Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today.  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Mungo Jerry, Electronically Tested: Expanded Edition (7a Records)

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

Mungo Jerry's eclectic 1971 album Electronically Tested, featuring the global hit "In the Summertime," returns in a newly remastered and expanded edition from our friends at 7a Records. It adds four bonus tracks including the infectious single "Lady Rose" and its flipside "Little Louis," the B-side "The Man Behind the Piano," and the then-controversial "Have a Whiff on Me," Dorset's adaptation of a folk song popularized by Lead Belly and, later, Lonnie Donegan.  The deluxe package includes a 24-page, full-color booklet with liner notes by TSD's Joe Marchese (based on a new interview with Mungo himself, Ray Dorset) and rare photos in CD format, while the liner notes incorporating Dorset's interview are also reprinted within the lavish gatefold of the 180-gram red vinyl edition.  Both editions offer newly remastered audio, making for the best-sounding version of Electronically Tested yet.  Read more here.

George Benson, Dreams Do Come True: George Benson Meets Robert Farnon (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The superstar guitarist-singer debuts a previously unreleased album from 1989 in CD, vinyl, and digital formats.  Dreams Do Come True: When George Benson Meets Robert Farnon paired Benson with the Canadian composer-conductor-arranger whose most famous clients include Frank Sinatra (Sinatra Sings Songs from Great Britain), Tony Bennett (Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album), and Lena Horne (Lena: A New Album).  Benson, on guitar and vocals, joined Farnon and his orchestra for a selection of classic standards from the first chapter of The Great American Songbook (Joseph Kosma, Jacques Prevert, and Johnny Mercer's "Autumn Leaves," Mack Gordon and Harry Warren's "At Last," Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's "My Romance," Paul James and Kay Swift's "Can't We Be Friends") and the next chapter (the Paul Mauriat-popularized "Love Is Blue," Leon Russell's "A Song for You," The Beatles' "Yesterday").  All were rendered in Farnon's trademark lush style.  Randy Waldman has been tapped by Benson to add overdubs and choral arrangements to complete the album.  Read more here.

Melanie, Victim of the Moon (Cleopatra) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Cleopatra's near-weekly series of Melanie reissues continues with her 2002 album Victim of the Moon.  Cleopatra has remastered the audio and created new artwork for this edition.  Available today on CD, with an LP to follow in August.

Duran Duran, 1981-1988 reissues (Warner)

Duran Duran (originally released as EMI EMC 3372 (U.K.), 1981 - reissued Warner, 2024)

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

Rio (originally released as EMI EMC 3411 (U.K.), 1982 - reissued Warner, 2024)

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

Seven and the Ragged Tiger (originally released as EMI EMC 1654541 (U.K.), 1983 - reissued Warner, 2024)

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

Notorious (originally released as EMI DDN 331 (U.K.), 1986 - reissued Warner, 2024)

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

Big Thing (originally released as EMI DDB 33 (U.K.), 1988 - reissued Warner, 2024)

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

Warner Music, who acquired Duran Duran's Capitol/EMI catalogue as part of Parlophone Records in 2013 after it was divested in EMI's sale to Universal Music Group, are today releasing new CD and vinyl pressings of Duran Duran (1981), Rio (1982), Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983), Notorious (1986) and Big Thing (1989). They will utilize the same remasters issued as deluxe editions by EMI in 2009 and 2010 - a point of controversy, as the sound quality of several of these were criticized for volume (and, in the case of the self-titled album, a seeming blemish on the camera-shutter intro to "Girls on Film"). The bonus discs and DVDs from those deluxe sets will not be included either. (This does restore the band's preferred vision of Big Thing, which swaps a remixed version of "Drug (It's Just a State of Mind)" for Daniel Abraham's original version.) The CDs will be packaged in miniature replicas of the LP jackets.  Get the full track listings and more here!

WAR, The World Is a Ghetto: 50th Anniversary Collectors' Edition (Avenue/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

On last November's Record Store Day Black Friday event, Rhino revisited WAR's 1972 classic The World Is a Ghetto for its 50th anniversary on five newly-remastered 140-gram LPs; a four-channel surround Quadio release followed on Blu-ray.  The hard-hitting, socially-conscious soul-jazz-funk-blues-rock-psychedelia best-seller was the California band's fifth album and third following the departure of vocalist Eric Burdon of The Animals.  Today, the landmark 5LP box featuring previously unreleased session tracks and "making of" montages will be released on 4 CDs and digitally.  Read all about it here!

Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels, The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia 3/16/73 (Amoeba) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

In early 1973, Gram Parsons hit the road with Emmylou Harris and his band to promote his solo debut GP.  Pedal steel player Neil Flanz felt that the group had hit its peak on their third night at the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia, and requested a copy of the soundboard recording.  He held onto it for almost 40 years, at which time it was acquired by Amoeba Music.  Now, the retail titan is releasing the show, featuring "Jambalaya," "Six Days on the Road," "Love Hurts," and more on CD and LP.

Deep Purple, =1 (earMUSIC) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Deep Purple is back with a new album evoking the band's classic '70s sound, produced by the legendary Bob Ezrin.  =1 is available on CD/DVD (with the DVD containing an hour-long "all access" documentary) and as a 2LP set pressed at 45 RPM on 180-gram vinyl, as well as digital formats.