Prince 4Ever (NPG Records/Warner Bros. 558509-2) is not the Prince compilation I imagined. I've had plenty of time to think about it, from the day Prince and Warner Bros. announced the end of their decades-long war with a new catalogue agreement that honest-to-God made me cry, to the day almost exactly two years later where we cried over Prince for a different reason. But even in my wildest dreams, something about a Prince catalogue campaign seemed ephemeral, not entirely knowable--just like
Happy Thanksgiving! Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Prince, Prince 4Ever (Warner Bros.) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) This release actually came out on Tuesday, but it's worth a reminder here: this first posthumous collection from the late, great artist premieres one previously unreleased track, and includes a number of single versions making their CD debuts. Prince 4Ever is a 40-track summary of The Artist's major works from his first album, 1978's For You, to
Readers of The Second Disc have had to cope with some powerful losses in the pantheon of music greats, and few losses were bigger than that of Prince this past spring. His death propelled multiple albums and compilations into the Billboard charts, including the single-disc overview The Very Best of Prince, which topped the charts 15 years after it was released. In time for the holidays, the first posthumous Prince collection, Prince 4Ever, was announced today by NPG Records and Warner Bros.
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up which just might be the biggest slate of the year to date! Lou Reed, The RCA and Arista Album Collection (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Legacy brings together 16 Lou Reed albums from his RCA and Arista years on 17 CDs, all remastered directly under Reed's supervision before his untimely passing in 2013. An 80-page hardbound booklet with detailed liner notes, five art prints and a poster round out this limited edition package. Read
While fans may still have to wait some time for archival Prince material to emerge from that fabled vault, there will be at least one release ready for the holidays: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has announced The Prince Movie Collection, featuring all three of his feature films on Blu-ray with newly remastered picture, due out this fall. Of course, Purple Rain needs nearly no introduction: the stylized, vaguely autobiographical feature starred Prince as "The Kid" alongside his band, The
The world continues to reel from the passing of Prince on April 21, but fans have also taken to listening to his amazing catalogue however they can. And thanks to the folks at Prince's former home at Warner Bros. Records, the entire year will see a spate of vinyl (and--believe it or not, cassette) reissues. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that 11 of Prince's original Warner Bros. albums will be repressed on vinyl throughout 2016. In 2011, four of the artist's most enduring albums from
The Second Disc joins the world in mourning the unexpected loss of Prince, a true American original. Please welcome our founder, Mike Duquette, in sharing his memories of this visionary artist. First U Have 2 Purify Yourself I'm 16 years old in the Menlo Park Mall in Edison, New Jersey. It's 2004, and the Sam Goody is liquidating. Sometimes, at such an age, you do things that don't make sense to yourself, or to anyone else. You remember the reasons you give, and maybe you don't question
ABBA, Live at Wembley Arena (Polar/Universal) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. ) As part of ABBA's 40th anniversary celebration, the band unveils this 2-CD, hardcover book-style set preserving its 1979 concerts at Wembley Arena. The 25-track set features the first-ever release on record of Agnetha's "I'm Still Alive" along with perennials like "Dancing Queen," "Waterloo," "Knowing Me, Knowing You" and "Fernando." Live at Wembley is also available on vinyl. Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning
Since The Second Disc’s founding in 2010, fans of the artist once and currently known as Prince have had to content themselves with catalogue news from various corners of The Purple One’s universe, as reissues of Prince’s own music as a solo artist remained the most distant of possibilities. Over these past four-plus years, we’ve seen the deluxe treatment afforded titles by Andre Cymone, Wendy and Lisa, even The Lewis Connection. And now, at long last, we can confirm that a remastered
It was something like Sly Stone or James Brown for the New Wave set: tight, sparse R&B jams peppered with funky guitar and pulsating bass, sweetened with electronic accoutrements in the percussion section and dazzling synthesizers where a horn section might be. The "Minneapolis sound" changed soul music dramatically in the '80s, with Prince and his collaborators, associates and followers (The Time, Andre Cymone, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Alexander O'Neal) helping rewrite musical style for
Not long after Joe had posted about Rhino's upcoming expansion of Van Morrison's Moondance, I vocalized my pleasant surprise at the news. Morrison's history with reissues has been spotty at best; a late-2000s reissue campaign was quickly halted and almost instantly commanded top dollar on the secondary market. The next day, however, Morrison issued a statement denouncing the project, taking particular issue with the wording of the press release suggesting he was involved. "It is important that
Way back in January 2012, The Second Disc reported on Funky Town Grooves’ planned reissue of former Prince bassist André Cymone’s 1985 Columbia breakthrough record A.C., which yielded the Top 10 R&B hit “The Dance Electric.” This long-aborning reissue from FTG finally arrived last week in an edition expanded from its original planned track listing. A.C. received its first-ever CD reissue from the U.K.’s Big Break Records label in 2011; BBR’s deluxe edition appended a generous five bonus
Exciting news for Prince enthusiasts: two of the Purple One's most beloved collaborators, Wendy and Lisa, are reissuing their 1987 debut album on Cherry Pop Records next month. If you were down with Prince and The Revolution as they exploded into international stardom with 1984's Purple Rain, you likely were drawn to the subplot of The Kid's band members, Wendy and Lisa, who clashed with their bandleader over his artistic meandering. At the film's climax, the group dominates Minneapolis' First
Nearly 35 years after the unceremonious release of The Lewis Conection, a local Minneapolis band's sole funk LP, The Numero Group is resurrecting the disc, giving it a premiere release next month. (It's part of an forthcoming phase at Numero to unearth significant and rare recordings from the early days of the Minneapolis sound.) What makes this set so special? According to popular lore, while recording the album at Minneapolis' Sound 80 Studios, The Lewis Connection invited an 18-year-old
The hits just keep on coming! The latest part of our TSD Buyers Guide, which counts the reissues of the albums in Rolling Stone's 100 greatest albums of all time (as selected in 2003), features some classic hard rock and soul and a lot of CD pressings (if not as many bonus tracks in this batch). We begin below with one of the heaviest albums of all time! 75. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II (Atlantic, 1969) Led Zeppelin II is arguably the band's heaviest and rawest work in studio, in part
Welcome to our brand-new, exhaustive feature to take us to the end of another great year for reissues and box sets: our first-ever official Second Disc Buyers Guide! From now until Christmas, we’re taking you on a delightful trip through the 100 greatest albums of all time, as selected by Rolling Stone in 2003, through the filter of when and how these classic albums have been reissued, remastered and repackaged. If you’ve ever wondered to yourself which versions of these albums to buy for
Since its formation on April 20, 1983, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted a slate of accomplished musicians into its ranks on a yearly basis, causing excitement, consternation and everything in between. Though the worthiness of nominees and inductees is hotly debated with each “class” and a number of distinguished artists continue to be ignored year after year, one thing can be agreed upon: a lot of great music has been played for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It continues to host
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we focus on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. On the 30th anniversary of the first album by one of Prince's most notable associated acts, we picture a release that's never happened: a career-spanning compilation for The Time. Thirty years ago, a major musical milestone occurred: Prince started transforming from a freaky, funk-rock gem of the Minneapolis music scene into an all-consuming musical entity. The conduit
The fine folks at Big Break Records have got another large batch of new titles for release in the U.K. on July 25, and we figured now was a good time to share not only the track lists and details with you, but look ahead at some of the huge titles they're prepping for next month. There are a few really great, underrated titles from some big-name acts in next week's batch, including expansions of The Isley Brothers' Between the Sheets (1983) and I Can See Clearly Now (1972) by Johnny Nash. But
1986's Tutu marked a rebirth for Miles Davis. It was his first album after nearly 30 years as a Columbia Records recording artist, and appeared on the Warner Bros. label. Producer Marcus Miller was Davis' chief foil, composing nearly every track and playing multiple instruments, while Jason Miles, George Duke, Paulinho da Costa and Michal Urbaniak all made appearances. Duke's "Backyard Ritual" was covered on the album as well as pop group Scritti Politti's "Perfect Way." Tutu was very much a
Aerosmith, Tough Love: Best of the Ballads (Geffen/UMe) Geffen augments the craziness of American Idol host/Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler (who has a solo single out today) by putting out a compilation of the band's Geffen-era ballads hits ("Love in an Elevator" isn't a ballad in any configuration). Apparently it's only available at Target, so if you visit a local indie store you should be fine. (Official site) Booker T. & The MG's, McLemore Avenue / The Staple Singers, Be Altitude:
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on notable albums and the reissues they could someday see. With anticipation running high for a new album from Stevie Nicks in a few months, we bring you a special look back at her first two solo albums - which have never been expanded - and that one record she's on that fans have been anxiously waiting for an official CD release... This post is dedicated with love to Stephen Sears, a good friend of The Second Disc. Today is his
It's perhaps the second-best Prince news next to CD remasters: Prince's three albums of the 1980s are being repressed on vinyl. Dirty Mind (1980), Controversy (1981) and the double-album 1999 (1982) are all being repressed on 180-gram vinyl. While they don't seem to (and likely will not) boast new remastering, it's particularly interesting to see Prince's Warner Bros. catalogue getting any kind of attention by Rhino - especially some of the earlier, bawdier works that the devout Jehovah's
By now, you've likely heard the 1,000th No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 - Lady Gaga's new single "Born This Way." The dance anthem has come under a bit of fire for critics thanks to its striking similarity to another dance-pop icon's hit, Madonna's "Express Yourself." The Madonna-Gaga comparisons have been wildly obvious from the start - Italian-American, dyed blonde singers with decent if not fantastic voices, a flair for the visual and a desire to control every aspect of their iconography
Welcome to another installment of Reissue Theory, where we reflect on great albums and the reissues they could someday see. One of the biggest-selling albums of all time. A rock and roll classic. Soon to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Still un-reissued in any way, shape or form. This is Purple Rain. With the Grammy Awards on Sunday, there's been some thought at Second Disc HQ regarding some of the Grammy Hall of Fame inductees. While there are more single recordings on the list than