Features / The Weekend Stream

Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. This week we’ve got one of the biggest rock bands in the world making a surprise statement on current events, some ’80s covers from a current synthpop favorite, rarities and remixes that’ll make you want to hit your local mall, and so much more!

U2, Days of Ash (Island) (Apple / Amazon)

Not long after Bruce Springsteen and Billy Bragg each had something to say about recent current events, another sleeping progressive giant awoke with a surprise EP released on Wednesday. Days of Ash finds Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and a happily returning Larry Mullen, Jr. (sidelined from touring in 2023 and 2024 following surgery on his neck) directly addressing specific deaths of activists and ordinary people alike in America (Renee Good), Iran (Sarina Esmailzadeh) and Palestine (Awdah Hathaleen). Guest spots are saved for Adeola Sayemi of Les Amazones d’Afrique (who recites a work by Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai), Ukranian singer Taras Topolia and Ed Sheeran. The band promise that the material on Days of Ash is “very different in mood and theme” to additional material the group is working through for an upcoming album this year – their first LP of fully original material since 2017.

CHVRCHES, “Such Great Heights” and “Addicted to Love” (from Tell Me Lies Season 3) (20th Century Studios)

“Heights”: Apple / Amazon
“Love”: Apple / Amazon

Another welcome return comes from Scottish synthpop act CHVRCHES, whose just-released of The Postal Service’s “Such Great Heights” and last month’s take on Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” – both for the third and final season of Hulu’s Tell Me Lies – marks their first new material in several years. Since releasing their last album, 2021’s Screen Violence, the trio jumped from Glassnote to Island, releasing one original single, “Over,” before singer Lauren Mayberry prepped a solo album and tour in 2024. (The covers are a taster while work continues on their fifth album.)

Jay-Z, “Dead Presidents” (Roc Nation) (Apple / Amazon)

“Dead Presidents” was released exactly 30 years ago yesterday as the lead promo single for Jay-Z’s acclaimed 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt – but when the LP hit stores that summer, it was replaced with a new version featuring updated verses and the title “Dead Presidents II.” For its 30th anniversary, Hov has made the original version digitally available for the first time, backed by its instrumental.

Tiffany, I Think We’re Alone Now / Radio Romance EPs (Geffen/UMe)

Alone: Apple / Amazon
Radio: Apple / Amazon

Two EPs of rarities and remixes from ’80s mall-pop hitmaker Tiffany Darwish just made it to digital. Her breakthrough chart-topping cover of Tommy James and The Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now” is represented on a unique EP that includes a lot of rare material from the period of her self-titled 1987 debut and beyond, and in fact mirrors the content of a Japanese 12″ EP titled after her gender-swapped cover of The Beatles’ “I Saw Him Standing There.” It’s got 12″ mixes of “Alone” and “Standing There,” the latter’s B-side “Mr. Mambo,” and EP-exclusive extended and instrumental versions of non-album track “Can’t Stop a Heartbeat.” That track was also the B-side to “Radio Romance,” Tiffany’s last Top 40 hit; the other EP replicates the track’s U.K. 12″ release, with rare 7″ and extended versions.

Slim Dunlap, Every Little Word (Medium Cool) (Apple / Amazon)

The late, great Minneapolis guitar slinger Slim Dunlap had a nearly impossible task at his feet when he was recruited to replace the ousted Bob Stinson in The Replacements. (Dunlap, compared favorably to Hank Williams and Keith Richards, stayed with the band until their early ’90s dissolution; after he suffered a massive stroke in 2012, the band released some of their only new material on the Songs for Slim EP, intended to raise money for his recovery.) Every Little Word – also available as a 2CD set – offers remastered and expanded versions of Dunlap’s post-‘Mats solo albums, The Old New Me (1993) and Times Like This (1996).

Bananarama, Viva (Expanded Edition) (In Synk) (Apple / Amazon)

Originally released in 2009, Bananarama’s tenth album (and fifth released as just a duo of original members Sara Dallin and Keren Woodward) mixed a batch of fresh, energetic originals with choice covers – many of which were apportioned as bonus tracks on various versions. This new-to-worldwide-digital edition offers the complete album with five bonus cuts, including takes on Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” and Bryan Adams’ “Run to You.”

Walt Mink, El Producto (Atlantic) (Apple / Amazon)

One of the newest deliveries from SuperVisible Multi Media is this, the third album (and major label debut) from St. Paul, Minnesota alt-rockers Walt Mink. Beyond the arch guitar-driven work herein, El Producto holds a terrific bit of music trivia: in 1996, it became the first record to get a perfect score (10 out of 10) from a nascent music website called Pitchfork Media.

Judy Rodman, A Place Called Love (MTM) (Apple / Amazon)

Having recently backfilled Judy Rodman’s debut album, SuperVisible next restores her sophomore album, released in 1987 on the MTM label. A must for ’80s country buffs, A Place Called Love featured some of her biggest singles on the genre chart, including the Top 10s “Girls Ride Horses Too” and a take on Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight.”

All the World’s a Stage: A Musical (Original Cast Recording) (Joy Machine) (Apple / Amazon)

The Drama Desk-nominated musical by acclaimed composer-lyricist Adam Gwon (Ordinary Days) has been preserved in this original cast album of the 2025 Keen Company production. All the World’s a Stage tells the story of a gay high school teacher in the 1990s whose world begins to come apart when he helps a student succeed in a statewide theatre competition. The album stars Matt Rodin (Beau: The Musical, Company), Elizabeth Stanley (Jagged Little Pill, On the Town), Eliza Pagelle (Texas Shakespeare Festival), and Jon-Michael Reese (A Strange Loop, White Girl in Danger). Michael Starobin (Assassins, Sunday in the Park with George) provided the orchestrations.

The Magician’s Elephant (World Premiere Recording) (Center Stage) (Apple / Amazon)

Center Stage premieres another new musical on digital formats this week. The Magician’s Elephant has book and lyrics by Nancy Harris and music and lyrics by Marc Teitler, based on the 2009 novel by Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux). The musical debuted in 2021 at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, but this recording is based on the 2024 production at Utah’s Hale Centre Theatre and features members of that cast including Joshua Hyrum Smith, Malia Morris, Mark Knowles, Keith McKay Evans, Becky Jeanne Knowles, Korianne Orton Johnson, Justin Bills, Sharon Lynn Kenison, Bryan Dayley, Zac Zumbrunnen, Hailey Burnham, and Ellie Wilkins. As the story goes, “Follow the elephant.”

PASSINGS

Perhaps diminished from its reputation compared to decades past thanks to ideas about “authentic” artists, the songwriter still means something today. One of its last great practitioners was Billy Steinberg (1950-2026), who lost a battle with cancer this week, just 10 days before his 76th birthday. Steinberg attempted to make inroads as a performer, signing to Richard Perry’s Planet label with his band Billy Thermal, but none of their material would be released for decades. But one of those Billy Thermal tunes made its way to Linda Ronstadt, and when she turned “How Do I Make You” into a rollicking Top 10 hit in 1980, Steinberg pivoted to songwriting full-time. And what a run! With longtime writing partner Tom Kelly, he placed hits and modern-day standards for Madonna (“Like a Virgin”), Cyndi Lauper (“True Colors,” “I Drove All Night”), Heart (“Alone” – the No. 1 song in the country the week Mike was born), Whitney Houston (“So Emotional”), The Bangles (“Eternal Flame,” “In Your Room”), Divinyls (“I Touch Myself”) and the Pretenders (“I’ll Stand by You”). In the ’90s. ’00s and ’10s, he enjoyed late-period successes with collaborators like Rick Nowels (Celine Dion’s “Falling Into You”) and Josh Alexander (JoJo’s terrific “Too Little, Too Late,” Demi Lovato’s “Give Your Heart a Break”). Any one of those songs in a parenthesis after one’s name would make you an artistic heavyweight; having all of them made Steinberg something special – and someone we’re dearly going to miss.

A guitar player’s guitar player, Jerry Kennedy (1940-2026) was a fixture of the Nashville scene in the ’60s. His quickfire talent turned him, at 16, from a devoted listener of the local radio revue Louisiana Hayride to something of a burgeoning teen idol who studied under one of the Hayride’s primary guitarists, Tillman Franks. While fame as a leader eluded him, he quickly made up for it with a busy schedule of sessions in the Music City hotbed. His guitar or dobro were heard on classic recordings like Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA,” Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man,” and tracks from Bob Dylan’s first foray in Nashville, which resulted in 1966’s Blonde on Blonde. Kennedy made a successful transition into production, helming the traditional country works of Jerry Lee Lewis and heading Mercury’s country music division, helping acts like Tom T. Hall and The Statler Brothers find new headwinds. As one of the “Nashville Cats,” Kennedy leaves behind great stories and greater performances.