Features / Release Round-Up

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.

The Rolling Stones, Foreign Tongues (Capitol (U.S.)/Polydor (U.K.))

CD (Standard Red Cover): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD (Red Disc): Rolling Stones Store
CD/Blu-ray: Rolling Stones Store / Amazon U.S. (Link TBD) / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP Pink Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP Blue Vinyl: Target.com
2LP White Vinyl + Art Print: Rolling Stones Store
2LP/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Cassette: Rolling Stones Store

Less than three years after Hackney Diamonds, The Rolling Stones are back with their 25th studio album.  Foreign Tongues is produced, like its predecessor, by Andrew Watt (Elton John, Paul McCartney).  Recorded at Metropolis Studios, the LP features guest appearances by McCartney, Steve Winwood, Robert Smith, and Chad Smith, and also includes the late Charlie Watts’ final recordings with the band.  Available on CD, LP, cassette, and digital formats, plus a box set including a Blu-ray of surround mixes, with various variant editions on CD and vinyl.

The Doobie Brothers, Takin’ It to the Streets [Remaster] (Warner/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Rhino has a new remaster of The Doobie Brothers’ debut with Michael McDonald, 1976’s Takin’ It to the Streets.  A top ten album on the Billboard 200, Takin’ It to the Streets (the Doobies’ sixth overall studio LP) features the hit title track and “It Keeps You Runnin’,” both written and sung by McDonald.  No bonus tracks have been added.

Scritti Politti, Cupid & Psyche 85: Deluxe Edition (Rough Trade)

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

The sophomore album from U.K.-formed post-punk/pop group Scritti Politti offered a new direction in British music: indebted to the organic sound of R&B with sleek electronic flourishes and a sheen of lyrical intellectualism. It also featured U.S. hit “Perfect Way,” which Miles Davis went bananas over. Remastered by Rough Trade in 2022 after they acquired the rights from bandleader Green Gartside, this expanded CD or double vinyl offers the four bonus tracks from the original CD release as well as two rare mixes of “Perfect Way” and an unissued dance version of French-only single “Lover to Fall.”

Thin Lizzy: 55th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Mercury/UMC)

3CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP (green): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Store (blue)

Though markedly different from the twin-guitar attack they’d be known for later in the decade, Thin Lizzy’s 1971 debut makes for a fascinating listen, taking cues from folk and Celtic rock and introducing the burgeoning mastery of much-missed singer/songwriter/bassist Phil Lynott. This 55th anniversary deluxe box set offers the group’s self-titled debut and the New Day EP in their original forms as well as new stereo remixes by Richard Whittaker, more than a dozen unreleased outtakes and BBC sessions and a Blu-ray featuring additional Atmos, 5.1 surround and even binaural mixes. Read more here.

America, Halcyon Days (Primary Wave) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Back in 2011, Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell re-recorded a number of America’s familiar hits (including “Horse with No Name,” “I Need You,” “Sister Golden Hair,” and “Ventura Highway”) with producer Andrew Gold.  Now, those recordings originally issued on a limited, self-released CD are returning as Halcyon Days.  The new edition swaps out the track “Chasing the Rainbow” for “World of Light” which originally appeared on Rhino’s 2001 Complete Greatest Hits set.  Available on CD, LP, and digitally.

Grateful Dead, Workingman’s Dead [Blu-ray Audio] (Warner/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Frequently hailed as one of the Dead’s most accessible albums (along with its follow-up, American Beauty), 1970’s Workingman’s Dead placed its focus on tighter songcraft in a country/folk-oriented vein that would later be described as “Americana.” The Dead’s fourth studio album, it introduced the group’s first chart hit, the timeless “Uncle John’s Band,” as well as the fan-favorite “Casey Jones” which has received substantial airplay over the years as well. Solidifying the band’s reach to a wider audience, Workingman’s Dead reached the top 30 of the Billboard 200 and further solidified the enormous legacy of Jerry Garcia, Bob Weir, Ron McKernan, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart.  This new Blu-ray Audio release brings Mickey Hart’s 2023 Dolby Atmos mix to the format.  5.1 surround and stereo remixes by Hart (unique to those he made in 2001 for Rhino’s DVD-Audio release) are also included on the disc and playable in DTS-HD Master Audio.  Craig Anderson has mastered the disc.  Get the track listing and more here.

Howard Jones, Original Studio Albums 1984-1992 (Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Cherry Red is repackaging Howard Jones’ earliest studio albums in one clamshell box. This 5CD set contains, for the first time together in one release, all five of the studio sets that Jones released on WEA Records between 1984 and 1992. All five albums are packaged in mini-LP sleeves, and the accompanying 48-page booklet offers liner notes by Anil Prasad.  Note that this box utilizes the remastered editions originally reissued by Cherry Red between 2018 and 2021.

Alice Cooper, Along Came a Spider / Welcome 2 My Nightmare (earMusic)

Along Came a Spider: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
Welcome 2 My Nightmare: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

Alice Cooper is revisiting two later-career highlights on vinyl and CD.  Both albums have been expanded for these new reissues. Along Came a Spider (2008) gains three bonus tracks including an unplugged “Salvation,” while Welcome 2 My Nightmare (2011) adds seven, including three live tracks from the Download Festival.  These reissues mark the first time these albums have been on vinyl in over a decade.

Selena, LIVE (Universal Music Latino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The slain superstar’s Grammy Award-winning 1993 album returns to CD and vinyl in a newly remastered edition adding one bonus track, “Missing My Baby.” The album made Selena the first Tejano artist to win the Grammy for Best Mexican American Album, and all three of its singles simultaneously occupied spots in the top 5 of Billboard‘s Hot Latin Songs. The vinyl version is pressed as a 2LP picture disc.  A Target-exclusive version is pressed on red and white vinyl.

The Specials, Live from the Cathedral (Island) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The band’s 2019 shows at the U.K.’s Coventry Cathedral come to 2CD and 3LP formats.  A limited 6CD box set has all three of The Specials’ concerts there complete in one set; the official store also has various other exclusive editions.

My Chemical Romance, Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Reprise) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The band’s 2010 concept album is remastered and expanded with nine studio and live bonus tracks; it arrives in a variety of formats including 2CD, 2LP, digital, and cassette; vinyl editions include Amazon-exclusive “lemonade” vinyl, color exclusives at Walmart and Urban Outfitters, and more.

Jack White, Frozen Charlotte (Third Man) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Jack White’s seventh studio set finds him supported by Patrick Keeler on drums, Dominic Davis on bass, and Bobby Emmett on keyboards for a set of hard-hitting rock recorded at Third Man Studios in Nashville.  Available on CD, LP, cassette, and digital formats.