** Mariah Carey‘s 2005 album The Emancipation of Mimi will be reborn in a 20th anniversary edition on May 30 through Def Jam/UMe. The five-LP, 45-song boxed set includes the original album, select tracks from its contemporary Ultra Platinum Edition, remixes, collaborations, instrumentals and edits. Kaytranada‘s remix of “Don’t Forget About Us” is out now. Also available on May 30 is an extended digital edition of Mimi with exclusive, as-yet-unannounced bonus cuts.
“While working on this edition, I got to relive all the memories from this pivotal moment in my personal and professional life,” says Carey. “This album has some of my biggest hits to date, as well as some personal favorites that are very special to me. Forgotten gems, unreleased bonus tracks and different remixes with incredible collaborators — all of these and more are now available in one place for the first time ever.”
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Mimi includes contributions from Jermaine Dupri, Snoop Dogg, Kanye West, Twista, Nelly, Pharrell Williams and the Neptunes. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
** The late Nick Drake‘s beloved 1969 debut album, Five Leaves Left, is the subject of a new Making Of edition rounding up 30-plus previously unheard studio outtakes. The project, which was in the works for nearly a decade, will be released July 25 through Island/UMe and is led by “Strange Face,” an early rendition of what became “Cello Song.” A 2000 remastered version of the original Fives Leaves Left is also included.
As SPIN wrote in 2013, Five Leaves Left, which was released when Drake was only 21, seems to exist out of time. Unlike his socially conscious post-Woodstock peers, Drake avoided all temporal references beyond those found in nature. Instead, he sang of women and men and suggestions of emotional intimacy, but no lust, no carnality — just a longing for peace of mind, implied not necessarily through words but through an overwhelming wistfulness. Employing unconventional guitar tunings and compositional sophistication far beyond ordinary folk music, Drake crooned squarely on the notes, as if the air just poured out of him and into precisely the right places without any effort. 50 years on from Drake’s 1974 overdose from prescribed antidepressants, the album, virtually unheard at the time of its release, is universally acknowledged as among the greatest English folk statements ever made.
** Ahead of a summer stadium tour, My Chemical Romance are reissuing their 2004 sophomore effort, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge as a remixed and remastered deluxe edition on CD, digital and multiple vinyl variants. Pre-order is available here for the set, which will be out June 6.
Bonus tracks include four songs recorded for a BBC session in 2005 and several previously unreleased live versions of album tracks and the b-side “You Know What They Do to Guys Like Us in Prison.” Hear the BBC version of “I’m Not OK (I Promise)” at this link.
SPIN previously heralded Revenge as “the nexus of the Smiths’ mopey rockabilly, the Damned’s goth-punk barnstorming and the Cure’s ink-dark moods.” The album topped out at No. 28 on the Billboard 200 but sold more than 1.4 million copies in the United States and spawned several hit singles at rock radio.
To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.
