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Plastic Fantastic: Expanded Edition

September 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese

Flesh for Lulu’s Plastic Fantastic followed Long Live the New Flesh on Beggars Banquet in 1989. It both continued the band’s hit streak with three charting singles and brought the first chapter of the Flesh for Lulu story to a close. Mainly produced in Australia by Mark Opitz (INXS, Cold Chisel), the sessions were fraught with creative tensions, but that didn’t keep the band from creating a lasting and varied reminder of what made Flesh great. Kevin, James, Nick, and Rocco all contributed songs to the Sydney sessions, as did additional guitarist…

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Long Live The New Flesh: Expanded Edition

September 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese

Omnivore has remastered and expanded Flesh For Lulu’s 1987 Beggars Banquet debut, Long Live the New Flesh, on 2 CDs. All four core members of the band – Nick Marsh, Rocco Barker, Kevin Mills, and James Mitchell – contributed songs to the album (the band’s third full-length studio LP overall), including Kevin’s “Postcards from Paradise” (a U.S. Dance chart entry) and James’ “I Go Crazy,” which wasn’t included on the original U.K. release but appeared on the U.S. version (and on this expanded reissue). The latter, produced by Stephen Hague, was featured…

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Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings

September 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese

39CD: Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab) 3LP (Fort Worth Concert): Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1976 Live Recordings arrives, with 39 CDs containing professionally-recorded shows from nearly every stop of the legendary tour’s second (and final) leg. It all adds up to 381 tracks, only ten of which have ever been previously released. Dylan’s fast and furious sets in ’76 were broad-ranging, encompassing such favorites as…

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Origins 1971-1978

September 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese

4CD/DVD/Blu-ray: Tom Petty Store / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP/DVD/Blu-ray: Tom Petty Store / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Limited 5LP/DVD/Blu-ray Uber Deluxe: Tom Petty Store 1LP (No Sleep ‘Til LA): Tom Petty Store / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD (No Sleep ‘Til LA): Tom Petty Store / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP Zoetrope Vinyl (No Sleep ‘Til LA): Tom Petty Store / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada UMe celebrates the birth of Tom…

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Volume Four

September 26, 2026 by Joe Marchese

6CD: Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab) 11LP: Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada Def Leppard continues its sporadic reissue series with Volume 4, available as a 6CD or 11LP set. The collection continues the thread of albums plus the rarities that these sets have been known for since the first volume(opens in new tab) in 2018, collecting the group’s studio output between 1978’s The Def Leppard E.P. and 1987’s Hysteria (plus one rarities…

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The Weekend Stream: September 26, 2026

September 26, 2026 by The Second Disc | No Comments

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. One of the busiest weeks this column has ever enjoyed includes new music from pop’s biggest figure, its reigning queen and one of the biggest rock bands in the world – plus a generous handful of even more rarities, remixes, re-recordings and rediscoveries. Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore (Republic) (Apple / Amazon) Like death and taxes, new…

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Everything Else, Folk, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Reggae, Rock

Release Round-Up: Week of September 25

September 25, 2026 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

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. Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out! 60th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Zappa/UMe) 5CD/BD: Zappa.com (opens in new tab)/ uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab)(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab) 5LP (Pre-Master Mix & Mono Mix + 60th Anniversary Highlights): Zappa.com(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) 2LP (Remastered 1966…

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Release Round-Up

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

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Classical/Opera, Folk, Holiday, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rap/Hip-Hop, Rock, Soundtracks

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Andrea Bocelli, Art in America, Average White Band, Ben Platt, Danny O'Keefe, Doctor Who, Frank Zappa, Jason Robert Brown, John Debney, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marc Bolan, Peter Davison, Rachel Zegler, Randy Edelman, Randy Newman, T Rex, Taylor Swift

Drastic Symphonies: Fourth Def Leppard Albums Box is Packed with Rarities

September 22, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 4 Comments

Def Leppard are surprising fans not only by starting up their ongoing box set series, but widening the scope of the latest release, too. Volume 4, available as a 6CD or 11LP set on November 13, continues the thread of albums plus the rarities that these sets have been known for since the first volume in 2018, collecting the group’s studio output between 1978’s The Def Leppard E.P. and 1987’s Hysteria (plus one rarities set and a Pyromania-era live set). Subsequent volumes covered the British group’s ’90s output (2019’s Volume Two) and covers-heavy ’00s (2021’s Volume…

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Def Leppard

The Weekend Stream: September 19, 2026

September 19, 2026 by The Second Disc | 6 Comments

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. Cyndi Lauper celebrates one of her best-known albums, an Earth, Wind & Fire legend pays tribute to the man who founded the group, plus rare and unvaulted favorites from Peggy Lee, Neil Sedaka and Burl Ives, and reissues of new records by David Byrne and Wednesday. Cyndi Lauper, True Colors (40th Anniversary Expanded Edition) (Epic/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) Of course a…

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Disco/Dance, Electronic, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Reggae, Rock

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Billy Idol, Burl Ives, Coleman Hawkins, Cyndi Lauper, David Byrne, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Frank Wess, John Farnham, Maurice White, Neil Sedaka, Peggy Lee, Red Garland

Release Round-Up: Week of September 18

September 18, 2026 by The Second Disc | 2 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today…and it’s one of the biggest weeks in recent memory! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. David Bowie, The Shel Talmy Recordings (Parlophone) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Official Store (180-gram red vinyl) The Shel Talmy Recordings collects 21 recordings the then-unknown David Bowie recorded with producer Talmy (The Who, The Kinks) during 1965, when he was a member of bands The Manish Boys and The Lower Third. Only four of these tracks…

You’re Gonna Get It! Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Early Years Chronicled in ‘Origins’ Box

September 16, 2026 by Joe Marchese | 8 Comments

50 years ago, Gainesville, Florida native Tom Petty formed the group that would take him and his bandmates into the stratosphere. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers blazed a path of rootsy rock and roll for over forty years, curtailed only by Petty’s untimely passing in 2017 at the age of 66. Now, UMe is celebrating the birth of the legendary band with Origins 1971-1978, a new 4CD/1DVD/1BD or 5LP/1DVD/1BD box set. (An “Uber Deluxe” vinyl edition limited to just 500 copies will also be available.) The set shines a spotlight on the…

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

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Tom Petty, Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers

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Harder Rain: New Bob Dylan Box Continues the Rolling Thunder Revue Review

September 15, 2026 by Joe Marchese | 12 Comments

“I’m trying to get to the core of what this Rolling Thunder thing is all about…and I don’t have a clue!” Bob Dylan impishly addressed his most famed concert tour – and, indeed, one of the most famed of all time – for the 2019 fact-meets-fiction film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese. The Academy Award-winning director knew that there were many stories surrounding Dylan’s carnival-esque Rolling Thunder tour of 1975-1976 – true, false, and everything in between – and all of those stories were manifested in the…

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Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, Kinky Friedman, Roger McGuinn, T Bone Burnett, Willie Nelson

Summer Magic 1985

September 13, 2026 by Mike Duquette

20CD: Dead.net Merriweather 6/30/85 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Merriweather 6/30/85 4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amaazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The latest heavy-duty box set from the Grateful Dead archive offers seven complete shows – released for the first time – from the group’s 20th anniversary tour. (There’s three “official” anniversary shows from the Greek Theatre at UC-Berkeley, plus a further four from the weeks since in Saratoga Springs, New York; Hershey, Pennsylvania; and Columbia, Maryland.) Additional features in the box include a 96-page book, seven art cards…

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Renaissance 1988-2003

September 13, 2026 by Mike Duquette

A year after a full one-off reunion for an Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert, part of the Scottish soul-funk combo Average White Band (bassist Alan Gorrie, guitarist Owen “Onnie” McIntyre and saxophonoist/keyboardist Roger Ball) began a second phase of the band that lasted early into the 21st century. The three studio albums they cut during this period (1989’s Aftershoci, 1997’s Soul Tattoo and 2003’s Living in Colour) plus the 1999 live disc Face to Face are collected on this 4CD set with a fistful of bonus tracks, as well. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from…

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Box Sets, CD

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

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Face Value (Full Value)

September 13, 2026 by Mike Duquette

4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Phil Collins’ solo debut – featuring such favorites as “I Missed Again” and the immortal opener “In the Air Tonight” – Rhino will produce a deluxe vinyl box similar to sets they’ve issued for Both Sides and No Jacket Required. The 4LP set features every demo and live track on the 2015 2CD edition, plus a host of additional material, including two unreleased live cuts and two unissued outtakes. A standalone Blu-ray features new stereo, 5.1 surround and Dolby Atmos…

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Blu-Ray Audio, Box Sets, Vinyl

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Classic Rock, Pop, Rock

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The Weekend Stream: September 12, 2026

September 12, 2026 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

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. We’ve got some timely tributes to some recently deceased icons, plus rarities from The Alan Parsons Project and Matt Monro, a host of treasures from 1976, and a very unusual pair of compilations for four disco legends and a beloved San Francisco rock combo. Dolly Parton, The 1962 Mercury Recordings (Mercury Nashville/UMe) (Apple / Amazon) A surprising tribute from a label…

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Classic Rock, Country, Disco/Dance, Pop, R&B/Soul, Reggae, Rock, Soundtracks

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Andy Gibb, Barry Gibb, Bee Gees, Burt Bacharach, Dolly Parton, Eddy Grant, Huey Lewis and The News, Jim Reeves, Matt Monro, Maurice Gibb, Melody Federer, Robin Gibb, Sheena Easton, The Alan Parsons Project, The Gentrys, Tim Curry

Release Round-Up: Week of September 11

September 11, 2026 by The Second Disc | 2 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 Roches, Runs in the Family: The Warner Bros./Rykodisc Albums (Cherry Red/Lemon/Second Disc) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Runs in the Family, from TSD and Cherry Red’s Lemon Recordings imprint, is the first-ever albums collection from the genre-bending trio of Maggie, Suzzy, and Terre Roche, a.k.a. The Roches. The set features the sisters’ debut The Roches (1979) produced by King Crimson legend Robert Fripp; Nurds (1980) produced by Simon…

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Release Round-Up

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

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Country, Folk, Pop, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Buddy Miller, Davy Jones, Eli Paperboy Reed, Manfred Mann, The Roches, The Walker Brothers

OUT TOMORROW! Cherry Red, Second Disc Collects The Roches’ Warner Bros. and Rykodisc Albums on “Runs in the Family”

September 10, 2026 by The Second Disc | 9 Comments

The world first heard the voices of Maggie and Terre Roche on Paul Simon’s 1972 LP There Goes Rhymin’ Simon. With youngest sister Suzzy, The Roches soon carved out a remarkable career of their own. Between 1979 and 2007, Maggie, Terre, and Suzzy pushed the boundaries of so-called folk music. The songs of The Roches were personal, funny, heartbreaking, vulnerable, witty, sad, joyful, and utterly original as the sisters bared their hearts and souls in striking harmony. Tomorrow, on September 11, Cherry Red’s Lemon Recordings and Second Disc Records will celebrate The…

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Box Sets

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Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, Rock

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Robert Fripp, The Roches

Go Crazy: Flesh For Lulu’s “Long Live The New Flesh” and “Plastic Fantastic” Reissued, Expanded by Omnivore

September 9, 2026 by The Second Disc | 1 Comment

For fans of Flesh for Lulu, October 16 is going to be your “Lucky Day.” On that date, Omnivore Recordings unveils deluxe 2CD expanded editions of two seminal albums from the U.K. post-punk heroes: Long Live the New Flesh (1987) and Plastic Fantastic (1989). These two deluxe sets arrive in advance of the band’s long-awaited reunion onstage at London’s Lexington on February 6, 2027. Lead vocalist Nick Marsh, lead guitarist Rocco Barker, bassist Kevin Mills, and drummer James Mitchell’s 1987 debut on the Beggars Banquet label, Long Live the New Flesh, marked…

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Rock

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Flesh For Lulu

Freak Out! 60th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition

September 7, 2026 by Joe Marchese

5CD/BD: Zappa.com (opens in new tab)/ uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada(opens in new tab) 5LP (Pre-Master Mix & Mono Mix + 60th Anniversary Highlights): Zappa.com(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) 2LP (Remastered 1966 Stereo Mix Only): Zappa.com(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) Freak Out! Frank Zappa’s 1966 Verve Records debut with his band The Mothers of Invention was a call-to-arms to the Los Angeles underground music scene. Subverting notions of traditional pop and…

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

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Classic Rock, Everything Else, Rock

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My Aim is True (49th Anniversary Edition)

September 7, 2026 by Joe Marchese

5CD: Official Store(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada (opens in new tab) 1CD: Official Store(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.S.(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.K.(opens in new tab) / Amazon Canada (opens in new tab) 1LP: Official Store(opens in new tab) / uDiscoverMusic.com(opens in new tab) / Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Elvis Costello is revisiting his debut album, My Aim Is True, as an expansive…

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Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

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The Weekend Stream: September 5, 2026

September 5, 2026 by The Second Disc | 14 Comments

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),…

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Country, Jazz, Latin, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul, Rock

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Beyoncé, Hector Lavoe, Kelly Garrett, Nelly Furtado, Paul Kelly, Selena, Sheena Easton, Timbaland, Woody Shaw

Release Round-Up: Week of September 4

September 4, 2026 by The Second Disc | 5 Comments

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five (30th Anniversary Edition) (Capitol/UMe, 2026) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Piano-pounding alternative trio Ben Folds Five have revisited their first album – both versions of their first album – for a new expanded edition. The group’s self-titled debut has been remastered and expanded, one year after its 30th anniversary…

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Release Round-Up

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CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

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Cast Recordings, Classic Rock, Folk, Jazz, Pop, Popular Standards/Vocal, Rock

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Aaron Tveit, Ben Folds Five, Bing Crosby, Cat Stevens, Dexys Midnight Runners, John Coltrane, Lea Michele, Micky Dolenz, Pink Floyd, The Cranberries, The Gentrys

Total Freedom: Two George Michael Live Releases – One with Wham! – Due This Year

September 2, 2026 by Mike Duquette | 1 Comment

If you’ve never caught George Michael in concert, this year will see the release of not one but two peak-era releases showcasing his live skills – an EP of unreleased live cuts with Wham!, and a full concert album from 1988’s tour in support of solo debut Faith. Both projects are tied to recent or forthcoming film releases. 10 Days in China – The Live EP follows the recent release of Wham! 10 Days in China, unbelievably the third documentary on the duo in the last four years. (The first, a self-titled, career-spanning documentary, bowed…

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