STACK #195 Jan 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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Each month we select a collection of reissues and limited edition long-players to cater for every collection. Words Paul Jones & Amy Flower

Magic Dirt What Are Rock Stars Doing Today (2000) 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION WHITE VINYL The ’90s

The White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan (2005) 180GM VINYL Difficult following the chart-stomping Elephant ? Hardly! Jack may not have housed a Seven Nation Army -like stormer, but it delivered big time with album-opening stomper White Orchid , and piano-led duo My Doorbell and The Denial Twist proved that they were more than one killer riff. TOP TRACK: Blue Orchid FAST FACT: While many have suspected that Blue Orchid was written about his breakup with Renée Zellweger, Jack White has repeatedly denied it. Earth, Wind & Fire The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 (1978) JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE GOLD VINYL Some acts take decades to cobble together a killer “best of”. This filler- free example spans a mere three years in the life of EW&F. They’re effortlessly funky – try staying still during side two’s Shining Star – and the mesh of Philip Bailey’s falsetto ( September a highlight) and the late Maurice White’s baritone still captivates. TOP TRACK: Fantasy FAST FACT: The opening track, EW&F’s cover of The Beatles’ Got to Get You Into My Life , first appeared on the soundtrack to cinematic dud Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band . and Meg’s fifth LP in six years (prolific much?)

Beastie Boys License to Ill (1986) JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE CLEAR VINYL

Rage Against the Machine Evil Empire (1996) JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE WHITE VINYL

Already deeply entrenched as a genre, hip-hop would lurch in an unfathomable

If Rage’s explosive eponymous

saw Magic Dirt singer Adalita sort out plenty of personal

debut abruptly turned heads, the sophomore

demons, so when it came to creating this, their third long-player, she found herself happier – and definitely feeling more poppy. Re-released to celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary, pulsating opener City Trash remains a gem, right through to gentle closer Smoulder . TOP TRACK: Dirty Jeans FAST FACT: Unless he has a twin, we’re pretty sure that’s Hamish Blake in the music video for Dirty Jeans – a song that Adalita described as a “cute, funny anomaly”.

direction in November 1986 when three white kids from New York and a genius producer stitched together a fusion of rap, punk and hard rock. The resulting long player didn’t just break boundaries; it annihilated them. A yardstick in the evolution of popular music, every collection needs a copy. TOP TRACK: Rhymin’ and Stealin’ FAST FACT: Kerry King from Slayer played the guitar riff and solo in No Sleep Till Brooklyn and can be seen knocking the gorilla off the stage in the video.

album would prove to their legions of acolytes that the pioneers of rap metal had more than one trick in the bag. Easily a classic, Evil Empire is hard and heavy from the outset – a furious compound of monumental riffs, polemic rhymes and a relentless groove, marking the band at its high tide point. TOP TRACK: Bulls on Parade FAST FACT: It was four long years between the debut Rage Against the Machine and Evil Empire . INXS The Very Best (2017 Reissue) 180GM VINYL Before the shamanic Michael Hutchence joined the great gig in the sky, INXS would record ten albums and The Very Best is a sonic shutter, snapping the bright moments from those 17 years. Compiled here in one concise double album, it’s a poignant aide-mémoire of one of Australia’s most successful rock exports, or a worthy overview to the newly initiated. TOP TRACK: Kiss the Dirt (Falling Down the Mountain) FAST FACT: Andrew Farris ordered a cab to take him to the airport and kept it waiting for an hour while he wrote Need You Tonight in a motel room.

Footloose Original Soundtrack (2020) JB HI-FI EXCLUSIVE PINK VINYL The 1980s were

Powderfinger Unreleased (1998-2010) (2020) BONE VINYL

renowned for crazy-popular soundtrack albums, but few packed more

hits into their grooves than Footloose . With bangers the likes of ‘80s stalwart Kenny Loggins’ title track, Deniece Williams’ Let’s Hear It for the Boy and even Australia’s own Moving Pictures with Never , it’s manna for any ‘80s tragic.

An archaeological dig into Powderfinger’s sealed vault unearthed a purported 50 potential tracks for Unreleased , ten of which were finally selected and remixed. Spanning Internationalist (1998) to Golden Rule (2009), Unreleased is a fine assembly of strays that, surprisingly, link together in near-perfect cohesion. TOP TRACK: I Don't Want to Be Your Problem FAST FACT: Powderfinger played 34 shows to over 300,000 people on their Sunsets Farewell Tour in 2010.

TOP TRACK: Holding Out for a Hero FAST FACT: If you’re wondering why

Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero is so fabulously overblown, we have one name for you: Jim Steinman, Meat Loaf’s producer.

54 JANUARY 2021

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