After launching like a rocket with her 1996 major-label debut album Trailer Park, Beth Orton's electronic folk hybrid helped pave the way for artists such as Dido. Its follow-up Central Reservation (3 Loop Music), newly reissued in an expanded double-disc edition with liner notes by gay poet T. Cole Rachel, was even better. Refining the trip-hop elements into a more sophisticated sound, Central Reservation flows gracefully from the rev of "Stolen Car" to the lush ballad "Sweetest Decline" and the programmed funk of "Couldn't Cause Me Harm." The subtle country of "Pass in Time" and the tape loop of "Stars All Seem To Weep" bracket the exquisite title cut. The second CD of the set includes eight Sessions at West 54th Street selections, four B-sides, and four demos and rough mixes. This one's a keeper!
If you dance to what is now being called EDM (electronic dance music), do yourself a favor and take a listen to Cabaret Voltaire. Without Cabaret Voltaire and other pioneers in the genre, this popular genre of music wouldn't be what it is today. Think of the 19-track compilation #7885 Electropunk to Technopop (Mute) as a valuable musical history lesson full of cool and educational tunes. On "Big Funk," you can hear its influence on Ministry, Nine Inch Nails and other industrial acts.
New Jersey was a punchline long before Snooki, The Situation and JWoww, a fact made real by hair-band champions Bon Jovi. Bon Jovi's pop/metal hybrid came about at the right time, an all-American response to the perceived British scourge of new wave and disco-influenced (read: gay) electronic dance music. The irony was that some of the biggest hits on Bon Jovi's disc New Jersey (Mercury/UMe), newly reissued in an expanded double-disc deluxe edition, were co-written by gay singer/songwriter Desmond Child, a purveyor of dance music in his own right. New Jersey was one of Bon Jovi's biggest successes, and holds up well more than 25 years later. Dolly Parton even covered a version of album opener "Lay Your Hands on Me" on her new album. The reissue includes three bonus tracks, as well as a second disc, New Jersey: The Sons of Beaches demos, 13 unreleased tracks.
In 1988, Seattle band The Posies released Failure (Omnivore), now available in an expanded reissue featuring eight bonus tracks (demos, instrumental and live recordings). If hair bands were a reaction to new wave, then the poppy pre-grunge band The Posies was a response to the corporate metal of bands such as Bon Jovi. Self-released on cassette before being scooped up by an indie record label, Failure has the intimate atmosphere of a homespun project.
One of the original Jersey Boys, Bob Gaudio wrote or co-wrote some of the biggest hits by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, including "Sherry," "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man," "Rag Doll," and "December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)," all of which are included on the two-CD set Audio With a G: The Music of Bob Gaudio (Rhino). Subtitled Sounds of a Jersey Boy, the 36-track compilation includes covers of Gaudio compositions by Lene Lovich ("The Night"), Cher ("The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine"), Nina Simone ("For a While"), Diana Ross ("I Heard a Love Song"), Roberta Flack ("When Someone Tears Your Heart in Two") and gay disco act Boys Town Gang ("Can't Take My Eyes Off You").
Emo act My Chemical Romance, which disbanded in 2013, has released the 19-track retrospective May Death Never Stop You: The Greatest Hits 2001-2013 (Reprise). Even though it opens with an unreleased cut indicative of the band's evolution from screamo to pop, the remainder of the tunes trace the band's roots to the present day. Highlights include "Welcome to the Black Parade" and "The Kids from Yesterday." The disc closes with three demos.
Reggae music and its Jamaica birthplace have a long history of being unwelcome territory for LGBT folks. But the late Bob Marley, the most famous reggae musician of all time, was a true man of peace who died young in 1981, before we really had a chance to know where he stands on the subject (although there is some speculation). There's nothing homophobic on the 30th anniversary expanded edition reissue of Legend: The Best of Bob Marley & The Wailers (Tuff Gong/Island/UMe). It includes "I Shot the Sheriff" (a huge hit for Eric Clapton), "Stir It Up" (a hit for Johnny Nash), "Wait in Vain" (covered by Annie Lennox), "Is This Love?" (covered by Carly Simon), "No Woman No Cry" (covered by Joan Baez), "Could You Be Loved," "Get Up Stand Up," "Buffalo Soliers" and "Jamming." The second Blu-ray disc contains the album (with some alternate versions) presented in 5.1 Surround Sound.
Spread out over two discs, the 40 tracks on Kiss' 40 Years: Decades of Decibels (Mercury/UMe) feature live and studio tracks performed by original members Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss, as well as those who joined the band in the years that followed. Beginning in 1974, Kiss perfected the faux-glam (make-up, high-heeled boots and studded leather duds) metal look and sound. This compilation includes songs from the four founding members' solo discs, its brilliant ballad "Beth," its disco hit "I Was Made for Loving You" and one song from each album the band recorded through 2012.