Happy 2023! Welcome, friends, to The Second Disc's 13th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards! A lot has happened in the last twelve months, but as we look to a new year with optimism and a hopeful spirit, we recognize the many roles music has played in our lives. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2022's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets, big and small, that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers worldwide. Despite the
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles available in stores today! George Michael, Older: Deluxe Edition (Legacy) 5CD/3LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada 2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada George Michael's third solo album - and the one he believed to be his finest - returns from Legacy Recordings in a new 5CD/3LP edition and a 2LP set. This expansion of 1996's Older features both the remastered album and the
One of the most beloved albums of the 2000s is getting a lavish series of reissues - with configurations as head-turning as the album itself. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco's fourth album, will get the box set treatment on September 16 in several different formats. The original album will come with up to three CDs worth of alternate takes and mixes, a collection of demos and rough sketches, and two live performances: a live-in-studio, five-song appearance and interview on Chicago's WXRT-FM in
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello and The Imposters, The Boy Named If (Capitol/EMI) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) Elvis Costello and The Imposters are back with a new, rip-roaring rock album. The band previewed many of the songs on The Boy Named If during its last concert tour; if those tunes (including lead single "Magnificent Hurt") are any indication, this set returns Costello to his spiky roots. Available on CD, LP, cassette, digital platforms,
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Elvis Costello and The Attractions, Armed Forces: Super Deluxe Edition (UMe) uDiscoverMusic Store: black / color Elvis Costello is revisiting his 1979 album in super-sized format. Armed Forces arrives today as a deluxe, slipcased 9-disc vinyl set with three 12-inch LPs, three 10-inch LPs, and three 7-inch singles including 23 previously unreleased live tracks and the complete contents of the previous Rhino/Edsel deluxe edition (with many
2020 has been a bit of a rollercoaster and Record Store Day 2020 is no exception: once scheduled in April, it moved forward a few months, and is now spread out across three Saturdays in the summer and fall. The Record Store Day Drop in August proved a success and round two, set for tomorrow, September 26, is sure to please fans of all genres and eras. It's a diverse list full of exciting releases that you can only find through your local brick-and-mortar record store (or through their online
On March 20, as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic was just starting to be understood, indie music retailer Bandcamp made the bold choice of waiving their share of revenue for artists and labels who were cancelling shows and delaying album releases left and right. The result was more music bought by more fans than any day on the site, a record broken on the first Friday of May. Bandcamp Fridays have since taken place in June, July and August - plus the first of an annual occurrence when the
Wilco's third album Summerteeth is Rhino's latest offering in 2020's holiday box set season. A 4CD and 5LP edition of the 1999 release, packed with unreleased material, will be issued November 6. Both physical and digital formats feature a brand-new remaster of the original album by Bob Ludwig, plus two dozen previously unreleased demos, outtakes and alternate versions. Each set features an unreleased live show as well: the CD featuring an extended, soundboard-sourced set at Colorado's
And the Record Store Day news keeps coming! BMG has announced their list of releases to be found in shops April 18 and it's a great lineup. If you're looking for live Emerson, Lake and Palmer; a very cool Motorhead shaped picture disc; the beautiful sounds of Ravi Shankar in collaboration with George Harrison; or classics from The Kinks - BMG has you covered! Let's take a closer look at all their offerings... Ravi Shankar, Chants of India For the first time on vinyl, Ravi
In their first-ever digital-only box set, the music lovers at Rhino have curated That's Aught: The '00s Pop Culture Box, a 150-song collection that celebrates the many sides of that decade of music. From pop and hip-hop, country, pop-punk, soul, dance, and underground music, the selections are as diverse as the decade was. The staff at Rhino have sequenced the selections in more-or-less chronological order, beginning with *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" before continuing on to iconic hits from music
What do you get when you bring together members of Wilco, Soul Asylum, and The Jayhawks and throw them into a remote recording studio in Minnesota wilderness? Well, as the Run Out Groove label proved with its LP reissue earlier this year, the result is one mighty down-home, fun album of country-rock grooves: Down By the Old Mainstream by '90s supergroup Golden Smog. While their lineup has been mercurial since they first got together in the late-'80s, the core lineup included Kraig Johnson of
Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! The Alan Parsons Project, Eye in the Sky: 35th Anniversary Edition (Arista/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada) The eye in the sky is still looking at you...Legacy Recordings has a 35th anniversary box set celebrating The Alan Parsons Project's 1982 best-seller Eye in the Sky. The album, which yielded the APP's biggest hit single with its title track as well as the classic instrumental "Sirius," will be enhanced for this lavish
Wilco is digging deep for new expanded reissues of their first two albums, due this December from Rhino Records. The Chicago alternative outfit was born in 1994 from the ashes of influential alt-country outfit Uncle Tupelo, following the dissolution of Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar's creative partnership. Farrar went on to form Son Volt, while Wilco began with Tweedy and the rest of the band--bassist Jon Stirratt, multi-instrumentalist Max Johnson and drummer Ken Coomer--plus new lead guitarist
UPDATE 5/24/17 TO ORIGINAL POST OF 3/6/17: If you do as Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg says and "never travel far without a little Big Star," some new products related to the legendarily underrated Memphis rockers may find a place on your shelves. Set for release on June 16 from Stax Records and Craft Recordings, the new compilation The Best of Big Star tidily collects (on one CD, digitally, or 2 LPs playable at 45 RPM) 16 tracks from the legendary band's #1 Record, Radio City and
If you do as Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg says and "never travel far without a little Big Star," some new products related to the legendarily underrated Memphis rockers may find a place on your shelves. Concord Bicycle Music recently announced the springtime release of Thank You, Friends: Big Star's Third Live...and More. This exciting set pays tribute to the legendary power pop band's "lost" third album, recorded in 1974 but shelved until 1978, after the band broke up. In 2010,
The summer's winding down and so Ted Frank, our resident maven of all things eclectic, is looking back on his favorites from the past few months, from reissues to future classics of all genres! We hope you make some new discoveries as you enjoy the Labor Day weekend! As the boys of summer's mettle is currently being put to the test, here are some favorite releases - new and old - from the past couple of summer months that have staying power and could perfectly score those few remaining
We’d like to welcome back Ted Frank for today’s Holiday Gift Guide review! Ted is taking a look at the new two-CD anthology What’s Your 20? Essential Tracks 1994-2014 from alt-rock greats Wilco. (Since 2004, the line-up has consisted of vocalist/guitarist Jeff Tweedy, bassist John Stirratt, guitarist Nels Cline, multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone, keyboardist Mikael Jorgensen and drummer Glenn Kotche.) This first-ever retrospective of the Grammy Award-winning band has been produced for the
Henry Mancini, The Classic Soundtrack Collection (RCA/Legacy) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) The Classic Soundtrack Collection features 18 of Mancini's most memorable soundtrack albums for RCA, Columbia and Epic Records on nine CDs, spanning the period between 1960's High Time and 1978's Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?, and adds bonus material from vocalists including Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams and, on a previously unreleased track, Julie Andrews. Johnny Mathis,
Roger Wilco! We’ve received the transmission that, on November 17, two new collections will celebrate the 20th anniversary of Chicago alt-rock band Wilco in high style! Nonesuch Records will issue Alpha Mike Foxtrot, a new box set (4 CDs, 4 LPs or digital) of rare studio and live recordings culled from the band’s archives. And on that same date, the label will offer What’s Your 20, the first-ever compendium of Wilco’s previously released studio recordings, on 2 CDs or digital. Formed from