Happy 2020 and welcome to The Second Disc's 10th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! It's time once again to recognize this year's cream of the crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets big and small that proved to be truly outstanding products for music lovers worldwide. There was no shortage of great reissue titles in 2019; in fact, by our count, we covered over 700 releases in all! And after much deliberation, we're excited to unveil our favorites. This isn't your run-of-the-mill Top 10,
Holiday Gift Guide Reviews: A Rhino Round-Up with Bad Company, Rush, Van Halen, Hootie, STP and The Notorious B.I.G.
Many of this year's finest box sets came courtesy of the Rhino label. Here, Joe and Randy take a look at a few more of our favorites! First up are Randy's three picks... First up is Rhino's 25th anniversary 3-CD/1-LP Super Deluxe Edition of Stone Temple Pilots' Purple. Initially hitting shelves on June 7, 1994, the band's sophomore album would debut atop the Billboard 200 and stay there for three weeks, eventually becoming the group's second best-selling album after their debut effort,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: The Replacements, "Dead Man's Pop"
One of the year's most unexpected box sets - The Replacements' Dead Man's Pop, an alternative look at the band's 1989 album Don't Tell a Soul - has turned out to be one of its most exciting. The hell-raising Minneapolis rockers have proudly told the tale of stealing a clutch of tapes from their onetime home of Twin/Tone Records and chucking them into the Mississippi River back in 1987. But happily, the 'Mats and their associates were more careful about subsequent masters, and the next year,
Thanks For the Dance: Leonard Cohen's Final Farewell Reviewed
"I'm ready, my lord..." so sang Leonard Cohen on You Want It Darker, his final album that hit shelves just weeks before his death. If You Want It Darker was his farewell, then Thanks For the Dance - released today from Columbia/Legacy - is a gift from beyond. The album was completed by son Adam Cohen, as the younger Cohen had been instructed. The pieces were in various stages of completion when Adam began to reappraise the work. Some were no more than vocal tracks with no accompaniment at
Review: Harry Nilsson, "Losst and Founnd"
Welcome back, old friend. Omnivore Recordings has delivered one of the most hotly anticipated releases of the year with the first posthumous release from the late Harry Nilsson (1941-1994). Losst and Founnd premieres 43 minutes of "new" Nilsson music, and as the man himself sings on the title track, "what a miracle" it is. While longtime fans and collectors will be familiar with a handful of these recordings from their inclusion on a posthumous publishing promo and ubiquitous bootlegs of the
America's Gerry Beckley Returns with New Solo Album "Five Mile Road"
Gerry Beckley has earned the right to call the opening track of his new solo album "Life Lessons." The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and America co-founder is understandably in a reflective mood on Five Mile Road, out now from Blue Elan Records. The artist may be celebrating 50 years with America, but he still has plenty to say. For his first solo album since 2016's Carousel, Beckley has reunited with many of the same collaborators. Jeff Larson not only co-produced with Beckley but
Review: Morphine, "Yes" (Run Out Groove Vinyl Reissue)
In recent years, Run Out Groove has garnered a stellar reputation for its vinyl reissues of rarities from the Warner Music Archive. The label has pressed up everything from lost soul music and jazz, to experimental rock, pop, and folk. Most of their reissues boast previously unreleased rarities or hard-to-find tracks. In the last few months, the label has delivered expanded versions of more recent albums that have long been out of print on vinyl. Morphine's Yes is one of those lost vinyl titles
Ace Explores Rock, Jazz Through the Lens of History with "Three Day Week" and "If You're Not Part of the Solution"
Ace Records, as always, has delivered some of 2019's finest collections including Songwriter Series volumes dedicated to Eddie Hinton, Leonard Cohen and Merle Haggard, and celebrations of producer Mickie Most and musician Reggie Young. Today, we're taking a look at a pair of the label's other recent releases. Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs present Three Day Week: When the Lights Went Out 1972-1975 (Ace CDCHD 1542) is another sublimely curated compilation focusing on a particular period of
Review: "Pearl Harbor and the Explosions" from Blixa Sounds
Over the past year, the Blixa Sounds label has made a name for itself as the home to an eclectic line of reissues, from yacht rockers Stephen Bishop and Robbie Dupree to soul phenom Linda Clifford and psych-rock veterans Chris Darrow and Max Buda. Earlier last month, the label released its latest reissue - an expanded edition of Pearl Harbor and the Explosions' self-titled debut. The album was originally released in 1980 on Warner Bros. Records and introduced listeners to the infectious
Swinging Doors: Grateful Dead, Emmylou, Dolly, Dino, More Celebrate "The Merle Haggard Songbook"
Along with Buck Owens - with whom he shared a musical history and a wife - Merle Haggard (1937-2016) defined The Bakersfield Sound of country music: authentic, raw, rooted in honky-tonks. But unlike the Texas-born and Arizona-raised Owens, Haggard was actually born in Bakersfield and raised just across the river from that California town. "Hag," as he preferred to be known, rocketed to superstardom thanks to "Okie from Muskogee," his controversial 1969 song that was either a scathing
Nils Lofgren Celebrates Old Friend Reed with "Blue for Lou"
The pairing of Nils Lofgren and Lou Reed may have seemed an unlikely one; for one thing, neither gentleman needed much help from anyone else as a songwriter. But the pair's brief collaboration yielded a full album's worth of songs - 13 total - which would be doled out between the artists on Lofgren's A&M release Nils and Reed's Arista album The Bells (both from 1979). Much later, Lofgren tapped the song stash again for Damaged Goods (1995) and Breakaway Angel (2002), but five of their
Release Round-Up: The Second Disc's 2019 Record Store Day Must-Haves
Looking for our usual Release Round-Up? Alas, there's not much new in the way of catalogue music this Friday (and we've already filled you in on Billy Paul and Leon Russell!), but for a very good reason: tomorrow sees releases a-plenty as part of Record Store Day! Without further ado, welcome to our annual rundown of Must-Haves for this year's RSD event! Once you're through reading, let us know what you're most looking forward to picking up tomorrow at your favorite local independent
Take It On The Run: HNE Compiles REO Speedwagon's Hit Era On Extras-Laden Box Set
Last October, Cherry Red/Hear No Evil released the 8-CD The Early Years 1971-1977, chronicling REO Speedwagon's beginning on Epic Records. And now they're back with the follow-up set: The Classic Years 1978-1990, containing the group's seven remaining Epic albums and a bonus live disc across 9 CDs, highlighting the period when REO Speedwagon became a household name. The first album in the box, 1978's You Can Tune A Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish, found REO Speedwagon at a time of change.
Review: Omnivore's Twin/Tone-Era Soul Asylum Reissues of "Say What You Will...," "Made To Be Broken," and "While You Were Out"
For some listeners, Soul Asylum may be best known as the group that had a worldwide hit in 1993 with "Runaway Train." The band's major label breakthrough on Columbia Records, it was a Top 10 hit in 14 countries that went Gold in the U.S. and four other territories, brought their album Grave Dancers Union to multi-Platinum status, and garnered a Grammy for Best Rock Song in 1994. But there's more to the band than that. Their journey to that global acclaim, starting as rowdy punk band --
Review: Ministry, "Greatest Fits" (Run Out Groove Vinyl Reissue)
In the last few months, Run Out Groove has continued an initiative to get recent classics from the new millennium onto wax. With deluxe packaging and heavyweight, colored vinyl pressings, the label's limited-edition LP releases present Warner titles from the CD-era and beyond treasures in a unique and new way. Now, Greatest Fits, a 2001 compilation by industrial rock forerunners Ministry has received the Run Out Groove treatment with its first-ever vinyl appearance. The Second Disc was able to
Review: Permanent Green Light, "Hallucinations"
Power-pop and Paisley Underground acolytes had reason to celebrate in late 2018. Omnivore Recordings released a brand-new compilation album called Hallucinations, a collection of cult classics, deep cuts, and rarities from the '90s rock group Permanent Green Light, who were the torch-bearers of the psych-rock scene in L.A. early in the decade. The Second Disc was able to hear the new set and are delighted to report back on the excellent comp, which puts on full display Permanent Green Lights's
"Harmony in My Head: UK Power Pop and New Wave, 1977-81" Collects Costello, Squeeze, Nick Lowe, Searchers, More
In recent years, Cherry Red Records has made waves with their box set celebrations of music eras gone by. From late-'70s Scottish independent releases and '60s Baroque pop, to '80s shoegaze and even the avant-garde sound explorations of Edgard Varese and Karlheinz Stockhausen, the label has a reputation for their meticulous deep-dives into music subcultures. In November, Cherry Red put the spotlight on the late-'70s U.K. pop-rock scene with Harmony In My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave,
Holiday Gift Guide Review: Joni Mitchell, 'Love Has Many Faces' [8-LP Box Set]
It's coming on Christmas... and just in time for the holidays, Rhino has treated Joni Mitchell fans with a new, 8-LP box set, Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced. Previously released in a 4-CD configuration in 2014, this Joni Mitchell-curated collection finds the celebrated songwriter, singer, and visual artist exploring the many contexts and definitions of love. The result is a 53-song, four-act suite that craftily presents some of Joni's best work in a compelling
Holiday Gift Guide Review: R.E.M., "R.E.M. At The BBC"
"We were a fun party band who somewhere along the way learnt how to write songs," Michael Stipe is quoted as saying in the notes to Craft's Recordings new boxset R.E.M. At The BBC. Of course, R.E.M. was much more than that over the course of their nearly 30-year career, going from college underground band to alternative pioneers to global superstars. And with Craft Recordings' new 8-CD/1-DVD box, you can trace that career as seen and heard by UK audiences over the years. The quartet of
Review: Chris Darrow and Max Buda, "Eye of the Storm"
Last month, the L.A.-based label Blixa Sounds unveiled its latest release, the first-ever reissue of Chris Darrow and Max Buda's Eye of the Storm. The 1981 collaboration brought together two psych-rock heavyweights, whose multi-instrumental talents and joyous style are on full display throughout. It's hard to believe, but the album has never received any sort of reissue or re-pressing since its original release on the legendary Takoma label 37 years ago. Now, Blixa Sounds has brought the
Review: Golden Smog, "Down By the Old Mainstream" from Run Out Groove
What do you get when you bring together members of Wilco, Soul Asylum, and The Jayhawks and throw them into a remote recording studio in Minnesota wilderness? Well, as the Run Out Groove label proved with its LP reissue earlier this year, the result is one mighty down-home, fun album of country-rock grooves: Down By the Old Mainstream by '90s supergroup Golden Smog. While their lineup has been mercurial since they first got together in the late-'80s, the core lineup included Kraig Johnson of
Review: The Beatles, "The Beatles (The White Album): Anniversary Edition"
You Say You Want a Revolution Following the enormous, worldwide success of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles wouldn't have been faulted had they re-entered Abbey Road Studios and created another album of robustly melodic, lavishly orchestrated songs of whimsy and wonder. But Messrs. Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr weren't interested in repeating themselves. When The Beatles arrived on November 22, 1968, roughly one and one-half years after Pepper, one didn't even
Review: Matthew Sweet, "100% Fun" From Intervention Records
This spring, Intervention Records announced a highly anticipated new endeavor: a series of Matthew Sweet SACD and 2-LP reissues, encompassing his entire recorded output from 1991-1995. The Second Disc was able to hear the two-disc vinyl configuration of the release that kicked off the series: an expanded edition of Sweet's 1995 album, 100% Fun. Originally released on the Zoo Entertainment label, the album has seen surprisingly few reissues over the years. Music On Vinyl released a
Elvis Costello Deftly Blends Present and Past on "Look Now"
Among the credits for Elvis Costello and The Imposters' Look Now is a simple acknowledgment: In Memphis - Mary Isobel O'Brien. The onetime Ms. O'Brien, of course, is better known as Dusty Springfield, and the credit from Declan MacManus and his band makes clear the inspiration for this stunning assemblage of what the artist, correctly, deems "uptown pop." Dusty in Memphis is one of the benchmarks of that style: pop with a dash of soul, or is it soul with a dash of pop? It doesn't hurt that
Review: Ben Folds, "Brick: The Songs of Ben Folds 1994-2012"
Upon its release in August 1995, the eponymous debut of Ben Folds' quirkily-named trio sounded like nothing else you might have found in the racks of your local Tower, HMV, or Sam Goody. Filled with rich melodies, inescapable riffs, the most aggressive piano this side of Jerry Lee Lewis, and a youthful dose of attitude, Ben Folds Five channeled Todd Rundgren, Elton John, and Queen - with a dash of Randy Newman here and George Gershwin there. Now, more than 23 years later, the (sorta) angry