All three [previously unreleased tracks] are worthy additions to the Radiohead canon, enhancing and enriching an all time classic album rather than diluting it.

Safe to say, the album's 14 tracks are confirmed to be nothing less than brilliant (it wasn't consistently voted the best album of all time back in the 90s for nothing), with Martin's beautifully burnished, respectful restorations of For No One, Here There And Everywhere and the enduringly magnificent Tomorrow Never Knows packing particular emotional punch.

According to Paul, the new mix is intended to reflect the original mono mix, in that all the voices and drums are in the middle, while also being a stereo mix. The result is, as it sounds, a compromise, where everything is not so much in stereo as on steroids. ... The real excitement for fans is of course in the extra tracks. Here there are no massive surprises (I expect--I was sent the double CD, not the full six pack), just some interesting spoken bits and a lot of Anthology-style backing tracks

Visconti spent weeks polishing Live And Dangerous into a masterpiece. This box set suggests that all we ever needed was around 80 minutes, including encores. Seven additional, yet equally dazzling, versions prove that and give us Thin Lizzy in their prime: live, raw and dangerous. [Feb 2023, p.84]

Quality levels inevitably vary, but there are enough counterfactual detours and half-realised experiments here to excite even casual fans. [Jan 2020, p.94]

Inevitably, some of the bonus tracks are duds. The Dance Electric is the kind of boxy, Huey Lewis-style synth-funk jam that Prince could churn out in his sleep, while Velvet Kitty Cat and Katrina’s Paper Dolls are twee, lightweight sketches. But overall, the extra material makes Purple Rain a richer, deeper, stranger and ruder album.

Necessarily lo-fi, one accepts the sonic limitations of cheap tape and the fact this material was never meant to be released. [Jan 2015, p.120]

This 1986 Morrissey-Marr career peak proves enduringly rich and rewarding in its punchy, remastered, expanded form.

The original album, remastered by a team co-headed by George Martin's son Giles, is presented with a freshness and immediacy that makes a mockery of the passage of half a century. ... The two CDs of sessions and demos are a revealing trove. [Nov 2019, p.88]

Well worth refreshing with its delights, Big Pink is a marvel of a debut.

An excellent remaster accentuates the nuances and stresses the space in a mix that’s by turns claustrophobic and widescreen, crisps hi-hats, sharpens ice-pick guitar shards and further fattens bass subsonics. There are extra tracks, B-sides, Peel sessions, a live ‘rehearsal’ set from Manchester’s Factory, and it’s only a joy.

Forget the bolt cutters, Apple's already shed her last shackle. [Summer 2020, p.87]

Sound System is quite the piece of work. [Sep 2013, p.94]

The Early Years feels like a huge, essential slice of rock history, showing a band with the world at their feet who could, and did, go anywhere they pleased.

The instrumental How To Disappear Into Strings adds a stentorian dimension to How To Disappear Completely, while Fog ascends to a whole new level of mystery in its Again Again version. Radiohead’s loving tending of their back catalogue wins out again.

One to drown in. [Sep 2023, p.85]

Experience Hendrix have done him proud with this reissue. Take it as his ultimate monument. [Dec 2018, p.92]

A richly imagined widescreen masterpiece that grows deeper and more emotive with each listen, Ghosteen may well prove to be the most ambitious, achingly beautiful, boldly experimental album of cave's career. [Dec 2019, p.83]

This, by any yardstick, is great music. [Dec 2019, p.89]

Automatic impresses in its scope and daring. Certainly, the drone-like Drive was a surprise choice for first single and opening cut, as if R.E.M were wilfully avoiding the rock god game.

All 10 songs – here remastered by Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham, also credited on re-issues by Deep Purple, Rory Gallagher et al – sound rich and timeless. ... The fourth CD (discs four and five on vinyl) re-sequences live performances from the March 1973 UK tourheard previously as Live At Last (1980) and part of Past Lives (2002) – but former Free engineer Richard Digby Smith’s new mix proves third time lucky and outshines even the glorious 60-page booklet.

It's the more textured and dynamic moments that raise this Herculean slab of cutting edge heaviness into the realms of a stone cold classic. [Jan 2015, p.114]

The highlights have lost none of their lustre. ... What's abundantly clear is that each of the band members was squirrelling away material for their respective solo projects. [Jul 2021, p.90]

This is a brilliant time-stamp of a band on the cusp of greatness. In this all-encompassing collection, Metallica have actually managed to improve on perfection.

Rough And Rowdy Ways is unique, precious testimony from an elderly rock'n'roll survivor who, for all the games he plays, is a seer nonetheless. [Aug 2020, p.82]

There's a lot to take in, but Petty was at one of his many peaks and this is worth luxuriating in. [Nov 2020, p.92]

These 45 songs on 3CDs comprise the best overview yet of NC&TBS’s unique and evocative voodoo.

It's hard to argue with this gloriously detailed reveal of a a band leaving the underground and taking flight, one bloody controversy at a time. [Summer 2018, p.96]

When real, life-changing tragedy strikes a master of dark musical arts, masterpieces can be made: Lou Reed and John Cale’s Songs For Drella. Bowie’s Blackstar. Sufjan Stevens’s Carrie & Lowell. The Bad Seeds’ sixteenth album, Skeleton Tree.

There's a lot to love here. But there's an awful lot of attention paid to the Life House concept, when the actual key to Who's Next enduring brilliance is Riger Daltrey attaining his ultimate incarnation as an exemplary rock vocalist. [Oct 2023, p.92]

A labour of well-deserved love. [Dec 2019, p.91]

Compiled with discipline, diligence and no little love, Archives Volume II is an immersive treat. It’s primarily for fans, but even the most casual of acquaintances will find much to adore here. [Jan 2021, p.93]

Ultimately, where Imagine wins over similar projects is the degree of access Yoko has given to source material. A Simon Hilton-edited, Ono-prefaced book is exceptional. And the core album? A masterpiece. [Dec 2018, p.94]

Although his french horn resounds like a signature motif throughout his work, Czukay's genius was as a discreet creator of space, in which ideas, energies, colours and found sounds could flow freely. [May 2018, p.98]

A quarter of a century on, Singles is still a landmark.

Playing those and more top-drawer songs including The River and Born To Run (previously mothballed footage of 10 songs from the two shows are included) and a superb E Street Band behind him, Springsteen gives it his usual all, at arguably the peak period of his career and live performances.

This immersive collection captures the excitement of an era sometimes overlooked between their twin peaks of Master Of Puppets and the Black Album.

Still the greatest run of pop-perfection punk ever produced. [Mar 2020, p.95]

These four coloured vinyls boast 18 unreleased gems. [Jan 2021, p.95]

This second album brings the heft and enormity to make them serious contenders. [Jul 2022, p.78]

First pleasure-shock come with previously unknown 1974 demos of the Shangri-La's Out In The Street, The Disco Song (Heart of Glass) and Labelle-like Sexy Ida. ... First impression on hearing this much remastered Blondie is how perfectly Harry unleashed beautifully nuanced sexualised dynamite over the band's tightly crafted power-pop bombs and genre diversion on what remains one of the last century's finest bodies of work. [Sep 2022, p.80]

The original triple set contained an Apple Jam disc, featuring the notorious It’s Johnny’s Birthday sung to the tune of Cliff Richard’s Congratulations. Whether you need this is up for debate, but the jamming with pals such as Derek And The Dominos and Badfinger feels cleansing, exciting. Rolling Stone called All Things “the War And Peace of rock and roll”. That might be going a little far, but there’s no denying its pull and charm 50 years down the line.

All six albums for Island Records generously expanded. [Oct 2020, p.93]

Their story is one of the great oversights of rock'n'roll and it's a joy to see it curated with such care. [Apr 2015, p.106]

Otherness is a grand return from a gang of proud outsiders.

The soundboard mix of this version of an already much-expanded CD sounds gleamingly, unfeasibly fresh. [Nov 2013, p.93]

Divine Symmetry for once does what it promises to do, which is track Bowie's progression in one extraordinary year. ... This is a comprehensive trawl through 1971 - and an extraordinary one. [Dec 2022, p.84]

Cave remains inspirational working widescreen miracles from cataclysmic events. [May 2021, p.85]

All in all, this is a reissue as reissues ought to be done. A brilliant and familiar album remastered to perfection and bolstered by plenty of legitimately unheard material. Heavenly indeed.

Intense and stripped back, with only his own art to fall back on, Cave cuts a truly formidable figure. This is an album you will return to again and again. [Dec 2020, p.85]

Fans will alp up the spot-on menu, while newcomers can discover one of the most criminally overlooked musical titans of the last century. [Nov 2013, p.98]

The raging fires of Martyn's talent roar through the mix. [Nov 2013, p.97]

Beautiful in style and intent, The Myth Of The Happily Ever After has magic written into every note. [Nov 2021, p.70]

Despite the omission of radio sessions and later work, this is a blistering collection of songs by a band at their peak, and a fan-set by and large without compare (the live set alone being a fantastic time machine into a world where cool bands played Mekons covers and swore a lot).

At no points does the listener throw up their arms and shout, “My God! Let It Be is the greatest Beatles album ever made!” but this larger, panoramic overview does wonders for the record, giving us a bird’s-eye view of the sessions. Buy it and you’ll play it a lot. [Nov 2021, p.82]

Some space is wasted--the album would feel more concise without the ambient sonic interludes it's peppered with--but when they hit their stride, as on the magnificent Throw Me An Anchor, Baroness seem unstoppable. [Summer 2019, p.86]

Perhaps The River could have been even better had he used a couple of the outtakes--Restless Nights and Whitetown--in place of fillers such as Sherry Darling and Crush On You. But the two biggest decisions he got absolutely right. In the end, The River was more than big enough.

Not just euphoric but also important music, and another near-faultless Wolf Alice wonder. [Jul 2021, p.84]

A more polished and less primal prospect. ... Nichols' dusty acoustic fingerstyle and burnished voice shares little of Eric Bibb's barbed eloquence, and the album grows angrier as it unfolds. [Nov 2021, p.75]

It is an embarrassment of riches, not least the variety of exceptional live material. [Nov 2023, p.87]

Road-toughened beyond their identi-Emo origins to attain a formidably muscular grunge-tinged melodic fury. [Jun 2020, p.89]

The whole show is masterfully orchestrated. The first 25 minutes is all bangers. [Summer 2022, p.78]

Blood On The Tracks is rightly considered to be one of Dylan's masterpieces, and this exhaustive collection shows why. [Jan 2019, p.95]

All told, this is a finely detailed and lovingly curated tribute to one of the true greats.

The volcanic glass the album takes its title from is said to protect against negative energy, and here Paradise Lost pull the same trick by turning the bleakness in on itself to create something beautiful.

The highlight is a live DVD, Live And Loud.... When we get down to the demos--which are largely free of vocals--the sound of a barrel being scraped starts to overpower the music. [Nov 2013, p.101]

Each of its five segments finds nascent chaos metamorphosing into funk-fuelled crescendo as if by inspired osmosis. [Jul 2021, p.93]

These eclectic make-overs [on NEU! Tribute] are pleasingly irreverent and mostly excellent. ... Also worth a fresh listen is NEU! 86. [Oct 2022, p.83]

The biggest draw is the plethora of out-takes and demos. ... A 15-song love set show The Replacements at their ramshackle, off-kilter power pop best. [Oct 2019, p.96]

It's strange, and wonderful, to hear these now-cherished songs take their first teetering steps. [Jun 2018, p.90]

Decidedly queasy listening throughout. [Apr 2015, p.98]

While the remastering is a major improvement on previous CD releases, it is the session discs that are of most interest to anyone who grew up with this timeless record. [Nov 2013, p.101]

Lovers of rock both classic and current will be blown away. [Apr 2015, p.94]

Finley applies versatile pipes and stinging licks to extraordinary songs of broad experience. [Dec 2023, p.79]

Wonderfully cohesive hour of vein-popping indignation. [Sep 2019, p.82]

The Ballad Of Spook And Mercy sounds like Kill Bill spliced with From Dusk Til Dawn, while piano lament More Than Death closes the story drenched in blood, regret and a little romantic redemption. [Nov 2023, p.79]

Five CDs is probably too much intensity for anyone to take, but Superunknown itself is a pitch-black delight. [Summer 2014, p.95]

Close To The Noise Floor covers the full spectrum from sublime to ridiculous, but the sheer range of sonic innovation, warped beauty and dark humour here is hugely impressive.

The band's evident love for the material floods the performances, even though they can overdo the jamming when they get a groove going and reverence dampens Hooker's guest spot. But Petty's own songs, deployed sparingly, sound infinitely fresher and tighter. [Dec 2022, p.85]

From the fourth set of bonus tracks, Fantastic is a swelling resolution to see in a new century. Strummer commits to a ‘ramshackle parade’, but sadly he would see little of it. Nevertheless, the music seems to resonate more than ever.

This is primarily a curio, but a fascinating one as it indicates directions Young could have taken if the weather had been different that day. [Oct 2023, p.91]

The singer and guitarist's seventh album is a sparkling gem in its own right. [Jan 2024, p.78]

The gritty stomp of Where The Devil Don't Stay and the anthemic thrust of Carl Perkins' Cadillac and Day John Henry Died still resonate. .... The restored extras also hit home. [Summer 2023, p.84]

To Be Kind is evidence that they continue to grow and may not have reached their peak yet. It's superb for now, though. [Summer 2014, p.90]

The USA in the year of Trump, though, has inspired Drive-By Truckers to make this lacerating denunciation of the state of their nation, which stands right up there with Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball and their own best work.

There are 55 unreleased tracks here to tempt owners of the many previous Fairport box sets, and 2010’s Sandy Denny monument. What becomes clear, as Denny wanders in and out of the picture, is how she and Fairport defined each other.

It may not match the mind-melting complexity or bold inventiveness of their finest hour, but War Music solidly demonstrates that Refused's passion remains undimmed. [Nov 2019, p.82]

A fearsome riffstorm of therapeutic venting. [Summer 2021, p.87]

An essential album that gets better with every listen. [Nov 2020, p.86]

While it's not all ace material, it's still an atmospheric cocktail of pain, hope, despair and romance. [Jun 2018, p.91]

With That’s The Spirit, they’ve hit a new direction and a creative peak that finally matches their thirst for fame and fortune.

Such is Taylor’s bristling conviction, and the mastery of his sparse instrumentation, that he holds you transfixed.

The whole thing sounds like a great lost album. Which of course it is. [Summer 2019, p.93]

This is no pure nostalgia trip, though. Both House Of A Thousand Guitars and Rainmaker take shots at the ‘criminal clown’ in the White House, and Letter To You is as young at heart as any of Springsteen’s proudest moments, a sign that we’re some way off the credits yet.

Nine albums and 12 years into their journey, Hey Colossus have never sounded better.

Hard to find fault with, and much to find pleasure with.

This album is a heart-breaking but jubilant exploration of joy, honesty, fragility and expression as our most powerful means of human resistance. [Sep 2018, p.88]

A wall of noise delivered with cinematic intent. [Nov 2018, p.83]