LATEST ADDITIONS

There’s plenty already said about the musical content of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 classic What’s Going On so I’ll avoid redundancy and just say that its scope—from the sociopolitically-minded lyrics to the carefully assembled song cycle structure and luscious musical arrangements—pushed the boundaries of what a Motown release could be, and truly stands the test of time. It’s an endlessly relevant record (decide yourself if that says more about the album’s excellence or society’s failures), and also one of the most exhaustively reissued: in the past 20 years, we’ve seen Universal’s 30th anniversary 2CD featuring the original Detroit mix, more alternate mixes, and a Kennedy Center live recording from 1972; Mobile Fidelity’s SACD and 33rpm single LP releases; UMG’s 40th anniversary “super deluxe” edition adding further session material and alternate versions; quite a few run-of-the-mill digitally-sourced vinyl reissues of the core album, done at United for the US and GZ for Europe; an Abbey Road half-speed 4LP mirroring the 2001 2CD; and MoFi’s 45rpm double LP UltraDisc One Step cut from tape. That’s not including the “Vinyl Lovers” Russian reissues of dubious legal origin cut and pressed at GZ, the 192kHz/24bit hi-res download, a Blu-ray Audio release (remember that format?), and the Japanese SACDs, CDs, and MQA-UHQCDs featuring a flat transfer of the original master tapes (yes, really!).

Press release: April 26, 2022—RecordingTheMasters—the worldwide leader in reel-to-reel tape manufacturing—is set for the release of their latest cassette-only music series in conjunction withThinkIndie Distribution. The series of releases features a new full-length album from Patty Griffin comprised of demos and home recordings titled TAPE, alongside a number of reissues available on cassette for the first time ever: Built to Spill Plays the Songs of Daniel Johnston, John Prine’s The Tree of Forgiveness, Suzanne Vega’s An Evening of New York Songs and Stories, Mother Nature’s SZNZ and Versus’ Ex Voto. The cassettes will be available at participating indie record stores beginning June 17.