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Release Round-Up: Week of January 30

January 30, 2026 by The Second Disc | 4 Comments

Welcome to our final Release Round-Up of January, with a selection of the new titles available today. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. The Monkees, The A’s, The B’s, and The Monkees (Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees, at long last, brings together on 2 CDs all of the band’s commercial singles originally released between 1966 and 1970, from “Last Train to Clarksville” b/w “Take a Giant Step” through “Oh My My” b/w “I Love You Better.” It’s arranged with its 15 A-sides on…

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Release Round-Up

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

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Classic Rock, Disco/Dance, Folk, Gospel, Jazz, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock, Soundtracks

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Beastie Boys, Blondie, Bob Dylan, Cream, Donna Summer, Freddie and The Dreamers, Howard Jones, Linda Ronstadt, Miles Davis, Patti Smith, Ramones, Sonic Youth, Talking Heads, Television, The Monkees

Highway of Diamonds: Black America Sings Bob Dylan

January 29, 2026 by Mike Duquette

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Bob Dylan’s impressive songbook is celebrated as part of Ace’s Black America Sings series for the second time (after 2010’s How Many Roads compilation). This set offers 20 takes on favorites from across the folk songwriter and Nobel Prize winner’s mighty catalogue as sung by such luminaries as The Staple Singers, Billy Preston, Natalie Cole, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, Solomon Burke, Merry Clayton and others, augmented by liner notes by Tony Rounce.

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Folk, Gospel, R&B/Soul

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In the Mood for You: Ace’s ‘Highway of Diamonds’ Collects Black Voices Taking on Bob Dylan

January 29, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

Ace Records’ ongoing Black America Sings series gets a second helping of classic tunes by Bob Dylan on a new compilation available this week. Highway of Diamonds: Black America Sings Bob Dylan, available January 30 in Ace’s native U.K. (and a week later in America), offers 20 compositions from the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter recast for soul, blues and gospel acts including The Staple Singers, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Billy Preston, Natalie Cole, Solomon Burke, Merry Clayton, Sarah Vaughan, Aaron Neville and more. The collection, available on CD or two LPs, includes informative song/track…

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Folk, Gospel, R&B/Soul

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Aaron Neville, Bettye LaVette, Billy Preston, Bob Dylan, Cassandra Wilson, Harry Belafonte, Jimmy Scott, Merry Clayton, Natalie Cole, Nina Simone, Odetta, Sarah Vaughan, Solomon Burke, The Staple Singers

Until Them Dreams Come True: Aerosmith’s Debut Reissued with New Remix, Live Cuts and Outtakes

January 27, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 8 Comments

When Aerosmith surprised fans by moving their entire catalogue to Universal Music Group – switching two eras of material for Columbia Records (eight studio and live LPs originally issued between 1973-1982 and a further four studio releases from 1997-2012), everyone was dreaming on about potential archival titles. But outside of the terrific early rehearsal EP 1971: The Road Starts Hear and a new greatest hits package, there wasn’t much to speak of, and frontman Steven Tyler’s vocal issues forced an early end to their planned farewell tour. But just as in the ’80s,…

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Aerosmith

Not Under the Thumb of the Cynical Few: Early, Unreleased Howard Jones Set Unearthed by Cherry Red

January 27, 2026 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Cherry Red, longtime home for Howard Jones’ catalogue, will release an unheard set from the beginning of his career this month. Live At The Marquee, available January 30, finds the inimitable singer/songwriter/keyboardist wowing a crowd at the late London venue just before his commercial breakthrough in 1983. The wholly unreleased show, available on CD and yellow vinyl, was unearthed from master tapes when the label began compiling bonus material for reissues of his former Warner catalogue in 2018, and remixed by Jones himself for this release. (It appears from the metadata that three…

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Pop

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Howard Jones

Live At The Marquee

January 27, 2026 by Mike Duquette

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Recorded only two days before Howard Jones’ debut appearance on the BBC’s Top of the Pops – which helped propel his debut single “New Song” into the Top 5 – this lively, solo, synth-laden club gig was unearthed during reconnaissance for Jones’ expanded reissues on Cherry Red in 2018. The singer/songwriter/keyboardist has remixed the tapes himself for this release.

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Pop

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Do You Believe in Magic? Cherry Red Collects The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Complete 1960s Recordings on “What a Day for a Daydream”

January 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese | 7 Comments

Lovin' Spoonful What a Day for a Daydream

New York native John Sebastian fused pop and folk when he joined with Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone and Joe Butler as The Lovin’ Spoonful. Over an eighteen-month period beginning in the summer of 1965, the band notched seven consecutive top ten hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 including two which reached No. 2 (“Daydream” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” and one which hit the top spot (“Summer in the City”). Though the original group’s time together was short-lived, the music has lived on, and a lineup…

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John Sebastian, The Lovin' Spoonful, Zal Yanovsky

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Classic Rock, Folk, Pop

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The Body Electric: Rush Set Remixed, Expanded ‘Grace Under Pressure’ for March

January 23, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 6 Comments

Another of Rush’s mid-’80s works is getting expanded in 2026: 1984’s Grace Under Pressure. A 4CD or 5LP deluxe box set – each available with a Blu-ray Disc – is coming March 11, set to feature the original album remastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios, a new mix by the band’s longtime collaborator Terry Brown, a remixed and expanded edition of the live album and video Grace Under Pressure Tour, plus new surround mixes of the record and restored music videos. The deluxe packaging includes a re-imagining of the cover by…

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Rush

Release Round-Up: Week of January 23

January 23, 2026 by The Second Disc | No Comments

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 Power Station, The Power Station DLX (Parlophone/Rhino) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Rhino is expanding the self-titled debut from The Power Station into a 4CD box set. 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,…

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Release Round-Up

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Blues, Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, Rock

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Andrew Lloyd Webber, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lucinda Williams, Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman, Squeeze, The Power Station, Van Morrison, Warren Zevon

Miles Davis’ ‘Plugged Nickel’ Box Gets Reissued for Jazz Icon’s Centennial

January 22, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

Miles Davis’ upcoming centennial will be honored in part with a reissue of a box set collecting some of his greatest live recordings: seven sets at Chicago’s Plugged Nickel nightclub with his second great quintet line-up, recorded just before Christmas 1965. The near-mythic The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 was originally released in full by Sony Music in Japan in 1992, after two 1976 Japan-only LPs offering a small sample of the performances. (Those LPs were released as one set in America in 1982, with a disc of alternates, Cookin’ At the…

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Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

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Jazz

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Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Ron Carter, Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter

American Dream (The Mainman Recordings 1976-1977)

January 22, 2026 by Mike Duquette

Perhaps the most comprehensive retrospective of John Mellencamp’s earliest work as “Johnny Cougar,” American Dream includes the original albums Chestnut Street Incident (1976) and The Kid Inside (recorded in 1977 and released in 1982); U.S. Male, an EP of early recordings making its CD debut; and a further 20 outtakes and alternate versions from the period – half of which are previously unreleased! (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.)

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Tentative Decisions: Demos and Live

January 22, 2026 by Mike Duquette

Initially released as a clear LP with 7″ single for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2025, this collection of early archival material from acclaimed art-rockers Talking Heads is greatly expanded on CD with more than 30 additional archival tracks, including the band’s demo session for CBS Records and an assortment of live cuts before the group became a quartet. (A black vinyl version of the original RSD vinyl will be released the same day.)

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Still I Dream of It: The Beach Boys’ ‘We Gotta Groove’ Highlights ‘Love You,’ ’15 Big Ones,’ ‘Adult/Child’ Eras

January 21, 2026 by Joe Marchese | 33 Comments

Over three years after the release of Sail On Sailor: 1972, The Beach Boys’ long-running archival series is back in full force with a new box set due on February 13. We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years brings together highlights from the band’s 1974-1977 period, with the title referring to the band’s own Santa Monica studio. The set will look a bit different than the past releases in this series, eschewing separate CD and LP formats for a combined 3LP/3CD box with a number of tracks only in the CD format. (UPDATE…

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

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Al Jardine, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, Dennis Wilson, Mike Love, The Beach Boys

Artists Only: Talking Heads’ ‘Tentative Decisions’ Collection Gets CD Expansion

January 21, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

One of the highlights of Rhino’s Record Store Day Black Friday bounty was Tentative Decisions: Demos and Live, a selection of early material from art-rock icons Talking Heads that predated (and had been left off) the 2024 deluxe edition of the group’s debut album Talking Heads: 77. Those hoping for a wider reissue will have their prayers answered in a big way: an expanded box set version will be released this spring. Tentative Decisions includes the baker’s dozen of 1975-1976 demos (plus one live recording and two tracks from The Artistics, an embryonic…

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

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Talking Heads

Skin It Back: John Mellencamp’s Early Works Revisited on New Anthology

January 20, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 9 Comments

Heartland rocker John Mellencamp recently announced the Dancing Words tour, a summer trek through America in July and August that’ll focus on hits he’s not played in a while to audiences in outdoor amphitheaters. A few months before that, Cherry Red’s Lemon imprint will issue an exciting new compilation that takes things back to the beginning of Mellencamp’s career – under a different name, and with some enticing unreleased material. American Dream (The Mainman Recordings 1976-1977), coming April 3, is a 2CD set that’ll feature both albums he recorded for the MCA-distributed Mainman…

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John Mellencamp

The Complete Live at the Plugged Nickel 1965

January 17, 2026 by Joe Marchese

The classic Miles Davis box set – first released in the U.S. in 1995 – is getting spruced up for the Davis centennial. This prime document of The Second Great Quintet – featuring Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, and Tony Williams – was recorded across seven sets on December 22 and 23, 1965 at the Chicago venue. This new 8CD edition mirrors the original release. Each CD comes in its own newly-designed mini-gatefold jacket, with all discs housed in a gold foil-embossed slipcase. The 44-page booklet includes Bob Blumenthal’s original essay…

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Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

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Jazz

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With Her Songs: The Atlantic Albums 1969-1978

January 16, 2026 by Joe Marchese

Roberta Flack’s With Her Songs: The Atlantic Albums 1969-1978 brings together the late artist’s first eight studio albums in one compact 8CD package. Albums include First Take, Chapter Two, Quiet Fire, Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, Killing Me Softly, Feel Like Makin’ Love, Blue Lights in the Basement, and Roberta Flack. No bonus material is featured. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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R&B/Soul

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The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees

January 16, 2026 by Joe Marchese

The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees, at long last, brings together on 2 CDs all of the band’s commercial singles originally released between 1966 and 1970, from “Last Train to Clarksville” b/w “Take a Giant Step” through “Oh My My” b/w “I Love You Better.” It’s arranged with its 15 A-sides on Disc One and 15 B-sides on Side Two. The As from Messrs. Jones, Dolenz, Nesmith, and Tork include songs from Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, Neil Diamond, John Stewart, Carole King and Gerry Goffin, and Jerry Leiber and Mike…

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Release Round-Up: Week of January 16

January 16, 2026 by The Second Disc | No Comments

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. Various Artists, NOW Yearbook: Vault ’82 (NOW Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The U.K.’s NOW line continues with another Vault installment spotlight hits of 1982 including The Who’s “Athena,” Elton John’s “Empty Garden,” Neil Diamond’s “Heartlight,” Billy Joel’s “Allentown,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City,” and much more from a cross-section of artists and genres. Out today in the U.K.; available next Friday in North America….

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Release Round-Up

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Andrew Lloyd Webber, Gene Pitney, Miyosh, Rachel Zegler, Richard Marx, Rick Nelson, Rod Stewart, The Crystals, The James Hunter Six, Tim Rice, Van Morrison, Various Artists

Lessons in Love: Robinsongs Caps Off Level 42 Box Sets with ‘The Later Years 2001-2020’

January 15, 2026 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Cherry Red’s suite of labels have already planned a healthy amount of box sets and reissues for the first quarter of the year. One such title is Robinsongs’ fourth collection devoted to the work of British jazz-rock outfit Level 42 – and since the last one of them we covered was a volume in 2021, the time seemed right to catch you up while sharing the new news, too. The work kicked off with The Complete Polydor Years 1980-1984, a 10CD set offering the band’s first five albums (Level 42 (1981), The Early Tapes –…

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Disco/Dance, Electronic, Pop, Rock

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Level 42

I Have the Touch: Two Vintage Peter Gabriel Live Sets Get Physical Releases

January 15, 2026 by Mike Duquette | No Comments

Peter Gabriel may be prepping an unexpected new album this year (o\i, the comparatively rapid follow-up to 2023’s decades-in-development i/o) – but don’t worry: he’s got catalogue plans, too! Over the next few months, the two time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will offer physical releases of two archival live shows he released digitally last year: Live At WOMAD 1982, and In the Big Room, a live-in-studio set from 2003. Live At WOMAD takes listeners back to the first installment of Gabriel’s founded festival of the same name, occurring over a weekend in…

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Peter Gabriel

The Later Years 2001-2020

January 14, 2026 by Mike Duquette

The fourth and final box set of Level 42’s discography from Robinsongs covers their 21st century output, when the group reunited for 2006’s Retroglide and continued to tour through the years. This 7CD set includes Retroglide, a set of acoustic recordings from 2010 to 2013, the EP Sirens (2013) and four discs of rare remixes and bonus tracks. It’s compiled with the full cooperation of the group, alongside band authorities Paul Waller and Simon Carson. Daryl Easlea of Record Collector has penned liner notes, drawing from interviews with band members past and present. Each disc is housed…

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Disco/Dance, Pop, Rock

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In the Big Room

January 14, 2026 by Mike Duquette

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Recorded toward the end of Peter Gabriel’s Growing Up tour in 2003, this special live-in-studio set from his Real World Studios was a treat for select members of his Full Moon fan club. Featuring cuts from the then-new Up (“More Than This,” “Darkness,” “Signal to Noise”) and fan favorites (“Games Without Frontiers,” “Digging in the Dirt,” “Shock the Monkey,” “In Your Eyes”), this physical version of a live set released digitally in 2025 is a worthy add to fans’ collections.

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Live At WOMAD 1982

January 14, 2026 by Mike Duquette

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Released digitally last year, Peter Gabriel’s first performance at the World Of Music, Arts and Dance in England (which he founded) was a special treat for concertgoers, offering the live debut of nearly every track off his fourth album, released eponymously (and as Security in America) several months after this performance. The set features “San Jacinto,” “I Have the Touch,” “Shock the Monkey” and more. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

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