U2 - Achtung Baby (Deluxe Edition/Box)

U2 - Achtung Baby turns twenty this month and the legendary disc gets feted with an expansive (and pricey) anniversary edition featuring previously unreleased songs along with a new documentary film on the making of the album....The dramatic new turn for the band came after a less-than-stellar performance for U2's Rattle and Hum with Robert Hilburn of the LA Times declaring the new Baby was 'U2's daring descent into darkness' and Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote that 'stripped-down and defying its old formulas, U2 has given itself a fighting chance for the 1990's." For Bono, it was 'the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree' // Release: Achtung Baby (Expanded Edition and Box Set) (November 1, Island) // What you get: 2-CD Deluxe Edition -- a remastered version of the album plus a second disc of rarities...Super Deluxe Edition -- 6CDs and 4 DVDs, in addition to a 92 page hardback book and 16 art prints in a wallet....Track listings below...

History: Achtung Baby went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance and became one of the most significant records of the nineties and of U2’s career. Recorded over six months at Hansa Studio in Berlin and Windmill Lane in Dublin, Achtung Baby is U2’s seventh studio album. Produced by long time U2 collaborators, Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno with Steve Lillywhite, Achtung Baby was engineered by Flood and led by 'The Fly'. With four other singles, 'Mysterious Ways', 'One', 'Even Better Than The Real Thing' and 'Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses'. The Achtung Baby archives have unearthed some previously unreleased songs from the recording sessions. With a raft of unreleased material; video, remixes, b-sides and documentary footage discovered, a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 tracklisting has also been revealed....A version of From The Sky Down (Davis Guggenheim) will also be made available in the box release, following its premiere as the opening film at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8th and Showtime TV premiere October 29.  In the film U2 return to Hansa studios to discuss the making of Achtung Baby. Excerpt below...

U2 - "Blow Your House Down" (Unreleased track from Achtung Baby)

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Sons of Fathers - 'Sons of Fathers'

Sons of Fathers - Texas natives David Beck and Paul Cauthen are the creative core of this promising band that draws out elements of shuffling Americana, country-tinged folk and effortless harmonies recalling The Byrds and The Avett Brothers...expanded from an acoustic duo to full fledged band, the Austin-based outfit completed work on their self-titled debut album with legendary producer Lloyd Maines, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and father of Dixie Chick Natalie Maines // Release: Sons of Fathers (November 1) // Sounds like: While the dusty Lone Star alt-country influences run deep through Sons of Fathers, Beck and Cauthen site Paul Simon, Lennon and McCartney, Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as key influences -- and that nod toward a classic melodic hook now and then lends their songs an appeal beyond the confines of strict Americana...

Quote: "You can't go through life being enemies with your kin. I'm the son of my father. You take the good, toss the bad and figure out ways to keep the negative stuff out." -- Paul Cauthen on reconciling with his father // What we like: the exquisite vocal harmonies that grace Sons of Fathers songs like wonderful "Adam and Eve" and the twangin' title track sound like they've been melded in perfect parallel splendor...The barroom slow dance "Ruthless" has a nice shot of doo-wop styled vocals..."All of the album's songs have the uneasy stillness of an echoing rifle shot," says famed music rag The Wall Street Journal...

Sons of Fathers - "Sons of Fathers" (from Sons of Fathers)

Sons of Fathers - "Adam and Eve" (from Sons of Fathers)

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The Decemberists - Long Live the King

The Decemberists - New six-song EP serves as both an interesting coda to the band's #1-charting January full-length The King Is Dead and reflection of the influences of band members Jenny Conlee, Chris Funk, and Nate Query who delved even further into the dark Americana string-band underpinnings in their 2010 side project Black Prairie...The mostly acoustic set includes stripped outtakes from The King Is Dead sessions along with a version of The Grateful Dead's "Row Jimmy" // Release: Long Live the King (November 1, Capitol) // Sound like: Portland's Tucker Martine is again in the producer's chair, keeping the sound clean and uncluttered and bringing in his longtime partner Laura Veirs for some harmonies... fans may argue how much of Long Live is made up of cutting-floor remnants but from a band as accomplished as The Decemberists we'll take the EP in the casual spirit it was made...

Quote: “Over the last eleven years or so, since I moved to Portland, I feel like I've been mining mostly English traditions for influence. I guess I've kind of come back to a lot of the more American music that got me going in the first place – R.E.M. and Camper Van Beethoven and all these bands that borrowed from more American traditions like Neil Young and the Byrds...Sometimes I kind of miss the epic-ness of the other albums, but it’s nice to get all of the information across in three minutes. It’s like going from reading a novel to reading a bunch of short stories.” - Colin Meloy // What we like: the wonderful "Foregone" rings clearly with a Band-like rural punch, a swagger of a beat and pedal steel moan backing up Meloy's dusty vocals...the jaunty home demo "I 4 U & U 4 Me" sounds like an old R.E.M song, stripped naked with just flashes of acoustic strumming and a jaunty back beat for cover...

The Decemberists - "Foregone" (from Long Live the King)

The Decemberists - "E. Watson" (from Long Live the King)

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Florence and The Machine - Ceremonials

Florence and the Machine - It's been a pretty phenomenal couple of years for Florence Welch since the release of her debut album Lungs. A Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. A Brit Award for Best Album. Over three million albums sold (including over 800k in the U.S.). A groundbreaking hit with "Dog Days Are Over." New, highly anticipated project plays on what Welch has called her own "incorrigible maximalism" with an even bigger, bolder reach and continuing deft balance of artsy, thunderous drama and dreamscaped pop sensibilities // Release: Ceremonials (November 1, Universal) // Sounds like: Unlike the dance and hip-hop driven drivel diminishing the female-led pop in the U.S., this is a spectacular, uniquely British sound, massive and mature, drawing on prog/rock, glam and music hall theatrics to superb effect..."as big and as powerful as we could go" she says of the album's sound, produced with collaborator Paul Epworth, best known for his work with Adele...

Quote: "This is the first time I've made a record with a sort of overarching, cohesive sound...It's a proper studio album in that sense: a group of songs that paint a unified picture of where I am in my life right now." // What we like: New single "No Light, No Light" has a celestial, hymn-like feel, packing more densely layered, rhythmic clatter and killer melodic hooks into four and half minutes than anything we've heard in recent memory...the grand "Leave My Body" sounds like it was lifted from some modern Broadway rock musical, cascading choruses and symphonic scope brought to earth by Welch's surprisingly soulful vocals...the overwhelming, occasionally overstuffed sonic arc of Ceremonials, complete with the massive choirs -- why have one voice when you can have hundreds? -- and heavily electronic, reverbed and larger-than-life production scale can be a heavy lift on first take but fortunately the songs and melodies at the core are up to the magnified -- and magnificent sounding -- end result...

Florence and the Machine - "No Light, No Light" (from Ceremonials)

Florence and the Machine - "Never Let Me Go" (from Ceremonials)

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Julian Velard - Mr. Saturday Night

Julian Velard - When the native New Yorker found a more welcoming reception in the U.K. for his witty, acerbic and vividly rendered piano pop, he decided to pack up and move...new London home has proven to be an inspiration as well as studio setting or his newest longplayer, released this spring in the U.K. and finally arriving stateside this fall // Release: Mr. Saturday Night (November 1) // Sounds like: British music hall theatricality becomes a component to the Velard stage persona, taking the album's title to a bow-tie-wearing semi-fictional character alternating between wry and sarcastic...Velard's distinctive voice will never get lost in the mix, bringing a richly textured instrument to his anthemic (sm)art/pop... We can't help but think of the classic practitioners of 70's grand pop/rock: Billy and Elton, but also ELO, Mott the Hoople and Harry Nilsson...

Quote: "(My) music sounds like music from Billy Joel, Elton John, and when you get more artsy and obscure Randy Newman falls into that category and Tom Waits’ hellip; It’s basically what pop music used to be when it was about great songs and great sentiments." // What we like: "Me and My Mirror on a Saturday Night", a dense, rocking production with a killer hook, sounds like a boisterous encore for a live set..."Sentimental" makes the most of Velard's loose, gruffly appealing vocal style, not afraid to add in some sonic sweetening and honeyed "ooh-ahh" backing harmonies...sure Mr. Saturday Night has loads of retro appeal, but it wouldn't get off the ground if it wasn't for the melodic songcraft and razor-sharp lyricism on display...catch Velard live if you can for the full, rambling verbiage splendor...

Julian Velard -"Love Again for the First Time" (from Mr. Saturday Night)

Julian Velard -"On To Something" (from Mr. Saturday Night)

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more November 1 New Releases

Carole King - Holiday Carole
Florence & The Machine - Ceremonials DC
Jethro Tull -Aqualung (40th Aniv. Edition)
Julian Velard - Mr. Saturday Night DC
Lou Reed/Metallica - Lulu
Miranda Lambert - Four the Record 
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings - Soul Time!
Sons of Fathers - S/T DC
Susan Boyle - Someone to Watch Over Me
Suzanne Vega - Close Up Vol. 3
The Beach Boys - The Smile Sessions
The Chevin - Champion (EP) (UK)
The Decemberists - Long Live the King DC
The Hours - I Want More (EP)
U2 - Achtung Baby (20th Anniversay Box) DC