Sweet and Lovely: Bill Evans’ Trio Explorations Revisited in New Set from Craft
Craft Recordings is revisiting a halcyon period of The Bill Evans Trio. Due on November 21, Haunted Heart: The Legendary Riverside Recordings collects the complete studio recordings by the Bill Evans Trio lineup of Evans (1929-1980), bassist Scott LaFaro (1936-1961), and drummer Paul Motian (1931-2011). The 3CD or 5LP set presents the complete albums Portrait in Jazz (1960) and Explorations (1961) plus 26 alternate takes – a full 17 of which are previously unreleased. Evans, a pioneer in the area of modal jazz (in which the solos build from the key, not – as…
Do You Realize?? These Rhino RSD Titles Are Also Coming Soon to CD
Rhino’s Record Store Day Black Friday schedule is packed with some 35 titles available as limited edition vinyl releases. But CD lovers take heart: six of these titles – most featuring previously unreleased material – will be available the same day on our favorite portable physical format! Here’s a look at each title, alphabetically by artist. Recent years have seen Rhino acquire distribution rights to beloved British ska outfit The Beat (known in America as The English Beat), with expanded editions of the group’s studio albums distributed through the label. You…
Holiday Gift Guide Review: John Williams, ‘The Anthology Vol. 1 (1969-1990)’
Let’s look at the numbers: John Williams has been on this mortal plane for 93 years, and has been composing for visual media for 73 of those years. Compact discs have been a part of music lovers’ collections for at least four decades, and the “art” of John Williams on CD – a real, curatorial approach to his iconic film scores – began in earnest more than 30 years ago, when the 4CD box set Star Wars Trilogy: The Original Soundtrack Anthology hit record stores in 1993. From basic compilations like Greatest Hits 1969-1999…
Better Off Dancing: Real Gone Reissues The Donnas’ ‘Bitchin” on a 2-LP Set with Bonus Tracks
Since 2020, Real Gone has been reissuing albums from The Donnas catalog. On Friday, the label revisited the group’s final studio album, 2007’s Bitchin’, in an expanded 2-LP edition. The band formed in California in 1993. Brett Anderson (lead vocals), Allison Robertson (guitar, backing vocals), Maya Ford (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Torry Castellano (drums, percussion, backing vocals) met when they were in the eighth grade. The self-taught musicians formed a band to perform at a school dance. The quartet initially started a group called The Electrocutes which had a metal queen…
The Weekend Stream: November 8, 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. It’s a positively packed line-up today: pop icons old and new, unique stage experiences and two different trips to the land of Oz – plus a really cool recording summit opportunity for New Yorkers and a trio of tributes to some deceased musical heroes. Madonna, Confessions on a Dance Floor (Twenty Years Edition) (Warner/Rhino) (Apple / Amazon) The Queen of Pop’s next studio album, reportedly due out next year, is…
Got to Choose: Weeks After Expanding ‘Dressed to Kill,’ KISS’ ‘Alive!’ Gets Its Own Deluxe Box
Only a few weeks after unveiling a deluxe box set of their third studio album Dressed to Kill – which featured, in part, overdub-free versions of shows utilized for their breakthrough concert album Alive! – KISS have revealed that they will, in fact, release a whole box set for Alive! as well, confirming previous rumors and reports. Available on four CDs or eight LPs and a Blu-ray Audio disc, Alive! features the original double album (here for the first time pressed on one CD) along with two more complete shows (plus some relevant rehearsal audio and…
Feel the Heat: Supergroup The Power Station Goes Deluxe on New Box Set
Fans of Duran Duran and supergroups will multiply for this one: Rhino is expanding the self-titled debut from The Power Station into a 4CD box set next year. 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, single mixes and live material, including the band’s performances from the charity concert Live Aid and an unissued full set from nearly a month later at…
Release Round-Up: Week of November 7
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. Wings, Wings [Various Formats] (MPL/Capitol/UMe) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada On November 4, Paul McCartney released Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, an oral history of the superstar’s other band. The hardcover tome, created in collaboration with film director Morgan Neville and editor Ted Widmer, tells Wings’ story through text, photographs, a timeline, a gigography,…
Soundtrack Watch: La-La Land Gets a ‘Clue’ and a ‘Ladder,’ Intrada Turns the ‘Tide,’ and Re-Recordings Galore
As film score fans edge ever closer to the inevitably killer archival score reissues typically made available around the holiday shopping season, a host of great soundtrack re-releases are already newly available from some of our favorite specialty labels, including some must-hear, classic re-recordings. La-La Land Records takes a brief break from Bond to make available two seasonally appropriate scores. First up is Maurice Jarre’s score to the haunting cult classic Jacob’s Ladder, a psychological thriller about a Vietnam veteran caught between a harrowing past experience that seems to be affecting reality in…
High the Memory: Rhino Sets Yes’ ‘Tales from Topographic Oceans’ As First Major Box of 2026
Having released arguably more reissues and box sets than any major label in 2025, Rhino has already set sights on their first catalogue title of 2026. Might you be interested? In a word: Yes. Following a deluxe box set of Close to the Edge this past spring, the label will next give the lavish treatment to 1973’s Tales from Topographic Oceans. Available February 6, this 12CD/2LP/Blu-ray box set will offer more than a dozen unreleased outtakes and live tracks alongside a suite of new mixes of the original album by acclaimed engineer Steven Wilson. Building…
Step Into Christmas: UMe Preps Holiday Singles Box, Expansion of Connie Francis’ Holiday Album
With the spookiest holidays of the fall now in the rear view mirror (that’s right: Halloween and Election Day!), there’s nothing wrong with looking ahead to the Christmas music season and checking out a pair of now-available titles from Universal Music Group spotlighting some of their classic holiday hits and an album by one of catalogue’s biggest success stories this year. UMe is selling a nifty collection of more than a dozen seasonal 7″ singles in a collectible carrying case. This Classic Holiday Singles Box features Christmas perennials spanning from the ’40s to…
Fighting My Way Back: Thin Lizzy Revisit the Mid-’70s on New Box
Thin Lizzy are turning back the clock. Following last year’s set 1976 – chronicling the breakthrough albums Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox – the Irish band will, on November 21, release ’74-’75, a deep dive into Nightlife and Fighting. The 7CD box set chronicles the making of those two seminal albums which were the first to feature the “classic” quartet line-up with guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson joining frontman/bassist Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey. Nightlife came first in 1974, produced by Lynott and Ron Nevison, whose credits would grow to…
Green Day Re-Live Without ‘Warning’ on New Box Set
Green Day’s sixth album, 2000’s Warning, arrived nearly three years after the band’s multi-platinum Nimrod. It built on the expansive sound of Nimrod by incorporating even more varied textures drawing on pop and folk styles. Now, 25 years later, Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool are revisiting Warning in a new Super Deluxe Edition (available on both vinyl and CD) due November 14 from Reprise Records. With longtime producer Rob Cavallo moving up to the executive producer’s position, Green Day self-produced Warning – their first self-produced major label effort. (R.E.M….
The Mystery of Your Gift: Josh Groban’s “Hidden Gems” Collects Deep Cuts, Rarities
Earlier this year, Josh Groban debuted Gems, a new collection that coincided with his Las Vegas residency of the same name. Now, just in time for the holiday season, the crossover superstar is unveiling a companion album. On November 14, Groban will release Hidden Gems, an eleven-track single-CD or digital compilation bringing together one new song, two tracks new to CD, and eight rarities released on various albums and exclusive editions over the years. Hidden Gems spans 2004 through the present day, with the earliest track being Groban’s contribution to the soundtrack…
The Weekend Stream: November 1, 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. Rare mixes from David Bowie, late-period repertoire from Squeeze (with a new distributor hinting at their next album) and an actor who plays jazz will start you off… David Bowie, I Can’t Give Everything Away E.P. (ISO/Parlophone) (Apple / Amazon) Released last week in conjunction with the last of Bowie’s era-focused boxes, this EP offers five new-to-digital remixes released between 2002 and 2016. Squeeze, Spot the Difference / Live At The Fillmore / The…
Release Round-Up: Week of October 31
Happy Halloween! 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. Bob Dylan, The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through the Open Window (Columbia/Legacy) 8CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The beginnings of Bob Dylan’s long and extraordinary career are being revisited by Columbia and Legacy Recordings on the eighteenth installment of the artist’s long-running Bootleg Series. Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18 (1956-1963) arrives on 8 CDs as well as…
I Wanna Be a Rocker: Think Like a Key Premieres “The Shirts Live Featuring Annie Golden”
Think Like a Key Music has been making quite the splash lately with a stellar lineup of releases including Play On: A Raspberries Tribute; Babies of War Babies, a tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates’ adventurous album produced by Todd Rundgren; and titles from psych group Elmer Gantry’s Velvet Opera and supergroup British Lions (which teamed members of the post-Ian Hunter lineup of Mott the Hoople with Medicine Head’s John Fiddler). Now, the label has turned its attention to a cult-favorite band from the CBGB’s scene: New York’s own Shirts. The…
Review: Frank Zappa, “Halloween 78”
“Happy Halloween, everybody!” Greeting his audience at New York’s late, lamented Palladium on October 31, 1978, Frank Zappa promised the enthusiastic crowd. “This is it…this is the big one!” He wasn’t kidding. The composer-guitarist and his band – drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassists Arthur Barrow and Patrick O’Hearn, keyboardists Peter Wolf and Tommy Mars, singer-guitarist Denny Walley, and percussionist Ed Mann – delivered perhaps the most epic show of their annual New York holiday residencies. That concert is the centerpiece of Halloween 78, a massive new box set from Zappa Records and UMe….
Review: Elvis Presley, “Sunset Boulevard”
It was late March 1972 when Elvis Presley first entered RCA’s Studio C at 6363 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood – The King’s first time recording at the Hollywood venue. Most of RCA’s marquee artists, from Jefferson Airplane to Henry Mancini, had already made their mark there, as the studio had opened in 1964. Presley had previously rehearsed for his Las Vegas engagements in the 32 x 22′ space (the smallest of the building’s three studios) and now, the March 27-30 sessions would be his first proper recording sessions to feature his road…
The Weekend Stream: October 25, 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’ve got an unreleased outtake from The Beatles; a favorite ’80s band re-recording a deep cut; and a rock legend recruiting an unexpected guest on a new mix of their latest single – plus late period greatness from The Go-Betweens, Glenn Frey cutting standards and more. The Beatles, “I’ve Just Seen a Face (Take 3)” (Apple/Capitol/UMe) (Apple / Amazon) The Beatles are previewing the upcoming Anthology Collection with…
Release Round-Up: Week of October 24
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. Bruce Springsteen, Nebraska ’82 (Columbia/Legacy) 4CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4LP/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada It’s no surprise that, as Hollywood recounts the story of Bruce Springsteen’s most striking solo release with the film Deliver Me from Nowhere (out today), a box set tells the tale of the (literal) tape. Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings are releasing Nebraska ’82, a new box set showcasing the start-to-finish journey of Bruce’s most…
Memories: Light in the Attic Remasters, Expands Nancy Sinatra’s “Nancy”
After a yearlong hiatus, Light in the Attic’s Nancy Sinatra Archival Series is continuing on December 5 with an expanded and remastered reissue of 1969’s Nancy on both CD and LP. Her sixth and final studio album for the label, the Billy Strange-helmed LP offered a cross-section of rock, pop, soul, and country tunes as only Sinatra could have delivered them. Nancy arrived in the wake of producer-songwriter Lee Hazlewood’s unexpected move to Sweden. Hazlewood had produced all of Nancy’s Reprise albums to that point (including the soundtrack to her television special…
Mellow My Mind: Neil Young Revisits “Tonight’s the Night” at 50 with Previously Unreleased Tracks
Neil Young’s sixth studio album, 1975’s Tonight’s the Night, closed out the singer-songwriter’s so-called Ditch Trilogy. 1972’s country-rock landmark Harvest catapulted Young to superstardom, yielding the chart-topping single “Heart of Gold” and becoming the U.S.’ best-selling album of 1972. But he wasn’t comfortable with everything that fame brought, and his successive albums replaced the wistful glow and commercial sheen of Harvest with something altogether darker. Tonight’s the Night followed Time Fades Away (1973) and On the Beach (1974) in the trilogy, though Beach was actually recorded after Tonight’s. Now, on November 28,…
Who Was It? 7a Records Collects Davy Jones Rarities on “Music and Memories: The MGM Recordings”
On November 14, 7a Records will fill in a missing chapter of the Davy Jones story. Music and Memories: The MGM Recordings premieres on CD the handful of singles recorded by the Monkees’ resident song-and-dance man for the MGM Records label – including both mono and stereo mixes and a rare Japan-only single side – and, for good measure, adds all of Jones’ tracks recorded for the original London cast recording of Harry Nilsson’s The Point. This release follows the label’s 2015 collection of Micky Dolenz’s MGM output. After Jones and Micky…
Rock and Roll All Nite: KISS Suit Up New Deluxe Box for ‘Dressed to Kill’
KISS’ third album – the edge of their commercial breakthrough – is getting done up to the nines for its 50th anniversary. The rock legends will reissue Dressed to Kill as a super deluxe set, available exclusively through the band’s official store on five CDs or eight LPs and a Blu-ray. The 1975 release, featuring “C’mon and Love Me” and, arguably the group’s signature song “Rock and Roll All Nite,” has been newly remastered by Bernie Grundman and, on the Blu-ray, remixed from the original multitracks in Dolby Atmos and 5.1 surround by…