits the songs quite well. I'm pretty sure that most of the vocals and solos are the same on both, but I could be wrong. It was a nice surprise as I had no idea this alternate version existed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Clapton_(album)
"Some Girls" may be my favorite Rolling Stones album, so I was interested to hear the remaster as I always felt that album was badly produced. I thought they did an excellent job on "Exile" so I was kind of let down to hear that the remaster retained all the things I didn't like about the original. However the 12 bonus tracks save the day. In fact, similar to the Springsteen set, you can consider this another lost album from 1978. I think that Don Was was brought in to oversee the sessions and that Keith and Mick did some over dubs to finish up some of the tracks. Killer stuff, especially the country tunes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Some_Girls
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