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 remixes from Pet Shop Boys, old remixes from INXS, plus rare folk, jazz and alt-rock favorites - plus another bounty of unusual Christmas albums and EPs! Pet Shop Boys, New London boy / All the young dudes EPs (x2/Parlophone) Standard: iTunes / Amazon Remixes: iTunes / Amazon A new double A-side single from Pet Shop
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 all the usual stuff you'd expect - reissues from Usher, rarities from The Alan Parsons Project, and another unique Daryl Hall-related EP - and some stuff you might not, like truly unusual Christmas collections and a new app from one of the best places for music in video games! Nintendo Music app One genre the Second Disc team has
For nearly no other occasion would you see these three bands in the same sentence, but it's true: vinyl box sets are all forthcoming from blues-rock legend Eric Clapton, Norwegian popsmiths a-ha, and '90s indie-folk darlings Neutral Milk Hotel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdl2I1spS8M This week, on January 13, Clapton readies The Complete Reprise Studio Albums - Volume II from Rhino Records. This 10LP set picks up where last year's first set left off, offering new remasters of Clapton's
With a new James Bond film set to shake (not stir) audiences in November, a longtime compilation of the super-spy's famed film themes is getting a new iteration on November 20. The Best of Bond...James Bond offers a stellar 25-track overview of the pop themes that scored nearly all of the films based on Ian Fleming's famed British secret agent. There are 14 U.K. Top 10 hits and two Academy Award winners herein - altogether, a formidable, half-century-plus musical portrait of one of cinema's
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Cream, Goodbye Tour Live 1968 (Polydor/UMC) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This new 4-CD box set expands on Cream's farewell album Goodbye Cream, but with a twist: it drops the three studio tracks and instead presents four complete concerts including the Los Angeles Forum show from which the original three live cuts on Goodbye were culled. Overall, the book-style package has 36 tracks, 29 of which are premiering on CD. 19 of the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, The Great Songs of Christmas: Classic Carols and Pop Favorites (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music proudly present the first new volume of The Great Songs of Christmas in nearly 50 years bringing many of the exclusive tracks featured on Goodyear's original 1961-1970 series together. Expect to hear rarities from Percy Faith, Andre Kostelanetz, Johnny Mathis,
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Jethro Tull, Stormwatch: 40th Anniversary Edition (Chrysalis) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Jethro Tull continues its long-running box set series with a new 4CD/2DVD expansion of 1979's Stormwatch, the final Tull album to feature the "classic" line-up of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, John Glascock, John Evan, David (now Dee) Palmer, and Barriemore Barlow. The new edition features: The original album and associated recordings
If you set your Wayback Machine to February 1, 2010, you'll find one of The Second Disc's earliest posts - the inaugural Reissue Theory column, dedicated to imagining a 25th anniversary multi-disc edition of a-ha's 1985 debut studio album Hunting High and Low. Well, good things do come to those who wait, because Warner Bros. and Rhino are revisiting the album - for a second time - on November 22. A 4-CD/1-DVD edition of the album arrived in 2015, handily besting the 2010 double-CD edition.
a-ha broke onto the scene in the '80s with a run of five successful albums, but went on a seven-year hiatus in 1993 following the release of Memorial Beach. In the interim, the Norwegian trio - Morten Harket, Magne Furuholmen and Pål Waaktaar-Savoy - explored different interests until they were invited to perform at the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo. Their two-song set brought them international attention and they soon reconvened in New York to write what would become their 2000
August 14 sees the theatrical release of Blinded by the Light, a new coming-of-age film inspired by Sarfraz Manzoor's Greetings from Bury Park: Race, Religion and Rock N' Roll. Both book and movie chronicle the story of a young man's life-changing experiences with the music of Bruce Springsteen, so it's only appropriate that a soundtrack filled with Boss tunes would be on the way. On August 9, Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings will release Blinded by the Light: Original Motion Picture
Today, Rhino announced its offerings for the 2019 Record Store Day celebration, taking place at your local brick-and-mortar shop Saturday, April 13. Rhino's 33 releases highlight several genres of music - soul, rock, rap, comedy, disco, pop, jam bands, prog, and more - on an array of formats including LPs, CDs, picture discs, colored vinyl, and even cassette tapes. Here's the run-down on all their RSD titles! a-ha, Hunting High and Low: The Early Alternate Mixes - 1 LP - 6,000
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! CHIC, The CHIC Organization 1977-1979 (Atlantic/Rhino) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This new box set, available in 5-CD and 6-LP formats, brings together new Nile Rodgers Signature Edition remasters of CHIC's first three albums plus Sister Sledge's CHIC-produced We Are Family and a bonus disc of period single edits and 12-inch mixes. The vinyl edition includes additional text
Looking back from a vantage point thirty years on, there's no denying the special place that the 1980s have in the history of popular music. It was a decade that surveyed past musical ground while simultaneously advancing the art form further, making an indelible mark on music to come. With dancefloor grooves, yearning ballads, infectious pop, and more, it was a decade of great music. Now, Rhino has announced a new collection that reimagines some of the smash hits from the decade: 80s
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up featuring a host of titles on CD and vinyl! Elvis Presley, The Album Collection (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) To coincide with the 60th anniversary of his signing to RCA, Elvis Presley's The Album Collection is a whopping 60-disc box set containing 57 RCA albums released during Presley's lifetime (many with bonus tracks added) and 3 bonus discs of rarities, one disc each for the '50s, '60s and '70s. A 300-page
Last year was chock full of reissue news for fans of a-ha, with a 30th anniversary edition of the band's landmark debut Hunting High and Low and reissues of the band's third, fourth and fifth albums for Warner Bros. Records. This all came alongside a surprise brief reunion of the Norwegian trio, five years after their 2010 dissolution, for a new album and subsequent tour of Europe. With that tour set to kick off in Russia on March 6, the band have announced another compilation, Time and
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Elvis Costello has compiled a 2-CD companion release to his recently-released, utterly engrossing memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Featuring songs that "offer the deepest emotional connection to the themes and stories in his book," Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album non-chronologically spans the onetime Angry Young Man and latter-day
Following both the 30th anniversary reissue of their debut album Hunting High and Low (1985) and the release of a new record, Cast in Steel, a-ha will complete the expansion of their early catalogue in October. Expanded editions of the band's third, fourth and fifth albums, Stay on These Roads (1988), East of the Sun, West of the Moon (1990) and Memorial Beach (1993) will join the new 4CD/1DVD box set version of Hunting High and Low and an expanded Scoundrel Days (1986), released alongside a
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up including a couple of spectacular new box sets, one acclaimed soundtrack, numerous reissues and anthologies, and the return of a few beloved artists! a-ha, Hunting High and Low: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros./Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The 1985 debut from a-ha gets super-sized with Rhino's upcoming 4-CD/1-DVD edition. Disc One has the original, remastered album, while Disc Two boasts 25 demos, Disc Three has 15
If you set your Wayback Machine to February 1, 2010, you'll find one of The Second Disc's earliest posts - the inaugural Reissue Theory column, dedicated to imagining a 25th anniversary multi-disc edition of a-ha's 1985 debut studio album Hunting High and Low. Well, good things do come to those who wait, because Warner Bros. and Rhino are finally delivering on such a project with the album's upcoming 30th anniversary box set! With 4 CDs and a DVD, this handily bests the 2010 double-CD edition.
Tomorrow, Saturday, April 18, music fans and collectors will flock to their local independent record stores to celebrate both the sounds on those familiar round black platters and the cherished opportunity to shop for music in a physical retail environment. To many of us, both are a way of life. Each year around this time, we here at Second Disc HQ take a few moments to count down the titles to which we're most looking forward to picking up! Our friend and founder, Mike Duquette, returns to
Rhino isn't resting on its laurels for Record Store Day! The label has announced its biggest slate ever for Record Store Day, with 30 limited edition 12-inch, 10-inch, and 7-inch vinyl releases due on Saturday, April 18. Full details as provided by the label for all titles can be found below. As always with RSD, these releases will be available exclusively at select independent music retailers on April 18, and you can find the list of participating shops here! a-ha - Take On Me 7-inch
Here's a new feature I'm really excited about on The Second Disc. I'm calling it Reissue Theory (which was very nearly the title of this blog). Herein, I plot out what I think would be excellent plans to expand great catalogue titles. Using the best research skills I can muster, I'll try to put together the perfect playlist for that sorely missing deluxe title. First up is Hunting High and Low, the debut album by pop legends a-ha. Though their chart-topping "Take on Me" was the biggest