There’s a huge trend going on in the music industry right now. Fans either love it or hate it, but all the cool kids are doing it. Coke? Noooo! (well….) I’m talking about re-releasing an album!
Several of 2007 (even 2006) releases have gotten or are getting the repackaging deal and I thought we should highlight a few. Here are the re-releases we’re most excited for and the reasons why you should or shouldn’t pony up your hard earned cash again:
Artist /Album: Chris Brown/Exclusive: The Forever Edition
Release Stats: 19-year-old Chris Brown’s sophomore album, “Exclusive,” was originally released on November 6, 2007. It seemed as though the album would have a bit of trouble living up the the youngster’s smash debut album–first week sales of 294,500 units were respectable but slightly disappointing for an artist with Breezy’s hype and fanbase. The first single, “Wall to Wall,” failed to make much noise on the Billboard Hot 100 despite having a big budget video to go along with it.
It wasn’t until the T-Pain featured banger “Kiss Kiss” that CB appeared to be back in the hit-maker seat. The song rocketed to number one and had everyone jocking the country boy from Tappahannock, VA all over again. The Stargate produced scorcher “With You,” followed and became another huge radio hit for Brown. Looking to capitalize on the momentum, CB & Co went to work repackaging the album.
Re-Release Stats: Released June 3, 2008, “Exclusive: The Forever Edition” boasts four new tracks: “Heart Aint A Brain,” “Picture Perfect Remix” featuring Hurricane Chris and Bow Wow, “Superhuman” and the first single from the re-release, the Euro-Pop inspired dance track “Forever.” But it doesn’t stop there. The set is also repackaged with a DVD containing behind the scenes footage from CB’s “Up Close and Personal” tour, interviews, outtakes and more.
Stand-Out Bonus Track: Of the four new track, the stand-out has to be “Superhuman” featuring singer/songwriter Keri Hilson. CB has a thing for dueting with female vocalists with much bigger voices than his ( “No Air” with Jordin Sparks) but, for some reason, he never gets lost in the shuffle. Chris has a voice that is hard to ignore–whether you like it or not. Though, “Superhuman” is an insanely beautiful ballad that probably does more to showcase Hilson’s strong vocals than Brown’s.
Purchase Worthiness: For the CD, no–the new tracks don’t add so much that you’d need to purchase the others all over again; definitely check out “Superhuman,” though. But for the DVD, yes. The kid is at his best when he’s performing. The visual entertainment is worth the paper.
Artist/Album: Rihanna/Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded
Release Stats: Rihanna, the 20-year-old model-esque beauty from Barbados, is no stranger to topping the charts. In her short three year career, she has already been to the top of the summit numerous times with her hit singles (”S.O.S.” “Umbrella” “Take a Bow”). However, when it comes to topping the charts with an album, Rihanna (born Robyn Rihanna Fenty) has yet to successfully reach the top of that mountain.
Rih’s third album “Good Girl Gone Bad,” released June 5, 2007, debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart behind T-Pain selling 162,000 copies. Not bad numbers in this download age but not as strong as an album with a monster hit like “Umbrella” should have achieved.
The album continued to spawn hit after hit ( “Shut Up and Drive” “Don’t Stop the Music” “Hate That I Love You”) while making a slow and steady, if not unremarkable, climb to platinum status. Knowing there was much more milk to get out of that cow, the album was dressed up for it’s second showing.
Re-Release Stats: “Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded” hits stores June 17, 2008–a little over a year after its original release. It already has one chart topper under its belt. “Take a Bow” made Billboard chart history when it soared from #53 to #1–making it the second largest jump to the top spot in Hot 100 history.
Joining “Take a Bow” are only two more new tracks; “Disturbia” and a duet with Maroon 5, “If I Never See Your Face Again.”
The re-release is packaged as a CD/DVD set with a full concert show in Manchester, England including behind the scenes footage.
Stand-Out Bonus Track: The release’s first single, “Take a Bow,” turned out to be the feminist anthem to rival fellow pop diva Beyoncé’s “Irreplaceable” (both written and produced by Ne-Yo and Stargate) but it’s the Chris Brown co-written third single “Disturbia” that takes the cake. Centered around a dreamy pop fantasy of bass and synths, Rihanna makes good friends with the Vocoder, delivering yet another undeniably catchy hook of “bum bum bee dum bum bum bee dum bum.” My guess: Rihanna will rule the charts again this summer.
Purchase Worthiness: For the CD, no. The new tracks are all being released as singles so you’ll get your fill of them on the radio and undoubtedly download them from iTunes. This is, of course, assuming you’ve already purchased the original. For the DVD, yes. While most will be quick to say they don’t enjoy Rihanna’s live performances, this concert is very entertaining. It’s also a treat to watch Rihanna take shape as a full fledged superstar right before our eyes; anyone who has seen a few of her performances in 2005 will be amazed by the growth shown.
Artist/Album: Maroon 5/It Won’t Be Soon Before Long - Deluxe
Release Stats: The Californian five-some Maroon 5, lead by frontman Adam Levine with James Valentine (guitar), Jesse Carmichael (keyboard), Michael Madden (bass), and Matt Flynn (drums), released their long awaited follow-up to 2002’s “Songs About Jane” after almost five years of nonstop touring for the first record. “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” landed into stores on May 22 2007 and quickly flew off store shelves. The album debuted at the top of the Billboard 200, smashing the competition with a staggering 429,000 copies sold in the first week.
The first single from the set, “Makes Me Wonder,” was also a huge success–it holds the record for the best leap to # in Billboard Hot 100 history for jumping from 62-1.
The singles that followed didn’t exactly blow up like “Makes Me Wonder” though, they were far from flops. “Wake Up Call” cracked the top 20 and “Won’t Go Home Without You” broke through the top 50.
The album flew past platinum in no time thanks to its buoyant singles and the band’s reputation for touring until they can’t anymore (the band lost their original drummer, Ryan Dusick, due to an arm injury caused by constant playing). But the band wanted something more for the fourth single, so they called in friend Rihanna to help with “If I Never See Your Face Again” to jump start the re-release.
Re-release Stats: Keeping with the CD/DVD trend, the revamped version of “It Won’t Be Soon Before Long” comes with a full concert DVD shot in Montreal with behind the scenes footage. The DVD also includes a collection of the band’s music videos.
“New” bonus songs are scarce–the only song specifically recorded for the re-release is the duet version of “If I Never See Your Face Again” featuring Rihanna. The guys do, however, load the disc up with five B-sides worth a listen: “Until You’re Over Me,” “Story,” “Losing My Mind,” “Infatuation,” and “Miss You Love You.”
Look for this deluxe album to hit stores July 8, 2008.
Stand-Out Bonus Track: As previously stated, there are no other actual bonus songs besides the duet with Rihanna, which is good if you’re a fan of hers. Most die-hard M5 fans do not consider this version an improvement over the original.
Among the B-sides, the stand-out has to be “Infatuation.” “Infatuation” has this kind of 80’s funky, genre crossing production style that explains why even hip-hop heads love the band (alternative rock with a little bit of soul is the caption for their official site afterall). Adam’s falsetto is in super fine form on the slick, simple chorus.
Purchase Worthiness: The lack of new songs is pretty disappointing–the B-Sides have been circulating the internet since the beginning of the year. But these guys are really something to behold live. The DVD concert will make your purchase worthwhile and if not, the director’s cut of their hot videos will make up for it.
Artist/Album: Fergie/The Dutchess - Deluxe
Release Stats: Stacy Ferguson aka Fergie, front woman for hip hop/pop outfit Black Eyed Peas, released her debut solo album “The Dutchess” on September 19 2006. First week sales of 142,000were pretty strong; the album to debut at #3 on the Billboard 200 thanks to bouncing pop singles “London Bridge” and “Fergalicious” but the album soon got eaten up by the competition around its release–Justin Timberlake and Beyoncé both released their highly anticipated sophomore albums in September of 2006, not to mention new albums by Clay Aiken and John Mayer were also released around that time.
The pace picked up with the release of Fergie’s third single, the Polow Da Don produced, Ludacris featured “Glamorous.” But what really got the album to 3 million sold and counting was the smash hit “Big Girls Don’t Cry.” It also didn’t hurt that the video for the single feature the smoking hot Milo Ventimiglia of Heroes (Though, he will always be Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls to me). “Clumsy” followed and cemented Fergie as one of the premiere singles artists out today.
Re-release Stats: Unlike the other three re-released albums highlighted, “The Dutchess - Deluxe” was released on May 27 2008 with little fanfare. Besides a few TV performances to promote it, not much was put into making the re-release a huge success. There was no big budget video produced for any of the bonus songs and no big radio push for a new single. But that’s all to be expected from an album that has had every last drop of juice squeezed out of it over almost a year and a half.
Because the re-release wouldn’t get a huge push, it wasn’t redressed for success either. It has four bonus tracks that you’ve probably heard already: “Labels or Love,” “Party People,” “Clumsy Remix ft Soulja Boy,” and “Barracuda.”
Stand-Out Bonus Track: This horse has been beaten so lifeless that it’s hard to pick a stand out. None of the bonus tracks grab you in a way that you’d be dying to add them to your mp3 player. The closest pick would be “Party People” featuring Nelly. The song is fun and upbeat and the beat is undeniably club-ready.
Purchase Worthiness: Not even the bonus behind the scenes footage you can access with the CD on your computer makes this re-release worth it. Too much time has past to make this re-release a true necessity. Two of the four bonus songs can be found on other discs: “Labels or Love” appears on the Sex and the City soundtrack; “Party People” will appear on Nelly’s upcoming “Brassknuckles.” If you absolutely need Fergie’s music videos in HD, then the repackage is worth it. If not, save your pennies.
Don’t want to spend your hard earned money buying these CDs again? We got you covered! You can win all four albums! And all you have to do is reply to this feature using a valid email address. We’ll use that email address to contact the winner so make sure the email address you use to comment is yours and works!
The contest will end on July 11th so get those comments in!
