Celebrated Summer: Numero Group Honors Hüsker Dü’s “Miracle Year”
The Numero Group kicked off their 200 line of titles in 2017 with Savage Young Dü, an unprecedented archival dive into the early works of Minneapolis punk trio Hüsker Dü. Fifty entries later in that chapter of the label’s discography, Numero has a new Dü title that takes a special look at what may be their most pivotal year as a band. 1985: The Miracle Year is a 2CD or 4LP set that chronicles the group’s biggest gambles yet, through the filter of their blistering live shows. Kicking off with a powerful 23-song…
Couldn’t Care More: Fine Young Cannibals to Drive You Crazy with Multi-Format Compilation
Four decades after their brief but pivotal run of success on each side of the Atlantic in the mid-to-late ’80s, Fine Young Cannibals come back for a few more bites in the form of a sprawling compilation/box set. Arriving from London Records on November 21, FYC40 will reintroduce audiences to the Birmingham trio behind “Johnny Come Home,” “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing” on a multi-disc set that’s available on CD or vinyl. The most comprehensive version spans four CDs and a DVD, offering expanded editions of 1985’s Fine Young Cannibals and 1989’s The Raw…
Omnivore Basks in ‘The Glow of Love’ on Expanded Reissue by Change
Between 1980 and 1985, the group known as Change released six albums built around dance rhythms, big hooks, and powerful vocals. The group’s name was spot-on, as during that period, Change’s line-up was in constant flux – yet the quality of the music delivered consistently. On October 3, Omnivore Recordings will revisit Change’s debut album, 1980’s The Glow of Love, on CD in an expanded and remastered edition. Originally appearing in Italy on Goody Music Records and throughout the rest of the world on the Warner Bros. label, The Glow of Love…
They Don’t Know – But New Kirsty MacColl Compilation Will Change That
If you were intimidated by UMR’s See That Girl (1979-2000), an 8CD dive into the music of Kirsty MacColl released back in 2023, Edsel has licensed a new 2CD collection offering 30 songs from the same era, due out this week. Free World – The Best of Kirsty MacColl 1979-2000 is a well-curated mix of singles, B-sides and fan favorites from the dearly missed British songstress, including the stellar debut “They Don’t Know”; hits like “A New England,” “Days” and “Walking Down Madison”; and team-ups with “A New England” songwriter Billy Bragg (“Darling,…
In My Mind’s Eye: Tears for Fears’ ‘Songs from the Big Chair’ Revisited for 40th Anniversary
Tears for Fears’ Songs from the Big Chair – still the crown jewel of the duo’s discography, and easily its most-reissued – will get some more pressings on CD and vinyl this fall to mark its 40th anniversary. Already expanded on CD in 1999, 2006 and a 2014 box set, TFF’s signature LP comes back into print as a 3CD set that offers most of the contents of that out-of-print box set: the original album, B-sides, various single edits and remixes. The original album will also be newly pressed on Coke bottle-clear vinyl…
It’s Magic: The Cars’ ‘Heartbeat City’ Beats Strong in New Deluxe Edition
Hello again! The Cars’ penultimate album and biggest commercial success is coming back in a box set this year. Rhino will reissue the group’s Heartbeat City as a 4CD/1LP set on October 31, a year-delayed 40th anniversary celebration that’ll include the original album on CD and vinyl alongside a wealth of bonus material (including tracks featured on previous expanded editions of not only this album but 1980’s Panorama). Highlights include the non-album B-side “Breakaway,” remixes of the single “Hello Again,” a number of early versions and demos (including one of standout track “Drive” as…
The Weekend Stream: September 27, 2025
Welcome to another relaxing journey down The Weekend Stream featuring a classic anthem from Barry Manilow and the late Peter Allen; a moving farewell for a great cause from Ozzy Osbourne and his friends in Judas Priest; classic pop from The King Family; a host of jazz, R&B, and country reissues; a dash of Christmas cheer from an old friend; and more! Barry Manilow, Once Before I Go (Stiletto) (Apple / Amazon) Fans attending Barry Manilow’s concerts of the last couple years have occasionally heard him pull out a very special encore:…
Release Round-Up: Week of September 26
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.’ Spike Jones in Stereo: A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound! (Omnivore) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore Recordings LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore Recordings The late, great Spike Jones’ side-splittingly spooky 1959 album In Stereo: A Spooktacular in Screaming Sound! returns from Omnivore Recordings in time for Halloween as freshly remastered from the original tapes. Led by an illustrious company including Paul Frees (Boris Badenov, The Haunted Mansion’s Ghost Host), Thurl Ravenscroft (“You’re…
Worth Waiting For: Iconoclassic is ‘Glad to Be Alive’ with Gene Loves Jezebel Live Album Expansion
A vintage set from U.K. goth rockers Gene Loves Jezebel will be remastered and expanded by Iconoclassic Records on October 3. Glad to Be Alive: Live in Nottingham 1986 (The Complete Concert) finds the group on stage just ahead of the release of Discover, their breakthrough third album. Eight of these tracks debuted on limited double vinyl and cassette pressings of that LP; this presentation not only bows those cuts on CD but adds another nine from the set – all freshly remastered from the original source tapes by Andy Pearce. The…
Hand of Fate: The Rolling Stones’ “Black and Blue” Goes Super Deluxe with New Steven Wilson Remix, Outtakes, More
For The Rolling Stones, it was lucky thirteen. The band’s thirteenth studio album, 1976’s Black and Blue, reached No. 1 in the United States and No. 2 in the band’s native United Kingdom, and yielded a top ten hit single on both sides of the Atlantic with the ballad “Fool to Cry.” Now, it’s set for the super deluxe treatment on November 14, just shy of its 50th anniversary. Built around a brand-new remix by the ubiquitous Steven Wilson, the set will be released by Interscope and UMe in a variety of…
The Song Is You: SING Premieres Previously Unreleased Live Sinatra on “At The Hollywood Bowl”
The Voice is back. On October 3, the SING label – an offshoot of the blockchain tech company – will premiere Frank Sinatra At The Hollywood Bowl 1943-1948, bringing together eighteen tracks on CD and eleven on vinyl from the late legend’s early performances at the storied Hollywood venue. This landmark title will be followed during the holiday season by Christmas on the Air and a vinyl-exclusive box set entitled Long Ago, Far Away. All tracks on these collections have been mastered from original broadcast sources. At The Hollywood Bowl, recorded during…
Add Some Music to Your Day: Brian Wilson’s “Live at the Roxy” Is Remastered, Expanded for Its 25th Anniversary
When Brian Wilson took to the stage at Lou Adler’s Roxy on the Sunset Strip in April 2000, the tiny, 500-capacity venue was filled with love. Friends (Nancy Sinatra, Jackie DeShannon, Don Was), fans (Jon Bon Jovi, Bette Midler, Lindsay Buckingham), and family members (daughters Carnie and Wendy, nephews Jonah and Patrick, wife Melinda) packed into the venue to see the Beach Boys’ leader reinvent himself as a solo artist. Though a famously recalcitrant live performer, he’d embarked on his first full solo tour in 1999 and emerged triumphant. The Roxy shows…
The Weekend Stream: September 20, 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. Lenny Kravitz gets expanded, The Doors revisit a classic concert, J. Lo goes Broadway, and much, much more! Lenny Kravitz, Circus (Deluxe Edition) (Virgin/UMe) (Apple / Amazon) Kravitz’s top ten album from 1995 receives thirteen bonus cuts in this digital-only expansion, including live and acoustic tracks plus three studio cuts previously available on an EP and as vinyl bonus tracks (“Another Life,” “Confused,” “Is It Me, Is It You”). The…
Climb Aboard The Tardis: Edsel Collects Classic Jon Pertwee “Doctor Who” Audio Adventures on 4-CD Boxset
Edsel has recently released a box set which should be of interest to classic Doctor Who fans. Doctor Who: The Jon Pertwee Collection is a 4-CD set which collects two audiobook versions of novelizations of some of Pertwee’s episodes. The audiobooks are read by Pertwee himself, and the set also includes some other bonus rarities from the BBC archives. Jon Pertwee took over playing the Doctor in January, 1970 in the first episode of Season 7. The third person to play the role (after William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton), his tenure would…
Release Round-Up: Week of September 19
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today including – did we ever think we’d get the chance to say this? – the CD debut of Buckingham Nicks! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Buckingham Nicks (Rhino) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. (gold) / Amazon U.K. (baby blue) / Amazon Canada (gold) In just over 15 years of reporting at The Second Disc, it’s a sentence we never thought we’d write: Buckingham Nicks is getting its first-ever reissue. The 1973 album from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks…
The Magic in Your Touch: New Thompson Twins Collection Features Hits, Deep Cuts and Live Disc
Just about a year after expanding and reissuing landmark album Into the Gap for its 40th anniversary, the Thompson Twins’ catalogue will now be evaluated through a new compilation – the first to be sanctioned by the band. Industry & Seduction: A Thompson Twins Collection will offer 20 singles and favorite cuts across the band’s best-known period of material from 1982 to 1986, including standouts “Hold Me Now,” “Lay Your Hands on Me,” “Lies,” “Doctor! Doctor!” and “In the Name of Love.” Those 20 tracks will be available as a 1CD or…
A Way Back to Love: Edsel Compiles Hits, Rarities from Invictus, Hot Wax on New Collections
The songbook of Brian Holland (b. 1941), Lamont Dozier (1941-2022), and Eddie Holland (b. 1939) is filled with some of the most popular melodies ever written: “Stop! In the Name of Love,” “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You),” “Baby, I Need Your Loving,” “You Can’t Hurry Love,” and “You Keep Me Hangin’ On,” among them. All of those, and so many other indelible hit records, were written under the aegis of Hitsville, USA, a.k.a. Berry Gordy’s Motown Records empire. But by 1967, the relationship between the label chief and…
How’s About Some Hot Stuff: Massive Donna Summer Singles CD Box Set Coming This Fall
It’s a box set fit for a queen (of disco): Donna Summer’s singles are being chronicled in a major way in November. Summer Time: The Singles Collection 1974-2010, coming November 28 from the late singer’s Driven by the Music catalogue imprint, is set to be a staggering tribute to Summer’s decades-long presence as a dancefloor filler. Timed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her breakthrough hit “Love to Love You, Baby,” this 40CD set will highlight five decades’ worth of single sides she issued all over the world, from early Dutch single-only…
I Was Young When I Left Home: Bob Dylan’s New Bootleg Series Entry Covers His Earliest Beginnings
Bob Dylan met Columbia Records’ John Hammond on September 14, 1961 at the apartment of folksinger Richard Farina and his then-wife Carolyn Hester. Dylan had been invited to Carolyn’s rehearsal session as a harmonica player. Hammond later told the story of being so impressed with the young man from Hibbing, Minnesota that he decided to sign him on the spot. A subsequent audition took place, and when Dylan – then dazzling audiences at Gerde’s Folk City on a bill shared with The Greenbriar Boys – showed up for Hester’s Columbia session on…
It’s Gonna Take a Lotta Love: The Second Disc, Lemon Collect Nicolette Larson’s Warner Bros. Albums on “Look In My Direction”
On the evenings of February 21 and 22, 1998, a host of musicians took the stage of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium to pay tribute to one of their own. Linda Ronstadt, Carole King, Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, Bonnie Raitt, and Crosby, Stills and Nash were just a few of the artists who paid their respects in song to the late Nicolette Larson. The luminous singer with the honeyed voice had unexpectedly died just a couple of months earlier at the far too young age of 45. In the decades since her…
A Second Disc Interview: A.J. Croce Brings the Family Songbook to Life Once More
The music business works in mysterious ways. Not long after posting news that recent remixes of Jim Croce’s classic solo albums were getting repackaged into a CD set, The Second Disc was approached with the opportunity to talk to A.J. Croce, the son of the late singer/songwriter, ahead of a tour he’s mounting. Adrian James Croce was eight days shy of turning two when a plane crash claimed the life of his father, then just 30 years old. He has since gone into music himself: hardly a clone of Jim – there’s a…
Free As a Bird: The Beatles ‘Anthology’ Gets Remixed and Expanded in New Box Set (UPDATED 9/16/2025)
The next archival project from The Beatles is a celebration of their most major archival project, with a newly reissued and (slightly) expanded edition of their Anthology series coming to audio and video formats this fall. Anthology Collection will include remastered editions of the original three collections of rarities and outtakes compiled by George Martin and released through 1995 and 1996, available across six CDs or nine LPs. Martin’s son Giles, who remastered those albums, also curates a new collection, Anthology 4, across a further two CDs or three LPs. Anthology 4 is drawn mostly from…
Up from the Skies: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Axis: Bold As Love’ Gets Deluxe Box Set, UHQR Reissue (UPDATED 9/16/25)
Axis: Bold As Love is getting a little bolder this holiday season. Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings will partner once again to issue a new deluxe edition of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s seminal second album from 1968 on November 7. Retitled simply Bold As Love and available on four CDs or five LPs and a Blu-ray, the box set will include the original album in its original stereo and mono mixes (as well as newly created Atmos mixes by original engineer Eddie Kramer and Chandler Harrod), along with a wealth of rare outtakes and live…
The World is My Oyster: Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s ‘Pleasuredome’ Goes Massive for New Box Set
Universal Music Recordings are shooting a new box set in the right direction, covering Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s U.K. pop landmark Welcome to the Pleasuredome in exhaustive new detail. Though it’s already been exhaustively been reissued since The Second Disc started operating – once on a 2CD set from Salvo Music, on 2014’s vinyl/cassette/DVD set Inside the Pleasuredome (along with a 2018 Record Store Day box set of 12″ singles and the 2022 RSD comp Altered Reels, which brought a pair of cassette single presentations to vinyl) – another one (part of ZTT’s ongoing…
Long Way From Home: Esoteric Expands, Remasters Anthony Phillips’ “Sail the World” and “Radio Clyde”
Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint has continued its ongoing refresh of founding Genesis guitarist Anthony Phillips’ solo catalogue, an endeavor which has taken 15 years (and counting). A deluxe 2CD reissue of 1994’s Sail the World has been joined by an expanded edition of 2003’s Radio Clyde, with both titles available now. Phillips composed the music heard on Sail the World for ITV’s coverage of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. The race was first held in 1973 and repeated every three or four years thereafter, with yachts from various countries…