Blueprints from the Cellar: The Cellar Tapes, Pts. 1&2/At the Queen Elizabeth Hall

A two-fer reissue for two posthumous albums, one -- the 1986 document -- more or less essential, the other, , of somewhat more limited interest. was recorded in London in October 1986, shortly after the release of 's album. Representing less than half of the live show, this set, however, is firmly retrospective, drawing in the main from his solo debut, , and the oddly overlooked . As such, it goes without saying that the live versions struggle to match their studio counterparts -- both albums, after all, were very much the children of the recording studio, and a scratch band pieced together from various members of simply cannot compete. The recording quality, on the other hand, is more or less excellent, and this remains a fascinating document, both for the chance to experience 's on-stage conversation, and for the ferocious version of one of several songs that also appears on the second disc. As its title suggests, the accompanying is a demo collection, drawing from 's work tapes for the and albums, together with a clutch of songs that never made it onto any regular album. He himself had already released these same performances, spread across two fan club cassette-only volumes of Cellar Tapes; two songs are excised from those releases for this CD, but the scarcity of those tapes today renders that all but irrelevant. The music itself is as gripping as only could be, but little here was not performed better in its finished form, rendering a must-have for confirmed collectors only. There again, if you buy this package for the live disc, think of this one as a free bonus, and enjoy it for what it is. ~ Dave Thompson