Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

The Choir, Artifact: The Unreleased Album (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore premieres an unreleased album from pre-Raspberries group The Choir, recorded in 1969 by one of the final iterations of the popular Cleveland band.  These ten ultra-rare recordings have been restored for this release by the team of Tommy Allen and Ducky Carlisle (The Raspberries’ Pop Art Live), and Choir fan Eric Carmen has provided liner notes along with Al Kaston and Choir members Denny Carleton and Phil Giallombardo.  Read more here!

Sonny Rollins, Way Out West: Deluxe Edition (Contemporary/Craft Recordings) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Craft Recordings celebrates the 60th anniversary of Sonny Rollins’ 1957 classic Way Out West with a 2-LP slipcased box set adding an entire second album of bonus material.  Past CD releases have included three alternate takes (“I’m an Old Cowhand,” “Way Out West,” and “Come, Gone”) as bonus tracks.  This new vinyl reissue ups the ante by including those as well as four more previously unreleased tracks on a second vinyl LP: two fly-on-the-wall spoken word bits from the studio; an alternate version of “There is No Greater Love,” and Take 1 of “Way Out West.”   It’s been pressed at Quality Record Pressings on 180-gram vinyl.  Though it’s available digitally, a CD release is not currently planned.  Read more here, and watch this space for our full review!

Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, Charlotte’s Web: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Varese Vintage) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The delightful soundtrack to Hanna-Barbera’s 1973 animated classic Charlotte’s Web finally comes to CD from Varese Sarabande, featuring the wonderfully melodic songs of the Sherman Brothers as performed by Debbie Reynolds, Agnes Moorehead, Paul Lynde, Henry Gibson, and others!  Get the full scoop here!

Van Morrison, In Concert (Eagle Vision)

Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

This new video gives you two intimate Van concerts for the price of one: a 2016 set recorded for the BBC, and a 12-song performance at Cyprus Avenue in his native Belfast, recorded on his 70th birthday in 2015!

Car Seat Headrest, Twin Fantasy (Face-to-Face) (Matador)

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Seattle-based indie darlings Car Seat Headrest came to prominence with the release of their lo-fi sixth album Twin Fantasy in 2011 (recorded by a laptop microphone). Now, frontman Will Toledo has proclaimed that last year he “learned how to finish” the album, re-recording and reworking it anew; both versions are featured on the 2CD package, while the new version is now available on vinyl (with the original making its way there this Record Store Day).

Kendrick Lamar/Various Artists, Black Panther: The Album (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

One of the biggest hip-hop icons working today performed on and curated this new companion album to the newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lamar, SZA,, The Weeknd, Vince Staples, Future and Khalid are just a few of the voices giving life to the themes and stories of T’Challa, King of Wakanda.