Release Round-Up: Week of August 14
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 Monkees, Made for TV (Rhino) (Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab) / Rhino.com(opens in new tab) / Monkees.com(opens in new tab))
Rhino celebrates Season 1 of The Monkees just in time for its 60th anniversary. This new 2CD/1LP/1Blu-ray multimedia box set brings together all of the music heard on Season 1 of the groundbreaking television series:
- 1 LP with 14 original “TV Mixes” as heard on The Monkees;
- 2 CDs with 28 Monkees classics from that first season; and
- 1 Blu-ray with ten selected episodes which originally aired in 1966-1967 including the series premiere (“Royal Flush”); guest appearances by Stan Freberg (“Monkee vs. Machine”) and Rose Marie (“Monkee Mother”); and a music-focused episode spotlighting the quartet in concert and lacking the traditional laugh track (“The Monkees on Tour”).
Read more here(opens in new tab)!
Leo Sayer, Leothology: The Studio Albums 1973-Now (Demon) (Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab))
The “When I Need You” and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing” artist is looking back on his career with this new 18-CD box from Demon. The collection includes nearly all of Sayer’s studio albums in vinyl replica sleeves. The albums included on Leothology are: Silverbird (1973), Just a Boy (1974), Another Year (1975), Endless Flight (1976), Thunder in My Heart (1977), Leo Sayer (1978), Here (1979), Living in a Fantasy (1980), World Radio (1982), Have You Ever Been in Love (1983), Cool Touch (1990), Voice in My Head (2004), Restless Years (2015), Selfie (2019), Northern Songs (2022), and 1992 (2024). The lone missing album, 2008’s Australian release Don’t Wait Until Tomorrow, is represented here with a new previously unreleased live version of the album, cut the same year (2008) in Melbourne. The set then adds a rarities disc entitled Return to Paradise with 14 tracks. The 28-page booklet contains notes by Sayer. While this set doesn’t have everything – there are further rarities from 2014’s Just a Box as well as on prior standalone reissues – it’s a solid primer for the core Sayer catalogue.
John Williams, Legacy (Deutsche Grammophon)
Gold 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Store (with hand-numbered lithograph)
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
John Williams Legacy is a 2LP, CD and digital album featuring Williams’ best-known works in renditions he recorded for the Deutsche Grammophon label, mostly in special concert halls around the world through the 2010s and 2020s. Star Wars, E.T., Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, the Harry Potter film series and even his stirring, still-used theme for the 1984 Summer Olympics will all be represented, taken from three of the five albums he’s recorded for Deutsche Grammophon: 2019’s Across the Stars – a reinvention of his catalogue highlighting solo violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and a series of concerts with the philharmonic orchestras of Vienna(opens in new tab) and Berlin(opens in new tab) in 2020 and 2021. The package includes new liner notes from film music historian and journalist Jon Burlingame offering a concise biography of Williams’ incredible work and some vital context-building of Williams’ newfound place in modern classical music history. Read more here(opens in new tab).
Everything But the Girl, Walking Wounded / Temperamental (Buzzin’ Fly Records)
Walking Wounded: Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab)
Temperamental: Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab)
EBTG revisits their 1996 and 1999 albums, respectively, as 2CD deluxe editions. Walking Wounded follows the template of the 2015 Edsel edition but drops one song (the Dilinja Remix of “Before Today”) for a total of 29 tracks; Temperamental repeats the 2015 track listing with 23 songs. Miles Showell has mastered both titles at Abbey Road.
Jethro Tull, J-Tull Dot Com: Another Cast of the Net (InsideOut Music) (Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab))
Jethro Tull revisits their 1999 album featuring Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, Andrew Giddings, Doane Perry and Jonathan Noyce in a new edition featuring a remix of the original album by Bruce Soord (The Pineapple Thief) in stereo, 5.1 Surround Sound, and Dolby Atmos. The 3CD/1Blu-ray set features the 1999 mix on CD 1, the 2026 mix on CD 2, rarities on CD 3, and a Blu-ray with the hi-resolution stereo and surround mixes. Martin Webb provides the new liner notes in the 36-page booklet.
Carly Simon, Comes in Waves (Iris) (Amazon U.S(opens in new tab). / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab))
Carly Simon returns for her first album of all-original material since 2008′s This Kind of Love and first studio album since 2009’s Never Been Gone. The highly personal Comes in Waves arrives in the wake of the singer-songwriter’s revelations of a Parkinson’s diagnosis and recent skin cancer treatment(opens in new tab). The album is currently available on CD and digitally, while a vinyl edition will follow.
Sparks, Live on the Moon (Transgressive) (Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab))
Sparks’ first concert album was recorded in 2025…on the moon? Or so they say, anyway! This double album (coming September 4 on LP) comprises 20 songs spanning the band’s long career, as well as an introduction and outro from Cate Blanchett (said to have accompanied Ron and Russell Mael on their trip to the moon).
Guy Haines, Guy Songs(opens in new tab) (Kritzerland)
Kritzerland has two new titles available for pre-order this week. Guy Songs collects almost two dozen tracks from producer Bruce Kimmel’s close personal friend Guy Haines, all drawn from various-artists albums over the years. And Haines has terrific taste in music as evidenced by the songwriters represented on this collection, including Stephen Sondheim (“Sorry/Grateful,” “What Can You Lose”), Bacharach and David (“It Doesn’t Matter Anymore,” “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again”), Stephen Schwartz (“Corner of the Sky”), Paul Simon (“Bookends/Old Friends”), Irving Berlin (“You’re a Sucker for a Dame,” “I Don’t Want to Be Married”), John Williams and Leslie Bricusse (“When You’re Alone”), and many more. Duet partners include Klea Blackhurst, Glory Crampton, Harry Groener, Jonathan Freeman, Lynnette Perry, and the late Michelle Nicastro. In total, it’s 23 tracks from 23 different albums from this velvet-voiced mystery man, now available on one 79-minute disc. CDs will ship by the third week of September, but Kritzerland’s pre-orders often ship out earlier.
The Night of the Hunter: A New Musical (opens in new tab)(Kritzerland)
And that’s not all from our good friends at Kritzerland. The Night of the Hunter is Claibe Richardson and Stephen Cole’s thrilling musical based on the novel by Davis Grubb and the classic thriller starring Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. This 1998 studio cast album produced by Bruce Kimmel (originally released on the Varese Sarabande label) features a “Who’s Who” of theatrical talent including Ron Raines, Dorothy Loudon, Sally Mayes, Marcia Lewis, Jonathan Freeman, and George Lee Andrews – all singing in front of a 30-piece orchestra. For this reissue, James Nelson has remastered the audio, while Stephen Cole has added new liner notes as well as previously unreleased demos of a few songs. Of course, the striking cover artwork by John Alvin (E.T., Gremlins, Blade Runner, The Lion King) has been retained. Like Guy Songs, this title is limited to 500 units.
