Here at Second Disc HQ, tomorrow is all about the holidays!  We've teamed with Real Gone Music for a pair of new releases - one looking forward to Christmas, and another that's ideal for a wild Halloween.

First up is the new studio album from the legendary Voice of Romance, Johnny Mathis.  His very first holiday album, 1958's Merry Christmas, sold over five million copies and remains one of the biggest-selling Christmas albums of all time.  Now, he's back with his first album since 2017 and his first yuletide set in a decade.  Christmas Time Is Here arrives in CD and digital formats from our friends at Legacy Recordings and on vinyl from RGM and Second Disc Records.  This instant-classic album boasts ten newly-recorded tracks including those which premiered last year on the digital-only EP A Merry Little Christmas.  It's Mathis' seventh full Christmas LP (not counting 1999's Listen! It's Christmas for Hallmark stores, on which he contributed six new recordings).

This exquisite album celebrates the season as only Johnny can, with elegant, beautiful (and, of course, romantic) renditions of some of the greatest Christmas carols and classics of all time.  Sessions for Christmas Time Is Here took place at Hollywood's renowned Capitol Recording Studio, becoming the final album recorded at the Capitol Tower before the facility closed for a two-year renovation happening now.

Produced by longtime Mathis collaborators Jay Landers (Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler) and Fred Mollin (Jimmy Webb, Linda Ronstadt), Christmas Time Is Here finds the singer revisiting many of his favorite seasonal songs and adding two - the bluesy "Merry Christmas, Baby" and heartfelt "Auld Lang Syne" - to his already-considerable repertoire.  He's joined by Broadway and Hollywood star Kristin Chenoweth for a rollicking "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" and brings warmth and intimacy to his chart-topping "When a Child Is Born" and a burnished "White Christmas."  Poignant and joyful, Christmas Time Is Here radiates with charm, sincerity, and humanity as Johnny intimately reimagines the touching "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," the longing "Blue Christmas," and the favorite Charlie Brown Christmas tune that lends the album its title, "Christmas Time Is Here." He offers a message straight from the heart with "May the Good Lord Bless You and Keep You."

Our vinyl edition of Christmas Time Is Here is pressed on "Christmas tree green" vinyl.  Prefer red over green?  We've got you covered, too.  Head over to any Barnes & Noble (or the store's website) for an exclusive "Holly Red" variant.  You'll find links for both versions, plus Legacy's CD release, below.

Meanwhile, are you looking for something a bit more outré for Halloween?  If your playlist is begging for something different, look no further than the frightfully fun Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease. Don't believe us? Take The Bride of Frankenstein's word for it - she's on the cover!

One of the most unusual records of all time, this "Symphony for Tape Delay, IBM Instruction Manual, & Ohm Septet" was credited upon its original release in 1974 to "recognized raconteur, genius, composer, musicologist, conductor" Heins Hoffman-Richter, whom the original liner notes blithely informed us "died from an ear lobe tumor." Who? you might ask. It turns out that the late Hoffman-Richter was none other than best-selling poet and all-time cult music hero Rod McKuen (Listen to the Warm, "Seasons in the Sun")...but you won't find any cats named Sloopy here. McKuen recorded the album for his own Stanyan label, then the second-largest mail order record company in the world, only behind Columbia House.

While the Stanyan discography was filled with fascinating albums of every stripe, Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease stands alone. Put simply, it's Rod McKuen's very own Metal Machine Music. He immersed himself in musique concrète, or music which utilizes recorded sounds as raw material, for the strangest album in his vast discography. Like Lou Reed's later experiment in feedback and noise, Freak Your Friends features no songs or traditionally structured compositions...but it just might scare off those candy-hungry kiddies on your doorstep! Though the Reed and Hoffman-Richter albums do not sound alike, both are true to their intentions and utterly devoid of the trappings of mainstream music.

The album consists of four movements, two per side. Unsurprisingly, music connoisseur McKuen did his homework. The disquieting, dissonant, party-stopping suite takes its cues from such seminal works as Raymond Scott's 1962 ambient series of Soothing Sounds for Baby albums and Danish composer Bent Lorentzen's 1972 The Bottomless Pit, blending blasts of feedback with burbling water effects, bleating synthesizers, disembodied carnival-esque sounds, ominous noise beds, startling squeals, and thick tape echo.

This wild journey through the electronic underground has to be heard to be believed. It arrives on "seaglass with black swirl" vinyl in a package that replicates the collectible original release.  A glow-in-the-dark pressing is strictly limited to 100 units and available directly from Real Gone Music, while 300 copies on "antifreeze green" vinyl will be earmarked for Vinyl Me, Please. The LP, in all formats, additionally includes an insert with new liner notes from TSD's Joe Marchese. Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease isn't for the faint of heart, but it promises to live up to its title.

Both Johnny Mathis' Christmas Time Is Here and Heins Hoffman-Richter's Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease hit stores tomorrow.  You'll find track listings and order links below.

Johnny Mathis, Christmas Time Is Here (Legacy (CD/digital) / Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records (LP), 2023)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
"Christmas Tree Green" Vinyl LP: RealGoneMusic.com / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 
"Holly Red" Vinyl LP: BarnesandNoble.com

Side One

1. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
2. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Duet with Kristin Chenoweth)
3. Christmas Time Is Here
4. Merry Christmas, Baby
5. White Christmas

Side Two

1. When a Child Is Born
2. Blue Christmas
3. May the Good Lord Bless and Keep You
4. O Little Town of Bethlehem
5. Auld Lang Syne​

Heins Hoffman-Richter, Music to Freak Your Friends and Break Your Lease (Stanyan SRQ 4015, 1974 - reissued Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records, 2023) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music / Vinyl Me, Please)

Side One

1. First Movement: Milkshake
2. Second Movement: This Is My Beloved

Side Two

1. Third Movement: Gidget Gets in Trouble
2. Fourth Movement: Send Out the Clowns