Mike Duquette - The Second Disc

Woke Up with a Monster: Rhino’s Start Your Ear Off Right Titles Run the Gamut

January 8, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 9 Comments

Why wait for Record Store Day? Rhino continues their January tradition of “Start Your Ear Off Right” with just over three dozen exclusive vinyl titles being released through January at independent record stores. (A small handful, linked below, are also available at Rhino’s official web store.) The majority will be released in two waves split between last Friday (January 2) and this Friday (January 9), with five more arriving between January 23 and January 30. Altogether, this list spans all forms of rock, pop, R&B, jazz, soundtracks and even comedy. In addition…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Comedy, Country, Everything Else, Folk, Funk, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

The Best Thing: The Style Council’s Debut Gets Box Set Expansion

January 7, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

More than 40 years after Paul Weller introduced a new phase of his musical work as part of the genre-hopping Style Council, a forthcoming box set will dive deep into their first few years of work, complete with a trove of unreleased material. UMR will expand the group’s full-length debut Café Bleu as a 6CD collection on January 30. Extras include an expansion of 1983’s debut EP Introducing The Style Council (available as a European import in the U.K.), a host of non-LP single and B-side material, and a whopping 55 unreleased tracks:…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Paul Weller, The Style Council

A Light in the Black: Edsel Kicks Off New Rainbow Reissue Campaign

January 5, 2026 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

The new year will see renewed catalogue activity around Ritchie Blackmore’s acclaimed work with Rainbow, kicking off in the spring with a new box set from Edsel. The Temple of the King 1975-1976, available March 6, takes listeners back to the earliest days of the hard-rockin’ group in studio and on stage, across nine newly-remastered CDs. The set includes the studio albums Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow (1975) and Rising (1976), three complete shows from the group’s first European trek, and a 16-track collection of rarities that’ll include rough mixes, single edits and the premiere release of four…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Classic Rock, Rock

Tags:

Rainbow, Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio

All Together Now: New Book, Audio Set Preserves George Martin’s Archival Manuscripts

January 5, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Even with a recent wave of new Beatles Anthology material – both on record and in a remastered version of the multi-part documentary on Disney+ – it appears there’s always something new to learn about The Fab Four and the work they did. A newly-announced collectible puts that in extraordinary focus: a collection of score manuscripts from the personal archive of their producer George Martin, covering The Beatles and beyond. Announced last weekend to mark what would have been Martin’s 100th birthday on January 3, George Martin: The Scores will offer three volumes…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Books, CD

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

George Harrison, George Martin, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, The Beatles

UPDATE: How’s About Some Hot Stuff: Massive Donna Summer Singles CD Box Set Now Due in January

December 9, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 5 Comments

It’s a box set fit for a queen (of disco): Donna Summer’s singles are being chronicled in a major way. Summer Time: The Singles Collection 1974-2010, coming January 30, 2026 from the late singer’s Driven by the Music catalogue imprint, is set to be a staggering tribute to Summer’s decades-long presence as a dancefloor filler. Timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her breakthrough hit “Love to Love You, Baby,” this 40CD set will highlight five decades’ worth of single sides she issued all over the world, from early Dutch single-only tracks…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Donna Summer

The Weekend Stream: December 5, 2025

December 5, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. You’ve been good so far this Christmas season, so we’re giving you this present a day early – with new tracks from Guns N’ Roses, live tracks from The Hooters and one of our favorite bands for Bandcamp Friday! The Hooters, 45 Alive – Keswick Live in Concert (self-released) (Apple / Amazon) Philly band The Hooters – perhaps best known for the melodica-augmented 1985 hit “And We Danced” among its…

Categories:

The Weekend Stream

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Classic Rock, Comedy, Country, Disco/Dance, Holiday, Jazz, Latin, Pop, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Aerosmith, Charles Fox, Frank Wess, Grateful Dead, Guns N' Roses, Kenny Burrell, Kylie Minogue, Mal Waldron, No Jersey, O.A.R., Olivia Newton-John, Puddles Pity Party, Squeeze, Thad Jones, The Hooters, Theory of a Deadman

Every Little Counts: New Order 2CD Expansions and Blu-ray Surround Mixes to Be Released

December 4, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

A quartet of slimmed-down New Order reissues are due this week, alongside new Blu-ray Audio editions of three of their early albums. Rhino has released “Definitive Edition” box sets of the influential British electronic band’s first four albums in recent years: 1981’s Movement in 2019, 1983’s Power, Corruption & Lies in 2020, 1985’s Low-Life in 2023 and 1986’s Brotherhood in 2024. Each heavy-duty set came with the remastered album on CD and vinyl, a bonus CD of mostly unreleased material and troves of rare video content on Blu-ray. (The original B-sides and 12″ versions, included on late ’00s…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, CD

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Electronic, Pop, Rock

Tags:

New Order

Love’s Great Adventure: Ultravox’s ‘The Collection’ Goes Deluxe on CD/Blu-ray Box

December 4, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

One of the year’s last big catalogue titles is a new expansion of Ultravox’s The Collection, due out tomorrow, December 5. Originally released in 1984 and collecting more than a dozen singles from the band’s most popular early ’80s run, the set has now been greatly expanded to provide an even more complete picture of the group’s “classic,” Midge Ure-led line-up, encompassing hits, B-sides, 15 previously unreleased mixes and a trove of rare video footage. Central to all deluxe formats (a 4CD/2 Blu-ray box set and a 4LP edition pressed on clear vinyl)…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Disco/Dance, Electronic, Pop, Rock

Tags:

Midge Ure, Ultravox

In Memoriam: Steve Cropper (1941-2025)

December 4, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

It’s a sad fact that so much of America’s musical infrastructure – the men and women whose session work powered thousands of pop chart hits and significant recordings – exists in near-obscurity. Consider The Funk Brothers, that collective of R&B musicians in Detroit who powered nearly every Motown session in the label’s golden age. Fans and collectors still sift through the vagaries of paperwork and memory to determine who lent their instruments to which song; the unofficial group’s members would be credited by name at the insistence of Marvin Gaye on his…

Categories:

Features

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Albert King, Bob Dylan, Booker T. Jones, Booker T. and the MG's, Brian May, Eddie Floyd, Neil Young, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Steve Cropper, The Blues Brothers, Wilson Pickett

Bring Back All the Memories: Maroon 5 Release ‘Singles Collection’ in Japan

December 3, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

Though their decade-plus of radio ubiquity certainly merits a compilation of some sort in their homeland, Universal Music Group has yet to anthologize the work of pop band Maroon 5 stateside. However, a new compilation from UMG’s Japanese branch offers a summary of the group across nearly two decades. The Singles Collection offers 21 tracks, nearly all of which were Top 40 hits in America, including chart-toppers “Makes Me Wonder,” “Moves Like jagger,” “One More Night” and “Girls Like You” plus sizable radio staples like “She Will Be Loved,” “Payphone,” “Sugar” and “Memories.”…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

Pop, Rock

Tags:

Maroon 5

Blockheads, Haircuts, Stones and a T. Rex: Edsel Preps Multiple Full-Album Box Sets

December 2, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

With only a few weeks until Christmas, Edsel is prepping a host of multi-album box sets and vinyl reissues up for consideration under your tree. The four below titles span a few icons and notable names of British rock in the ’70s and ’80s – and two of them even include unheard material from the artists’ respective vaults! First up is Too Nutty to Be Naughty (Studio Recordings 1977-2002), a celebration of the late Ian Dury. The post-punk renaissance man – as at home as the frontman of Stiff stalwarts The Blockheads (they…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, Rock

Tags:

Bill Wyman, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Marc Bolan, Nick Heyward, T Rex

Q’s Cues: New ‘Écoutez Le Cinéma’ Box Celebrates the Music of Quincy Jones

December 2, 2025 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

When Rhino released Q: The Musical Biography of Quincy Jones – a 4CD, 74-track collection – in 2001, it was a valiant attempt to tell a story that was still being written. The gifted bandleader, composer and producer, who passed away at the age of 91 in 2024, had an enduring way with sound, be it jazz, pop, R&B, rock or even film and television scoring. His decades of work with the 20th century’s greatest luminaries made him a tremendous (if controversial) raconteur, with countless stories to tell and luminaries to work alongside….

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Prince and The Revolution, ‘Around the World in a Day (Deluxe Expanded Edition)’

December 1, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

In theory, the posthumous care and handling of an esteemed discography with the deep potential for archival excavation like Prince’s would be an easy if daunting task. When the pop icon died unexpectedly in 2016 with no will and considerable assets to settle, the art of memorializing him through reissues moved with almost shocking precision: solid expansions of several of his best-loved ’80s albums, a handful of notable archival one-offs, and the reinstatement of his digital and physical catalogue of the ’90s and ’00s back into print. After the estate settled in…

Categories:

Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Prince

The Weekend Stream: November 29, 2025

November 29, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

Welcome to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. Our Black Friday bonanza offers the return of Let’s Active, a new Stranger Things mini-mixtape, an unlikely team-up between two recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and one Record Store Day title that dropped yesterday. Plus, a tribute to a Minneapolis legend who was always on Time. Let’s Active, Afoot / Cypress / Big Plans for Everybody / Every Dog Has His Day (I.R.S./Capitol) Afoot: Apple / Amazon Cypress: Apple / Amazon Big Plans: Apple…

Categories:

The Weekend Stream

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Country, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

Tags:

Bill Quateman, Carrie Underwood, Dizzy Gillespie, Eminem, Isaac Hayes, Jack White, Kyle Mooney, Let's Active, Michael Jackson, Mitch Easter, Mongo Santamaria, The Psychedelic Furs, The Time, The xx, Tiffany, Yello

A Second Disc Interview: Let’s Revisit Let’s Active with Mitch Easter

November 25, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

“Making records is a really good idea,” Mitch Easter says, partway through a chat with The Second Disc. He’s, of course, absolutely correct, and he would know. The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native founded the seminal Drive-In Studio in 1980, collaborating as a producer and engineer with a host of notable alternative rock acts including R.E.M., Game Theory, Pylon and others; since 2000, he’s run Fidelitorium Recordings in nearby Kernersville. But Easter is more than a whiz behind the boards. In the 1980s, he founded and fronted the jangle-pop group Let’s Active. Their…

Categories:

Interviews

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Rock

Tags:

Let's Active, Mitch Easter

Sign Your Name: Sananda Maitreya’s Early Works Due for Vinyl Box Set

November 17, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

What’s in a name? The world didn’t know Sananda Maitreya as such in the ’80s and ’90s, but his arresting early works will finally be remastered and reissued on vinyl next year under the moniker he is now known by. Juvenilia: The Columbia Years, available February 6, offers on six LPs the four albums Maitreya released in the U.S. and the U.K. under the name Terence Trent D’Arby: Introducing the Hardline According to… (1987), Neither Fish Nor Flesh: A Soundtrack of Love, Faith, Hope and Destruction (1989), Symphony or Damn (Exploring the Tension Inside the Sweetness) (1993) and Vibrator…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, Vinyl

Genres:

Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Sananda Maitreya, Terence Trent D'Arby

Holiday Gift Guide Review: Split Enz, ‘Encyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2’

November 17, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

It’s kind of a minor miracle that Enzyclopedia Volumes 1 & 2 (Chrysalis CRC/CRV1899) – the first in what we hope is an ongoing reissue campaign for Antipodean rock icons Split Enz – exists at all. Their catalogue is probably a tough sell if you live outside of Australia or New Zealand (none of their discography is consistently available worldwide), and their best-known work, where they became a razor-sharp, New Wave-adjacent ensemble, doesn’t come until years after what’s covered in this collection (available as a 5CD or 3LP set). And that’s before you get…

Categories:

Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Pop, Rock

Tags:

Split Enz, Tim Finn

Do You Realize?? These Rhino RSD Titles Are Also Coming Soon to CD

November 10, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 10 Comments

Rhino’s Record Store Day Black Friday schedule is packed with some 35 titles available as limited edition vinyl releases. But CD lovers take heart: six of these titles – most featuring previously unreleased material – will be available the same day on our favorite portable physical format! Here’s a look at each title, alphabetically by artist. Recent years have seen Rhino acquire distribution rights to beloved British ska outfit The Beat (known in America as The English Beat), with expanded editions of the group’s studio albums distributed through the label. You…

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming

Genres:

Classic Rock, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Alice Cooper, Arthur Lee, Christine McVie, Eric Burdon, Fleetwood Mac, John McVie, Lindsey Buckingham, Love, Mick Fleetwood, Record Store Day, Stevie Nicks, The Beat, The Doors, The English Beat, The Flaming Lips, War

Holiday Gift Guide Review: John Williams, ‘The Anthology Vol. 1 (1969-1990)’

November 10, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

Let’s look at the numbers: John Williams has been on this mortal plane for 93 years, and has been composing for visual media for 73 of those years. Compact discs have been a part of music lovers’ collections for at least four decades, and the “art” of John Williams on CD – a real, curatorial approach to his iconic film scores – began in earnest more than 30 years ago, when the 4CD box set Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology hit record stores in 1993. From basic compilations like Greatest Hits 1969-1999…

Categories:

Holiday Gift Guide, Reviews

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

Soundtracks

Tags:

John Williams

Got to Choose: Weeks After Expanding ‘Dressed to Kill,’ KISS’ ‘Alive!’ Gets Its Own Deluxe Box

November 7, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

Only a few weeks after unveiling a deluxe box set of their third studio album Dressed to Kill – which featured, in part, overdub-free versions of shows utilized for their breakthrough concert album Alive! – KISS have revealed that they will, in fact, release a whole box set for Alive! as well, confirming previous rumors and reports. Available on four CDs or eight LPs and a Blu-ray Audio disc, Alive! features the original double album (here for the first time pressed on one CD) along with two more complete shows (plus some relevant rehearsal audio and…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Rock

Tags:

Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, KISS, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss

Feel the Heat: Supergroup The Power Station Goes Deluxe on New Box Set

November 7, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 13 Comments

Fans of Duran Duran and supergroups will multiply for this one: Rhino is expanding the self-titled debut from The Power Station into a 4CD box set next year. The Power Station DLX includes the remastered album (featuring the hits “Some Like It Hot” and a cover of T. Rex’s “Get It On (Bang a Gong)”) alongside three discs of bonus material, including unreleased “raw instrumental” versions, single mixes and live material, including the band’s performances from the charity concert Live Aid and an unissued full set from nearly a month later at…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Pop, Rock

Tags:

CHIC, Duran Duran, Robert Palmer, The Power Station

Soundtrack Watch: La-La Land Gets a ‘Clue’ and a ‘Ladder,’ Intrada Turns the ‘Tide,’ and Re-Recordings Galore

November 6, 2025 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

As film score fans edge ever closer to the inevitably killer archival score reissues typically made available around the holiday shopping season, a host of great soundtrack re-releases are already newly available from some of our favorite specialty labels, including some must-hear, classic re-recordings. La-La Land Records takes a brief break from Bond to make available two seasonally appropriate scores. First up is Maurice Jarre’s score to the haunting cult classic Jacob’s Ladder, a psychological thriller about a Vietnam veteran caught between a harrowing past experience that seems to be affecting reality in…

Categories:

News

Formats:

CD, SACD

Genres:

Soundtracks

Tags:

Bernard Herrmann, Brad Fiedel, Gerh, Hans Zimmer, Hugo Friedhofer, James Newton Howard, John Morris, Maurice Jarre, Max Steiner

High the Memory: Rhino Sets Yes’ ‘Tales from Topographic Oceans’ As First Major Box of 2026

November 6, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 5 Comments

Having released arguably more reissues and box sets than any major label in 2025, Rhino has already set sights on their first catalogue title of 2026. Might you be interested? In a word: Yes. Following a deluxe box set of Close to the Edge this past spring, the label will next give the lavish treatment to 1973’s Tales from Topographic Oceans. Available February 6, this 12CD/2LP/Blu-ray box set will offer more than a dozen unreleased outtakes and live tracks alongside a suite of new mixes of the original album by acclaimed engineer Steven Wilson. Building…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Rock

Tags:

Yes

Step Into Christmas: UMe Preps Holiday Singles Box, Expansion of Connie Francis’ Holiday Album

November 6, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 9 Comments

With the spookiest holidays of the fall now in the rear view mirror (that’s right: Halloween and Election Day!), there’s nothing wrong with looking ahead to the Christmas music season and checking out a pair of now-available titles from Universal Music Group spotlighting some of their classic holiday hits and an album by one of catalogue’s biggest success stories this year. UMe is selling a nifty collection of more than a dozen seasonal 7″ singles in a collectible carrying case. This Classic Holiday Singles Box features Christmas perennials spanning from the ’40s to…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Classic Rock, Country, Holiday, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

Tags:

Bing Crosby, Bobby Helms, Brenda Lee, Burl Ives, Chuck Berry, Connie Francis, Dean Martin, Ella Fitzgerald, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, John Lennon, Nat King Cole, Paul McCartney, The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5, Yoko Ono

Rock and Roll All Nite: KISS Suit Up New Deluxe Box for ‘Dressed to Kill’

October 21, 2025 by Mike Duquette | 7 Comments

KISS’ third album – the edge of their commercial breakthrough – is getting done up to the nines for its 50th anniversary. The rock legends will reissue Dressed to Kill as a super deluxe set, available exclusively through the band’s official store on five CDs or eight LPs and a Blu-ray. The 1975 release, featuring “C’mon and Love Me” and, arguably the group’s signature song “Rock and Roll All Nite,” has been newly remastered by Bernie Grundman and, on the Blu-ray, remixed from the original multitracks in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround by…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Blu-Ray, Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Classic Rock, Rock

Tags:

KISS

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