Perfect Sound Forever... and Ever!

Just in time for you to spend the last of that dough you got for Christmas...

By Fred Mills

Hey kids, tired of buying those favorite albums of yours a third, fourth and in some instances a fifth time when an expanded "deluxe edition" is released containing all the shit you already own plus bonus material and/or an extra disc (or two) containing shit the record label wants to convince you that you need to own?

UMe has a deal for YOU!

The Universal Music Group, along with several of its imprints including Motown, A&M, Island and Geffen, is releasing today, January 5, the somewhat-newly-christened "Rarities Editions" of a slew of much-loved artists that include Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, Steve Earle, Motorhead, Gin Blossoms and Weezer.

What, you ask, are these, and do you need to fork over the $11 to $14 per disc it'll take to own them? Well, for starters, you may already own them: if for example you snapped up Steve Earle's Copperhead Road: Deluxe Edition in 2008, the one that contained a second disc of songs not on the original 1988 album, then you don't need Rarities Edition, as it comprises, specifically, Disc 2 of Deluxe Edition. But if you didn't buy that, and you already have Copperhead Road proper, then this disc's for you, bubba!

Likewise with the Gin Blossoms' New Miserable Experience, Weezer's Weezer (aka The Blue Album), Eric B. & Rakim's Paid In Full, Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, Howlin' Wolf's The London Howlin' Wolf Sessions, Rick James' Street Songs, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors, Diana Ross' Diana and Motorhead's Ace of Spades.

Those first 10 installments in the series will presumably be followed by many more (Bob Marley and Saint Etienne, for example), because who are we kidding here? Labels' back catalogs are what are keeping them afloat these days. And sure, these are retreads, but unless you're an unreconstructed collector you don't even need to consider buying them. For folks who balked at the cost of the two-disc reissues, this will give them a chance to have all the extra content. And while on occasion the bonus material has been of dubious quality and worth, most of the time (such as with the live concert on the second disc of the Earle set) it holds up.

For a look at the 10 titles along with an interesting forum discussion about the UMe series, go to the Imwan.com board.