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,…

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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….

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The Weekend Stream: July 12, 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 one has it all: Sting, a family named King, one Boss, two Deborahs, 311, ’00s power-pop nuggets, an actress with a killer voice singing on England’s hottest balcony – and a trailer for our most-anticipated music documentary of the month! Sting, The Dream of the Blue Turtles (Expanded Edition) (A&M/UMe) (Apple / Amazon) Concurrent to its SHM-CD release in Japan (alongside other previous digital-only deluxe editions), Sting’s 1985 solo…

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Cuts The Deepest: Edsel Celebrates P.P. Arnold on “Soul Survivor” Box Set

One of P.P. Arnold’s early sides for Immediate Records was titled “Am I Still Dreaming?”  The song, which the artist born Patricia Ann Cole in Los Angeles wrote at the encouragement of none other than Mick Jagger, is one of the 57 songs on 3 CDs assembled by Edsel Records on the dream of a box set appropriately entitled Soul Survivor: A Life in Song.  The collection, compiled by the singer and Michael Mulligan, traces the onetime Ikette’s career from her signing to Andrew Loog Oldham’s label through subsequent collaborations with Barry…

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Release Round-Up: Week of November 22

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today including a Christmas classic from Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music and a whole bunch of massive box sets!  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Sings Christmas Carols (Expanded Edition) (Second Disc/Real Gone)  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) Over the past decade, we here at TSD have happily partnered with Real Gone Music on an array of Christmas releases from such evergreen artists as Johnny Mathis, The Supremes, Chet Atkins,…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 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. Dwight Twilley, Jungle: Expanded Edition (Iconoclassic) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Iconoclassic’s deluxe expanded edition of power pop hero Dwight Twilley’s third solo album boasts six bonus tracks including the outtakes “Forget About It, Baby,” “You Can Change It,” and “Don’t You Love Her,” and Twilley’s demos of “Long, Lonely Nights,” “To Get to You,” and the title track.  Ken Sharp has contributed a new essay based on his…

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Rolling Stock: “Starlight Express” Returns to Vinyl to Celebrate New London Production

Andrew Lloyd Webber first became interested in adapting Reverend W. Aubry’s Thomas the Tank Engine stories in 1974.  A pilot episode for a proposed television series was produced but ultimately not picked up.  But the Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat composer didn’t give up on the idea of musicalizing a story with trains.  He took a step towards that goal with the 1977 single “Engine of Love” for American singer Earl Jordan, and then developed an animated spin on the Cinderella story with trains.  That project never…

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The Weekend Stream: October 29, 2022

Welcome to The Weekend Stream, a relaxing weekly review of notable digital-only catalogue titles.  There may be no CD or vinyl, but there’s plenty of great new/old music to usher you into the weekend. This week, it’s a stuffed Halloween sack full of sweet rarities from INXS and Madonna, remixes of Frank Zappa and Bing Crosby, two completely unreleased 50-year-old albums and a brand-new spin on a Stephen Sondheim classic – and that’s only half of it! INXS, Shabooh Shoobah (40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (Atlantic/Rhino) (iTunes / Amazon) The INXS catalogue is…

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The Year In Review: The 2021 Gold Bonus Disc Awards, From A to Z – Part One

Happy 2022!  Welcome, friends, to The Second Disc’s 12th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! Once again, we’ve all faced unprecedented challenges over the past twelve months.  A year that began with hope and promise has ended with further uncertainty for many of us.  But music continues to fill a significant role in our lives, providing solace, comfort, and escape in a time unlike any other.  With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2021’s cream of the catalogue music crop – those exemplary reissues and box sets big and…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 17

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Bob Dylan, Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) (Columbia/Legacy) 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The latest volume of Bob Dylan’s long-running archival series, Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980-1985) covers the period in which Dylan recorded the albums Shot of Love (the final LP in his so-called “Christian trilogy”), Infidels, and Empire Burlesque.  While in a creatively fertile period as a songwriter and performer, Dylan was dealing – like everyone else – with the seismic changes that…

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What’s The Buzz? “Jesus Christ Superstar” Returning For 50th Anniversary In Various Formats Including 3-CD Box Set

“Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two and one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad,” wrote The New York Times‘ Clive Barnes on October 13, 1971 upon the New York debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar.  Indeed, the original Jesus Christ Superstar album was a sensation long before it ever hit Broadway’s Mark Hellinger Theatre.  A true hybrid of rock and theater, it was introduced as a record but destined for the world’s stages. The once-controversial rock…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 9

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Almost Famous: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (UMe, 2021) Out today: 2CD Highlights: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Stillwater Vinyl EP: uDiscoverMusic.com Out August 20: 5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5CD/7LP/1-7″ Super Deluxe Edition and color variants: uDiscoverMusic.com Cameron Crowe is revisiting the soundtrack to his 2000 instant classic Almost Famous in near-complete form as a 5-CD or 6-LP set as well as in shorter highlights versions and a Super Deluxe box containing all of the music…

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Release Round-Up: Weeks of December 20 and 27, and January 3

Welcome to our final Release Round-Up of 2019!  This edition covers today’s releases as well as those of the next two weeks, the quietest time of the year for new releases.  The weekly Release Round-Up will be back on January 10.  In the meantime, Happy Holidays to all! Frank Zappa, The Hot Rats Sessions (Zappa/UMe) 6CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada This 6-CD box set explores Frank Zappa’s 1969 primarily instrumental solo album Hot Rats from every angle. The first…

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Release Round-Up: Week of March 16

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Andrew Lloyd Webber: Unmasked – The Platinum Collection (Polydor/UMC) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada  2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada  Let the memory live again!  Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrates his 70th birthday and provocative new memoir Unmasked with this 4-CD, 71-track box set of the same name.  The career-spanning anthology features many of the composer’s most famed songs from Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar, School of Rock, and more, performed by artists including…

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Music of the Night: Andrew Lloyd Webber Celebrates His 70th Birthday with a New Box Set

Since September 25, 1979, there hasn’t been a day when an Andrew Lloyd Webber melody hasn’t been heard on Broadway.  That was the opening night of Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Evita.  Before it ended its run in June 1983, Lloyd Webber’s musical Cats had opened, launching a record-breaking run through September 2000.  But on January 26, 1988, the show opened which would eclipse them all: Phantom of the Opera.  It today celebrates 30 years (marked with a special gala earlier this week) and is comfortably the longest-running show in Broadway history,…

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Something Special: Cherry Red Collects Lloyd Webber, Rice-Produced Psych-Rockers Tales of Justine

To collectors of rare psychedelia, Tales of Justine is known for one lone single on the HMV label.  The band’s lone platter of “Albert” b/w “Monday Morning” came and went in October 1967.  Its lead singer, David Daltrey (thought to be a distant cousin of The Who’s Roger) went on to sing the title role on the original concept album of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat – no surprise, as Lloyd Webber orchestrated and Rice produced the band’s only single.  But Lloyd Webber and…

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Heaven On Their Minds: Remastered “Jesus Christ Superstar” Coming From Verve, with Deep Purple’s Ian Gillan, Yvonne Elliman

“Nothing could convince me that any show that has sold two and one-half million copies of its album before the opening night is anything like all bad,” wrote The New York Times’ Clive Barnes on October 13, 1971 upon the Broadway debut of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar.  Indeed, the original Jesus Christ Superstar was a bit of a revelation, a true hybrid of rock and theater, introduced as a record but destined for the world’s stages.  And it’s returning in a new, remastered edition. That 1970 concept…

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Bacharach, Sondheim, Lloyd Webber Honored by Melissa Manchester, Dave Koz, Stephen Bishop and More on New Kritzerland Releases

Kritzerland is reaching into the vaults of Los Angeles’ S.T.A.G.E. charitable organization for three star-filled releases celebrating composers who need no introduction: Burt Bacharach, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.  These live concert recordings feature renowned artists from the worlds of pop (Melissa Manchester, Stephen Bishop) and jazz (Dave Koz, Ann Hampton Callaway) plus stars from stage, screen and television (Tyne Daly, Felicity Huffman, Len Cariou, Charlotte Rae, Donna McKechnie) and even some rather unexpected performers (Rip Taylor, Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry), all tackling selections from these deep songbooks.  The Lloyd…

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