The Weekend Stream: April 25, 2026
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. Some of our favorites lead this pack: an archival Prince single, a new Duran Duran song, a vintage George Michael EP, outtakes from The Beach Boys, demos from Andy Partridge – and plenty more where that came from.
Prince, “With This Tear” (NPG/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)
Last Tuesday, the 10th anniversary of Prince’s death, The Artist’s estate released the latest posthumous single from his storied vault: his demo of a track later given to Celine Dion for her self-titled 1992 album – her second English-language release. According to the press release, it is meant to be a functioning single ahead of an eventual larger project due out later this year.
Duran Duran, “Free to Love” (feat. Nile Rodgers) (Tape Modern) (Apple / Amazon)
Birmingham’s favorite New Wave icons have a new standalone single out, reuniting them with longtime collaborator Nile Rodgers of CHIC. The guitarist, who remixed their chart-topping “The Reflex” for single release in 1984 and produced 1986’s Notorious, last collaborated with Duran on the single “Black Moonlight,” an original from their Halloween-flavored, mostly covers album Danse Macabre (2023); this track reportedly stemmed from an idea from those sessions that wasn’t quite spooky enough, but fits to the band’s short spring/summer trek this year, including four dates in Las Vegas next month and a July gig at BST Hyde Park in London.
George Michael, Father Figure EP (Columbia/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon)
The third Faith single to be revisited in a new EP, the sensuous “Father Figure” became the album’s second chart-topper in America. Bonus tracks include a live cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and an instrumental of the A-side.
The Beach Boys, “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (The Pet Sounds Sessions EP) (Capitol/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)
Three more tracks have been added to digital services ahead of the May 15 digital release of 1997’s The Pet Sounds Sessions box set. This time, the focus is on the album’s immortal opener “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” offering the stereo backing track and an a cappella “Stack-O-Vocals.”
Andy Partridge, Fuzzy Warbles Vol. 2 (Ape House) (Apple / Amazon TBD)
The XTC songwriter’s volumes demo collections look to be making a digital debut this year, following the recent appearance of the first volume.
Rosalía, LUX (Complete Works) (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)
Spanish pop singer Rosalía has kept fans on their toes since bursting on the scene in 2017, earning a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist some three years later. Her fourth album, released last fall, speaks to her indelible ambition: an avant-garde conceptual pop record about female saints, sung in more than a dozen languages and backed by The London Symphony Orchestra with collaborators like Björk, Pharrell Williams, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Cited as the best album of the year by multiple publications, the recent digital release LUX (Complete Works) reinstates three tracks that were originally exclusive to physical copies.
Bob Brady and The Con Chords, Love-In: The Chariot Records Recordings (Omnivore) (Apple / Amazon)
The prime artist of Baltimore’s R&B label Chariot (who gained a firmer foothold with U.K. Northern soul enthusiasts than Americans at the time), Bob Brady and The Con Chords cut more than a dozen sides in the mid-’60s, including lead track “Everybody’s Goin’ to the Love-In,” later used in a British ad campaign for Kentucky Fried Chicken. Omnivore just put this out on vinyl for Record Store Day last week, with a CD due soon.
Squirrel Nut Zippers, Roasted Right: Expanded Edition (Sundazed) (Apple / Amazon)
A newly expanded edition of the debut EP by the Chapel Hill, NC swing revival act. Originally released on 7″ vinyl in 1994 and featuring a rawer, bluesier sound (before the group implemented Dixieland-style brass), this release now features a few bonus rehearsal cuts from 2020 and both vocal and instrumental versions of “Wash Jones,” a bonus track from the EP’s 1997 CD reissue.
McCoy Tyner Trio, Inception (Impulse!) (Apple / Amazon)
Already known as a sideman for John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner’s career as a bandleader began with 1962’s just-redelivered-to-digital Inception, with Tyner on piano and backed by bassist Art Davis and drummer Elvin Jones.
Quartz, Quartz (Rhino) (Apple / Amazon)
Named for the album’s producer Chris Quartz, this is an obscure disco session from 1978 recorded in France and released on the T.K. imprint Marlin in the United States.
Andre Kostelanetz and His Orchestra, Kostelanetz Plays the Academy Award Winner, I’m Easy and Other Great Themes (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)
Another thematic easy listening affair from Kostelanetz and his orchestra, this time devoted to mid-’70s Best Original Song Oscar fare (notably “I’m Easy” and Diana Ross’ Mahogany classic “Do You Know Where You’re Going To?”) with a few pop standards (Morris Albert’s “Feelings,” Neil Sedaka’s then-recently revived “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”).
Shylo, Flower of the South (Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)
A fine mid-’70s country offering by a band who released just this one album for Columbia and not much else.
Nelson Slater, Wild Angel (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)
One of the standouts of this week’s 1976 copyright shuffle, Wild Angel is the debut album by Nelson Slater, known to fans of the era’s glam and alternative scenes as a college roommate and friend of Lou Reed. Wild Angel features Reed in the producer’s chair with prominent backing vocals, guitar and piano throughout, plus many of the players from his recently completed Rock and Roll Heart along for the ride. Mick Rock took the S&M-themed cover photo.
Joe Stampley, The Sheik of Chicago / Ten Songs About Her (Epic)
Sheik: Apple / Amazon
Ten Songs: Apple / Amazon
Two out-of-print albums from the Louisiana country music survivor, issued on Epic. Stampley was known for a string of hits including the No. 1 country singles “Soul Song,” “Roll On Big Mama,” “All These Things” and “Just Good Ol’ Boys,” one of several irreverent duets with Moe Bandy.
Zulema, Suddenly There Was You (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)
A founding member of Faith, Hope and Charity and later a backing vocalist/collaborator of Aretha Franklin during her short-lived disco period, the late Zulema Cusseaux is an underrated R&B talent, and 1976’s Suddenly There Was You was a fine slice of funky, pre-disco soul.
Joan Sebastian, Joan Sebastian (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)
From the celebrated balladeer (and most-awarded Mexican in Grammy history) comes this less-remembered 1986 album, not present on many of his official discographies but no less emotive than the material you’d expect from the beloved icon.
Lee Morgan, Introducing Lee Morgan (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)
Despite the title, 1956’s Introducing Lee Morgan was actually recorded only a day after Lee Morgan Indeed! – but still featured the scintillating quintet of the trumpeter alongside Hank Mobley on tenor sax, Hank Jones on piano, Doug Watkins on bass and Art Taylor on drums.
The Young Lions, The Young Lions (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)
Lee Morgan is also present on this combo of up-and-comers released by Vee Jay in 1961, This striking attempt at squaring the traditional and avant-garde sides of jazz from the early ’60s is done with Morgan, tenor saxophonist Wayne Shorter (later to join Miles Davis’ quintet), Frank Strozier on alto, Bobby Timmonds playing piano, Bob Cranshaw on bass and Louis Hayes and Albert “Tootie” Heath sharing the drum kit.
Ben Platt, Rachel Zegler & Jason Robert Brown, The Last Five Years (25th Anniversary Live at The London Palladium) (Atlantic) (Apple / Amazon)
Only recorded last month as part of a tour that reached the London Palladium, the Hollywood Bowl and Radio City Music Hall, Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler step into the Drama Desk-winning musical about a pair of ultimately doomed lovers whose stories are shown to us in opposing chronologies – complete with original composer/lyricist Jason Robert Brown leading the production from the podium.
James Horner, Red Heat (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (Virgin/Capitol) (Apple / Amazon)
The late, great film compser James Horner was starting to blossom in the period in which he wrote this score to a buddy-cop thriller starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jim Belushi (younger brother of the late Saturday Night Live legend John) as two unlikely cops – one from the Soviet Union and one from Chicago – working the same drug case.
PASSINGS
One of the most celebrated composer/conductors of the last few generations, Michael Tilson Thomas (1944-2026) kept classical and contemporary music alive for decades as the founder of the New World Symphony, conductor laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra and music director laureate of the San Francisco Symphony – where he gave his final performance last year while fighting an aggressive brain tumor.
The eldest of six singing brothers (and one equally talented sister), Alan Osmond (1949-2026) was part of The Osmonds as they became one of the most beloved squeaky-clean teen-pop sensations of the early ’70s, with hits like “One Bad Apple” and “Yo-Yo.” Though younger brother Donny handled many of the lead vocals, Alan was a talented instrumentalist who co-wrote and co-produced one of their biggest singles, the Top 5 favorite “Down by the Lazy River,” from 1972.
As a session guitarist in Nashville, Wayne Moss (1938-2026) got around – most famously as one of four players on Roy Orbison’s “Oh, Pretty Woman,” a contributor to Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, and the fingers behind the steel-string counterpoint on Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” His best contribution to the scene, though, may be Cinderella Sound, a nightclub Moss converted into a studio in 1961 that still stands today.
You Might Also Like
1 thought on “The Weekend Stream: April 25, 2026”
Leave a Comment
After overlooking most of the original albums by artists on their country roster for CD releases it’s great to see Columbia & Epic country acts finally receiving digital reissues. The two Joe Stampley albums reissued this week – Sheik Of Chicago & Ten Songs About Her [both from 1976] join his first two Epic LP’s from the previous year that are already digitally available. Sheik & Ten Songs did not deliver any huge chart hits but both feature excellent songs that Joe Stampley fans will be happy to have access to once again.
As a side note, Joe’s early 70’s Dot & ABC/Dot recordings have been very well- treated digitally by UMG. All four of his original albums and a 16-track “Best Of” set with all of his singles for those imprints are available as downloads.
Hoping that Legacy will consider more digital reissues for Joe’s singing partner Moe Bandy. Most of Moe’s 1970’s & 80’s albums are MIA. To date only a few have been reissued. So far there’s not even a comprehensive digital collection of Moe’s Columbia singles!