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.

Joni Mitchell, Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) (Rhino)

6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976-1980) features six CDs (also available as a "highlights" set on four LPs) chronicling the Canadian icon's trek through the latter half of the '70s, peeling away from her always-eclectic folk-pop sound, venturing into territory inspired by jazz and fusion. Sourced from variously assembled materials, from rare multitrack tapes to radio recordings (and even the archive of another major artist, one Bob Dylan!), this set continues the rich discoveries that netted Mitchell, producer Patrick Milligan, and mastering engineer Bernie Grundman Grammy Awards for Best Historical Album after the release of the inaugural box. As with other Archives boxes, the accompanying 36-page booklet will offer rare photos and a continuing conversation on this particular era between Mitchell and journalist-turned-filmmaker Cameron Crowe.  Read more here!

Jimi Hendrix, Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

3CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
5LP/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Among his final and most enduring acts as a musician, Jimi Hendrix purchased a Greenwich Village nightclub with the intention of transforming it into a recording studio. A new documentary tells that story of its creation, and the accompanying box set highlights an unreleased trove of recordings from his few but pivotal sessions there.  Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision, available as a 3CD or 5LP set, offers 39 demos and early takes from Hendrix's summer 1970 sessions at the studio of the same name, recorded with a reconstructed version of The Jimi Hendrix Experience that included original drummer Mitch Mitchell and bassist Billy Cox, part of the guitarist's short-lived Band of Gypsys project. (All but one of the tracks are previously unreleased.) A Blu-ray available with either version of the box offers the feature-length documentary of the same name, directed by Hendrix archivist John McDermott and featuring new interviews with Cox, Steve Winwood (who was present at Hendrix's first session in the studio), Hendrix's engineer Eddie Kramer, and original studio staff members. As a further bonus, the Blu-ray features a new 5.1 surround mix of First Rays of the New Rising Sun, the 1997 reimagining of Hendrix's planned fourth studio album, along with three remixed bonus tracks from Electric Lady sessions. The box will feature new liner notes alongside unpublished photos and copies of Hendrix's handwritten song drafts.  Get the track listing and more here!

Bob McFadden and Dor, Songs Our Mummy Taught Us (Real Gone Music/Second Disc Records) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music)

What do Frankenberry, Richard Hell, a cat named Sloopy, and Bill Haley and His Comets have in common?  You can find out with Real Gone Music and Second Disc Records' first-ever reissue of the long-lost Halloween classic Songs Our Mummy Taught Us!  This one-of-a-kind, super-rare LP was the creation of voiceover artist Bob McFadden-best-known as the voice of Frankenberry, the Thundercats' pal Snarf, Cool McCool, and countless others-and the mysterious "Dor," otherwise known as singer-songwriter (and America's best-selling poet!) Rod McKuen.  Rock-and-roll and beat culture met horror headfirst on this off-the-wall album, with McFadden taking the role of a not-so-scary Mummy and McKuen voicing a blasé beatnik on its best-known song, the novelty hit "The Mummy."  According to McKuen, none other than Bill Haley's Comets played on the rocking track!  But that's not all on this frightfully fun LP, with its spoofs of exotica, surf music, and more. The original 1959 Brunswick album artwork has been meticulously recreated for this new reissue, and an insert features new liner notes by TSD's Joe Marchese.  It's all been remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision and pressed on clear with orange pumpkin swirl vinyl limited to 750 units.  Real Gone also has an exclusive natural-with-green-swirl pressing limited to 100 units.  Read more here!

Pete Townshend, Live in Concert 1985-2001 (UMR) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Live in Concert 1985-2001 (already available in the U.K. but coming to North America today) brings together more than 15 years' worth of shows from legendary songwriter/guitarist Pete Townshend. These sets, recorded in America and England and arranged chronologically, were all originally released in the early years of the millennium on Townshend's short-lived Eel Pie label. For this set, available as a 14CD set or a digital product, they've been remastered by Jon Astley.  Get more details here.  (Note that there have been reports of audio glitches on this set affecting Discs 10 & 14 as well as the streaming versions of this release; we have not been made aware that these issues have been addressed.)

Foreigner, Turning Back the Time (Atlantic/Rhino)

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

To celebrate their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later this year, Foreigner will release a new greatest hits collection, including a previously unreleased track that reunites the group's two most notable members. Turning Back the Time brings together 18 of the group's most notable radio staples, including "Feels Like the First Time," "Cold As Ice," "Hot Blooded," "Urgent," "Waiting for a Girl Like You," "Juke Box Hero," "I Want to Know What Love Is," "Say You Will" and others. The set will also include two tracks from the group's 2009 effort Can't Slow Down; "The Flame Still Burns," off a 2016 vinyl EP of the same name; and the title track - a 1996 outtake that serves as the first Foreigner track to feature founding guitarist Mick Jones and original vocalist Lou Gramm since 1994's Mr. Moonlight. Available on CD or 2 LPs.  Read more here.

Barbra Streisand, A Christmas Album (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Barnes & Noble)

Barbra Streisand's landmark 1967 Christmas album featuring "Jingle Bells?," "White Christmas," and "My Favorite Things" returns to vinyl in a newly remastered edition with one bonus track, the English-language version of "Gounod's Ave Maria" previously available only on a Starbucks compilation CD.  Barnes and Noble will carry an exclusive white vinyl pressing.

Barbra Streisand, Christmas Memories (Columbia/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Barnes & Noble)

Barbra Streisand's 2001 Christmas album - only her second, following A Christmas Album - makes its premiere on vinyl.  The album features David Foster and Linda Thompson's "Grown Up Christmas List," Stephen Sondheim's "I Remember," and Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve," among other selections in the inimitable Streisand fashion.  This release has been newly remastered.  Barnes and Noble will carry an exclusive red vinyl pressing.  Read more here about both titles.

Rod Stewart, Merry Christmas Baby: Deluxe Edition (Verve) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Rod's 2012 David Foster-produced Christmas album, featuring duets with Mary J. Blige, Cee-Lo Green, and Chris Botti, makes its debut on vinyl in a 2LP edition that includes the bonus tracks "What Child Is This," "The Christmas Song," and "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve," all of which were included on the CD deluxe edition.

Bobby Helms, A Bobby Helms Christmas (Geffen/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

UMe has a Christmas surprise from Bobby Helms today with an EP collecting the late country singer's holiday recordings including "Jingle Bell Rock," its 1957 B-side "Captain Santa Claus (And His Reindeer Space Patrol)," two mid-'60s rarities (the Burt Bacharach/Larry Kusik favorite "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle" and Charles Tobias' "Those Snowy, Glowy, Blowy Days of Winter," an answer song to Nat "King" Cole's "Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer"), and a new remix by Ryan Riback of "Jingle Bell Rock."  It's not clear whether the original 1957 "Jingle Bell Rock" or Helms' 1965 Kapp re-recording (the A-side of "The Bell That Couldn't Jingle") is featured here; either way, one version has been left off this compilation.

Afterimage, Faces to Hide (Independent Project Records) (Bandcamp)

Afterimage was once deemed "L.A.'s Joy Division" by The Los Angeles Times; now, the cult band returns with a new, all-encompassing collection featuring all existing studio cuts from the original band plus previously unreleased live and demo recordings.  Though Afterimage only released one single and one EP in the early '80s, their abrasive, post-punk sound honed on stages including the Whisky a Go Go and Al's Bar captured the zeitgeist of that period.  Richie Unterberger puts everything in perspective with his new liner notes for this 22-track collection available on CD, vinyl (2 LPs plus a flexidisc), and digitally.  Alec Tension, A Produce (a.k.a. Barry Craig), Rich Evac, and Holland DeNuzzio came together with a love of Public Image Ltd., Gang of Four, Magazine, Television, and The Fall, and fans of those bands will find much to discover with this comprehensive anthology of a band whose faces - and voices - should be hidden no more.

Joker: Folie A Deux - Original Soundtrack (Interscope) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Once week after the release of Lady Gaga's happily genre-melding Harlequin comes the original soundtrack to the unconventional musical film in which she stars with Joaquin Phoenix.  Available on CD, LP, and digital/streaming.