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. Two major years linger in this latest column: 2006 (where two pop legends recorded blockbuster albums that are newly expanded) and 1976 (origin of no less than five left-field titles coming back into digital print).

Beyoncé, B’DAY (20th ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION) (Parkwood/Columbia) (Apple / Amazon)

Two decades to the day after it was released (and, indeed, on her 45th birthday), Beyoncé has reissued and expanded her sophomore solo album B’Day. With Destiny’s Child formally in the rear view mirror, the album gave her the chance to stretch her wings as a performer, further fusing R&B and hip-hop into a unique vision that’s made her one of the most obsessed-over singers of this century. Now expanded to a generous 31 tracks, this newly-reimagined edition combines the original track list with its original 2007 reissue as well as adding “Check on It,” the Slim Thug collaboration that appeared on the soundtrack to a remake of the comedy The Pink Panther, in which she co-starred. (That makes for four total Top 5 singles on the album: “Check on It” and the alluring “Irreplaceable” were both chart-toppers, while “Déjà Vu,” a team-up with future husband Jay-Z, reached No. 4 and the deluxe single “Beautiful Liar,” a duet with Shakira, hit No. 3.) There’s also plenty of unreleased material: beyond the single “Morning Dew (Donk),” released earlier this summer, there’s another four unissued cuts in English, plus a bunch of Spanish-language collabs, including “Irreemplazable (Como La Flor),” a mash-up with the late Tejano icon Selena. (These team-ups complement the contents of a Spanish-language EP, Irreemplazable, issued at the time and included as bonuses here, too.) A standard CD and double vinyl featuring the first 15 tracks is also available.

Nelly Furtado, Loose (Deluxe 20th Anniversary Edition) (Geffen/UMe) (Apple / Amazon)

Another pop classic from ’06, Loose was an unlikely smash: Nelly Furtado, the Canadian singer/songwriter known for the folky pop hit “I’m Like a Bird,” issued for her third album a collection of sleek dance tracks produced primarily by Timbaland and his protegee Nate “Danja” Hills, just as he began to break out as one of pop’s key architects at the time. (His collaboration with Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds, dropped the same week.) This remastered, expanded digital edition includes a host of bonus content, including new stripped-down versions of hits “Promiscuous,” “Maneater” and “Say It Right” with pianist Adam Tendler and a host of unissued demos, including the original version of closing track “All Good Things Come to An End,” which restores duet vocals from the track’s co-writer, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin.

Paul Kelly, Seventy (Deluxe Edition) (Cooking Vinyl) (Apple / Amazon)

The eclectic Australian singer/songwriter’s meditation on growing older, released last November, is newly reissued with opening and closing track “Tell Me a Story” presented in its complete form and a bonus cover of the Hoagy Carmichael-Mitchell Parish standard “Stardust.”

Sheena Easton, Shockwave (RT Industries) (Apple / Amazon)

An unreleased album from pop singer Sheena Easton, intended for a 1986 release, was finally freed from the vaults on a 2025 box set. Now, a version of it is available digitally, featuring all but one of the tracks from said box (the Santa Claus: The Movie cut “Christmas All Over the World”). Thanks to reader Tom Riise for pointing this one out!

Kelly Garrett, Kelly (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)

A notable stage actress/singer, perhaps best known for a Tony-nominated turn in the Harry Chapin revue The Night That Made America Famous, Kelly Garrett issued just one full-length album in 1976, produced by Bones Howe and backed by a number of Wrecking Crew heroes. Notable cuts include a few Motown covers (The Temptations/Supremes team-up “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me,” Syreeta’s Stevie Wonder co-penned “Keep Him Like He Is”) and The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine.” Bizarre trivia: Garrett’s manager and longtime boyfriend was Roger Ailes, the future head of conservative network Fox News.

Free Beer, Highway Robbery (RCA Victor) (Apple / Amazon)

Featuring a name that probably gave club bookers a headache, New York-based country rock trio Free Beer issued Highway Robbery, their first for RCA and second album overall, in 1976.

Fancy, Turns You On (Arista) (Apple / Amazon)

Crafted in England by producer Mike Hurst, Fancy – originally fronted by a Penthouse Pet – surprised everyone (including, probably, themselves) when their cover of The Troggs’ “Wild Thing” became a Top 20 hit in 1974. Two years later, they were back with one more album, released in the U.K. as Something to Remember. More than the songs, they were probably best known for the talent of the backing musicians: singer Annie Kavanaugh had performed in England’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar, guitarist Ray Fenwick had been in the Spencer Davis Group and would later join Ian Gillan’s solo band, bassist Mo Foster was a U.K. session journeyman, and drummer Les Binks joined Judas Priest for a spell after leaving this act.

New York Mary, New York Mary (Arista) (Apple / Amazon)

Recording for the same offshoot as recent Weekend Stream-ee The John Payne Band – Arista’s jazz-fusion imprint Freedom – New York Mary was a short-lived combo who released this and one other album in 1976. The group featured saxophonist Bruce Johnstone, bassist Rick Petrone, and drummer Joe Corsello.

Diana Marcovitz, Joie de Vivre! (Kama Sutra) (Apple / Amazon)

Described by our pal Charles Donovan for Allmusic as “a sort of Bette Midler on speed (or Valium, depending on which tracks you judged her by),” Diana Marcovitz cut two genre-bending albums of quirky, self-penned psych-cabaret songs. 1976’s Joie de Vivre!, for the Kama Sutra label, was the second.

Woody Shaw, Song of Songs (Remastered 2026) (Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

A virtuosic jazz trumpeter and passionate musical advocate, this all-original LP (issued on the genre label Contemporary in 1973) is the latest jazz remaster from Craft Recordings.

Hector Lavoe, Recordando a Felipe Pirela (Remastered 2026) (Fania/Craft Recordings) (Apple / Amazon)

As the title indicates, this Willie Colon-produced 1979 album – Lavoe’s fifth as a solo singer – was a tribute to the late bolero legend from Venezuela.

PASSINGS

With a complex contralto and a songbook that meshed her primary genre of jazz with blues, folk, soul and pop, one doesn’t have to dive too deep to understand why Cassandra Wilson (1955-2026) was coronated “America’s best singer” by Time in 2001. Early notable albums like 1995’s New Moon Daughter (her second for Blue Note) boldly combined fare like Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” U2’s “Love is Blindness,” Hank Williams’ “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry,” standards like “Strange Fruit” and Son House’s “Death Letter,” and The Monkees’ “Last Train to Clarksville.” And that’s just one album. Here’s a favorite from her last major studio album, 2015’s Coming Forth by Day, released by Legacy Recordings.

A red-letter name in British novelty music, John Pickles (1942-2026), with son Andy and producer Les Hemstock, created Jive Bunny, an unusual cartoon rabbit who was the face of three chart-topping dance medleys of ’50s and ’60s pop songs. (Mike played Jive Bunny: The Album on cassette to near-death as a child, and his wife, upon hearing second No. 1 “That’s What I Like,” described it as “Jock Jams for nerds.”)