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
The Right Time: Iconoclassic Preps Reissues from Ian North, David Sancious, Natural Gas
Our friends at Iconoclassic Records are teeing up a prolific 2025 following their release earlier in the year of Dwight Twilley's Scuba Divers: Blueprint Edition. On April 25, the label will bring the late Ian North's 1979 album Neo to CD for the first time; that's followed on May 16 with David Sancious' 1981 set The Bridge. Then, on May 30, comes the Original Master Edition of Natural Gas' self-titled album - a fitting salute to the band's late Joey Molland. Brooklyn-born Ian North
Shut Out the Light: Bruce Springsteen Offers Seven Unheard Albums on 'Tracks II'
More than a quarter century after releasing his first major vault project, Bruce Springsteen is back with a sequel that's even bigger. True to its name, Tracks II: The Lost Albums 1983-2018 promises not just a wealth of unreleased recordings from the Thrill Hill vaults, as 1998's Tracks offered. This time, the rock icon presents seven full albums' worth of material, sharing thematic and recording cohesion and even, in some cases, seriously considered for release at one time or another.
Record Store Day 2025: The Best of the Rest
Next Saturday, April 12, is certainly one of the most packed Record Store Days in recent memory. Since the list was announced, we drilled down on titles from Craft Recordings, Legacy Recordings, Rhino Records, Universal Music Group, Real Gone Music, Omnivore Recordings, BMG, Cooking Vinyl and Demon Music Group, as well as some notable titles that were getting later general releases on CD. Well, if you thought that was it, you're wrong! We pored and pored over the list and are here to share
King of the High Cs: Decca Celebrates Pavarotti with Reissues of Famed Compilation, Henry Mancini Collaboration
In a career spanning more than 50 years, Luciano Pavarotti brought opera to the masses, singing with a host of popular artists from Bono and Meat Loaf to Frank Sinatra and Elton John. He won five competitive Grammy Awards, a pair of Emmys, and a Kennedy Center Honor, along with numerous recognitions from his native Italy, France, and Monaco. At the time of his death on September 6, 2007 at the age of 71, he had sold over one hundred million records, while The Three Tenors - the opera
(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
"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 1962 and 1998 and over 100 million
The Weekend Stream: March 29, 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. Classic Motown in concert, long-lost favorites from a country icon, a live country take on a Fab Four favorite, Gary Numan's mid-'80s works, new music from Bachman-Turner Overdrive and a documentary on a late, great Australian musician...there really is a lot of ground to cover, and that's not even all of it! Marvin Gaye, Marvin Gaye Live!
Release Round-Up: Week of March 28
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. Fleetwood Mac, 1975 to 1987 (Warner/Rhino) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com (with bonus 12") Fleetwood Mac's 1975 to 1987 is exactly what it states: a box set of Fleetwood Mac (1975), Rumours (1977), Tusk (1979), Mirage (1982) and Tango in the
Whitesnake Remaster Five Live Albums for New Box Set
After years of reissues and remixes from hard-rockers Whitesnake at Rhino Records, you'd be forgiven for wondering what the label could still do with David Coverdale's catalogue. That question is now answered with a box set assembling remastered editions of five latter-day live records. Access All Areas: Live, available April 25, is an 8CD collection offering sets recorded between 2004 and 2015 and released over the last two decades. The albums featured are Live...In the Still of the
We Were So in Phase: Wang Chung Join Hits and Rarities on New Compilation
The time has come to take your baby by the hand and check out a new compilation from '80s pop hitmakers Wang Chung. The group will release a new double album of hits and rarities, Clear Light / Dark Matter, on May 9. It'll include the singles "Dance Hall Days," "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" and "Let's Go!" plus tracks from their cult classic soundtrack from the film To Live and Die in L.A. - along with rare material (including the A-side of their debut single) and even a few unreleased demos.
Get Together (With Yourself): High Moon Expands Lotti Golden's Cult Classic "Motor-Cycle"
"Motor-Cycle transported me back to the '60s in a way not many records do...There's no irony or second-guessing: Golden's all in, a psychedelic daughter of the Beat generation, among her equally hippie cohort, in swirls of free-loving, drug-chasing, multiracial, pan-sexual abandon... The album is a mother lode, not unlike Daniel Johnston or The Shaggs, say, for its multi-level fascination." High Moon Records has quoted groundbreaking punk legend Richard Hell in describing Lotti Golden's 1969
Another "Saturnight": Cat Stevens' 1974 Japan Live Album Comes to CD, Vinyl
Even today, Japan remains a thriving capital of recorded music - and, in particular, physical media. In the 1970s, it wasn't uncommon for top-tier American artists, from Andy Williams to The Supremes, to record live albums exclusively for the Japanese market. Among those artists was Yusuf, a.k.a. Cat Stevens, whose 1974's Saturnight: Live from Tokyo was the singer-songwriter's first concert LP. Now, following its reissue last November as part of Record Store Day's Black Friday event,
Cuts The Deepest: Edsel Celebrates P.P. Arnold on "Soul Survivor" Box Set
One of P.P. Arnold's early sides for Immediate Records was titled "Am I Still Dreaming?" The song, which the artist born Patricia Ann Cole in Los Angeles wrote at the encouragement of none other than Mick Jagger, is one of the 57 songs on 3 CDs assembled by Edsel Records on the dream of a box set appropriately entitled Soul Survivor: A Life in Song. The collection, compiled by the singer and Michael Mulligan, traces the onetime Ikette's career from her signing to Andrew Loog Oldham's label
Feel the Force: Disney to Release Japanese Box Set of 'Star Wars' Music with TV Scores Making CD Debuts
Fans making the pilgrimage to next month's Star Wars Celebration event in Japan can keep an eye out for a new box set fitting in perfectly with the country's commitment to music on CD. Available in limited quantities during the event at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025: Original Soundtrack Box Set brings together scores from 23 films and television series in the universe created by writer/director George Lucas, with exclusively designed artwork. While none of the
The Weekend Stream: March 22, 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 short week offers a classic from Paul McCartney in Atmos, a comedian going (maybe) straight, a cabaret performer going proudly queer and some words on a master of music videos. Wings, Venus and Mars (Atmos Mix) (MPL) (Apple / Amazon) Yesterday saw the release of a half-speed mastered vinyl LP of Wings' fourth studio album, 1975's
Their Latest Trick: Dire Straits Expands 'Brothers in Arms'
Dire Straits' biggest album is getting expanded for its 40th anniversary. 1985's Brothers in Arms will be available in a variety of formats, including a 3CD or 5LP set that pairs the classic album with a live show from the period. The album, which featured two of the band's biggest singles including the American chart-topper "Money for Nothing" and "Walk of Life," will also feature 16 pages of liner notes offering new insight on the album through interviews with the band's frontman/guitarist
Release Round-Up: Week of March 21
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. Tina Turner, Private Dancer: 40th Anniversary Edition (Parlophone/Rhino) 5CD/1BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Pearl LP with art card: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Picture Disc: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Tina Turner's smash 1984
Long Distance Love Affair: Sheena Easton Box Set Offers 25 Unreleased Tracks
Sheena Easton's latest reissue collaboration with Cherry Red covers familiar ground in a slightly new way. Modern Girl: The Complete EMI Recordings, Vol. 1 is a 5CD set that will cover the bulk of the Scottish singer's first five albums - Take My Time (1981), You Could Have Been with Me (1981), Madness, Money and Music (1982), Best Kept Secret (1983) and the Spanish-language hits album Todo Me Recuerda a Ti (1984) - while also premiering more than two dozen unreleased tracks. The set, available