Release Round-Up: Week of February 20

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. EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) (RCA/Legacy) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP (black): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP (translucent orange/yellow): Amazon U.S. 2LP (marbled red): Graceland Baz Luhrmann, the director of 2022’s blockbuster biopic ELVIS, uncovered scores of film outtakes of The King during production, including footage filmed for the concert/documentary films That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour and audio of Presley describing his life and career. EPiC: Elvis Presley in…

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The Weekend Stream: November 15, 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. We got comebacks aplenty: new songs from Squeeze and Robyn, old favorites from Art in America, Jim Reeves and Outkast; a whole ton of jazz and a toast to an unsung hero of the early rock and roll years. Squeeze, “Trixies, Pt. 1” (Love/BMG) (Apple / Amazon) As speculated last week, Squeeze have a new album coming through BMG! Trixies, due March 6, is a loose concept album…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 8

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available today! Al Stewart, Songs on the Radio: The Complete U.S. Singles 1974-1981 (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music) This definitive, first-ever singles collection from singer-songwriter Al Stewart brings together the A- and B-side of every single during the period in which Stewart catapulted from folk clubs to the mainstream.  Stewart bridged the gap between FM rock and AM pop on such classic tracks as “Year of the Cat,” “Carol,” “On the Border,” “Time Passages,” “Midnight…

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The Second Disc’s Guide to Record Store Day 2022: Our Essential Picks and More!

After a series of smaller “Drops” over the past two years, Record Store Day is (mostly) back to a one-day event, and the big day is tomorrow: Saturday, April 23.  Over 250 titles will be available at independent stores everywhere – including some CD releases, too!  That’s plenty of albums in almost every genre imaginable, so visit RecordStoreDay.com in the U.S., RecordStoreDay.co.uk in the U.K., and RecordStoreDayCanada.ca in Canada for the complete list, and sound off below as to which titles you’re most anticipating!  Below you’ll find our staff picks for The…

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Craft Recordings Announces RSD Slate with Vince Guaraldi, Jonathan Richman, Collective Soul, More

Craft Recordings has announced its slate for Record Store Day 2022 taking place on Saturday, April 23 at independent record stores everywhere.  The Concord catalogue arm will deliver a generous ten titles encompassing jazz (Vince Guaraldi, Art Pepper, a new volume of Jazz Dispensary), rock (Collective Soul, Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers), Latin psychedelia (Flash and The Dynamics), soul (Esther Marrow), hip-hop (Heavy Rhyme Experience Vol. 1), punk (Go Ahead Punk…Make My Day), and beyond. You’ll find the full list of Craft’s RSD releases below, with all descriptions provided by the…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 27

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beatles, Abbey Road: Anniversary Edition [Various Formats] (Apple/UMe) Super Deluxe 3CD/Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Deluxe 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Abbey Road celebrates 50 with a variety of editions built around a new 2019 stereo mix by Giles Martin and Sam Okell.  The centerpiece of the campaign, a 3CD/1BD box,…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 13

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Johnny Mathis, Different Kinda Different: Expanded Edition (Second Disc Records/Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Johnny Mathis’ first album of the 1980s, Different Kinda Different, arrives today in an expanded edition from TSD & Real Gone Music.  Mathis ushered in the decade with one of the most romantic and sensual albums in his extensive discography. Different Kinda Different teamed him once more with Jack Gold and Gene Page for a set that lived up to its title as it spotlighted numerous…

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Straight, No Chaser: Omnivore Collects Art Pepper’s Complete Artists House Sessions on New Box

Omnivore Recordings is continuing its association with the late saxophone great Art Pepper with a new box set.  On September 13, the label will issue Promise Kept: The Complete Artists House Recordings on 5 CDs and digital platforms, collecting all four of Pepper’s albums for John Snyder’s Artists House label with bonus material. Producer Snyder had long wished to record Pepper, and to that end, booked him into a week at the Village Vanguard in New York.  But the sax man was under contract to Contemporary Records, whose head Les Koenig opted…

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Release Round-Up: Week of September 29

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! David Bowie, A New Career in a New Town (1977-1982) (Parlophone) 11CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. 13LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon Canada / Amazon U.K. The third release in Parlophone’s series of chronological box sets dedicated to the music of David Bowie, A New Career in a New Town (1977-1982) closes the book on the legendary artist’s RCA career.  It follows 2015’s Five Years (1969-1973) and 2016’s Who Can I Be Now? (1974-1976), offering material from five major studio and live albums: Low (1977), “Heroes” (1977), Stage (1978), Lodger (1979) and Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) (1980). Low, “Heroes” and Lodger are, of course, referred to as the “Berlin”…

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Release Round-Up: Week of June 30

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beach Boys, 1967: Sunshine Tomorrow (Capitol/Brother/UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The Beach Boys’ Sunshine Tomorrow, a new 2-CD and digital collection, not only premieres the first-ever true stereo mix of 1967’s Wild Honey, but also premieres a whopping 54 rarities recorded that year including the live album Lei’d in Hawaii, session material from both Wild Honey and Smiley Smile, and further live recordings (spanning 1967-1970).  Read all of the specs here, and tune back in soon for our full review of…

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Thank You Friends: Omnivore Unveils Record Store Day Slate with Big Star, NRBQ, Art Pepper

This morning, Omnivore Recordings announced its Record Store Day slate, boasting a trio of limited edition vinyl editions from Big Star, NRBQ and the Art Pepper Quartet.   These will be available at your favorite local independent record store on Saturday, April 22 as part of this year’s RSD festivities. The 1957 album The Art Pepper Quartet, featuring alto saxophonist Pepper, bassist Ben Tucker, pianist Russ Freeman and drummer Gary Frommer, marks its 60th anniversary this year.  Omnivore has teamed with Pepper’s wife Laurie to return this seminal jazz classic to vinyl on…

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Make a List, Make a Wish: Elemental Music Uncovers Live Art Pepper

Art Pepper would have turned 90 on September 1 of this year.  Though the great alto saxophonist passed away in 1982, aged just 56, his legacy lives on.  Elemental Music has most recently celebrated Pepper’s enduring influence on jazz with the new release of Live at Fat Tuesday’s by The Art Pepper Quartet. This new five-song set preserves the performances of Pepper (alto sax), Milcho Leviev (piano), George Mraz (bass) and Al Foster (drums) at the New York nightspot on the evening of April 15, 1981.  (Omnivore Recordings’ three-volume series Neon Art also drew…

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 7

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Who, The Brunswick Singles 1965-1966 (UMe) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Who box up replicas of seven early 7-inch singles plus an eighth with The High Numbers’ “Zoot Suit” b/w “I’m the Face” on this deluxe vinyl box set.  Read more here. Herman’s Hermits, The 50th Anniversary Anthology (Bear Family) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Bear Family gives the “I’m Into Something Good” and “There’s a Kind of Hush” pop stars the deluxe treatment with this new release featuring 66 tracks (spanning hits, B-sides, rarities…

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Release Round-Up: Week of March 10

This week brings a particularly impressive slate by any standard, but we’re particularly proud to introduce the world to Second Disc Records with our first two releases, from Johnny Mathis and the late Bob Crewe! Johnny Mathis, Life is a Song Worth Singing: The Complete Thom Bell Sessions (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Here, on two CDs, we proudly present both of Johnny Mathis’ album collaborations – including the never-on-CD Mathis Is… – with songwriter-producer Thom Bell, plus ten bonus tracks!  Read more here! Bob Crewe, The Complete Elektra Recordings…

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Release Round-Up: Week of February 17

  The Pretenders, 1979-1999 (Edsel) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) This mega-box features all of Edsel’s expanded Pretenders reissues, totaling the band’s eight Sire/Warner Bros. albums across 14 CDs and 8 DVDs (with six of the titles as 2-CD/1-DVD sets and two as 1-CD/1-DVD sets).  Wow!  All of the box set’s albums are also available individually (see below)!  All track listings and discography can be found here. The Pretenders, 1979-1999 individual CD/DVD reissues (Edsel) Pretenders  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Pretenders II  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Learning To Crawl  (Amazon U.S. / Amazon…

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Vinyl Renaissance: Omnivore Recordings Offers Art Pepper, Josh Haden’s Spain on Vinyl, Plus “Music City” Rarities

The term “record store” (two rather hallowed words in these parts!) has long been used to describe those stores that sell music, even well into the age of the CD, and now, the digital download.  But lately, record store walls have been lined with more and more actual vinyl records.  In 2011, more records were purchased than in any other year in the past two decades, with sales up 36 percent over 2010, to a not-too-shabby 3.9 million. Sales for 2012 are likely to best that number.  Since its founding in 2010,…

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