Best Of 2005: Reissues
20 Favorite Reissues, Compilations & Historical Releases Of 2005 1. ORANGE JUICE � The Glasgow School (Domino)
The Scottish post-punk quartet Orange Juice's debut You Can't Hide Your Love Forever was a rock-solid album, but the earlier recordings of its songs that comprise The Glasgow School amount to no less than the great lost Scottish post-punk masterwork of the early '80s. Lovingly mastered and packaged, with testimonials from Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos and Belle & Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch stickered to the front cover, this prequel to the brief but brilliant career of Edwyn Collins' first band is the finest release ever by the winsome, jangle-friendly band who didn't suffer fools gladly but always tempered their anger with humor and hooks. The first twee album? Maybe. Its often soothing tones offered infinite solace when this album was reissued a few months after Edwyn suffered a cerebral hemmorhage; his slow but steady recovery is being chronicled by his wife Grace on the message board of edwyncollins.com. 2. THE STOOGES � The Stooges (Rhino)
Overstating the greatness and importance of the first Stooges album is literally impossible. I'll save the hyperbole and stop there. 3. BOB DYLAN � Live At The Gaslight 1962 (Columbia/Legacy)
Forgive whoever was working the tape recorder for pausing on cue every time a song ended, just because the performance preserved provides a unique early glimpse of the artist as a barely-legal young man. These are not the oldest Dylan recordings that have now been released, but they are fascinating, and the restored sound is a heck of a lot better than any version of The Beatles' Live At The Star Club, an amateur bootleg recording from around the same time. 4. IAN DURY � New Boots And Panties (Fuel 2000)
The smiling, sneering side of the punk ethos. 5. VARIOUS � Children Of Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The Second Psychedelic Era 1976-1996 (Rhino)
6. VARIOUS � The Sexual Life Of The Savages: Underground Post-Punk From S�o Paulo, Brasil (Soul Jazz)
Go to school. 7. PATTI SMITH � Horses/Horses (Arista/Columbia/Legacy)
The somber, meditative side of the punk ethos. 8. CHARLIE POOLE [& VARIOUS] - You Ain�t Talkin� To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy)
9. BOB DYLAN � No Direction Home: The Soundtrack � The Bootleg Series Vol. 7 (Columbia/Legacy)
You know the good old days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems�especially if the best stuff from the good old days keeps getting released in the future. 10. THE INSECT TRUST � Hoboken Saturday Night (Atco/Collector�s Choice)
An oddball collective that began in Memphis and ended up in Hoboken in time to make this forgotten gem of an album in 1970. Full of ramshackle, genuinely bohemian noise, each song seems out of step with the next, yet not one is truly out of place. Singer Nancy Jeffries glides her way through material with suitably hippiesque titles like "Our Sister The Sun" and "Reincarnations" accompanied by a hot four-piece group and guest contributions on drums by no less than Elvin Jones and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. A group that sounds like a latter-day Lovin' Spoonful that never existed or a more boogie-oriented, Bizarro World version of Canned Heat with a female singer. One song's lyrics were lifted from Thomas Pynchon's book V. Jeffries went on to an A&R career, signing Suzanne Vega. Reed player Robert Palmer (the late author and New York Times critic, not the late auteur of "Some Like It Hot") went on to write Deep Blues and die of liver failure in his early fifties. Two of the other three principles are dead; the other survivor besides Jeffries, Luke Faust (harmonica/banjo/electric guitar/fiddle), still lives in Hoboken, running a yoga studio and teaching tai chi. These stories and more in the liner notes Robert Christgau wrote for this reissue, which has scanned 441 copies since it was released 51 weeks ago. Totally wild stuff. 11. DION � The Essential (Epic/Legacy)
Falls short of definitiveness by omitting "A Teenager In Love" and his other six Top 40 hits with The Belmonts, but at least a well-mastered single-disc compilation with all his solo hits now exists. 12. DONOVAN � Try For The Sun (Columbia/Legacy)
If you don't have 'em, get 'em here. 13. FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE � Out Of State Plates (Virgin)
More b-sides, covers, and rarities than you can shake a stick at. I mean, if you go around shaking sticks at CDs. And finally, a legit release for their version of "Baby, One More Time." 14. GEORGE HARRISON � The Concert For Bangladesh (Capitol)
Those who forget their history... 15. DR. DRE � The Chronic (Death Row)
Still as sonically intoxicating as it was when it came out. 16. SLOAN � A Sides Win: Singles 1992-2005 (Koch)
You don't need to hit a home run every time you step up to the plate; here's a singles band doing what they do best. 17. DAVID ALLAN COE � Penitentiary Blues (Hacktone)
The other side of Folsom Prison: this is essential early '70s outlaw country from an actual ex-con. 18. SCRITTI POLITTI � Early (Sanctuary)
No "Perfect Way" here, but "Sweetest Girl" is among the memorable tracks on this appropriately titled collection of early work. 19. MARC BOLAN/T. REX � Born To Boogie (Sanctuary)
They're not quite the Spiders From Mars, but they had their glam moves down and dirty. 20. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN � Born To Run (Columbia)
Docked some points because the packaging lists the remastered CD of the original album as disc three of the set, giving billing prominence to the two bonus DVDs. As great as they might be�I haven't watched them yet; who has the time?�the importance should always be on the music.
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