Features / Release Round-Up

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up!

Jackson Browne, Running on Empty [Remaster] (Asylum/Rhino)

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

Jackson Browne’s legendary, seven-times-platinum 1977 album – featuring such classics as “Running On Empty” and “The Load-Out / Stay” – returns to CD, vinyl, and digital formats from Asylum/Rhino, featuring a fresh remaster by Gavin Lurssen of Lurssen Mastering on CD/digital.  The vinyl edition, meanwhile, was mastered by Ron McMaster and will be presented on 180-gram vinyl pressed at Pallas.

Ernie Kovacs, The Ernie Kovacs Album: Centennial Edition (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Omnivore Recordings celebrates what would have been the 100th birthday of zany, influential comedian Ernie Kovacs with this expanded reissue of his posthumously-released 1977 Columbia Records album. It captures eleven tracks of comedy gold from the late Kovacs including appearances from memorably zany characters like the flamboyant Percy Dovetonsils, Pierre Ragout, and J. Walter Puppybreath, and features six bonus tracks.  Available in CD and digital formats.  Read more here, and watch this space for our full review soon!

Stranger Things: Soundtrack from the Netflix Original Series, Season 3 (Legacy)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Black Vinyl with 7-Inch Single: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

The hit Netflix series releases its third soundtrack featuring classic ’80 hits from Madonna, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Huey Lewis and The News, Foreigner, The Pointer Sisters, Teena Marie, John Mellencamp, and more, plus some timeless favorites from artists as diverse as Patsy Cline and The Who.  In addition to the standard CD and digital versions, there’s a black vinyl edition with a bonus 7-inch single performed by the show’s cast members.  Then, Target has the LP (with bonus single) on red, white, and blue splatter vinyl; Barnes and Noble has it with an alternate cover; and FYE has it on cassette!

Valerie Carter, Ooh Child: The Columbia Years (Cherry Red/Cherry Tree) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Cherry Tree brings together late singer-songwriter Valerie Carter’s two Columbia long-players (Just a Stone’s Throw Away and Wild Child) featuring guests like Linda Ronstadt, Maurice White, Jackson Browne, Lowell George, and Deniece Williams.  The label has also added Valerie’s duet with Eddie Money, “Let’s Be Lovers Again.”

Everything But the Girl, Amplified Heart: 25th Anniversary Edition [Vinyl] (Chrysalis) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Everything But the Girl’s 1994 album featuring the international smash hit “Missing” comes to vinyl in a new, half-speed mastered edition.  Miles Showell at Abbey Road has handled the remastering.

Sigur Rós, Agetis Byrjun: A Good Beginning (Krunk)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Iceland’s Sigur Rós are expanding their breakthrough album with demo and archival versions of its songs plus outtakes, B-sides, and a full-95 minute concert played in Reykjavik on the day it was released in 1999.  The vinyl version features the original album on 2 LPs, and a deluxe version available at the band’s online webstore has 7 vinyl LPs with everything in the CD box plus a digital code.