Best Of 2006 - The Reissues

2006 was a very good year for reissues, particularly for fans of the music of the early '80s. You had expanded remasters of all kinds of stuff - all of the Yello albums, Depeche Mode 2 disc-ers, the Siouxsie & The Banshees back catalogue, The Cure 2 disc-ers, the early Ultravox albums and Heaven 17's early stuff. Then there were the Jesus And Mary Chain reissues (BOO! for the lack of bonus stuff), the Wire reissues, the first two Pretenders records as well as their Pirate Radio box. There were some nice compilations - Delta 5's Singles & Sessions 1979-81, Zero | A Martin Hannett Story '77-91, A Tom Moulton Mix from SoulJazz and 7"Up! - Singles Only UK 78-82 which collected rare and obscure post-punk stuff. Then you have The Clash's Singles box, The Incredible Bongo Band's Bongo Rock, the Ike Yard collection and The Beatles' Love. Not too shabby. And then there are these...

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Daytripper
Herb Alpert Presents...
A&M finally reissued the band's first three albums. I have loved these guys since I was like 2 or 3, so I was psyched to pick these up. Bossa nova treatments rule.

Robert Fripp - Chicago
Robert Fripp - Northstar
Exposure
I blogged this album a bit earlier this year. This reissue collects two different mixes of the album with a bunch of bonus material. Ambient, prog, punk and art rock are all present, as well as stellar vocals from Daryl Hall.

Au Pairs - You
Au Pairs - Inconvenience (12" Version)
Stepping Out Of Line - The Anthology
The complete, collected works of the Au Pairs. That's two albums plus all kinds of 12" mixes, b-sides and live stuff. Great stuff.

Josef K - Sense Of Guilt
Josef K - Endless Soul
Entomology
Finally, a comprehensive set to commemorate this Scottish combo's brilliant but brief career! Full of scratchy, jangly goodness.

Brian Eno & David Byrne - The Jezebel Spirit
Brian Eno & David Byrne - Defiant
My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts
My personal fave reissue of the year. I have waited a long time for this, and it didn't disappoint. It still sounds as good to me as now as it did all those years ago, and the bonus material is pretty interesting.