Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. Rare George Michael remixes, late period a-ha and more Andy Partridge demos are kicking off another great week of streaming tunes – including three new soundtracks from theme park attractions! George Michael, “Monkey” (Columbia/Legacy) (Apple / Amazon) The latest of the Faith-era digital EPs is here, and it’s a corker: these 1988 remixes of “Monkey” by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis helped…
The Weekend Stream: February 28, 2026
Welcome back to another edition of The Weekend Stream, The Second Disc’s review of notable catalogue titles making digital debuts, plus new works from legacy acts and even some personally curated favorites. Nine Inch Nails returns to The Grid, plus a trio of soundtracks from an electronica icon, rarities from The New Christy Minstrels, Wynn Stewart, Vince Guaraldi and others, plus some tributes to artists we’ve lost and a TSD-related onstage production you don’t want to miss! Nine Inch Nails, TRON Ares: Divergence (The Null Corporation/Walt Disney Records/Interscope) (Apple / Amazon) A complete surprise…
In the Mood for You: Ace’s ‘Highway of Diamonds’ Collects Black Voices Taking on Bob Dylan
Ace Records’ ongoing Black America Sings series gets a second helping of classic tunes by Bob Dylan on a new compilation available this week. Highway of Diamonds: Black America Sings Bob Dylan, available January 30 in Ace’s native U.K. (and a week later in America), offers 20 compositions from the Nobel Prize-winning songwriter recast for soul, blues and gospel acts including The Staple Singers, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte, Billy Preston, Natalie Cole, Solomon Burke, Merry Clayton, Sarah Vaughan, Aaron Neville and more. The collection, available on CD or two LPs, includes informative song/track…
Release Round-Up: Week of November 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. Wings, Wings [Various Formats] (MPL/Capitol/UMe) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada On November 4, Paul McCartney released Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, an oral history of the superstar’s other band. The hardcover tome, created in collaboration with film director Morgan Neville and editor Ted Widmer, tells Wings’ story through text, photographs, a timeline, a gigography,…
The Weekend Stream: April 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. By now, you might have hit your participating local shop for Record Store Day – and happily, we’re kicking off this Saturday’s column to share material from five exclusive vinyl titles that are getting a second life in the streaming and download world too. It’s a great way to check out some titles if you missed them, or weren’t sure if you wanted to add them to your…
That’s the Way (I Like It): Edsel Collects “More Sin,” “More Deep ’70s”
Edsel has recently continued a pair of box set series with the release of Disco Discharge Presents More Sin (1980-1989) and David Hepworth: More Deep ’70s. In late 2023, Edsel revived the long-dormant Disco Discharge series with the first Box of Sin. This second volume, More Sin: Full Length Gay Clubbing, follows the template of the first, taking listeners on a journey through the gay club scene of the 1990s and tracing the development of dance music from disco to house. As Ian Wade puts it in his introductory note, “These are…
Release Yourself from Misery: Pete Townshend Collects Solo Albums (But No Bonus Tracks) for New Box
A prequel of sorts to UMC’s box set of Pete Townshend live recordings is coming this spring: a simple collection of eight of his studio works. The Studio Albums brings together new CD pressings of Who Came First (1972), the Ronnie Lane collaboration Rough Mix (1977), Empty Glass (1980), All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes (1982), White City (A Novel) (1985), Iron Man (1989) and versions of Pyschoderelict (1993) with and without dialogue. While a 2006 reissue campaign from Hip-O Records featured bonus tracks on all albums (and Who Came First was later expanded for a double-disc reissue in 2018), those tracks…
Out of This World: Verve Record Club Promises Heavyweight Vinyl Pressings and Rarities
Verve Label Group is getting into the subscription vinyl game with the recently-announced Verve Record Club. The new monthly venture will offer fans new vinyl pressings of classic albums from the Verve, Impulse!, Mercury, CTI, Decca and MGM label catalogues, promising titles by John Coltrane, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Bill Evans, Billie Holiday, Ahmad Jamal and Sarah Vaughan, to name a few. The new pressings will all be remastered from the original analog tapes by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound. Each title will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl at…
Release Round-Up: Week of March 29
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. Deep Purple, Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition (Warner/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com) Deep Purple’s 1972 album Machine Head remains the venerable hard rock band’s most commercially successful album. The third LP from the Mk. II lineup of Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice introduced one of rock’s most famous riffs with “Smoke on the Water,” and influenced a generation of rock and metal musicians. …
Release Round-Up: Week of July 21
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Various Artists, Dance Masters: Arthur Baker (The Classic Dance Remixes) (Demon) 4CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 4CD with signed print: Amazon U.K. 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 6LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. (includes signed print) / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Dance Masters: Arthur Baker (The Classic Dance Remixes) bring Baker’s work behind the mixing boards to life with a spectacular offering of classic 12″ mixes. From club hits like Afrika…
UPDATE: “Summer of Soul” Soundtrack, Out Now on CD and Digital, Coming to Expanded Vinyl in June
Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer’s debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair – with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers of the late ’60s gracing the stages. On January 28, Legacy Recordings made…
Release Round-Up: Week of February 11
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Cat Stevens, Harold and Maude: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (A&M/Cat-o-Log/UMe) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada A&M/Cat-o-Log/UMe delivers a long-awaited official wide-release soundtrack of Hal Ashby’s 1971 dark comedy Harold and Maude featuring the songs of Cat Stevens. The new release, available on CD, LP, and digital formats, includes the seven songs reprised from Stevens’ first two Island/A&M albums Mona Bone Jakon and Tea for the Tillerman (“On the Road to Find Out,” “I Wish, I Wish,” “Miles from Nowhere,” “Tea for the Tillerman,” “I Think I See the Light,”…
Winter of ‘Summer of Soul’: Soundtrack to Acclaimed Music Doc Coming in January
Last summer, as some music lovers took tentative steps in getting back to concertgoing amid the early vaccinations against COVID-19, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson gifted audiences with an incredible display of live performance some 50 years in the past. Summer of Soul is The Roots drummer’s debut documentary, concerning a little-seen arts festival in Harlem that took place before, during and after that year’s Woodstock Music & Art Fair – with some of the greatest soul, blues and jazz performers of the late ’60s gracing the stages. On January 28, 2022, Legacy Recordings…
Release Round-Up: Week of December 3
Welcome to the first Release Round-Up of the last month of 2021! The Doors, L.A. Woman: 50th Anniversary Edition (Elektra/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Rhino.com) The sixth and final studio album from The Doors featuring Jim Morrison gets a 50th anniversary expansion from Rhino on 3 CDs and 1 LP. The original stereo album (newly remastered by Bruce Botnick) is present on both CD and LP while the bonus discs have more than two hours of previously unreleased sessions. The first CD also includes two bonus tracks, a previously unheard Sunset Sound recording…
All This and Heaven, Too: BMG Reissues “Nina Simone and Her Friends” Featuring Chris Connor and Carmen McRae
BMG is following up its reissue earlier this year of Nina Simone’s 1959 Bethlehem Records debut Little Girl Blue with the label’s follow-up, Nina Simone and Her Friends. Like the earlier title, this newly remastered edition will be available on CD, LP, and in both high-definition and standard digital/streaming versions. The LP will be a Record Store Day Essentials emerald green 180-gram pressing available at record stores everywhere. All formats will arrive in stores on December 3. Simone’s discography for Bethlehem is famously small – just the Little Girl Blue album and…
Release Round-Up: Week of July 23
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Paul McCartney, III-Imagined (MPL/Capitol) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop CD with alternate art insert: Target 2-LP black vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Your Local Record Shop 2-LP red vinyl: Newbury Comics 2-LP gold vinyl: Your Local Record Store 2-LP splatter vinyl: Paul McCartney Online Store (limited to 3500 copies in the US) 2-LP “Spotify” green vinyl: Paul McCartney Online Store US / Paul McCartney Online Store UK / Music Vaultz 2-LP silver vinyl with alternate art insert: Target 2-LP blue vinyl: Barnes and Noble Paul McCartney is re-, um, III-imagining his 2020 album McCartney III. This new…
Release Round-Up: Week of June 25
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Grateful Dead, Grateful Dead (Skull & Roses): 50th Anniversary Edition (Grateful Dead/Rhino) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Dead.net (B&W Vinyl) Rhino continues its series of 50th anniversary reissues for Grateful Dead with the band’s 1971 self-titled live album with the famous “Skull and Roses” cover. The centerpiece of the reissue is more than hour of previously unreleased music from another famed SF venue, Bill Graham’s Fillmore West, recorded on July 2, 1971 during the Dead’s final show at the Fillmore West. Highlights include…
Mood Indigo: BMG Reissues Nina Simone’s Debut “Little Girl Blue” on CD and LP
BMG is continuing to celebrate the legacy of late trailblazer Nina Simone with an upcoming reissue of her 1959 debut album for Bethlehem Records, Little Girl Blue. The remastered stereo album will arrive on CD, LP, and digital services on August 13. Though it didn’t see release until February 1959, Little Girl Blue – so named for the Rodgers and Hart standard introduced in their Broadway musical Jumbo – was actually recorded in one session near the end of 1957. Although Simone was relatively new to performing and not yet 25 years…
What a Little Moonlight Can Do: BMG Launches Montreux Jazz Live Series with Nina Simone, Etta James
Since 1967, the annual Montreux Jazz Festival has brought fans to Switzerland to enjoy world-class music from top-tier artists. Over the years, the festival’s purview has expanded beyond pure jazz; Bob Dylan, David Bowie, and Elton John have all played there as well as Miles Davis, Bill Evans, and Herb Alpert. Numerous concert albums have been recorded at Montreux, among them sets from Alice Cooper, Carlos Santana and Wayne Shorter, Ella Fitzgerald, and Chick Corea. Now, BMG is adding to that illustrious roster with a new series of live releases, The Montreux…
By the Forces of Nature: Rhino Celebrates Black History Month With Limited Edition Vinyl and New Digital Releases
Black History Month is on the way in February and to celebrate, Rhino will release a number of limited-edition colored vinyl reissues along with a digital initiative to bring legendary recordings to digital service providers for the first time ever. The Rhino Black initiative begins on February 5, with the vinyl reissue of George Benson’s multi-platinum Breezin’ (issued on blue and beige vinyl) and a the first-ever vinyl issue of the Donny Hathaway compendium, A Donny Hathaway Collection, which arrives as a double-LP set on purple vinyl. The same day, Rhino will…
It’s Only “Words”: Playback Collects Rarities on “A Bee Gees Songbook”
While The Bee Gees have never truly faded from the popular consciousness, it’s fair to say the group founded by Barry Gibb and his late brothers Maurice and Robin is currently experiencing a renaissance. Director Frank Marshall’s documentary How Can You Mend a Broken Heart earned acclaim for its candid chronicle of the group’s ups and downs while Barry has reaffirmed his legacy with the new album Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook Vol. 1. On the latter, he’s joined by an array of country artists to reinvent the Bee Gees’ venerable songbook. …
The Best of The Rest: Even More RSD Black Friday Releases Confirmed!
November 27 is always a special day for vinyl enthusiasts. Still filled up on last night’s Thanksgiving meal, music fans line up at their local shop for a chance at limited-edition vinyl. While the celebrations may look a little different this year in light of the COVID-19 pandemic (RSD has announced they’ll be less stringent about online sales) one thing remains the same: There are some excellent releases on offer, available exclusively from your local participating record shop! Here are some more releases from labels big and small that have us adding…























