Now What Box Set

Three special editions of the Now What album released early December 2013.

[1] Now What 2CD GOLD TOUR EDITION •  This 13 track CD comprises the existing album (+ It’ll Be Me & First Sign of Madness) with a second disc of 12 tracks recorded on the summer tour in Italy, Germany and Sweden.  Gold foil die-cut digipak plus two booklets. Final track listing is: Strange Kind Of Woman / Hard Lovin’ Man / Vincent Price / Contact Lost / All The Time In The World / No One Came / Body Line / Perfect Strangers / Above And Beyond / Lazy / Black Night / Smoke On The Water

The following three tracks appear to have been dropped from the original track listing, and replaced by three other somgs – listed in non-italics above. Fireball / Into The Fire/ Hush
It has been stressed that these are ‘monitor mixes’

[2] Now What Live Tapes LIMITED EDITION DOUBLE ALBUM • This is a double gatefold LP of just the live tracks from the above release, and is very limited.

[3] Now What 6 disc BOX SET • This is limited to just 1500 copies for the UK. The box includes the Now What special CD as above with bonus DVD material including the press kit, the audio content off the first single, etc; the Live Tapes CD, PLUS all three CD singles   It all comes in a special sturdy box along with sticker, poster and t-shirt.

Review – The marketing of this is a bit of a kick in the teeth for fans, all of whom will have gone out and bought the album when it was first released (and the booklet proudly illustrates the chart positions around the world). The only real new material here is the live CD, recorded during july and august across four venues. It has to be said that the mix is ordinary at best and while the packaging does point out that they are ‘monitor mixes’, it’s hard to understand why they didn’t go that little bit extra to sort the balance out. So IG is front and centre but very exposed, the keyboards are too low and  the drum sound is very clipped.  It is of course interesting to hear the four new tracks get an early live outing, but they do all sound a little tentative for obvious reasons.  The other two thirds of the disc are DP standard by and large, with Strange Kind Of Woman and Hard Loving Man the standouts. The latter is particularly brutal, with grungy guitar and bass, and a level of energy which bodes well for the rest of the tour but doesn’t get matched elsewhere for me (while the lyrics are clearly not 100% In Rock either!). Given that this disc is the main reason most people will be buying it, more care and attention was surely due.  So I’ll probably keep the gold edition 2CD set and trade in my original CD, and maybe buy the vinyl to keep the collection up to date (the packaging is quite nice if a little dull).

All formats can be ordered while stocks last at DTB Online shop. As always with these limited editions, pre-ordering is recommended as stock supplies tend to dry up very quickly.