The Queen Is Dead: Deluxe Edition

The Smiths’ The Queen is Dead – a towering album of ’80s British rock and arguably the definitive statement by the Manchester band – gets the deluxe, expanded treatment from Rhino.  This reissue has been approved by Morrissey, who offered in a statement, “You cannot continue to record and simply hope that your audience will approve, or that average critics will approve, or that radio will approve. You progress only when you wonder if an abnormally scientific genius would approve-and this is the leap The Smiths took with The Queen is Dead.”…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 21

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Ramones, Leave Home: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Sire/Rhino) 3CD/1LP box set: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 1CD remaster: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K.  A new  3CD/1LP edition of Ramones’ 1977 sophomore album boasts the album in original and newly-remixed form, as well as a 33-track disc loaded with previously unreleased session material and a 1977 CBGBs concert recording! In addition to the above material on CD, the new album mix by original engineer Ed Stasium is included on vinyl.  Read…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 14

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Dusty Springfield, A Brand New Me: The Complete Philadelphia Sessions (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Dusty Springfield’s 1970 A Brand New Me LP (her follow-up Atlantic effort to the landmark Dusty in Memphis) found Dusty traveling to Sigma Sound in Philadelphia to work with Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell, architects of the orchestrated soul known as “The Philadelphia Sound.”  Springfield would have a #3 AC hit with the album’s title song.  Brand New Me forms the basis of…

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Simple Dreams: 40th Anniversary Edition

Linda Ronstadt’s 1977 multi-platinum smash album featuring “Blue Bayou,” “It’s So Easy” and “Poor, Poor Pitiful Me” is remastered and expanded by Rhino in a new edition featuring three bonus live versions of the above-mentioned songs, first heard in a 1980 HBO television special.  Available on CD, LP, DD and streaming.

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I’m Goin’ Back Someday: Linda Ronstadt’s “Simple Dreams” Gets Expanded In September

Trivia: What album replaced Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours on top of the Billboard Album Chart after its 29-week stay?  The answer: Linda Ronstadt’s Simple Dreams.  Ronstadt’s eighth studio album, it became one of her most successful and most beloved.  Now, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Grammy Award-winning Simple Dreams is receiving an expanded edition from Rhino Records.  It’s due on CD, vinyl LP, DD, and streaming platforms on September 22. The multi-platinum smash was Ronstadt’s fifth consecutive release to cross the one-million sales threshold in the United States, also reaching…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 7

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up featuring our latest Second Disc Records title and much, much more! Laura Nyro, A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music are proud to present, for the first time on CD, the ultra-rare, original mono mixes of Laura Nyro’s first two albums: More Than a New Discovery (Verve Folkways, 1967) and Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (Columbia, 1968), plus new-to-CD bonus tracks!  Both albums have been newly remastered from the original mono…

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Review: The Beach Boys, “1967: Sunshine Tomorrow” and “Wild Honey” (Stereo LP)

There’s nothing quite nice as a kiss of wild honey… Carl Wilson – the angelic voice from on high of “God Only Knows” – unleashed his inner soul man with a fury on “Wild Honey,” the title track of The Beach Boys’ second album of 1967.  The funky, Theremin-driven ode to a “girl with the sweetness of a honey bee” opened the LP which turned out to be one of the most singular in the band’s storied catalogue.  Its fusion of pulsating R&B and raw rock-and-roll, anchored by nine Brian Wilson/Mike Love…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 30

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beach Boys, 1967: Sunshine Tomorrow (Capitol/Brother/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Beach Boys’ Sunshine Tomorrow, a new 2-CD and digital collection, not only premieres the first-ever true stereo mix of 1967’s Wild Honey, but also premieres a whopping 54 rarities recorded that year including the live album Lei’d in Hawaii, session material from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile, and further live recordings (spanning 1967-1970).  Read all of the specs here, and tune back in soon for our full review of…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 23

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Prince, Purple Rain: Music from the Motion Picture (various formats) (Warner Bros.) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 3CD/1DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. At long, long last – a deluxe, expanded Purple Rain arrives in various formats, including a 2-CD iteration with 11 previously unreleased outtakes and a 3-CD/1-DVD version adding a third CD of 15 single edits and remixes and a DVD of 1985’s Prince and the Revolution Live! …

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Playback: The Brian Wilson Anthology

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Coinciding with the legendary Beach Boy’s 75th birthday year and current, sold-out tour, Rhino offers the first-ever anthology of Brian Wilson’s solo recordings from 1988 through the present day, including two previously unreleased tracks, “Some Sweet Day” and “Run, James, Run.”  Available on CD, double vinyl LP, and digital platforms.

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Love and Mercy: Rhino Collects Solo Brian Wilson For New Anthology, Premieres Two Songs

Brian Wilson turns 75 years young today – and hot on the heels of a well-received biopic and a record-breaking concert tour that continues through this fall, the legendary artist is looking back on his solo career for a new compendium arriving on September 22 from Rhino Records.  Playback: The Brian Wilson Anthology captures, via 18 tracks, the Beach Boy’s extraordinary journey from his 1988 Sire Records solo LP debut through 2015’s No Pier Pressure.  Two never-before-released tracks will also premiere here. Playback begins, appropriately enough, with four selections from 1988’s Brian Wilson including…

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Review: “Singles: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack – Deluxe Edition”

A Tribute Told in Vignettes… Well, I don’t like to reduce us to just being part of the “Seattle Sound.” I’d like to think of us as expanding more. Like, we’re huge in Europe right now. I mean, we’ve got records… uh, a big record just broke in Belgium.    -Cliff Poncier, Singles A Cameron Crowe film tends to have a “killer” soundtrack.  Listening to a Crowe soundtrack is an intriguing adventure filled with carefully curated juxtapositions.  In fact, the experience is a lot like the line from Crowe’s motion picture Singles, in…

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Still the Same: Classic Bob Seger Albums Make Streaming Debut

As the music business increasingly adopts streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music into their strategies for success, it becomes painfully clear when albums (or whole catalogues, even) are missing from the digital realm. This year, we’ve already seen the triumphant return of Prince’s Warner Bros.-era masters beyond the Tidal platform, ahead of next week’s Purple Rain reissue. On Friday, one of the most famous holdouts finally relented. Bob Seger, the iconic Detroit rocker, and Capitol Records jointly added more than a dozen classic albums and compilations to digital download and streaming…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 16

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! David Bowie, Cracked Actor: Live in Los Angeles 1974 (Parlophone/Rhino) (Amazon U.S./ Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Cracked Actor: Live in Los Angeles 1974 is the first authorized release of Bowie’s Philly Dogs Tour show at Los Angeles’ Universal Amphitheatre, from September 1974.  First released earlier this year on vinyl only, some of this performance was featured in Alan Yentob’s BBC documentary also known as Cracked Actor.  The original tapes for this show were finally brought together last November, and they have been newly mixed by Tony Visconti. Note that…

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A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings

A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete Recordings 1953-1955 journeys back to the birth of rock-and-roll to feature, on three CDs and digitally, every known Elvis Presley Sun Records master and outtake.  In addition, the collection also contains Elvis’ four earliest, privately-pressed sides, and vintage radio and concert performances from the period, for a total of 73 tracks – including one previously unreleased, newly-discovered recording, “I Forgot to Remember to Forget” from the Louisiana Hayride, Shreveport, Louisiana, on October 29, 1955.

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 9

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Glen Campbell, Adios (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Glen Campbell’s final recordings, produced by his longtime band member Carl Jackson, comprise this release.  Selections include the lead-off single “Everybody’s Talkin’,” and four songs by Jimmy Webb (including the touching title track as well as “Postcard from Paris,” “Just Like Always” and “It Won’t Bring Her Back”), plus compositions from Bob Dylan, Jerry Reed, Dickey Lee, and Roger Miller.  The late Miller is heard is on his demo of “Am I Alone (Or…

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Ingénue: 25th Anniversary Edition

Canadian pop chanteuse k.d. lang celebrates the 25th anniversary of her breakthrough album Ingénue with a newly-expanded deluxe edition pairing the album with previously unreleased performances from her MTV Unplugged special.  Available as a 2-LP or 2-CD set.

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Power of Peace

The Isley Brothers and Santana team up for an all-new studio album in which the legendary artists reflect on classic rock, pop, soul, and R&B standards such as “Higher Ground,” “Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology),” “God Bless the Child,” and “What the World Needs Now is Love.”

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What the World Needs Now: The Isley Brothers, Santana Team For New Studio Album “Power of Peace”

Two legendary musical forces are teaming up this summer to celebrate the eternal Power of Peace during the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love. On August 4, The Isley Brothers and Santana will join forces for their first full-length collaboration. Power of Peace arrives on that date from Legacy Recordings, featuring Ronald and Ernie Isley joined by Carlos and Cindy Blackman Santana tackling a number of classic rock and R&B standards which have inspired them over the years. This all-new studio album features Ronald Isley on lead vocals, Ernie Isley on…

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1967 – Sunshine Tomorrow

The Beach Boys’ Sunshine Tomorrow, a new 2-CD and digital collection, not only premieres the first-ever true stereo mix of 1967’s Wild Honey, but also premieres a whopping 54 rarities recorded that year including the live album Lei’d in Hawaii, session material from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile, and further live recordings (spanning 1967-1970).

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 26

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band various editions (Apple/Capitol/UMe) 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 4CD/DVD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. The Beatles’ seminal 1967 celebrates its 50th anniversary in style with a multitude of new editions featuring Giles Martin’s brand-new – and quite frankly, mind-blowing – new stereo mix!  Look for our full review of the 4CD/DVD/BD box later…

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Who Was That Man? Yep Roc Reissues Nick Lowe’s Remaining Discography

Back in March, it was reported that Yep Roc Records would finally start reissuing part of Nick Lowe’s discography on CD for the first time in more than 25 years. While the promised April release dates never materialized, it’s now breaking that the two previously cited albums–1982’s Nick The Knife and 1983’s The Abominable Showman–will bow on CD and vinyl along with an additional four titles (and many with bonus tracks), bringing his entire solo discography from 1978 to 1990 back into print and under one roof. Nick The Knife, The Abominable…

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UPDATE: Thank You Friends: New Big Star Compilation Coming In May

UPDATE 5/24/17 TO ORIGINAL POST OF 3/6/17: If you do as Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg says and “never travel far without a little Big Star,” some new products related to the legendarily underrated Memphis rockers may find a place on your shelves. Set for release on June 16 from Stax Records and Craft Recordings, the new compilation The Best of Big Star tidily collects (on one CD, digitally, or 2 LPs playable at 45 RPM) 16 tracks from the legendary band’s #1 Record, Radio City and Third; As a bit of a nod to collectors,…

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Aren’t You Glad: The Beach Boys’ “Sunshine Tomorrow” Premieres Stereo “Wild Honey,” 54 Rarities On 2 CDs

The Beach Boys are promising a bright forecast for summer 2017 with a new 50th anniversary collection due on June 30 from Capitol/UMe. Sunshine Tomorrow, a new 2-CD and digital collection, not only premieres the first-ever true stereo mix of 1967’s Wild Honey, but also premieres a whopping 54 rarities recorded that year including the live album Lei’d in Hawaii, session material from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile, and further live recordings (spanning 1967-1970).  The new stereo mix of Wild Honey will also be released on 180-gram vinyl. 1967 – Sunshine…

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Long Strange Trip: Motion Picture Soundtrack

2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Amazon-Exclusive 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Long Strange Trip: Motion Picture Soundtrack chronicles the history of the Grateful Dead via a selection of career-spanning studio and live performances, including previously unreleased tracks.  Two versions of the album – a 2-CD set and an expanded Amazon-exclusive 3-CD edition (both also available on digital download and streaming) – will be released on May 26, the same date that the film by director Amir Bar-Lev arrives in theatres in New York and Los Angeles. …

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