Release Round-Up: Week of March 27

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. Queen, Queen II: Collectors’ Edition (Virgin/EMI/Hollywood) 5CD/2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1CD: Amazon U.S. Link TBD / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Picture Disc: Official Store Cassette: Official Store Queen have remixed their second album, featuring their first Top 10 hit “Seven Seas of Rhye,” for a new multi-format reissue. The box set edition is the most expansive, of course, packed with rare and unreleased demos and session…

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As It Began: ‘Queen II’ to Be Remixed, Expanded in New Box

Following a similar remixed and expanded box set for their debut album in 2024, Queen will give the deluxe treatment to their second album, 1974’s aptly titled Queen II. Available March 27, the reissue arrives in multiple formats, all of which are centered around a new mix of the album by engineers and longtime archival overseers Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J. McRae and Kris Frederiksen. The biggest version is a 5CD/2LP box set that adds two discs of mostly unreleased studio material (including session takes, B-sides and backing tracks) along with two discs…

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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 June 13

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. Grateful Dead, Gratest Hits (Grateful Dead/Rhino) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Rhino assembles a single-CD or single-LP, nine-song Gratest Hits [sic] from Grateful Dead, marking the band’s 60th anniversary with the original studio versions of such classics as “Truckin’,” “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Touch of Grey.”  Read more here. Neil Sedaka, Sedaka’s Back [Expanded Edition] (Neil Sedaka Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Neil Sedaka remasters and reissues the 1974 Rocket Records…

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The Weekend Stream: April 25, 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. Strap in for a killer line-up of titles this week: two more Record Store Day debuts, an incredible posthumous collaboration between two ’80s icons, the return of one of glam’s most beloved bands, new music by some of our favorite pop girls, a hotly anticipated new take on a Broadway favorite, exciting moments in gospel/soul, an exciting new song from a forthcoming West End musical by one of…

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The Second Disc’s Guide to Record Store Day 2025: Our Favorite Picks

Tomorrow, Record Store Day is once again upon us! It’s that time of year where music lovers and vinyl flippers get together at their favorite physical music retailers and wait in line to snag some treasured albums – almost all of which are pressed on vinyl instead of CD (or, you know, sold on secondary marketplaces for above their retail value).  This year, the list tops out at over 300 titles, so there’s very nearly something for everybody.  It wasn’t easy to narrow our choices down to around 20 titles, but here…

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Elvis Costello, Elton John, John Lennon, Sting Feature on UMG’s Record Store Day Slate

Universal Music Group’s 2025 Record Store Day roster is heavy on British rockers: Elvis Costello, John Lennon, Elton John, Sting, Queen, Mark Knopfler, and The Verve among them!  But there’s also some highly-anticipated items from The Killers and Bruce Springsteen, Taylor Swift, and Passengers, a.k.a. U2 and Brian Eno, among the other highlights.  Visit RecordStoreDay.com for the full list of participating retailers you can visit on Saturday, April 12, to join in the festivities. Elvis Costello, The Kings of America Live At The Royal Albert Hall (Third Man – limited to 2,000 units) EC…

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Release Round-Up: Week of October 25

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles out today!  As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Blue Magic, Stop to Start: The Atco and WMOT Recordings (SoulMusic/The Second Disc) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Cherry Red) Let the sideshow begin!  SoulMusic Records and TSD are proud to unveil a new 6-CD box set dedicated to the sweet ‘n funky soul stylings of Philly quintet Blue Magic (“Sideshow,” “Three Ring Circus,” “Welcome to the Club,” “What’s Come Over Me”).  Stop to Start: The Atco and WMOT Recordings brings together…

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Keep Yourself Alive: Queen Announce Deluxe Edition of Debut with Remixes, Outtakes and More

Queen will go back to the beginning of their recording career on a new box set edition of their debut. The Collectors Edition of their 1973 self-titled effort – now retitled Queen I – will be a 6CD/LP set featuring a brand-new remix of the album by engineers Justin Shirley-Smith, Joshua J Macrae and Kris Fredriksson; demos and studio outtakes; instrumental versions and live recordings. (A 2CD cut-down will include the new mix and the set’s third disc, featuring studio alternates.) The box also includes a fold-out poster, photo prints of the four…

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 10

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. Queen, Queen Rock Montreal (Hollywood/EMI) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Queen Online Store 3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Queen Online Store (Exclusive – Blue) 4K UHD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Queen Online Store Blu-ray: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Queen Online Store Queen’s electrifying 1981 Montreal concert returns in a variety of formats.  Queen Rock Montreal, recently released to IMAX cinemas, arrives in 2CD;…

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Under Pressure: “Queen Rock Montreal” Arrives on CD, LP, 4K in May

Queen’s electrifying 1981 Montreal concert is returning on May 10 in a variety of formats.  Queen Rock Montreal, recently released to IMAX cinemas, will arrive in 2CD; 3LP black vinyl; Queen Store-exclusive 3LP transparent blue vinyl; and double 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions from EMI and Hollywood Records (audio) and Mercury Studios (video). Queen Rock Montreal was shot at the 18,000-capacity Montreal Forum on November 24 and November 25, 1981 as Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon were wrapping up the band’s tour for The Game.  The band performed…

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Let Me Out: Brian May, Eddie Van Halen Trade Licks on ‘Star Fleet Project’ Reissue

Having reissued and expanded Brian May’s Back to the Light and Another World, UMe will turn fans’ attention to the Queen guitarist’s first-ever solo project, a 1983 collaboration with a collection of stellar musicians – including a team-up with another one of the most iconic guitarists of the age. Star Fleet Project, issued 40 years ago, was a three-track album clocking in at just under half an hour, but here it’s being expanded two two discs featuring the original contents of the album remixed, rare interviews, and a deep dive into the…

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Release Round-Up: Week of May 5

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! Olivia Newton-John, Just the Two of Us: The Duets Collection Vol. 1 (Primary Wave/Green Hill) CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 17 favorite duets with Olivia Newton-John are featured on this new collection.  The late artist’s duet partners include Dolly Parton (“Jolene”), Michael McDonald (“Act of Faith”), Barry Gibb (“Face to Face”), pianist Jim Brickman (“I Honestly Love You”), Mariah Carey (“Hopelessly Devoted to…

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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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I Want It All: Queen’s “The Miracle” Gets Super-Sized in Upcoming Box Set

Queen’s thirteenth studio album, The Miracle, is coming back in a big way.  On November 18, EMI (U.K.) and Hollywood Records (U.S.) will expand The Miracle into a 5CD/Blu-ray/DVD/LP box set adding alternate takes, demos, rough mixes, backing tracks, B-sides, and more.  A 2-CD “highlights” edition will also be available as well as cassette and picture disc vinyl versions of the original album only. The marathon recording period commenced in December 1987 with the specter of Freddie Mercury’s HIV diagnosis (as yet unknown to the public) lingering over the band, and continued…

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Brian May Goes ‘Back to the Light’ with Expansion of Solo Debut

Almost a year after the devastating death of Freddie Mercury, Queen’s Brian May re-emerged with his first true solo album.  Released in September 1992, Back to the Light was the guitarist’s mission statement after the fate of his longtime band seemed uncertain.  On August 6, Back to the Light will be reissued by UMe in CD, LP, and digital formats as the inaugural release in The Brian May Gold Series.  Expanded editions will include the bonus collection Out of the Light, a second disc of rare tracks. The reissue will arrive in…

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Bohemian Rhapsodies: A Closer Look at Vinyl Me Please’s Reissues of Queen’s “A Night at the Opera” and Al Green’s “Call Me”

In April, record club Vinyl Me Please announced that it would be restoring some previously out-of-print titles to the catalogue to celebrate 100 releases in the club’s Essentials series.  (See the list of all ten titles here.) We’ve given a spin to the re-presses of Queen’s A Night at the Opera and Al Green’s Call Me. For Queen, too much was never enough.  That attitude is perhaps best embodied by the band’s fourth album, 1975’s A Night at the Opera.  While the title was derived from the Marx Brothers’ film of forty…

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Ladies and Gentlemen…: Vinyl Me Please Marks 100 “Essentials” Releases with New Pressings of Sold-Out Titles

Today, the Vinyl Me Please record club celebrates its 100th Essential Record of the Month.  The club’s flagship line, the monthly Essentials program has encompassed titles from a wide variety of artists including John Prine, Aretha Franklin, Jorge Ben, Van Morrison, Mavis Staples, Miles Davis, Fiona Apple, Billie Holiday, The Notorious B.I.G., and Loretta Lynn.  While VMP also offers Classics (Soul, Blues, and Jazz), Hip-Hop, and Country tracks (the latter a new addition for 2021), the Essentials line remains the cornerstone.  Now, to commemorate 100 releases since VMP’s founding in 2013, ten…

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The Weekend Stream: March 13, 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’re introducing a new Saturday feature: The Weekend Stream, which focuses on hidden gems that recently made it to digital channels that might make your playlists a little brighter! Watch this: not a whole lot of off-the-hook digital releases to mention, but wanted to…

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Release Round-Up: Week of October 2

 Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Herb Alpert, Herb Alpert Is… (Herb Alpert Presents) 3CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 5LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Herb Alpert Is…a trumpeter, songwriter, producer, artist, entrepreneur, philanthropist.  The list goes on.  To tie in with director John Scheinfeld’s documentary of that name premiering this fall, Alpert’s own Herb Alpert Presents label is releasing a 3-CD or 5-LP deluxe box set tracing his career from the birth of A&M Records (which he founded with Jerry Moss) to the present day.  The collection has been curated by Herb’s nephew Randy…

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Let Us Cling Together: Queen Tap Japanese Fans For New Greatest Hits Collection

Imagine narrowing down your favorite band to just one song. We couldn’t do it! But some very fastidious Japanese fans of Queen did – and their choices are forming a new compilation due this month. For Greatest Hits In Japan, Queen and Universal Music opened a vote in the country where just one track from the iconic British rock group could be selected for a compilation timed to the upcoming Japanese tour by Queen + Adam Lambert. Nearly 20,000 votes were collated, and the top 12 tracks made the cut. This makes…

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Made In Heaven: Freddie Mercury’s Solo Works Celebrated on “Never Boring” Box Set

The title of Hollywood Records/Mercury Records’ upcoming box set dedicated to Freddie Mercury’s solo works certainly has an apt title: Never Boring. The late Queen frontman used his solo recordings to explore the realms of pop, rock, and even opera as a singer and songwriter. Due on October 11 from Hollywood in the U.S. and Mercury in the rest of the world, the 3CD/BD/DVD Never Boring has been compiled and produced by longtime Queen collaborators and Bohemian Rhapsody soundtrack co-producers Justin Shirley-Smith, Kris Fredriksson, and Joshua J. Macrae. “I had a lot…

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Take Me To The Pilot: Elton, Lennon, Queen Among Universal’s Record Store Day 2019 Offerings

Record Store Day 2019 is just under five weeks away.  In anticipation of the April 13th celebration of vinyl, The Second Disc presents a round-up of Universal Music Group’s RSD selections! The Charlatans, Us and Us Only – LP, clear vinyl – 1,000 copies Originally released in 1999, Us and Us Only was the British alt-rock group’s sixth album.  It will be reissued for the first time ever for Record Store Day, pressed on limited-edition transparent vinyl. Charlie Parker, Charlie Parker With Strings: The Alternate Takes – LP, blue vinyl – 2,500 copies Previously…

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Release Round-Up: Week of October 19

Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Frank Sinatra, Sings for Only the Lonely: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition (Capitol/FSE/UMe) 2-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 1-CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2-LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada On Frank Sinatra’s 1958 Capitol concept album masterwork, he sang for Only the Lonely.  But now, 60 years on, that classic is being revisited for everyone in a new 2-CD anniversary edition.  Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely: 60th Anniversary Deluxe Edition features the original 1958…

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Killer Queen: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ Soundtrack to Feature Unreleased Live Aid Cuts and More

Today would have marked Freddie Mercury’s 72nd birthday.  While the Queen frontman has been gone since 1991, his powerful voice has hardly been silenced.  On October 23, the big-screen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, authorized by his bandmates in Queen, will have its premiere in the United Kingdom – and four days before that, a rarities-packed soundtrack album will arrive from Hollywood Records (U.S.) and Virgin EMI/Universal (U.K.).  Bohemian Rhapsody: The Original Soundtrack features 22 career-spanning tracks, including 11 previously unreleased. The soundtrack was produced by Brian May and Roger Taylor, with engineering and…

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