Release Round-Up: Week of July 26 - The Second Disc (2024)

Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up, featuring a selection of the new titles in stores today! As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

Loleatta Holloway, We're Getting Stronger: The Gold Mind/Salsoul Recordings (1976-1982) (SoulMusic/The Second Disc) (Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Cherry Red)

We're Getting Stronger: The Gold Mind/Salsoul Recordings (1976-1982)presents, on 5 CDs, all of the late, great Loleatta Holloway's albums for Gold Mind and Salsoul (all newly remastered by Nick Robbins) plus a host of bonus tracks, both on the individual albums and on a newly-curated disc,Remixes and Reincarnations. The collection, filled with the sound of Philadelphia disco-meets-southern soul, has been designed by Ray Curenton, and produced and annotated by Tim Dillinger.We're Getting Stronger is housed in a clamshell case and boasts a 32-page booklet. Each album is stored within an individual wallet replicating the original LP artwork. Read more here!

JD Souther, You're Only Lonely (Omnivore)

CD:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada/Omnivore Recordings
LP:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada/Omnivore Recordings

JD Souther's beloved 1979 Columbia album - which yielded the chart-topping title track - returns in a remastered and expanded edition from Omnivore Recordings. To bring to life the rich set of songs on You're Only Lonely, Souther enlisted a musical A-team including Waddy Wachtel on guitar, Don Grolnick on piano, Kenny Edwards on bass, and Rick Marotta on drums, with Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar also contributing on guitar, David Sanborn on alto saxophone, and Dan Dugmore on guitar and steel. Wachtel, Jorge Calderon, and Phil Everly all sang harmony vocals, along with Edwards, Peter Asher, Hayden Gregg, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey. That wasn't all: John Sebastian, Don Felder, Bread's Mike Botts, Tom Scott, Jai Winding, and Little Feat's Fred Tackett all played on the album, too. Now, it's been spruced up for this new edition with two previously unreleased bonus tracks: an early version of "Bad News Travels Fast" - the song would appear on Souther's next LP - and the outtake "Ever Faithful Woman." TSD's Joe Marchese interviewed Souther for the new liner notes, and Jordan McLeod at Osiris Studio has remastered. Available on CD and LP (sans bonus tracks but with expanded packaging and liner notes). Get more details here!

The Police, Synchronicity: Limited Edition (A&M/UMe)

6CD:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada
2CD:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada
4LP:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada
1LP Picture Disc:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada

More than 40 years after the release of their final album, The Police offer a massive expansion of their fifth studio effort, 1983's blockbusterSynchronicity. Theset will be available in multiple formats, each showcasing a wealth of rare studio and live bonus content. The centerpiece of the campaign is a6 CD limited edition box setfeaturing B-sides andfour discs of unreleased material, including demos, alternate mixes and takes, instrumentals, never-before-heard songs and a live concert from theSynchronicitytour.A4LP box set will offer most of the B-sides and studio material on its bonus discs. A2CD setwill include the remastered album and all B-sides from the bigger CD box, and alimited edition picture disc will offer the original album with an alternate running order. Whew! Get all of the info here.

Pete Townshend, Live in Concert 1985-2001 (UMe) (Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada)

Live in Concert 1985-2001 brings together more than 15 years' worth of shows from the legendary songwriter/guitarist for The Who. These sets, recorded in America and England and arranged chronologically, were all originally released in the early years of the millennium on Townshend's short-lived Eel Pie label. For this set, available as a 14CD set or a digital product, they've been remastered by Jon Astley. Note that the North American release appears to be delayed until October; this title is available now via the Amazon U.K. store. Get the track listing and more details here.

Nik Kershaw, The MCA Years (Cherry Red)(Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada)

An oft-discussed Nik Kershaw box set has been added to Cherry Red's summer release schedule.The MCA Yearsoffers the most complete look at the British pop/rocker's career in the '80s, offering four remastered studio albums, four discs of B-sides and remixes, two discs of mostly unreleased live material, and a DVD of music videos and concert material. BothHuman RacingandThe Riddlewere expanded in the early 2010s by UMC with remixes and live material.The MCA Years includes all of that and more: a dedicated disc of eight non-LP B-sides, a collection of 18 extended 12" mixes, plus a further nine special single mixes and edits. (A healthy amount of this material is being released on CD for the first time.) The package closes out with the first complete release of a live show recorded by Kershaw at the end of 1984 at London's Hammersmith Odeon. A dozen of those 20 tracks were included on a video release in 1985, which will be included on the box set's accompanying DVD along with a baker's dozen of original music videos. Kershaw has been involved in every step of the project, overseeing Tony Dixon's new remasters of the material and offering insight into the material in new interviews conducted for the set's liner notes. Read more here.

Cat Stevens, Foreigner (A&M/UMe/Cat-o-Log)

CD:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada
LP:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada

UMe and Yusuf/Cat Stevens' own Cat-o-Log label reissue the singer-songwriter'sseventh studio album, 1973'sForeigner.On this album, Stevens made a major departure. It was the first album solely produced and written by the artist, and his first to somewhat jettison his folk-influenced acoustic sound in favor of a more expansive R&B style. Stevens traveled to Kingston, Jamaica to record the LP, enlisting an international array of musicians to join him. This remastered edition ofForeigneris available on CD, vinyl (standard 180-gram black and limited edition 180-gram blue, available exclusively viaCatStevens.com,uDiscover Music, andThe Sound of Vinyl), and standard and high-resolution digital formats. No bonus tracks have been added. Read more here.

Fleetwood Mac, Best of 1969-1974 (Reprise/Rhino)

1CD:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada
2LP:Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada

Rhino revisits Fleetwood Mac's pre-Buckingham/Nicks era(s) on a new single-CD or double-LP compilation, The Best of Fleetwood Mac (1969-1974). The 19 tracks, spanning "Oh Well - Pt. 1" through "Prove Your Love," reflect numerous personnel shifts, as band members including Christine McVie, Danny Kirwan, Dave Walker, Bob Welch, and Bob Weston came and went. (Christine, of course, stayed.) With each new lineup came a gradual change in sound which would eventually take the band far from its blues-rock roots. Yet one thing stayed consistent throughout the volatility: Fleetwood Mac's sharp, unerring musicality. The music of the pre-Buckingham/Nicks era was consistently popular, earning Fleetwood Mac a dedicated audience. Here's a chance to rediscover that era all over again. Get the track listing and more here.

Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense: Deluxe Edition (Warner/Rhino) (Amazon U.S./Amazon U.K./Amazon Canada)

For good reason, the Talking Heads have gotten a lot of mileage out of their triumphant restoration of the live concert filmStop Making Sense. Brilliantly remastered and reissued in theaters last year by A24, the audio was released on vinyl and digitalby Rhino Records. (A24 also put out a luxeBlu-ray and 4K version of the film.) Today, the restored audio isreleased as a 2CD/Blu-ray deluxe package from Rhino. Like the vinyl and digital sets before it, the CDs include a complete portrait of the concert audio as released over time, building on the "special new edition" soundtrack from 1999 by adding two tracks - "Cities" and "Big Business/I Zimbra" - not previously released on audio formats but included in certain edits of the film on video and laserdisc. (The accompanying footage is included as bonus material on the A24 Blu-ray.) The accompanying Blu-ray Disc does not include the film, but doesinclude the celebrated Dolby Atmos mix of the audio, previously only available on streaming or alongside the picture itself. Band member Jerry Harrison and original album mixer Eric "E.T." Thorngren (who sadly passed awayless than a month ago) collaborated on this restoration. The book-style package is rounded out with new liner notes penned by the band - singer David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Frantz and guitarist/keyboardist Harrison - along with rare photos that have not been published alongside the soundtrack before. Read more here!

Melanie, Seventh Wave (Cleopatra) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Cleopatra has remastered and expanded Melanie's 1983 album featuring such A-list musicians as Marty Paich and David Paich; Liberty DeVitto, Russell Javors, and Doug Stegmeyer of Billy Joel's band; percussionists Victor Feldman and Milt Holland; drummers Jeff Porcaro, John Guerin, Dean Parks, and Jim Gordon; Little Feat keyboardist Bill Payne; and guitarist Dean Parks. A vinyl reissue will follow on September 6.

Jeff Harnar, Sings Sammy Cahn: The Second Time Around (PS Classics) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Cabaret vocalist Jeff Harnar's 2001 tribute album to late, great lyricist Sammy Cahn returns in a new edition from PS Classics featuring five bonus tracks, all newly recorded by Harnar and his longtime musical director Alex Rybeck. Clint Holmes joins Harnar on the new medley of "Come Dance with Me" and "I Like to Lead When I Dance."

Deadpool and Wolverine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Hollywood) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

The soundtrack to the hotly-anticipated blockbuster starring Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman includes an eclectic array of songs including Huey Lewis and The News' "The Power of Love," Patsy Cline's "You Belong to Me," Eric Carmen's "Make Me Lose Control," Jimmy Durante's "I'll Be Seeing You," and Jackman's own Greatest Showman anthem "The Greatest Show." Available on CD, 2LP, and digital/streaming.

Various Artists, Stop Making Sense: Everyone's Getting Involved: A Tribute Album (A24) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Miley Cyrus, The National, and Paramore are among the artists paying tribute to Talking Heads' classic concert film on this new tribute album. Available on CD, 2LP, and digital/streaming.

The Wiz: The New Broadway Cast Recording (Interscope) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Ease on down the road for the new cast recording of William F. Brown and Charlie Smalls' The Wiz, starring Deborah Cox, Wayne Brady, Nichelle Lewis, and Melody A. Betts. Available on CD and digital/streaming.