(2020) Steve Wynn – Decade


Review:
Steve Wynn is well known as a vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, beginning as part of the renowned Paisley Underground outfit The Dream Syndicate. After the group folded, Wynn began a solo career that garnered critical acclaim and accolades from his legion of fans. Now, his solo career will be celebrated in a new, 11-CD box set from Real Gone Music called Decade. The expansive 166-track set chronicles Wynn’s career with deluxe versions of the albums he released from 1995 to 2005, many of which have been long out of print. From the U.S. albums Melting in the Dark, Sweetness and Light, My Midnight, Here Come the Miracles, Static Transmission, and …Tick…Tick…Tick, to the rarities collections like the German compilation The Emusic Singles Collection and the European set Pick of the Litter – not to mention the 57 unreleased tracks within – the Decade box set promises to be the definitive word on Wynn’s solo output. It’s all been compiled and sequenced by Wynn himself, alongside archivist and box set producer Pat Thomas. All the music has been remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision.





Tracklist:

Melting in the Dark
CD 1
1. Why
2. Shelley’s Blues, Pt. 2
3. What We Call Love
4. Drizzle
5. The Angels
6. Epilogue
7. Silence Is Your Only Friend
8. Stare It Down
9. Smooth
10. For All I Care
11. The Way You Punish Me
12. Down
13. Melting in the Dark

CD 2
1. Follow Me (unreleased radio performance)*
2. James River Incident (unreleased demo)*
3. Shelley’s Blues, Pt. 2 (unreleased demo)*
4. Smooth (unreleased demo)*
5. Down (unreleased demo)*
6. Nothing at All (unreleased demo)*
7. Nothing but the Shell (unreleased demo with Eric Ambel)*
8. Silence Is Your Only Friend (unreleased demo)*
9. Stare It Down (unreleased demo)*
10. Swallowed Me Whole (unreleased demo)*
11. The Angels (unreleased demo)*
12. What We Call Love (unreleased demo)*
13. What Would It Take (unreleased demo)*
14. Why (unreleased alternate version with the Pat Thomas band)*
15. The Air That I Breathe*
16. James River Incident (studio outtake)*
17. Make It Up to You (studio outtake)*

Sweetness and Light
1. Silver Lining
2. Black Magic
3. Sweetness and Light
4. This Strange Effect
5. This Deadly Game
6. How’s My Little Girl
7. Ghosts
8. Blood from A Stone
9. In Love with Everyone
10. The Great Divide
11. That’s the Way Love Is
12. If My Life Was an Open Book
13. Black Magic (unreleased demo)*
14. This Deadly Game (unreleased demo)*
15. Ghosts (unreleased demo)*
16. Silver Lining (unreleased demo)*
17. Blood from a Stone (unreleased demo with Gutterball)*

My Midnight
CD 1
1. Nothing but The Shell
2. My Favorite Game
3. Cats and Dogs
4. In Your Prime
5. Mandy Breakdown
6. Lay of The Land
7. Out of This World
8. My Midnight
9. The Mask of Shame
10. We’ve Been Hanging Out
11. 500 Girl Mornings
12. Ladies and Gentleman*
13. Invisible (unreleased demo with Johnny Hott)*
14. Smoke from a Distant Flame (unreleased Studio G demo)*
15. My Family (Studio G demo)*
16. Don’t Be Afraid (Studio G demo)*
17. Smoke from a Distant Flame (unreleased studio outtake)*

CD 2
1. My Favorite Game (unreleased demo)*
2. Cats and Dogs (unreleased Studio G demo)*
3. In Your Prime (unreleased Studio G demo)*
4. Mandy Breakdown (unreleased demo)*
5. Lay of the Land (unreleased Studio G demo)*
6. My Midnight (unreleased Studio G demo)*
7. The Mask of Shame (unreleased demo)*
8. We’ve Been Hanging Out (unreleased Studio G demo)*
9. 500 Girl Mornings (unreleased studio G demo)*
10. My Favorite Game (unreleased Studio G demo)*
11. Easy (unreleased demo 1)*
12. Easy (unreleased demo 2)*
13. Halfway to the Afterlife (studio G demo)*
14. Halfway to the Afterlife (unreleased demo)*
15. Invisible (studio G demo)*
16. Lay of the Land (unreleased demo)*
17. The Impossible (Studio G demo)*
18. Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad (studio outtake)*

Here Come the Miracles
CD 1
1. Here Come the Miracles
2. Shades of Blue
3. Sustain
4. Blackout
5. Butterscotch
6. Southern California Line
7. Morningside Heights
8. Let’s Leave It Like That
9. Crawling Misanthropic Blues
10. Drought
11. Death Valley Rain
12. Sustain (unreleased demo)*
13. Southern California Line (unreleased demo)*
14. Morningside Heights (unreleased demo)*
15. Death Valley Rain (unreleased demo)*
16. There Will Come a Day Instrumental (unreleased demo)*

CD 2
1. Strange New World
2. Sunset to The Sea
3. Good and Bad
4. Topanga Canyon Freaks
5. Watch Your Step
6. Charity
7. Smash Myself to Bits
8. There Will Come a Day
9. Watch Your Step (unreleased demo)*
10. Smash Myself to Bits (unreleased demo)*
11. Staten Island (unreleased demo)*
12. Watch Your Step (unreleased demo 2)*
13. Bitch Pants (unreleased studio outtake)*

The Emusic Singles Collection
1. Strange New World
2. Last House on The Right (with Johnette Napolitano)
3. The Last One Standing (with Australian Blonde)
4. Milky White (with Eric Ambel)
5. Melinda (with Richard Lloyd)
6. The Way I Feel Right Now (with Barbara Manning)
7. The Devil’s Not That Kind (with James Mastro)
8. Merry-Go-Round (with Polar)
9. I Gotta Do Things My Way (with the Miracle 3 and the Turnettes)
10. Shake and Bake (with Gutterball)
11. Down at The Hi-De-Ho (with the Fleshtones)
12. At the End of The Day (with Linda Pitmon)
13. Bait and Switch (unreleased demo)*
14. Claro Que Si (unreleased demo)*
15. Conditions (unreleased demo with Chris Cacavas)*
16. Down at the Hi-De-Ho (unreleased demo)*
17. From a Better Place (unreleased outtake)*
18. I’m Not Listening (unreleased Studio G demo)*

Static Transmission
CD 1
1. What Comes After
2. Candy Machine
3. The Ambassador of Soul
4. Keep It Clean
5. Amphetamine
6. California Style
7. One Less Shining Star
8. Maybe Tomorrow
9. Hollywood
10. Charcoal Sunset
11. A Fond Farewell
12. If It Was Easy Everybody Would Do It

CD 2
1. Riverside (studio outtake)*
2. Nothing Like Anything (studio outtake)*
3. Underneath the Underground (studio outtake)*
4. Timing (studio outtake)*
5. Survival Blues (studio outtake)*
6. Again (studio outtake)*
7. State Trooper (studio outtake) *
8. Benediction (studio outtake)*
9. Underneath the Underground (unreleased demo)*

…Tick…Tick…Tick
1. Wired
2. Cindy, It Was Always You
3. Freak Star
4. Killing Me
5. The Deep End
6. Turning of The Tide
7. Bruises
8. Your Secret
9. Wild Mercury
10. All the Squares Go Home
11. No Tomorrow
12. Killing Me (unreleased demo)*
13. Second Best (from “Fever Pitch”)*
14. Welcome to the New Regime (unreleased studio outtake)*
15. Still Messed Up (unreleased studio outtake)*
16. Bring the Magic (unreleased demo with Chris Cacavas)*

(*) denotes previously unreleased track


Media Report:
Genre: indie-rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits