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Face (All) The Music

Sony/Legacy releases 'The Complete Albums Collections', the definitive documents
of such major '70s artists as ELO, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more.

The Complete Albums Collections
various artists
ROCK (SONY/LEGACY)

By Miles High Productions

egacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, is giving music fans early inspiration for the holiday shopping season this year, announcing a great assortment of iconic jazz, pop, rock, blues and soul artists to be showcased in the next round of The Complete Albums Collections, a new product line for serious listeners offering new releases throughout the year available exclusively through PopMarket.com.

Newly designed box sets containing the original album catalogs of Sony Music Artists have been created especially for The Complete Albums Collections line and will be available starting September 13, just in time for the 2011 holiday season. The diverse lineup of artists being featured includes: ELO, Earth, Wind & Fire, Dexter Gordon, Woody Shaw, Nina Simone, Paul Desmond, Leonard Cohen, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Holiday, Judas Priest, Dave Brubeck Quartet, Harry Nilsson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Weather report and Taj Mahal.

Each of the sets offers music fans and collectors the chance to own complete official discographies of classic albums on CD (with many out of print and rare titles finally available). Individual discs come sleeved in 5x5 mini-jacket reproductions of the original album cover art alongside a stand-alone booklet with discographic information and photos, all housed in a beautifully packaged clamshell box. The Complete Albums Collections will showcase a diverse selection of iconic artists each month, offering fans and collectors a rare opportunity to own complete classic discographies on CD (with bonus tracks and rarities).

The Complete Albums Collections are available exclusively on PopMarket.com, the first online daily deals site created for music fans by Sony Music Entertainment. PopMarket offers the hottest daily deals on premium music, rare collectible albums, boxed sets and memorabilia. Free PopMarket.com membership gives music fans unprecedented access to hot deals on the coolest music.

SEPTEMBER 13 - ELO - The Classic Albums Collection $79.99
England's Electric Light Orchestra, better known to its fans as ELO, went from cult status to arena-level superstardom in the 1970s, evolving from eclectic classically-influenced prog-rockers to state-of-the-art hitmakers. At the peak of their popularity, they were one of the world's biggest-selling recording acts, and also one of the most unusual. Combining rock instrumentation with a full string section, ELO couldn't help but stand out, both musically and visually. Each album features rare bonus tracks, including numerous alternate versions and unreleased tracks, and includes such enduring ELO hits as "Can't Get It Out of My Head," "Evil Woman," "Telephone Line," "Livin' Thing," "Sweet Talkin' Woman," "Mr. Blue Sky," "Don't Bring Me Down" and "Hold on Tight."

SEPTEMBER 13 - EARTH, WIND & FIRE - The Columbia Masters (15 CDs) $119.99
15 newly mastered CD encompassing their astonishing recording career on Columbia Records plus a bonus disc of rarities, instrumentals and unreleased tracks supervised by EW&F's founder and spiritual guide Maurice White. Earth, Wind & Fire's horn-powered hit machine represents the best in pop melodies, harmonizing voices, funky syncopation and rhythms of the world. The set includes 15 of the band's classic albums, newly mastered for superior sound, original LP jackets, meticulously reproduced, a 40-page booklet with photos and commentary by Maurice White. The Columbia Masters also features a newly compiled bonus disk with two unreleased tracks from the Touch the World sessions, two scintillating live performances ("Getaway" and "In the Stone") recorded in Rio de Janeiro in 1980 and rare instrumental versions of "Let's Groove" and "Boogie Wonderland" (with The Emotions).  

Star Wars Spectacular

George Lucas' saga looks light-years
better (than ever) on its Blu-ray debut

by Chris Nashawaty in Entertainment Weekly

Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Episodes I-VI
Mark Hamill, Hayden Christensen, Harrison Ford
Rated: PG/PG-13, 9 discs, 1977-2005
(Twentieth Century Fox Home Video)

o one fears change more than a geek. And there's no geek geekier than a Star Wars geek. For the past three-plus decades, we mouth-breathing members of the Rebel Alliance have bellyached every time George Lucas has tinkered with his creations. We cried heresy the first time he digitally futzed with the films for their theatrical release. We got up on our hind legs when he tweaked the Hans Solo/Greedo scene in Star Wars to make Harrison Ford's character look less cold-blooded. And man, did we let him have it when he trotted out Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace. Lost in this overprotective mob sentiment is the fact that sometimes change can actually be a good thing. Take the long-awaited Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005, PG/PG-13). Available in one giant nine-disc box or as two individual sets containing either the original trilogy or the prequel trilogy, The Complete Saga is so visually drool-inducing that it should come with a bib. If you've been on the fence about whether to bust open your collectible Boba Fett piggy bank to buy a Blu-ray player, now is the time. If you do, here's what you'll be getting: 45 deleted and extended scenes; interviews with cast and crew; eye-candy concept art; a slew of making-of documentaries; and actual proof that George Lucas has a sense of humor, thanks to 90 minutes of Star Wars spoofs, including Robot Chicken clips and a Weird Al parody. Of course, the main attraction here is still the movies (in descending order of greatness); The Empire Strikes Back, A New Hope, Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Sith, Attack of the Clones, and The Phantom Menace. Sure, I suspect some diehards will wince and groups about Darth Vader's newly added "Nooo!" at the climax of Return of the Jedi in this set (Lucas just couldn't help himself, could he?), but there's no denying that every film looks better on Blu-ray than it ever has before. Whether it's the crisper white tundras on the ice planet Hoth or the inkier fog-shrouded swamps of Dagobah, Lucas has for the most part done right by his fans this time... as much as it pains this geek to admit it. A-  

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