Back catalogue: All genres

Review: After 20 years of soulful and authentic rock & roll blues, Eli Paperboy Reed definitely had a right to celebrate. Originally recorded in a basement in Allston, Massachusetts, completely live onto and direct to analogue tape in mono, this collection was first released on a limited run of 300 CDs, self-released, and mostly sold by hand on the streets of Cambridge, close to Harvard University. Now redone, pressed-up and polished for 'proper release', you get all 12 original tracks and another 14 that never saw the light of day before. Four of those were recorded at the time of the others, the remainder come from a radio session the following year. All of them are incredible, and prove that it's not only the Deep South that can make these raw and unflinchingly honest sounds.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Creasing to corner of outer sleeve but otherwise in excellent condition***


Light In The Attic teams up with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive for a thrilling retrospective, Why Don't You Smile Now: Lou Reed At Pickwick Records 1964-65. An expansive selection of songs all written by Lou Reed, during his mid-60s stint as the staff songwriter for the long-defunct label Pickwick Records, this is a rare glimpse of a master rock musician stepping out of the limelight over the course of 25 songs, yet still letting the form and contour of his voice and sensibility be heard. All this was achieved before Reed had at all launched his career with the Velvets; it may indeed be said that this pubescent 60s period was the firelighter to Reed's flame, as the label specialised in soundalike records that emulated the major pop hits of the day - it's no wonder Reed would absorb such emulations and take them in as his own, albeit with a Century-defining twist. Channelling everything from teenybopper pop to soul-inflected garage rock, whether byJeannie Larimore, The Hi-Lifes or The Hollywoods, we get a thorough look-in here as to what made Reed and his contemporaries tick, and what Reed made tick in turn, before the fame.