Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Various Artists, Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records (Craft Recordings) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Craft Recordings' 75th anniversary campaign for groundbreaking R&B label Specialty Records kicks off with Rip It Up: The Best of Specialty Records on CD, LP, and digital platforms. The 18 tracks on Rip It Up spotlight the incendiary R&B and, later, rock-and-roll that
Back in 2018, we wrote about an upcoming vinyl reissue of Joan Armatrading's self-titled album on Intervention Records. (It was actually your author's very first post on The Second Disc!) Intervention had been making a name for themselves as the new kid on the block of audiophile labels. This imprint has since become known for its attention to detail, commitment to superior audio, and deluxe presentations. We were no doubt thrilled to hear what was to come. Well, after a slight pause,
Intervention Records - the label well-known for its audiophile-quality releases - has announced its latest title: Joan Armatrading's 1976 self-titled classic. It's been highly anticipated since we first reported about it, and we're thrilled that the time is finally right for its reappraisal. Armatrading's breakthrough album will be reissued on 180-gram vinyl on April 5. With classic tracks like "Love and Affection" and "Down to Zero," the Glyn Johns-produced Joan Armatrading was the
Today, The Second Disc welcomes a new voice! Please give a warm welcome to our newest contributor, Sam Stone. Sam brings deep knowledge and tremendous passion for the world of catalogue music, and we're confident that his fresh perspective will put his news and reviews for The Second Disc on the top of your must-read list. You can read a little more about Sam at the end of this post. We couldn't be more thrilled to have him on board. Without further ado...take it away, Sam! Intervention
In the spirit of past box sets such as Love, Poetry and Revolution which spotlighted the British underground psychedelic scene circa 1966-1972, Cherry Red's Grapefruit label has just released Dust on the Nettles, a new 3-CD compendium of British underground folk in roughly the same time period (1967-1972). This new mini-box set, subtitled A Journey Through the British Underground Folk Scene, boasts 63 tracks and a running time of nearly four hours. The emphasis is on the genre sometimes
Singer/songwriter Joan Armatrading first burst onto the scene in 1972 with the Cube Records release of Whatever's for Us. In the 40+ years since, the Caribbean-born British artist has released eighteen studio albums, scored three U.K. and two U.S. Top 40 singles, and netted three Grammy nominations in an enduring and rich career. Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings imprint has just returned to Whatever's for Us for a newly remastered reissue. An early break came for Joan Armatrading when she