Now you can get all five of the original Simon
& Garfunkel studio albums in one boxed set titled Simon & Garfunkel:
The Columbia Studio Recordings 1964-1970. The box includes five slipcased
discs with all the songs and reproduced LP artwork for "Wednesday Morning, 3
A.M.," "Sounds of Silence," "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme," "Bookends"
and "Bridge Over Troubled Water." All the albums have been remastered for this
five-CD set, and each includes previously unreleased tracks recorded by the
folk-pop duo during the mid-late '60s. Among the many hits are "The Sound of
Silence," "I Am a Rock," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle," "Homeward Bound," "The
59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)," "America," "Old Friends," "Mrs. Robinson,"
"A Hazy Shade of Winter," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Cecilia," "The Boxer,"
and more. The discs are also available for purchase separately.
New
Order is returning this fall with Get Ready, its first album since
1993's Republic. Rhino Records is betting the return of New Order will
renew interest in the band's predecessor, Joy Division. A new four-CD
Heartandsoul box set includes every studio recording Joy Division made
during its short career (1977-1980), as well as an entire disc of live concert
material. Following the suicide of singer Ian Curtis (two days before the band's
planned first American tour), Bernard Sumner, Stephen Morris and Peter Hook
regrouped and formed New Order with keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, which continued
the gothic, gloomy sound of Joy Division on its first couple of albums, before
graduating to the poppier synth-dance sounds that gave it a string of ubiquitous
late-'80s, early '90s hits with "Bizarre Love Triangle," "Blue Monday," "Regret"
and "True Faith."
Disc one of Heartandsoul offers Joy Division's first releases, including
the entire debut album Unknown Pleasures, along with outtakes, compilation
cuts, singles and flexi-disc versions. Disc two offers more singles and rarities
along with their second (and final) album Closer, as well as the band's
doom and gloom single, "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Disc three includes their
first EP "An Ideal for Living," along with Peel Session recordings (a
BBC radio show), demos and other cuts never released in the U.S. Disc four offers
a taste of the band live from four different concerts.
Speaking of repackaging and reissuing, Epic's Legacy label arm has issued
a two-CD Special Collectors' Edition of Forrest Gump, The Soundtrack.
Originally released in 1994, the soundtrack hit the Billboard Pop Album
chart Top 10, thanks to its inclusion of nine No. 1 classic singles. The album
has since sold more than 12 million copies. Among the vintage Americana hits
included on the soundtrack are Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog," Creedence
Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son," The Four Tops' "I Can't Help
Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," Aretha Franklin's "Respect," Bob
Dylan's "Rainy Day Women No. 12 & 35," Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs.
Robinson," Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World," Lynyrd Skynyrd's
"Sweet Home Alabama," and more. The reissued edition also features two more
songs that were in the film but not on the original soundtrack album release:
"Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne and "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood
Mac. The release of the revised soundtrack coincides with the film's reissue
on DVD.
Sci-Fi on CD:
Fans
of the Sci-Fi Channel's innovative and challenging original science fiction
series "Farscape," produced by the Jim Henson Company, can now get the soundtrack
music from the show's first two seasons on the CD Farscape: Music From The
Original Soundtrack. The CD features 23 tracks, including both the long
and short versions of the infectious and exotic "Theme From Farscape" (the short
version is what is used to open the TV show). Some of the disc's music, by SubVision
and Guy Gross, is your basic background orchestral fair – the kind of thing
you'd hear playing behind scenes in a variety of feature films. The string-laden
"Goodbye," from the episode "PK Tech Girl," could (except for the synthesized
bits) have been lifted from a family TV show like "The Waltons," it's so genteel,
and "Namtar's Magic" from the episode "DNA Mad Scientist" is a soothing composition
of strings and choral "ahhs" that even includes a harp, before some heavy timpani
and bass creep in to add a dark tone. For more information , check the "Farscape"
Web site at www.farscape.com or order the disc directly from the GNP/Crescendo
label at www.gnpcrescendo.com.
While on the subject of soundtracks, Rhino Records has released a second disc
of music from the animated series "Batman Beyond." The new collection, Batman
Beyond: Return of the Joker, is the soundtrack for a direct-to-video animated
movie and seems a little more orchestral and less cutting edge industrial than
the previous Batman Beyond CD, which was a collection of themes taken
from "Batman Beyond" television episodes. The latest installment from the "Batman
Beyond" musical team still includes plenty of big crunchy fuzz-guitar riffs.
For more information on "Batman Beyond," check www.batmanbeyond.com.