With an expansion of the Backstreet Boys' Millennium as one of the few items on their release schedule, Legacy Recordings will go a few steps this further, celebrating the turn of the millennium with a new compilation and a reissue of one of the biggest solo artists of that time. On May 16, Legacy will release an expanded vinyl and digital edition of Britney Spears' Oops!...I Did It Again for its 25th anniversary. A year before, Spears had ascended to pop's A-list with her debut ...Baby One
A Tale Untold: Robin Trower's "For Earth Below" Gets 50th Anniversary Expansion
Last year, Chrysalis reissued Bridge of Sighs, Robin Trower's second album following his departure from Procol Harum, in an expanded edition timed to its 50th anniversary. Now, the label is turning its attention to the guitar hero's third solo set and highest-charting album in the U.S., 1975's For Earth Below. The upcoming expanded edition, due on June 27 in 4CD, 2LP, and digital formats, is built around the newly remastered original album. Produced by Trower's old Procol Harum bandmate
Oooh, This I Need: Adam Mattera Talks 'Dearly Beloved: A Prince Songbook'
Last year, The Second Disc had nothing but good things to say about Dearly Beloved: A Prince Songbook, Cherry Red's triple-disc tribute to the music of Prince. The set told a story of The Artist's massive impact on pop, rock and soul by way of songs he gave others to record and a galaxy of genre-bending covers. In a year of considerable challenges in Prince fandom, it was a veritable oasis in a desert. Earlier this year, I had the pleasure of speaking with Adam Mattera, the curator and
The Weekend Stream: April 19, 2025
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. We're pleased to kick things off with another four Record Store Day titles making their way to stream and download, followed by a classic, underrated R&B work and some new music we're digging today, as well. Neil Finn, Sessions At West 54th (Epic/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) Well, that's Mike's Record Store Day sorted! This indelible
Something He Said: Rhino Issues Vinyl Box of Classic Richard Pryor Albums
Not long after honoring one of the finest stand-ups in box set form, Rhino's doing it again, with a surprise release of a vinyl set devoted to the work of Richard Pryor. I Hope I'm Funny: The Warner Albums (1974-1983), available today exclusively through Rhino's official web store, is a 7LP box collecting six albums that captured the boundary-shattering comedian at his arguable peak. A bit more laser focused than either Rhino's 2000 box ...And It's Deep Too! The Complete Warner Bros.
Release Round-Up: Week of April 18
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. Neil Young, Coastal: The Soundtrack (Reprise/NYA) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The concert film Coastal, documenting Neil Young's 2023 solo concert tour, was released to cinemas yesterday; today, its soundtrack album arrives on CD, LP, and digital formats. The 11-track album includes Young favorites such as "I Am a
The Spirit of Man: Madfish Preps Box Set Edition of Jeff Wayne's 'War of the Worlds' Concept Album
When H.G. Wells published The War of the Worlds as a serialized collection of stories in 1897 and a full novel a year later, he may not have known the groundbreaking work he was unleashing on the world. A sci-fi story that dared to look at the dark side of theoretical human-alien contact, War of the Worlds was a fantastical-yet-grounded story that imagined visitors from the planet Mars as anything but friendly. The book became fertile ground for adaptations, from Orson Welles' dramatic 1938
NOW WITH LINKS! (Don't) Walk On By: Dionne Warwick's "Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971" Due in June on 12 CDs from SoulMusic, Second Disc
UPDATED 4/17 WITH PRE-ORDER LINKS: "I am so very thrilled about this wonderful collection of my recordings! It is truly something that I myself would buy." - Dionne Warwick, 2025 For more than six decades, Dionne Warwick has been synonymous with musical excellence. The six-time Grammy Award winner, 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, and Kennedy Center Honoree remains one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with a whopping 56 singles having made the Billboard Hot 100 between
Jubilee: Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" Returns to Vinyl from Craft Recordings
Chances are if your local oldies station is airing a One Hit Wonders show, the name of Norman Greenbaum will be high on the countdown. Okay, it's not technically accurate; the Massachusetts-born singer-songwriter followed up his famous hit with "Canned Ham" (No. 46 on the U.S. Pop chart) in 1970 and "California Earthquake" (No. 93) in 1971. But Greenbaum's 1969 smash "Spirit in the Sky" remains the song with which the artist will be forever identified - an international chart-topper which
Back for Good: Take That's Breakthrough Gets Expanded Release
British boy band Take That attained considerable success throughout Europe in the early '90s. Sony Music U.K. will celebrate Nobody Else, the album that briefly made them international hitmakers, with a new deluxe edition this summer. The double-disc reissue of Nobody Else pairs the original album alongside eight bonus tracks, including the rare Japanese bonus track "All That Matters to Me," a cover of the Bee Gees' "How Deep is Your Love" that served as their last work for nearly a decade, a
Turning Over New 'Leaves': Nick Drake's Debut to Be Expanded
One of British folk's most enigmatic debuts, Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left, will be the subject of a box set yielding newly-discovered outtakes and unreleased material. The Making of Five Leaves Left, hitting stores on July 25, offers a new chronological look at Drake's first album through more than 30 unreleased outtakes and a new pressing of the original album, available either on four CDs or four LPs and remastered by original album engineer John Wood. An illustrated 60-page book, printed
One and Only: Mariah Carey Celebrates 20 Years of 'Mimi' with 5LP and Digital Reissue
Two decades ago, Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi was a dramatic comeback for the pop queen. This year, it's due for a comeback of its own with a heavy-duty deluxe edition. Available May 30, The Emancipation of Mimi (20th Anniversary Edition) arrives from UMe on five LPs offering a host of bonus material, including seven previously unreleased tracks and many more classic remixes. Billed as being "personally compiled" by Carey herself, the 45-track set comes with a 28-page booklet and a
He Wears It Well: Rod Stewart's 'Ultimate Hits' Due in June
Ahead of a prolific year of touring - and in the same year the British rocker turns 80 - a new career-spanning collection from Rod Stewart will be released this summer in multiple formats. Ultimate Hits, available June 27, offers Rod the Mod's most beloved solo hits from the '70s, '80s and '90s, from "Maggie May" and "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" to "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" and "Young Turks"; "Forever Young" and "Downtown Train" to "Have I Told You Lately" and "Rhythm of My Heart."
The Weekend Stream: April 12, 2025
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. By now, you might have hit your participating local shop for Record Store Day - and happily, we're kicking off this Saturday's column to share material from five exclusive vinyl titles that are getting a second life in the streaming and download world too. It's a great way to check out some titles if you missed them, or weren't sure if you wanted
The Second Disc's Guide to Record Store Day 2025: Our Favorite Picks
Tomorrow, Record Store Day is once again upon us! It's that time of year where music lovers and vinyl flippers get together at their favorite physical music retailers and wait in line to snag some treasured albums - almost all of which are pressed on vinyl instead of CD (or, you know, sold on secondary marketplaces for above their retail value). This year, the list tops out at over 300 titles, so there's very nearly something for everybody. It wasn't easy to narrow our choices down to around
Have You Heard? Rhino's Newest Quadio Batch Includes Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, Beaver and Krause, Modern Jazz Quartet
Rhino's Quadio series is back! The ongoing series of four-channel surround Blu-ray Audio Discs has announced its latest four titles, available now directly from Rhino.com. This eclectic group encompasses releases from Rod Stewart, ZZ Top, The Modern Jazz Quartet, and Beaver and Krause. Rod Stewart's sixth album, 1975's Atlantic Crossing marked a new chapter for the Faces singer. Produced by Tom Dowd and recorded across various studios in North America, the album was sequenced with one
Release Round-Up: Week of April 11
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 Vince Guaraldi Trio, Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown: Expanded Edition (Fantasy/Craft) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Craft Recordings delivers a newly expanded edition of 1964's Jazz Impressions of A Boy Named Charlie Brown, the first in a series of fateful collaborations between jazz pianist Vince
Are You Not Entertained? Two Hans Zimmer Scores Get Expansions from La-La Land, Intrada
After a recent new edition of his breakthrough soundtrack work, composer Hans Zimmer is the subject of not one but two film score reissues released this month. La-La Land Records announced for April a dramatic expansion of Zimmer's score for Gladiator. A modern take on sword-and-sandal epics released in 2000, Gladiator told the story of Maximus Decimus Meridius, a dedicated Roman general whose world is turned upside down by the murder of emperor Marcus Aurelius at the hands of his son, who
A Second Disc Interview: Celebrating Marianne Faithfull's Final EP with Executive Producer Andrew Batt
As part of Saturday's Record Store Day festivities, Decca will release the final recordings of Marianne Faithfull on vinyl. The four-song EP Burning Moonlight harkens back to the late artist's very first albums, released in 1965 on the same label: one dedicated to pop music, and the other to folk songs. The title track to Burning Moonlight was issued digitally in the past weeks; tomorrow, "She Moved Through the Fair" will arrive on streaming services. Finally, on June 6, the entire EP will be
Every Move He Makes: Sting Plans Multiple Formats of '3.0 LIVE' Album
Sting is chronicling his latest back-to-basics tour with a multi-format live album - and you'll have to be quick (and lucky) to hear it all. The British rocker embarked on the 3.0 Tour last year; true to its name, Sting assembled a trio - having not toured with that few backing members since his days in The Police - consisting of longtime guitarist Dominic Miller and drummer Chris Maas. The result, which came to North and South American theaters as well as festival dates in Europe, was not
That's the Way (I Like It): Edsel Collects "More Sin," "More Deep '70s"
Edsel has recently continued a pair of box set series with the release of Disco Discharge Presents More Sin (1980-1989) and David Hepworth: More Deep '70s. In late 2023, Edsel revived the long-dormant Disco Discharge series with the first Box of Sin. This second volume, More Sin: Full Length Gay Clubbing, follows the template of the first, taking listeners on a journey through the gay club scene of the 1990s and tracing the development of dance music from disco to house. As Ian Wade puts it
Goody, Goody, Goody: Cherry Red Collects Mark Wirtz Rarities on "Dream, Dream, Dream"
The late Mark Wirtz (1943-2020) - a German-French songwriter-producer who found his biggest successes in England - is best-remembered for A Teenage Opera, an embryonic rock opera which inspired the likes of Pete Townshend and Paul McCartney and spawned Keith West's U.K. No. 2 single "Grocer Jack," a.k.a. "Excerpt from A Teenage Opera." Yet there was much more to Wirtz's discography than that lone hit and its parent project. Cherry Red's Strawberry imprint recently boxed up five discs of
The Weekend Stream: April 5, 2025
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. A quiet, mostly contemplative week means a small batch of understated titles and a big public ask for clarity from one of our missing comrades in catalogue... Dan Fogelberg, Souvenirs (50th Anniversary Edition) (Epic/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) The late, great Fogelberg's double-platinum sophomore album, produced by Joe Walsh (a year
I've Got a Secret: The Bongos to Release Archival Live Album
New Jersey power-pop band The Bongos have added some archival works to their digital catalogue in recent years, partnering with Legacy Recordings on expansions of their RCA recordings (including the 1983 EP Numbers with Wings, a pair of 12" mixes and 1985's Beat Hotel, and even a holiday track in 2023). This spring, they'll go back to the label where it all began - New Jersey's own JEM Recordings - to put some of that vault material out on CD for the first time. The Shroud of Touring: Live in
Release Round-Up: Week of April 4
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. Elton John and Brandi Carlile, Who Believes in Angels? (Rocket/Mercury/EMI) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. Link TBD / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Link TBD / EltonJohn.com (U.S.) Tri-Color LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Alternate Cover "Neon Angel" CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon