DEMON
Back in 2015, Bill Wyman’s four solo albums were remastered and expanded. They’ve now been pressed on 180-gram vinyl and collected into this boxset. The packaging is a little dour; the original sleeves – especially 1974’s Monkey Grip and 1981’s Bill Wyman – were pretty far out, rendering the rather ‘straight’ front cover of the boxset, or what the label describe as the “beautiful rigid slipcase”, a bit of an anticlimax.
Aesthetics aside, listen out for guests ranging from Van Morrison to The Pointer Sisters on Monkey Grip and its follow-up, 1976’s Stone Alone. Wyman’s highlight is the Stones-meets-Numan Nuclear Reactions and closes out with (Si, Si) Je Suis Un Rock Star, of course – here in its full six-minute incarnation – and there’s a curious delight in playing back that 1981 hit on vinyl as opposed to iTunes. Speaking of which, the fourth disc in the set, Stuff, appears here for the first time on vinyl, as this album was effectively a 90s-era afterthought, released only in Japan.
Ian Peel