Until Them Dreams Come True: Aerosmith’s Debut Reissued with New Remix, Live Cuts and Outtakes
When Aerosmith surprised fans by moving their entire catalogue to Universal Music Group – switching two eras of material for Columbia Records (eight studio and live LPs originally issued between 1973-1982 and a further four studio releases from 1997-2012), everyone was dreaming on about potential archival titles. But outside of the terrific early rehearsal EP 1971: The Road Starts Hear and a new greatest hits package, there wasn’t much to speak of, and frontman Steven Tyler’s vocal issues forced an early end to their planned farewell tour. But just as in the ’80s,…
Not Under the Thumb of the Cynical Few: Early, Unreleased Howard Jones Set Unearthed by Cherry Red
Cherry Red, longtime home for Howard Jones’ catalogue, will release an unheard set from the beginning of his career this month. Live At The Marquee, available January 30, finds the inimitable singer/songwriter/keyboardist wowing a crowd at the late London venue just before his commercial breakthrough in 1983. The wholly unreleased show, available on CD and yellow vinyl, was unearthed from master tapes when the label began compiling bonus material for reissues of his former Warner catalogue in 2018, and remixed by Jones himself for this release. (It appears from the metadata that three…
Do You Believe in Magic? Cherry Red Collects The Lovin’ Spoonful’s Complete 1960s Recordings on “What a Day for a Daydream”
New York native John Sebastian fused pop and folk when he joined with Zal Yanovsky, Steve Boone and Joe Butler as The Lovin’ Spoonful. Over an eighteen-month period beginning in the summer of 1965, the band notched seven consecutive top ten hits on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 including two which reached No. 2 (“Daydream” and “Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind” and one which hit the top spot (“Summer in the City”). Though the original group’s time together was short-lived, the music has lived on, and a lineup…
The Weekend Stream: January 24, 2026
Welcome back 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 a lot of new songs from old favorites and a couple of digital-forward expanded reissues, too – you don’t want to miss this! Squeeze, “You Get the Feeling” (Love/BMG) (Apple / Amazon) The latest single from Squeeze’s forthcoming Trixies, though written early in the partnership of Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, harkens back to their signature sound. It’s also the first track from the album to have…
The Body Electric: Rush Set Remixed, Expanded ‘Grace Under Pressure’ for March
Another of Rush’s mid-’80s works is getting expanded in 2026: 1984’s Grace Under Pressure. A 4CD or 5LP deluxe box set – each available with a Blu-ray Disc – is coming March 11, set to feature the original album remastered by Sean Magee at Abbey Road Studios, a new mix by the band’s longtime collaborator Terry Brown, a remixed and expanded edition of the live album and video Grace Under Pressure Tour, plus new surround mixes of the record and restored music videos. The deluxe packaging includes a re-imagining of the cover by…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 23
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 Power Station, The Power Station DLX (Parlophone/Rhino) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Rhino is expanding the self-titled debut from The Power Station into a 4CD box set. 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,…
Miles Davis’ ‘Plugged Nickel’ Box Gets Reissued for Jazz Icon’s Centennial
Miles Davis’ upcoming centennial will be honored in part with a reissue of a box set collecting some of his greatest live recordings: seven sets at Chicago’s Plugged Nickel nightclub with his second great quintet line-up, recorded just before Christmas 1965. The near-mythic The Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel 1965 was originally released in full by Sony Music in Japan in 1992, after two 1976 Japan-only LPs offering a small sample of the performances. (Those LPs were released as one set in America in 1982, with a disc of alternates, Cookin’ At the…
Stranger Than Fiction: Split Enz’s ‘Enzyclopedia’ Series Receives ‘Second Thoughts’ Vinyl Interlude
When Split Enz started their new archival series Enzyclopedia Volumes One and Two last year, there was a bit of a difference across formats. The 5CD box set included new remasters of debut Mental Notes and Second Thoughts, a new mix of the latter by longtime keyboardist Eddie Rayner, a tweaked version of early odds-and-ends compilation The Beginning of The Enz, and a new rarities set, Wide Angle Enz. The equivalent 3LP box, however, only had the remastered Mental Notes, the remixed Second Thoughts and the retooled Beginning. While fans await any news on another volume of Enzyclopedia, the band (soon…
Still I Dream of It: The Beach Boys’ ‘We Gotta Groove’ Highlights ‘Love You,’ ’15 Big Ones,’ ‘Adult/Child’ Eras
Over three years after the release of Sail On Sailor: 1972, The Beach Boys’ long-running archival series is back in full force with a new box set due on February 13. We Gotta Groove: The Brother Studio Years brings together highlights from the band’s 1974-1977 period, with the title referring to the band’s own Santa Monica studio. The set will look a bit different than the past releases in this series, eschewing separate CD and LP formats for a combined 3LP/3CD box with a number of tracks only in the CD format. (UPDATE…
Artists Only: Talking Heads’ ‘Tentative Decisions’ Collection Gets CD Expansion
One of the highlights of Rhino’s Record Store Day Black Friday bounty was Tentative Decisions: Demos and Live, a selection of early material from art-rock icons Talking Heads that predated (and had been left off) the 2024 deluxe edition of the group’s debut album Talking Heads: 77. Those hoping for a wider reissue will have their prayers answered in a big way: an expanded box set version will be released this spring. Tentative Decisions includes the baker’s dozen of 1975-1976 demos (plus one live recording and two tracks from The Artistics, an embryonic…
Skin It Back: John Mellencamp’s Early Works Revisited on New Anthology
Heartland rocker John Mellencamp recently announced the Dancing Words tour, a summer trek through America in July and August that’ll focus on hits he’s not played in a while to audiences in outdoor amphitheaters. A few months before that, Cherry Red’s Lemon imprint will issue an exciting new compilation that takes things back to the beginning of Mellencamp’s career – under a different name, and with some enticing unreleased material. American Dream (The Mainman Recordings 1976-1977), coming April 3, is a 2CD set that’ll feature both albums he recorded for the MCA-distributed Mainman…
The Weekend Stream: January 17, 2025
Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts. New music from country and soul icons and a reissue of a big pop album for its 25th anniversary kick things off, plus some appealing odds and ends from other corners of the music world. Al Green, To Love Somebody (Fat Possum) (Apple / Amazon) The Hi Priest of Memphis soul issues his first bundle of tracks since 2008’s full-length Lay It Down, all of which are covers and…
Release Round-Up: Week of January 16
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. Various Artists, NOW Yearbook: Vault ’82 (NOW Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The U.K.’s NOW line continues with another Vault installment spotlight hits of 1982 including The Who’s “Athena,” Elton John’s “Empty Garden,” Neil Diamond’s “Heartlight,” Billy Joel’s “Allentown,” Bruce Springsteen’s “Atlantic City,” and much more from a cross-section of artists and genres. Out today in the U.K.; available next Friday in North America….
A Second Disc Interview: Andrew Sandoval on “The Kinks – All Day and All of the Night: The Day-by-Day Story Pt. 1 – 1940-1971”
Here at Second Disc HQ, we’re longtime fans of writer-producer-musician-historian Andrew Sandoval. In addition to his groundbreaking work with The Monkees catalogue – including, most recently, helming the Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd. box set and penning the liner notes for the singles collection The As, The Bs, and The Monkees – Andrew has curated reissues from artists including The Everly Brothers, The Band, Love, Bee Gees, Van Morrison, and The Kinks. Andrew’s longtime association with the latter band has led to a new release coming soon from his boutique publishing house,…
Lessons in Love: Robinsongs Caps Off Level 42 Box Sets with ‘The Later Years 2001-2020’
Cherry Red’s suite of labels have already planned a healthy amount of box sets and reissues for the first quarter of the year. One such title is Robinsongs’ fourth collection devoted to the work of British jazz-rock outfit Level 42 – and since the last one of them we covered was a volume in 2021, the time seemed right to catch you up while sharing the new news, too. The work kicked off with The Complete Polydor Years 1980-1984, a 10CD set offering the band’s first five albums (Level 42 (1981), The Early Tapes –…
I Have the Touch: Two Vintage Peter Gabriel Live Sets Get Physical Releases
Peter Gabriel may be prepping an unexpected new album this year (o\i, the comparatively rapid follow-up to 2023’s decades-in-development i/o) – but don’t worry: he’s got catalogue plans, too! Over the next few months, the two time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will offer physical releases of two archival live shows he released digitally last year: Live At WOMAD 1982, and In the Big Room, a live-in-studio set from 2003. Live At WOMAD takes listeners back to the first installment of Gabriel’s founded festival of the same name, occurring over a weekend in…
Castles in the Air: New Box Set Offers Complete Works of The Colourfield
The brief, eclectic work of British band The Colourfield will be investigated in a new box set from Chrysalis this winter. The Sound of The Colourfield brings together five CDs and a region-free DVD collecting the band’s brief but appealing discography and 40 unreleased tracks. It includes the albums Virgins and Philistines (1985) and Deception (1987), discs devoted to single-only material, demos and live cuts, and a videography offering music videos and BBC television appearances. The mediabook package includes unseen photos and new liner notes by John Earls of Record Collector, drawing from new interviews…
Wonder Who the Real Men Are: Tori Amos’ ‘Strange Little Girls’ Gets Expanded
Tori Amos’ sixth and final album for longtime label Atlantic was one of her most conceptually striking – and a new expanded edition will offer some additional rare and unreleased material to go with it. 2001’s Strange Little Girls will be expanded by Rhino on February 20, featuring the album’s original 12 tracks – all covers of songs by men – plus an additional four (on the 2LP set’s final side or a bonus CD with the album), two of which are previously unreleased. As a unique treat, the vinyl packaging will feature…
Where Is The Love: Rhino Collects Roberta Flack’s First Eight Studio Albums in New Box
On February 10, Roberta Flack would have celebrated her 90th birthday. Though Flack passed away in February 2025, the occasion is being marked with a new box set from Rhino. With Her Songs: The Atlantic Albums 1969-1978 brings together the late artist’s first eight studio albums in one compact package. The 8CD set is due on February 6. With Her Songs kicks off with 1969’s First Take. Upon its expanded release in 2020 – still the only time an album of Flack’s has received a physical expanded edition – TSD wrote, “Recorded…
Good Clean Fun: Rhino Preps New Monkees Singles Collection
Following last year’s deluxe box of The Monkees’ Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones, Ltd., Rhino has announced its first release from the band in 2026. The A’s, The B’s and The Monkees, at long last, brings together on 2 CDs all of the band’s commercial singles originally released between 1966 and 1970, from “Last Train to Clarksville” b/w “Take a Giant Step” through “Oh My My” b/w “I Love You Better.” The set is due from Rhino on January 30. (Some copies ordered directly from Rhino are already shipping.) The A’s, The…
Soundtrack Watch: Varese, La-La Land, Quartet Wrap Up the Year with Goldsmith, Bernstein, Mancini, Zimmer and More
The last calendar page of the year (and, in this case, even the first!) means a bounty of soundtrack reissues! La-La Land Records, Varese Sarabande and Quartet have all recently planned some exciting expansions for your favorite score collector. La-La Land may have claimed that they were “serving coal” this year, with a lot of their typically big end-of-year titles stuck in approval delays – but they still prepared two late-period favorites from two classic film composers (plus an exciting vinyl title for James Bond fans) before kicking off January with two…
Laughing in My Sleep: Rhino Remasters and Expands Squeeze’s ‘Play’
Part of Rhino’s annual “Start Your Ear Off Right” promotion is a very welcome surprise: a remastered and expanded edition of one of the most underrated albums by British pop/rock band Squeeze. 1991’s Play will return for its 35th anniversary on January 23; available on double vinyl at participating independent retailers – its first release on the format in America – but it’ll also be released on CD, too, pairing the remastered 12-track album with four hard-to-find B-sides from the album’s singles, “Satisfied” and “Sunday Street.” The release of Play found Squeeze at a…
In Memoriam: Bob Weir (1947-2026)
Some folks look for answers/Others look for fights/Some folks up in treetops/Just look to see the sights I can tell your future/Look what’s in your hand/But I can’t stop for nothing/I’m just playing in the band… – Mickey Hart, Robert Hunter, and Bob Weir, “Playing in the Band” On Saturday evening, New York’s Empire State Building was lit up with the colors of tie-dye. The tribute marked the passing at the age of 78 of Bob Weir, the co-founder of Grateful Dead whose music both epitomized and transcended the counterculture in which…
The Weekend Stream: January 10, 2026
Welcome back 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 some new music from old pop favorites, a few Record Store Day Black Friday releases, and a pop icon and a big rock band moving their catalogues from one label to another. It’s a lot to keep up with, but we’ve got your back! Bruno Mars, “I Just Might” (Atlantic) (Apple / Amazon) Though Bruno Mars has hardly been absent from the pop charts recently – earning…
That’s All Right: Baz Luhrmann’s New Elvis Concert Film Gets Remix-Packed Soundtrack
Yesterday, on the occasion of Elvis Presley’s birthday, Legacy Recordings announced their latest release devoted to The King of Rock and Roll: a companion album to next month’s forthcoming EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert. Drawn from unseen live footage from the 1970s, this 27-track album will combine concert favorites as well as some new studio remixes and medleys of familiar material. The album will be available on CD and digitally February 20 – day and date with the film’s IMAX release – with several 2LP formats following on April 24. A follow-up to…