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Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available in stores today!

George Michael, Older: Deluxe Edition (Legacy)

5CD/3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

George Michael’s third solo album – and the one he believed to be his finest – returns from Legacy Recordings in a new 5CD/3LP edition and a 2LP set.  This expansion of 1996’s Older features both the remastered album and the EP Upper (included with reissues of the album in 1997) on 180-gram vinyl and CD, along with an additional three CDs featuring 27 B-sides, live tracks, edits and remixes. (A handful were only released as promo issues, while album producer Jon Douglas’ remix of “Spinning the Wheel” makes its debut in any format here.) The set is rounded out by a 48-page book, The Story of Older, featuring rare photos and reminiscences from the album’s contributors, plus a set of art prints. (Altogether, this box resembles the deluxe edition of solo debut Faith more than the smaller, CD-only box set of Listen Without Prejudice.)  The 2LP version has the original album only, also remastered from the original tapes.  Read more here!

Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot [Various Editions]

8CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco’s fourth album, will get the box set treatment in several different formats including 11LP/1CD, 8CD, 7LP, 2CD, and 2LP (in black and gold editions). The original album will come with up to three CDs worth of alternate takes and mixes, a collection of demos and rough sketches, and two live performances: a live-in-studio, five-song appearance and interview on Chicago’s WXRT-FM in 2001 – the day the album was first made free to the public – and a celebrated 2002 concert at The Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri.​ Get more details here!

Rory Gallagher, Deuce: Deluxe Edition (Polydor/UMC)

4CD Deluxe Edition: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2CD Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
3LP Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Over the past couple of years, UMC has been busy revisiting the catalogue of late Irish guitar virtuoso Rory Gallagher.  Following last fall’s box set celebrating Gallagher’s eponymous 1971 debut, the label is turning its attention to his second album, 1972’s Deuce, for another deluxe, expanded edition.  The similarly expansive 4CD release, due on September 30, boasts a new mix of the original album; 28 previously unreleased alternate takes; a six-song 1972 BBC Radio In Concert performance; and seven Radio Bremen radio session tracks.  The package also contains a 64-page hardcover book with a foreword by The Smiths’ Johnny Marr as well as additional essays, Gallagher memorabilia, and previously unpublished photos by the album’s original photographer, the late Mick Rock.  If that’s too much Rory for your tastes, UMC is also offering 2CD and 3LP highlights versions as well as an exclusive 1LP green vinyl edition of the BBC In Concert session.  Read more here.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, Do It For Love (U-Watch/BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

BMG returns Daryl Hall and John Oates’ 2003 album Do It For Love – their final studio album of original material to date, featuring the title track, “Man on a Mission,” and the Todd Rundgren duet “Someday We’ll Know” – to CD, 2-LP vinyl, and digital formats.

Alice Cooper, Live from the Astroturf (Ear Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In 2015, Alice Cooper reunited Michael Bruce (guitar), Dennis Dunaway (bass) and Neal Smith (drums) of his original group for a special, unannounced reunion performance at Chris Penn’s Good Records store in Dallas, Texas.  The quartet was joined by Alice’s current guitarist Ryan Roxie (standing in for the late Glen Buxton) as they performed such classics as “School’s Out,” “I’m Eighteen,” and “No More Mr. Nice Guy.”  Now, that show comes to a CD/Blu-ray package as well as a LP/Blu-ray set, both of which are limited and numbered First Editions.

Brandi Carlile, In These Silent Days/In the Canyon Haze (Elektra) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile is revisiting her 2021 album In These Silent Days as a 2-CD Deluxe Edition.  Its bonus disc contains acoustic “in the Canyon haze” versions of the original album’s songs plus a cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”  Available today on CD and digitally, with a vinyl version due in December.

Donnybrook! Original Broadway Cast Recording (Stage Door Records) (Stage Door / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Stage Door Records revisits Johnny Burke and Robert E. McEnroe’s 1961 Broadway musical based on The Quiet Man in a new 2-CD Deluxe Edition featuring copious bonus material including rare radio sessions, an orchestral album, rare pop single covers, demos, and more.  Get more info here!

Glenn Gould, The Goldberg Variations: The Complete Unreleased 1981 Studio Sessions (Sony Classical) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Pianist Glenn Gould’s 1982 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations remains one of the most acclaimed albums of the classical realm, arguably improving even on his 1955 first recording of the composition.  Gould died shortly thereafter, and before long, Columbia closed its venerable 30th Street Studio where it was recorded.  This new 11-CD box presents, in addition to the original album, the complete sessions – with studio chatter and all – in newly remastered form, with a 216-page book telling the story of this remarkable album and the sessions that yielded it.

Richard Marx, Songwriter (Shelter/BMG) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Richard Marx’s thirteenth studio album, Songwriter finds the veteran artist teaming with such co-writers as Richard Page (“Still in My Heart”), Keith Urban (“One Day Longer”), Chris Daughtry (“One More Yesterday”), and the legendary Burt Bacharach (“Always”) as he touches on pop, country, rock, and blue-eyed soul.  Available today on CD and digitally, and on October 14 on vinyl.

The Cowsills, Rhythm of the World (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Family band and Partridge Family inspirations The Cowsills – original members Bob, Paul, and Susan plus Bob’s son Ryan and Paul’s son Brendan, as well as Susan’s husband Russ Broussard and her bandmate Mary Lasseigne – are back with their first new album in nearly three decades, featuring eleven original songs written by the band.

Herb Alpert, Sunny Side of the Street (Herb Alpert Presents) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Herb Alpert returns with a new studio album in which he reflects on favorite songs including “Pata Pata,” “Going Out of My Head,” “I’ll Remember You,” and “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”  Available on CD and digital formats.