The Saints Are Coming: Edsel Plans Skids CD Box Set, Vinyl Compilation
The prime work of Scottish punk band Skids will be celebrated by Demon Music Group with a new CD box set and vinyl compilation, out this fall. Boy, Man & Soldier: Skids 1978-1981 will offer, on five CDs, expanded editions of the group’s Virgin Records discography: Scared to Dance (1979), two pressings/mixes of Days in Europa (1979), The Absolute Game (1980) and Joy (1981). The discs are packaged in a 7″ x 7″ box featuring original album and single art. A companion best-of, Land, Sea & Sky: Skids Singles 1978-1981, offers a dozen of the A-sides featured on the…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 15
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. Doc Pomus, You Can’t Hip a Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore) You Can’t Hip a Square: The Doc Pomus Songwriting Demos collects more than 160 tracks from the late, legendary songwriter, who died in 1991 at the age of 65 and was subsequently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Blues Hall of Fame. Over…
John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s New Live Box Set Showcases ‘Sometime in New York City’ and Elsewhere
One of the most incendiary periods of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s life together is about to be re-explored in a new 9CD/3Blu-ray box set coming on October 10 (one day after what would have been Lennon’s 85th birthday) from Capitol Records/UMe. Power to the People features 123 tracks (90 of which are previously unreleased) to tell the full story of Lennon and Ono’s political activism, spanning the prolific period between 1969’s anthem “Give Peace a Chance” and 1972’s controversial live album Sometime in New York City as well as that year’s…
What a Box Set, Charlie Brown! Rare ‘Peanuts’ Soundtracks Join Together in New CD Collection
Even this deep into the age of reissues and audio preservation, discoveries can happen that make you say “AUGH!” (in a good way). A few of those recent examples are about to get put into a box set, available exclusively at independent record stores. Six recently released soundtracks to animated Peanuts television specials – composed, as always, by jazz hero Vince Guaraldi, and not available until the last two years! – are getting compiled in The Peanuts Collection, Vol. 1, available soon at participating retailers from Lee Mendelson Film Productions. Limited to just 500…
Always Something There: Naked Eyes’ Debut to Be Expanded with Rare Tracks and Demos
One of the strangest phenomena of early ’80s pop is that U.K. pop duo Naked Eyes – who stormed the Top 10 in America in the summer of 1983 with a thunderous synth version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me” – completely missed the chart at home. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that a forthcoming expanded edition of their debut, featuring three unreleased demos and a fistful of non-album tracks, takes its cues from the American version of the album. Available October 10, the newly deluxe…
United: Ace Compiles Songs of Gamble and Huff on “Love Train” Collection
Ace Records is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary with special releases as well as concerts and a pop-up shop in London. Over the course of those decades, the label has established a number of long-running series including their Songwriters and Producers lines. A recent release in the Songwriters series celebrates two of the all-time greats in both categories: Philadelphia’s Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff. Love Train: The Gamble and Huff Songbook brings together 24 songs from the Philadelphia International Records duo who also formed two thirds of Mighty Three Publishing along with…
A SECOND DISC EXCLUSIVE! “Play On: A Raspberries Tribute” Welcomes Rick Springfield, Lou Gramm, Marshall Crenshaw, John Waite, More
Today would have been Eric Carmen’s 76th birthday. To mark the occasion, we’re thrilled to be first to break the news about an upcoming collection we know you’re not going to want to miss! The Raspberries blazed briefly but brightly. When Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson of Cyrus Eyrie teamed up with Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley of The Choir, the result was pure bliss. The Raspberries emerged from the ashes from the two bands, and over the course of four albums originally released between 1972 and 1974 – three with the…
The Weekend Stream: August 9, 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. Jim Reeves isn’t the only gentleman on display this week: we’ve also got Peter Gabriel, Eddy Grant, Ben Folds and a host of film composers – plus many, many more! Peter Gabriel, Live At WOMAD 1982 (Real World) (Apple / Amazon) Loosed from the vault is Gabriel’s nine-song headlining set at the first World of Music, Art and Dance Festival, held at the Bath & West Showground in Shepton Mallet,…
The Weekend Stream Extra: Jim Reeves’ Country Legend Goes ‘Singing Down the Lane’ on New Expanded Edition
Even as the sound of country music changed in the 1980s – a shift represented by everything from the Urban Cowboy soundrack to Kenny Rogers’ romantic crossover singles – some things never changed. Take Jim Reeves, for instance: the baritone crooner spent the late ’50s and early ’60s helping craft the “countrypolitan” style that helped the genre spread its wings in other listening markets in America beyond the rural South. Into the late ’70s and early ’80s, he was still a force on the country charts, both on his own (“Oh, How…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 8
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. America, Hearts: 50th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore) Omnivore Recordings is reissuing, remastering, and expanding America’s Hearts, featuring “Sister Golden Hair,” “Daisy Jane,” and “Woman Tonight,” for its 50th anniversary. This new edition adds six bonus cuts to the original album’s dozen tracks. Five of these are unreleased alternate versions and mixes of songs from Hearts including a unique arrangement of Bunnell’s “People in the Valley,”…
Poguetry in Motion: ‘Rum Sodomy & the Lash’ Gets Expanded on CD and Vinyl for 40th Anniversary
The Pogues’ sophomore album turned 40 this week, and Rhino will celebrate later this year with a new deluxe edition on CD and LP. Rum Sodomy & the Lash will be reissued as a 2CD and 2LP set (following a similar package for 1984’s Red Roses for Me, released last year) that’ll feature the original album alongside a baker’s dozen tracks of non-album studio and live material. Extras include two non-album B-sides, six live cuts (including a complete live session recorded for Janice Long’s BBC Radio 1 program) and the 1986 EP Poguetry in…
Ain’t That Tuff Enuff: The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Early Work Gets the Box Set Treatment
Blues band The Fabulous Thunderbirds – who had perhaps one of the least likely chart hits of the ’80s – will release a box set this year chronicling their most mainstream years and showcasing their original and best-known guitarist. The Jimmie Vaughan Years: Complete Studio Recordings presents seven complete albums over four CDs: the Chrysalis releases The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1979), What’s the Word (1980), Butt Rockin’ (1981) and T-Bird Rhythm (1982), and the CBS Associated albums Tuff Enuff (1986), Hot Number (1987) and Powerful Stuff (1989). As an additional treat, the set also includes 13 never-before-released tracks from a 1978 session, co-produced by rock legend Doc…
You Can’t Kill the Boogeyman: John Carpenter’s Latter-Day ‘Halloween’ Scores Get Expanded Box Set
“The night HE came home” is about to have a whole new meaning, thanks to a new box set from Sacred Bones Records containing expanded presentations of the scores to the late ’10s/early ’20s Halloween trilogy of horror films. Halloween: The Complete Expanded Collection will offer, on three CDs or six LPs, a previously-released expanded presentation of the score to the 2018 sequel/reboot, along with new expansions of the music to sequels Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022) – all composed by original series composer/creator/director John Carpenter with his son Cody and godson Daniel Davies…
Sunshine All The Time: Omnivore’s “Something There: Remembering Jeffrey Foskett” Is OUT NOW!
Jeffrey Foskett surely embodied the California Dream. The San Jose native his dues gigging around the Golden State with such early bands as Reverie and The Pranks. A knock on Brian Wilson’s door in 1976 led to a long friendship with the Beach Boy, while Wilson’s cousin Mike Love became a Foskett fan three years later upon hearing Reverie live in a Santa Barbara bar. Love brought Foskett into the Beach Boys fold – first in The Endless Summer Beach Band, then in the Beach Boys themselves. Gifted with an ethereal falsetto,…
Life Begins (Again) At the Hop: XTC’s ‘Drums and Wires’ Gets New Atmos Mix on Slightly Expanded Reissue
One of XTC’s great early albums is getting another facelift courtesy of remixer Steven Wilson. The Porcupine Tree musician and engineer counts the Swindon cult heroes among his earliest remix work, fashioning new stereo and surround mixes of Drums and Wires, Black Sea, The Big Express, Skylarking, Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch between 2013 and 2023 (along with a compilation of the group’s psychedelic work under the alter ego The Dukes of Stratosphear). With multitrack tapes for additional Virgin-era XTC albums proving tough to come by, Wilson revisited Skylarking in Dolby Atmos last year, and has now done the…
Only the Beginning: Rhino Expands ‘Chicago IX’ to Represent Their First Decade
Chicago IX, originally released in time for the Christmas shopping season in 1975, was the band’s first greatest hits album. Originally released on the Columbia label in both stereo and quadraphonic formats, the collection brought together 11 songs spanning 1969’s Chicago Transit Authority through 1974’s Chicago VII. On August 8, Rhino will revisit Chicago IX: Chicago’s Greatest Hits in a gold-hued edition to mark its 50th anniversary. It’s been expanded from 11 to 21 songs, and its purview has been expanded, too: it now goes all the way through 1980’s Chicago XIV,…
This Girl is on Fire (in Japan): Alicia Keys Gets First Compilation Overseas
Ahead of her first shows in Japan in years, soulful singer/songwriter Alicia Keys has received her first greatest hits compilation. The Best of Alicia Keys, now available from Sony Music Japan, is exactly what it says, offering 16 singles from just over two decades’ worth of Keys’ decorated career. The release is timed to her headlining performances later in August at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo and Osaka, a festival she was part of back in 2008. (She’s since played sets there in 2010, 2013 and 2020.) The Blu-spec CD2 pressing…
Photographs and Memories: Remixed Trio of Jim Croce Albums Coming to CD, Vinyl
The shockingly brief but nonetheless brilliant major-label career of Jim Croce will be revisited this year with a triplicate of remixed albums to be released by BMG. The Definitive Croce, available on CD or vinyl on September 19 (just a day short of 52 years since his passing), gathers both albums he recorded and released for ABC Records during his lifetime (You Don’t Mess Around with Jim and Life and Times) plus the posthumous I Got a Name – all recently remixed by engineer Paul Hicks (whose mixing and mastering work includes projects…
The Weekend Stream: August 2, 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. This week brings new (and vintage) tracks from some of pop’s greatest women, rarities from Captain Beefheart, even more Billy Joel (in a slightly different way) and a tribute to one of the greatest discographies you can download for free. Chappell Roan, “The Subway” (Island) (Apple / Amazon) Does last year’s biggest pop star have a new album coming out? After dropping country-flavored “The Giver” earlier this year, the “Pink…
Release Round-Up: Week of August 1
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores this week. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Dionne Warwick, Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971 (SoulMusic/Second Disc/Cherry Red) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Cherry Red) Naturally, we’re bursting at the seams that today is finally Release Day (*) for this massive labor of love. SoulMusic Records and Second Disc Records are proud to present Dionne Warwick’s Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971, a 12CD box set with 280 tracks encompassing every one of…
Can’t Afford No Shoes: Frank Zappa’s “One Size Fits All” Gets Expanded for 50th
Following last year’s deluxe expansion of 1974’s Apostrophe (‘) and the recent restoration of the same year’s concert film Cheaper Than Cheep, Frank Zappa’s archival team is turning the page to 1975 and expansively revisiting One Size Fits All in time for its 50th anniversary. The guitarist-songwriter-bandleader-producer’s twentieth album (and fourteenth with The Mothers of Invention), it featured the by-then-familiar lineup of keyboardist George Duke, drummer Chester Thompson, percussionist Ruth Underwood, bassist Tom Fowler, and saxophonist Napoleon Murphy Brock. One Size Fits All continued their jazz-rooted satirical explorations, and reached No. 26…
OUT TOMORROW! Dionne Warwick’s “Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971” Arrives from SoulMusic, Second Disc
Today’s the day when we can finally share Dionne Warwick’s Make It Easy on Yourself: The Scepter Recordings 1962-1971 with our readers! Though today is the official release date and copies should be shipping within the U.K., Amazon U.S. currently shows August 15 as the release date stateside. To our American friends, we hope you will find this set worth the wait! Here are the full details on this release. “I am so very thrilled about this wonderful collection of my recordings! It is truly something that I myself would buy.” –…
20 Years’ ‘Time’: Michael Bublé’s Breakthrough Comes Home on New Deluxe Edition
Two decades after Canadian crooner Michael Bublé enjoyed his first major chart breakthrough, the album that did so – 2005’s It’s Time – is being reissued for its anniversary. It’s Time will be reissued in a 2CD or 2LP set (the latter pressed on silver vinyl) that’ll feature a dozen studio and live bonus tracks. Having come out at a time of considerable limited editions – some only available at certain American retailers from Target to Starbucks – this edition of It’s Time will offer all of those value-added bonus cuts in one place,…
Soundtrack Watch: La-La Land, Intrada, Varese Heat Up July with Bond and More
No matter the season, it seems like archival film scores are always in style! The last few weeks have seen some killer announcements from La-La Land, Varese Sarabande and Intrada – offering expansions of some action/adventure scores from the ’80s, ’90s and ’00s, plus a terrific new soundtrack reissue of one of the best scores in the James Bond series. La-La Land Records promised a “remastered edition” of John Barry’s score to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service in a recent Variety piece – and it’s now been confirmed that the label has prepped a…
Review: Frank Zappa, “Cheaper Than Cheep”
The latest archival release from the Frank Zappa camp may be called Cheaper Than Cheep, but rest assured, this concert program is actually an embarrassment of audiovisual riches. Available in a variety of formats including 2CD+Blu-ray, 3LP, and 2CD/3LP/1BD configurations, Cheaper Than Cheep preserves a long-lost concert recorded on June 21, 1974 at a rehearsal studio on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood in the wake of the Mothers of Inventions’ tenth anniversary tour. Zappa was joined by a Mothers line-up including Chester Thompson (drums), George Duke (keyboards, vocals), Jeff Simmons (guitar, vocals), Napoleon…