Analog Adventures: The Temptations, Atmosphere, Ennio Morricone, and more new vinyl for June 2024

Welcome to Analog Adventures, where we run down the latest stacks of wax to hit our mailbox. Reissues, new releases, and more are all on the turntable as we spin these records.

Various Artists
The Westbound Sound
(ORG Music)

For several years, ORG has released affordable Sun Records compilations, curated by various record stores across the country. Now they’ve dipped into the back catalog of Detroit’s Westbound Records to produce an 11-song collection, highlighting some of the finest artists and tracks from the independent label that “grew to be a powerhouse that influenced music worldwide,” as the text on the back of the jacket ably sums up.

Released for Record Store Day back in April, each side kicks off with a big name—Funkadelic and the Ohio Players on sides A and B—before digging into deeper cuts from acts you might not know, but from whom you will definitely seek more. The soulful, funky blues of Denise LaSalle on “Hung Up, Strung Out” and the ringing hookiness of “Live Wire” by Dennis Coffey are especially tasty.

Basic black wax, printed inner sleeve promoting album sponsor Tito’s Vodka, and no loner notes, but it’s ridiculously affordable and a great party starter.

Ernest Tubb & His Texas Troubadours
The World Broadcast Recordings 1944/45
(ORG Music)

In the ’40s, country legend Ernest Tubb recorded music specifically for airplay, via the World Broadcasting System. The 16-inch records were sent to stations on a subscription basis, and weren’t intended for commercial release. The 14 tracks here were recorded in Los Angeles in 1944 and in Chicago in 1945, featuring Tubb fronting His Texas Troubadours.

Each session features the same core lineup of Jimmie Short and Melvin Leon Short on guitar, and Johnny Sapp on fiddle, but there are two different bass players, and Melvin and Jimmie switch between rhythm and lead on the two sessions. We also get Ray Head on pedal steel for the Chicago sessions, making the tracks a bit more vibrant.

Transparent yellow vinyl, limited to 1500 copies, with an anti-static inner sleeve. A lot of sad songs here, but they sound great.

Various Artists
Black Girl OST
(Reel Cult)

One of two releases kicking off Reel Cult—a new sublabel from longtime film freaks Varèse Sarabande, dedicated to “resurrecting scores from wild B-movie soundtracks, cult classic creature features, Blaxploitation cinema, Wild West revenge sagas, and spine-tingling horror flicks.”

Black Girl is a 1972 film—directed by Ossie Davis—based on the 1969 play of the same name that received stellar reviews at the time of its release, although it’s mostly been forgotten since. That’s a shame, because by all accounts, it’s a standout piece of social commentary on par with A Raisin in the Sun.

If this soundtrack is any indication, it must be ripe for rediscovery. With vocal contributions from Betty Everett and Rodger Collins, featuring saxophonist Sonny Stitt, as well as organ work from Merl Saunders, this record—originally released on Fantasy Records and produced/written by its in-house team—Black Girl is a stunning work of jazzy soul.

180-gram clear black swirl vinyl in a tip-on style jacket with obi strip.

Ennio Morricone
Orca
(Reel Cult)

The Dino De Laurentis-produced Orca, aka Orca: The Killer Whale, is probably best known as being a massive rip-off of Jaws. However, it also features a pretty lovely score from Ennio Morricone, and has been relatively unavailable for the better part of the last four decades, making the announcement that it was getting a Record Store Day repress fairly big news among the film score fandom.

And for good reason: By turns rousing, haunting, and even a little sad when needs be, combining a bit of everything from Morricone’s even-then epic career. Orca is the sort of score you put on as background music, only to find yourself frequently distracted by just how good it is, which is the exact opposite of the film itself. I rewatched the movie as a downloaded episode of Joe Bob Briggs’ old TNT show Monstervision, and even clever quips couldn’t keep me from drifting off the couch to sweep the floor and do dishes.

“Blood on the Water” colored vinyl in a tip-on style sleeve, with a foldout poster with artwork by fantasy legend Boris and liner notes from Daniel Schweiger.

Modest Mouse
Good News for People Who Love Bad News
(Legacy Recordings)

Indie rockers Modest Mouse’s big breakthrough turns 20 years old in 2024, and to celebrate, we have this deluxe double LP from Legacy Recordings—the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment.

You think you probably have this. If you’re an indie rocker who’s into vinyl, you’ve definitely considered buying a copy over the years, but when it released originally, vinyl hadn’t quite yet started on its big comeback. The tenth anniversary repress was limited to 1000 copies, so secondhand prices are sky-high, because everyone knows this album.

And, honestly, because the big hits like “Float On” and “The Ocean Breathes Salty” are still in pretty heavy alt-rock radio rotation, it’s not like you have to make much of an effort to hear Good News these days, so why shell out the big bucks? Thankfully, this repress has not only been remastered for vinyl, but also features five brand-new remixes from Poolside, Jacknife Lee, Dan the Automator, Enough Love to Kill Us All/Jeremy Sherrer, and Dennis Herring.

Honestly, getting to hear these songs beefed up and recontextualized, makes this 20 year-old album seem fresh and new again. It’s like getting to hear them for the first time with fresh ears and sans the baggage of them being radio hits. I’d say that’s worth the price of purchase alone.

Double LP on opaque baby pink and opaque spring green vinyl, with printed inner sleeves and an eight-page booklet featuring lyrics and credits.

Atmosphere
Strictly Leakage
(Rhymesayers)

Originally released as a double LP in a basic black cardboard DJ sleeve in 2008, Minneapolis hip-hop act Atmosphere’s mixtape gets a big ole reissue that makes this former Christmas Day free download feel a bit more legitimate.

Upon relistening for the first time in ages, you can feel Slug and Ant starting to find the footing upon which they’d stand with their next album proper, When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, that would hit stores just five months after this mix dropped. It’s more of a mixtape, sure, especially given that Lemons leaned heavily on live instrumentation, and this features the samples that were more of a focus on the duo’s earlier work, but you can hear the bounce and focus that would permeate that narrative-based album here on Strictly Leakage.

Heavyweight black vinyl in a basic sleeve. No liners, which is a bummer, because if you’re going to go through all this trouble of repressing a classic album, give us some context.

The Temptations
Wish It Would Rain
(Elemental Music)

From now through December, reissue imprint Elemental Music will release 23 albums under the aegis of “The Motown Sound Collection.” It’s a collection of favorites and deep cuts, with more titles slated for 2025. The Temptations’ Wish It Would Rain is one of the first two offerings in the series, and it’s a knockout.

The 1967 album is the last to feature the group’s original lead singer David Ruffin, who’d be replaced the following year by Dennis Edwards, and lead the fivesome through their psychedelic soul period over the next several years, with feels like an apt end to the “My Girl” era of the Temptations. Wish It Would Rain is a thoughtful, mature version of the Motown sound and presages the sort of music we’d hear from Bloodstone or the Delfonics just a few years hence.

Smokey Robinson’s production and the title track are the highlights here, but the whole series of sadly-contemplative tracks are worth your ears.

140-gram virgin black vinyl in a reproduction jacket. Nice little hype sticker on the shrink which gives a brief context for the album.

The Supremes
We Remember Sam Cooke
(Elemental Music)

The other initial release in the Motown Sound Collection is this 1965 LP from the Supremes. Coming just a couple months after The Supremes Sing Country, Western and Pop, another themed collection from the trio, it’s interesting, but by no means necessary.

While their country album is intriguing and fun, somewhat of a more-upbeat version of Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music, this collection falters when it comes to the ballads and dancefloor movers of Cooke’s discography. While mid-tempo numbers like “Chain Gang” and “Cupid” are perfectly all right, something like “Havin’ A Party” feels lackluster, and “Shake” would see its definitive interpretation released by Otis Redding later that year. “A Change Is Gonna Come” is a bit thin, as well. If you stick to the first side, you’re better off.

140-gram virgin black vinyl in a reproduction jacket. Nice little hype sticker on the shrink which gives a brief context for the album.