Tomorrow is Drop 2 of this year's Record Store Day event, following the initial (and much larger) Drop on Saturday, April 23.  More than 75 new titles will be available at independent stores everywhere (even including CDs from the likes of Wilco and Billy F. Gibbons); visit RecordStoreDay.com in the U.S., RecordStoreDay.co.uk in the U.K., and RecordStoreDayCanada.ca in Canada for the complete list, and sound off below as to which titles you're most anticipating!  Below you'll find our staff picks for The Best of RSD 2022, Drop 2! - Mike, Joe, and Randy

Miles Davis, Live: What It Is, Montreal 7/7/83 (Columbia/Legacy)

What it is: a 2-LP, 9-song release capturing Miles Davis meeting the 1980s head-on at Montreal, Canada's Theatre St. Denis.  The trumpet legend - by that point, also playing synthesizer (sometimes at the same time as he blew his horn!) - was joined by John Scofield on guitar, the other Bill Evans on soprano and tenor saxophone and flute, future Rolling Stones sideman Darryl Jones on bass, Al Foster on drums, and percussionist Mino Cinélu.  No surprise for the forward-thinking Davis, the group's sound was in a decidedly contemporary idiom: jazz flecked with R&B, filled with sinewy funk rhythms and characteristically unexpected turns.  The horn, though, was all recognizably Miles.  These recordings, newly mixed by Steve Berkowitz and Dave Darlington, will be part of the next edition of the Miles Davis Bootleg Series (focusing on the artist's 1981-1985 period) coming later in the year to CD and digital formats, but this RSD exclusive promises to be the material's exclusive vinyl release.  Longtime fans and collectors will enjoy hearing the complete versions of "What It Is" and "That's What Happened" which were included in edited form on Davis' penultimate original Columbia album, 1984's Decoy.  "Jean-Pierre" will be familiar from a version on 1982's We Want Miles; "It Gets Better" and "Star on Cicely" appeared in studio versions on 1983's Star People.  Live: What It Is is housed in a gatefold jacket; an entertaining and thoughtful essay by late music historian Greg Tate (1957-2021) is included on the first LP's sleeve.  Mark Wilder has beautifully mastered everything here.  Based on the quality of this material, the next Davis Bootleg volume will be worth the wait. - JM

Esther Marrow, Sister Woman (Fantasy/Craft Recordings)

With the 180-gram vinyl reissue of vocalist "Queen" Esther Marrow's 1972 album Sister Woman, Craft Recordings has rescued a lost classic from the period in which soul and jazz commingled freely.  Sister Woman's credits read like a "Who's Who" of the period's session veterans (primarily those based in New York): arranger Bobby Scott, musicians Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, Cornell Dupree, Richard Tee, Chuck Rainey, Ralph MacDonald, Paul Griffin, Buddy Lucas, and Frank Wess, among them.  A brass section and vocal group The Reflections added to the record's big sound.  Jazz titan Rudy Van Gelder engineered, so Sister Woman was assured to be a great-sounding album - and indeed it is in Kevin Gray's all-analog remastering.  Bobby Scott and Ralph MacDonald both contributed songs for Marrow, a powerful singer and actress who performed with Duke Ellington, appeared in four Broadway musicals, and shared the stage with everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Bob Dylan.  She also included some well-chosen covers including a lightly grooving take on Tony Joe White's "Rainy Night in Georgia" and a fiery, gospel-infused reading of Laura Nyro's "And When I Die."  Sister Woman melded rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, and soul into an irresistible whole.  The package is top-notch, including the sturdy tip-on jacket and protective inner sleeve.  Sister Woman is a highlight of Marrow's too-small discography, and also of this Record Store Day. [Readers might recall that we included this in our last RSD round-up before discovering it wouldn't arrive in stores until today.  Our recommendation still stands!] - JM

Prince, The Gold Experience (NPG/Legacy)

Legacy was always in a weird situation when they first got into the Prince business: the first phase of their deal covered the material from his "symbol" years and on (not a wellspring of commercial material, although you'd be wrong to write it off); of those albums, his best might be The Gold Experience, a dizzying blend of psych-pop, quiet-storm, dance cuts and what is on any given day one of my emotional favorite Prince songs, the closing title track. Bizarrely, an arcane international copyright suit kept "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World," Prince's last Top 10 hit, off of digital music services. Now that it's back where it belongs, so too does The Gold Experience get a physical release, a double LP set mirroring an original promo pressing, complete with remixes of second single "<0> Hate U" that have yet to show up anywhere else under the current deal. Legal mumbo jumbo aside, you owe it to yourself to discover (or rediscover) this record. - MD

Barry White, No Limit on Love (Reel)

Released in 1974 to capitalize on the Maestro of Love's newfound success, this collection of early, pre-20th Century Records material isn't his strongest, but it's a worthy dive for completists. There is much to enjoy in White's discography (he indeed had so much to give), and if you're looking for a rarer fix, this might be your ticket. - MD

Various Artists, The Royal Tenenbaums (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Hollywood)

Wes Anderson's 2001 ensemble comedy about a deeply dysfunctional family is easily my favorite by the idiosyncratic director. Among its highlights is Mark Mothersbaugh's appealingly quirky score, available on this album alongside a heap of diegetic pop/rock tracks from soft (Nick Drake, Elliott Smith) to hard (The Clash, Ramones) to somewhere in the middle (Bob Dylan, Nico). - MD

Paul McCartney/St. Vincent, Women and Wives (MPL/Capitol)

This one might not have gotten a second thought, as undeniably legendary as McCartney is (and as solid a job as St. Vincent does reimagining this track from 2020's McCartney III). But I'm writing this after having seen the now-80-year-old pop star put on A Show on the closing night of the Got Back tour at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ. (Bruce Springsteen was there, it was a whole thing.) I got Paul on the brain and in the veins. It's going on the list! - MD

The Who, It's Hard (40th Anniversary) (Polydor)

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Who's It's Hard, originally released in September 1982.  The LP was the last studio album from the band for over two decades as their next album, Endless Wire, did not see release until 2006.  This also led to It's Hard marking several lasts for the band: the second and last album to include drummer Kenney Jones, their last album on Warner Bros. in the U.S. and, most significantly, the last studio album with bassist John Entwistle, who passed away in 2002.  It's Hard would peak at No. 11 in the U.K. and No. 8 in the U.S.  The two singles released were "Athena," which reached No. 3 on the U.S. Rock chart and No. 28 on the Pop chart while "Eminence Front" climbed to No. 5 on the Rock chart.  This new, 2-LP RSD edition features the opening seven songs of the half-speed remaster on the first orange-colored vinyl LP.  The remaining five tracks are on the first side of the second yellow-colored vinyl LP.  The flipside of that LP includes four bonus tracks, mastered at standard speed: two alternate mixes and "Eminence Front" and "One Life's Enough" with different lead vocals.  (These are different bonus tracks than those included on the 1997 CD reissue.  It is also unclear if this presentation features the original mix of the album or has some of the remixes done for that 1997 edition).  The 2-LP set is limited to 6,000 copies. - RF

Linda Hoover, I Mean To Shine (Omnivore Recordings)

In 1970, producer Gary Katz took 19 year-old singer-songwriter Linda Hoover into the studio to record her first album, I Mean to Shine.  Joining them were the duo of Walter Becker and Donald Fagen leading a team of musicians including guitarists Denny Dias, Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, and Eric Weissberg, saxophonist Jerome Richardson, plus members of the Dick Cavett Show's orchestra.  The album was to feature three songs from Hoover, two covers (The Band's "In A Station" and Stephen Stills' "4+20"), and six songs from the up-and-coming team of Becker and Fagen.  But the release was not to be.  The owner of Roulette Records, Morris Levy, would shelve the album due to a dispute over publishing.  The title song by Becker and Fagen was then given to Barbra Streisand who included it on her contemporary-focused Barbra Joan Streisand album.  Fagen and Becker would form Steely Dan in 1971 (with Katz onboard to produce and Dias and Baxter joining the band) and start a career which lead to groundbreaking albums and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Hoover took a copy of her unreleased album with her, and would continue to write and record music regionally.  The tape sat in a closet for decades but it is now seeing the light of day from Omnivore Recordings.  Featuring the proposed cover shot by Joel Brodsky, I Mean to Shine has been produced by Hoover, Jay Willingham, and Cheryl Pawelski with audio restoration and mastering by Michael Graves.  Scott Schinder's liner notes feature new interviews with Hoover and Katz.  Listeners will get a peek into the early workings of Steely Dan combined with Hoover's own musical talents.  The CD edition of this album will hit stores next Friday.  This RSD vinyl edition is limited to 2,000 copies. - RF