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00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d8c70000KMUW music hosts Jedd Beaudoin and Chris Heim share their selections for the best music releases of 2020. Join our music programs throughout January 2021 for a month-long feature highlighting the Best of 2020.

Strange Currency's Best Reissues/Archival Releases Of 2020

Prince's 'Sign O the Times' (Courtesy Universal Music Group), The Replacements' 'Pleased To Meet Me' (Courtesy Rhino Records), Tom Petty's 'Wildflowers & All The Rest' (Courtesy Warner Music Group)

The archival and reissue market continues to flourish and 2020 offered a number of riches in that department, including retrospective sets from Minneapolis’ Prince and The Replacements as both issued archival sets looking back at albums from 1987. Prince’s Sign O’ The Times not only demonstrated that the original album has held up remarkably well but that the Purple One had plenty of strong material floating around at the time of the record’s release. Moreover, we get to hear what a remarkable live performer he was on this new set.

The Replacements’ sole effort as a trio, Please To Meet Me, is back in expanded form as well with plenty of demos, including the band’s final recordings with original guitarist Bob Stinson from the summer of 1986. Stinson’s replacement in the band, Slim Dunlap, issued a live show from 2002, captured live at the Turf Club in St. Paul, where he frequently played in his post-Replacements days. It’s a firm reminder that he was a lively performer and leaves little question as to why he’s been mentioned more than once as a songwriter Bruce Springsteen pays attention to.

You can also hear him on the Record Store Day release from The Replacements, The Complete Inconcerated Live, which finds the band in fine form at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in June, 1989 while supporting the album Don’t Tell A Soul.

1. Sign O’ The Times—Prince
2. Wildflowers & All The Rest—Tom Petty
3. Pleased To Meet Me—The Replacements
4. The Complete Inconcerated Live—The Replacements
5. Thank You, Dancers—Slim Dunlap Band
6. Decade—Steve Wynn
7. Summerteeth—Wilco
8. Delicate Sound of Thunder—Pink Floyd
9. New York—Lou Reed
10. Flaming Pie—Paul McCartney

Jedd Beaudoin is host/producer of the nationally syndicated program Strange Currency. He has also served as an arts reporter, a producer of A Musical Life and a founding member of the KMUW Movie Club. As a music journalist, his work has appeared in Pop Matters, Vox, No Depression and Keyboard Magazine.