Release Round-Up: Week of April 24

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. Michael Jackson, Michael: Songs from the Motion Picture (Epic/Legacy) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP (Black Vinyl): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP (Clear Vinyl): Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP (Translucent Black Ice Vinyl): Independent Record Stores Cassette: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Friday, April 24 sees the release in theatres everywhere of Michael, director Antoine Fuqua’s biopic-slash-celebration of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson.  Epic Records and Legacy Recordings are marking the occasion with…

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Working Day and Night: Michael Jackson Biopic Yields New Compilation

Friday, April 24 sees the release in theatres everywhere of Michael, director Antoine Fuqua’s biopic-slash-celebration of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson.  Epic Records and Legacy Recordings are marking the occasion with the release the same day of Michael: Songs from the Motion Picture, a straightforward, 13-song soundtrack drawing on the period between The Jackson 5’s Motown debut and Jackson’s triumphant Bad (1987). Filling the superstar’s shoes is his nephew (and son of brother Jermaine) Jaafar Jackson, who reportedly will do some of his own singing in the film.  Despite that,…

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The Weekend Stream: November 29, 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. Our Black Friday bonanza offers the return of Let’s Active, a new Stranger Things mini-mixtape, an unlikely team-up between two recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and one Record Store Day title that dropped yesterday. Plus, a tribute to a Minneapolis legend who was always on Time. Let’s Active, Afoot / Cypress / Big Plans for Everybody / Every Dog Has His Day (I.R.S./Capitol) Afoot: Apple / Amazon Cypress: Apple / Amazon Big Plans: Apple…

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The Weekend Stream: November 22, 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. A real grab bag for you before the Thanksgiving holiday: cut songs from Broadway comedies, rarities from a ’60s soul/rock legend, an inexplicably remastered charity single, rare 12″ mixes and remastered jazz. Have a listen, won’t you?? Various Artists, Monty Python’s Spamalot (Original Broadway Cast Recording/20th Anniversary Edition) (Decca Broadway) (Apple / Amazon) Something to (always) look on the bright side of life over: a new reissue of the music…

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Let the Guitar Play: Santana’s New ‘Sentient’ Revisits Collabs with Smokey Robinson, Miles Davis, Michael Jackson and More

More than 25 years after a collaboration-heavy album rocketed Carlos Santana back into the spotlight, the guitar legend will release another – albeit one assembled from an assortment of solo tracks and guest spots spanning his last five decades of work. Sentient, hitting stores on March 28, brings together joint tracks with Michael Jackson, Miles Davis, Smokey Robinson and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels of Run-DMC, along with select deep cuts that make for a retrospective distinct from well known renditions of “Black Magic Woman” and “Oye Como Va” or latter-day triumphs like “Smooth,”…

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The Weekend Stream: January 11, 2025

Welcome to 2025’s first edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles (and some new ones, too!) making digital debuts! We’re catching up on some of our favorite artists adding albums to stream and download, plus country soul and remixes aplenty – as well as a list of resources to help our friends and family in the music business affected by the California wildfires. The Damnwells, One Last Century / No One Listens to the Band Anymore (Poor Man) Century: iTunes / Amazon No One: iTunes / Amazon Last month, Brooklyn-born…

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The Weekend Stream: April 9, 2023

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. ZTT rarities, dream pop from down under, two Michael Jackson connections, great ’70s songwriters – this latest Stream has everything, plus a call to support one of our favorite music services as they take on a big challenge. Act, Snobbery and Decay (Showtime) / Leilani, Precious Treasure (ZTT) Act: iTunes / Amazon Leilani: iTunes / Amazon Although they’ve…

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OUT TOMORROW! Iconoclassic Reissues Carole Bayer Sager’s Star-Studded “Sometimes Late at Night,” Featuring Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, More

Carole Bayer Sager was still a student at New York’s High School of Music and Art when her song “A Groovy Kind of Love,” co-written with Toni Wine, topped the U.S. Cash Box and Record World charts and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.  Though some at the time thought it wouldn’t last due to its prescient use of the word “groovy,” Sager and Wine’s youthful tune more than proved its endurance.  22 years later, Phil Collins took it to No. 1 Pop and AC in the U.S. – not to mention No. 1…

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Easy To Love Again: Carole Bayer Sager’s “Sometimes Late at Night,” with Burt Bacharach, Michael Jackson, Neil Diamond, Returns from Iconoclassic

Carole Bayer Sager was still a student at New York’s High School of Music and Art when her song “A Groovy Kind of Love,” co-written with Toni Wine, topped the U.S. Cash Box and Record World charts and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966.  Though some at the time thought it wouldn’t last due to its prescient use of the word “groovy,” Sager and Wine’s youthful tune more than proved its endurance.  22 years later, Phil Collins took it to No. 1 Pop and AC in the U.S….

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Holiday Gift Guide Review: Michael Jackson, ‘Thriller 40’

We are more than 35 years into the practice of record labels utilizing compact discs to sell a venerated artist’s catalogue while also telling a story through the format’s expanded capacity and clarion sound capabilities. The one-two punch of Bob Dylan’s Biograph (1985) and Eric Clapton’s Crossroads (1988) helped legitimize the idea of the CD box set and put both artists’ bodies of work in sharper focus at a time when both of them were, should we say, not as relevant to the cultural conversation. The possibilities were limitless, we might have…

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Release Round-Up: Week of November 18

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the many titles hitting stores today as the countdown to the holidays continues! Michael Jackson, Thriller 40 (MJJ/Epic/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The best-selling album of all time returns in a 2CD edition for its 40th anniversary.  The second disc features 10 bonus tracks including the previously issued outtake “Sunset Driver,” “Got the Hots” (making its U.S. release debut), non-LP B-side “Can’t Get Outta the Rain,” the Michael Sembello-penned “Carousel,” and the previously unreleased “Who Do You Know,” “What a Lovely Way…

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The Second Disc Guesses the ‘Thriller 40’ Track List

It’s hard to know what a Michael Jackson event release looks like today. For one, the King of Pop is very much dead; for another, November’s impending release of Thriller 40 is the third reissue of the bestselling album. Are the vaults empty? Is the estate stingy? (This is, after all, the same Jackson estate that bizarrely changed the font on the cover, got very defensive about it, yet changed it again, with a new slipcase. Also, the upcoming Mobile Fidelity vinyl edition may have gotten the company into some uncomfortable spots…

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Release Round-Up: Week of July 15

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! The Beatles, Get Back (Apple/Disney) DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada After a manufacturing delay scuttled a release earlier this year, The Beatles: Get Back finally made it to DVD and Blu-ray on Tuesday.  Both presentations offer director Peter Jackson’s three-part, 468-minute Get Back on three discs – one part per disc.  No additional bonus features have been included, although the packages do come with four photo cards (one per Beatle).  Both Blu-ray and DVD boast numerous audio options.  The former has Dolby Atmos, 7.1 PCM…

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The Weekend Stream: June 18, 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 discover! Today’s your chance to dive deep on an alternate history of Miles Davis or some mid-’60s classics by The Ventures, among other cool picks; pull up a chair after your Record Store Day Drop visit and queue up some good stuff! Miles Davis, Early Minor: Rare Miles from the Complete In a Silent Way Sessions / Double Image: Rare Miles from the…

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No Mere Mortal Can Resist? Speculating on the 40th Anniversary Reissue of ‘Thriller’

“Darkness falls across the land / the midnight hour is close at hand…” OK, maybe that’s pushing it a little, but today Legacy Recordings did announce a forthcoming 2CD expansion of Michael Jackson’s landmark Thriller for its 40th anniversary. The world’s best-selling album spun off seven of its nine songs as Top 10 singles in America and helped win the King of Pop a record-setting eight Grammy Awards in one night. (Let’s not forget that the eighth was for a storybook album based on E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, also celebrating its 40th anniversary…

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The Weekend Stream: October 23, 2021

While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it’s no secret that listening audiences are also digital – catalogue music lovers, too – and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we’ve introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Chicago, Chicago at Carnegie Hall Complete (Rhino) (iTunes / Amazon / Spotify) Released…

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The Weekend Stream: July 2, 2021

While The Second Disc prides itself on connecting people to reissues and box sets they can keep on their shelves, it’s no secret that listening audiences are also digital – catalogue music lovers, too – and our passion is connecting people to music from the past that they might adore. So we’ve introduced a new feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! And today’s is a bit super-sized, bringing together releases from this week, last…

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State of Shock: Legacy Reissues, Expands Final Three Jacksons Albums for Digital Release

Last month, Legacy Recordings brought remastered and expanded versions of The Jacksons’ first three studio albums to digital platforms.  Next Friday, March 26, sees a physical 2-LP reissue of 1981’s The Jacksons Live!, and today, Legacy announced that the group’s final three studio albums – Triumph (1980), Victory (1984), and 2300 Jackson Street (1989) – will receive the remastered and expanded treatment on April 30.  A generous 39 bonus tracks are spread across the three digital releases. 1980’s Triumph lived up to its title.  Produced and written by the brothers, the album…

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Blame It on the Boogie: Legacy Expands Three Jacksons Albums, Reissues “Live!” on Vinyl

45 years after their first recordings were released by Epic and Philadelphia International Records, Sony’s Legacy Recordings is turning its attention to The Jacksons.  On February 12, the labels will issue digital-only expanded editions of The Jacksons (1976), Goin’ Places (1977), and Destiny (1978) while on March 26, a 2-LP vinyl version of The Jacksons Live! (1981) will be released. After seven years at Motown, four-fifths of The Jackson 5 – Michael, Tito, Marlon, and Jackie – made the move to the CBS family of labels.  As Jermaine opted to stay with…

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Let ‘Em Show You What It’s All About: UMe Bows Rare Quad Mix of The Jackson 5’s ‘Greatest Hits’ On Vinyl

A half century after The Jackson 5 became a blockbuster R&B/pop act, UMe is reissuing their first greatest hits album on vinyl – with a special twist. The quintet’s Greatest Hits is back on LP October 25, utilizing a stereo fold-down of a rare quadraphonic mix issued only in Japan in 1975. That mix featured alternate vocals and instrumentation on some tracks, making this release a true new way to hear some of the group’s biggest hit songs. And what an incredible run of hits it was! The 11 tracks on Greatest…

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Review: Various Artists, “Motown: The Complete No. 1s”

Smokey Robinson’s mama famously told the young singer-songwriter that he’d better shop around, but happily, those looking for the definitive chronicle of Smokey and Diana and Mary and Flo and Martha and Marvin and Stevie and co. need shop around no more.  To mark the label’s 60th anniversary, Motown: The Complete No. 1s is back in print in a slightly-expanded edition, and this 11-CD box set is, simply, one-stop shopping.  Impressively housed within a sturdy replica of 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, this collection features all of the company’s chart-toppers…

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Return To West Grand Boulevard: ‘Motown: The Complete No. 1s’ Box Gets Expanded Reissue

For its 60th anniversary year, Universal Music Enterprises has begun reminding fans that “Motown Did It First“; now, the label that launched The Sound Of Young America is revisiting a box set that was released in celebration of its 50th anniversary a decade ago. Motown: The Complete No. 1s is being reissued and expanded on June 28. Motown: The Complete No. 1s featured more than 200 international chart-toppers, plus a handful of bonus masters that went to No. 1 through cover versions or samples. And the packaging was a delight: the discs…

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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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‘Cause This Is Thriller Night: Michael Jackson’s “Scream” Arrives In October

On Monday evening, an animated teaser featuring black cats, a spider web, and other spooky imagery arrived on Michael Jackson’s official social media platforms, teasing the release of a project entitled Scream.  Today, the details have been confirmed for this new 14-track collection.  Scream, bringing together some of the late King of Pop’s darkest songs, will arrive from Epic and Legacy on September 29, giving listeners a month-plus to savor it in the build-up to one of Jackson’s favorite holidays, Halloween. Naturally, any collection of eerie Jackson material wouldn’t be complete without…

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Release Round-Up: Week of February 26

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up filled with deluxe reissues on vinyl and CD, box sets, new releases from veteran artists, and more! Michael Jackson, Off the Wall (Epic/Legacy) CD/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada CD/BD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada The King of Pop’s 1979 Epic solo debut Off the Wall is revived for 2016 with an additional DVD or BD of Spike Lee’s acclaimed new documentary about the making of the album, Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall.  No additional audio tracks…

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