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Dec 18, 2024 By Mark Redfern and Frank Valish Photography by Mark Redfern and Wendy Lynch Redfern

Welcome to Part 5 of Under the Radar’s 2024 Holiday Gift Guide. As you might expect from a music website, here we highlight some of the year’s best music reissues, on both vinyl and CD, from the last year.

Also check out the other parts of our 2024 Holiday Gift Guide: Part 1 on tabletop and board games, Part 2 on modern films on Blu-ray, Part 3 on classic films on Blu-ray, and Part 4 on books.

The Beach Boys: The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (Limited Edition Zoetrope Vinyl) (UMe/Capitol)

RRP: $45.99

The Beach Boys’ beloved Christmas album, simply titled The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album, has been reissued on limited edition zoetrope picture disc vinyl just in time for Little Saint Nick to show up in his hotrod. The 1964 album includes five Christmas originals written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love (or just Wilson in the case of “Christmas Day”), with them taking up most of Side A, and covers of seven Christmas standards, mainly on Side B. The reissue also comes with a red colored 7-inch single for “Little Saint Nick,” with the album’s closing track, a version of “Auld Lang Syne” featuring spoken word vocals by Dennis Wilson, on the B-side. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

Beastie Boys: Ill Communication (30th Anniversary Limited Collector’s Edition) (UMe/Capitol/Grand Royal)

RRP: $124.98

There’s a scene in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond, the most recent big screen Star Trek film, where the crew of the Enterprise have to send out a radio signal to disrupt a swarm of small ships attacking them and they choose to play a piece of classical music to aid them. Of course in the 23rd century, classical music means something different, in this case it’s Beastie Boys’ 1994 song “Sabotage,” from their fourth studio album, Ill Communication. Whether societies two centuries from now will still be listening to music from the 1990s, we’ll never know. Hopefully humanity will last that long and will still have easy access to the art of the past.

It was previously hard to hear “Sabotage” without picturing Spike Jonze’s iconic music video for the song, which was a spoof of ’70s cop shows. But now it’s also hard not to imagine 23rd century space battles.

In honor of its 30th anniversary, Ill Communication has been reissued via a Limited Collector’s Edition vinyl box set. It includes the original multi-platinum album across two LPs, plus an additional LP featuring remixes, alternate mixes, bonus tracks, and live cuts. This version of the album was originally put out in 2009, but has long been out of print and has now been reissued again, with a 3D looking lenticular cover. Beam me up Beastie Boys! By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

The Beatles: 1964 US Albums In Mono (Universal Music Group/Apple)

RRP: $299.98

It’s easy to forget that The Beatles were only active for a decade—1960 to 1970 is their main period, even though they formed in 1958. In that time they changed music forever and put out more classic songs in a year than most artists put out in decades-long careers. 1964 was a particularly busy year for Beatles releases in America. Beatlemania was in full effect then and to capitalize on the Liverpool band’s newfound superstardom Capitol Records kept a steady stream of Beatles releases coming throughout the year. This new vinyl box set collects them all in mono.

Meet the Beatles was released on January 20, their second U.S. album, but the first released by Capitol. It includes “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw You Standing There.” It was released 10 days after Introducing… The Beatles, released by Vee-Jay Records and also including “I Saw You Standing There.” Introducing had a similar tracklist to The Beatles’ UK debut album, Please Please Me, only omitting two songs, where as Meet the Beatles contains tracks from The Beatles’ second UK album, With the Beatles. (Introducing… The Beatles is not included in this box set, since it’s not a Capitol release).

Then in April Capitol released the unimaginatively and inaccurately titled The Beatles’ Second Album, even though it was actually their third American album (but second for Capitol). It also features tracks from With the Beatles.

June saw the American release of the soundtrack to A Hard Day’s Night, the band’s first film. The U.S. release is similar to the UK one, but includes portions of George Martin’s score for the film mixed in with the band’s songs (such as the classic title track and “Can’t Buy Me Love”).

Not content with releasing only three Beatles albums in 1964, in July Capitol put out Something New. It includes eight songs from the British release of A Hard Day’s Night, as well as two tracks from the Long Tall Sally EP and the German-language version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

Then in December, Capitol released Beatles ’65, even though it was still 1964. It includes eight songs from Beatles for Sale, which was released in the UK that month, as well as some other tracks.

The most curious album included in 1964 US Albums In Mono is The Beatles’ Story, which is a documentary double album released in November 1964. It includes snippets of the band’s music, as well as clips from various interviews with the band, as well as commentary on the band’s success and Beatlemania (“Beatlemania is a temporary state of mind that can only be accurately described by one under its influence”).

Fans of The Beatles, especially their early career, who want all their 1964 albums in mono, will delight in this box set. The band’s music got more interesting and ambitious in later years and the band’s output slowed to only one or two all time classic albums each year, but 1964 US Albums In Mono is a fun snapshot of a particularly prolific year from the Fab Four. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

Blue Note Records: Tone Poet Society subscription service (Blue Note)

RRP: $77.96 (1 month), $209.88 (3 months), $295.76 (6 months), $743.52 (annually)

Blue Note’s Tone Poet Society is a new subscription service whereby subscribers can get select audiophile-quality jazz titles reissued by Blue Note monthly. Subscribers can choose from four tiers—1 month, 3 months, 6 months, or a year—each with their own select titles and perks. Every month subscribers will receive two albums chosen by producer Joe Harley (the “Tone Poet”) and mastered all-analog from the original tapes onto 180-gram vinyl and presented in high quality deluxe tip-on jackets.

For those who know, Blue Note’s Tone Poet reissues are jazz albums of the highest quality, both visually and sonically. January releases feature The Jazz Crusaders’ 1961 album Freedom Sound and Andrew Hill’s 1968 album Grass Roots. Throughout the calendar year, additional albums will include spectacular titles by Hank Mobley, Art Pepper, Dexter Gordon, Horace Silver, and Don Cherry, among many others. Each quarter features a special Tone Poet Society Exclusive, quarter one’s being Walter Davis Jr.’s Davis Cup from 1959.

Every tier for purchase is chock full of rewarding titles, all presented in fine form. And what better a gift than two seminal jazz records delivered direct to your mailbox every month, like clockwork. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Blue Note Review: Volume Three—TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLEE MORGAN (Blue Note)

RRP: $225.00

The third volume of Blue Note Records’ vinyl box set series examines the genius of trumpeter Lee Morgan. Famed hard bop trumpeter Morgan played with Dizzy Gillespie and was a sideman to John Coltrane on the master’s 1957 classic, Blue Train. He later joined Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, playing on another classic, that group’s Moanin’ in 1958 before striking out on his own. Morgan continued his prolific recording and, in fact, released eight albums of his own between 1966 and 1968, before ultimately being shot dead by his common-law wife during a break between sets at a gig in New York.

TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLEE MORGAN celebrates Morgan’s life, art, and legacy in spectacular form. The box set contains a new 2-LP compilation album featuring Morgan tunes recorded and reinterpreted by a host of modern jazz artists including Joel Ross, Bill Frisell, Chris Botti, and Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, among others, along with a previously unreleased alternate version by Morgan himself of “Morgan the Pirate” from his 1964 album Search for the New Land. It features an all-analog, 180-gram vinyl reissue of Sonic Boom, from Morgan’s mid-to-late ’60s flurry of recordings (the album was not formally released until 1979 but remains a staple of Morgan’s catalog). It includes an all-analog 7” reissue of two Morgan singles, “Sweet Honey Bee” and “Hey Chico” from his 1966 album Charisma, and it also features two lithographs and a beautiful zine-style book with essays from a variety of artists and writers from Wynton Marsalis to David Fricke, as well as articles, photographs, and a comic as told by the late Wayne Shorter. A handsome Blue Note 45rpm record adapter is also included.

But the piece de resistance of TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLEE MORGAN for true Morgan devotees is a 10” record of a jam session Morgan played at the Gate of Horn club in Chicago, the date of which is uncertain but likely sometime in 1959. The jam is led by drummer Philly Joe Jones and features Morgan, along with saxophonists Ira Sullivan and Nicky Hill, pianist Bobby Timmons, and bassist Jimmy “Spanky” DeBrest, the latter two who played with Morgan both in his early days in Philadelphia and with the Jazz Messengers.

TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLEE MORGAN is truly a stunning set, a box of goodies worth obsessing over, worthy of deep study in both text and sound, and not only a super-cool collectible work but also an essential document in the Lee Morgan and overall jazz music catalog. Get it before it sells out. Because, like all these Blue Note Review sets, once they’re gone they’re gone, and once they’re gone, you’ll regret it. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

David Bowie: Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! (Rhino/Parlophone)

RRP: $139.98

Even before his tragic death in 2016, there were a lot of amazing David Bowie reissues out in the world. Since his passing, the archival releases have continued each year and add Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! to the essential list for Bowie devotees (such as my friend Justin, who wrote for Under the Radar in the early days of the magazine and was such a big fan that he was the one who snagged the California personalized license plate that simply read “Bowie”).

With such a varied and long career, it’s hard to pinpoint which is Bowie’s definitive album, but to the layman it might be 1972’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, which is routinely found on lists ranking the greatest albums of all time. Rock ‘N’ Roll Star! charts Bowie’s creation of the Ziggy Stardust character and the album, featuring demos, live tracks, radio sessions, and more; tracks that built up to the recording and release of Ziggy Stardust. There are 29 previously unreleased tracks, including intimate songwriting demos. The box set also includes an audio-only Blu-ray disc that features the 2012 remaster of the album and more importantly, for those audiophiles with the right gear, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix of the album from 2003 (which sounds fully immersive on my personal surround sound system). Plus the Blu-ray also features Waiting in the Sky (Before the Starman Came to Earth), an alternate version of the album with a different running order and four songs that were eventually cut from the final tracklist. It was taken from the Trident Studio tapes dated December 15th, 1971 and was also released separately on vinyl back in April for Record Store Day.

The impressive reissue also includes two books. The first is a hardcover book featuring photos, memorabilia, liner notes, and interviews. A softcover book recreates Bowie’s “Students Note Book” from the era that features his handwritten lyrics, drawings, notes, tracklist ideas, and touring plans. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

The Charlatans: Up to Our Hips (30th Anniversary Expanded Edition) (Beggars Arkive)

RRP: $33.98

The Charlatans’ third album, 1994’s Up to Our Hips, found the band in a transitional period. They had begun to shake off the Madchester and baggy labels affixed to their first two albums (1990’s Some Friendly and 1992’s Between 10th and 11th), but wouldn’t be fully embraced by the Britpop crowd until 1995’s The Charlatans. During the making of the album, keyboardist Rob Collins was arrested for taking part in an armed robbery after he was (seemingly unwittingly) a friend’s getaway driver. The band performed the album’s lead single “Can’t Get Out of Bed” on the BBC TV show Top of the Pops the day that Collins was released from prison.

Up to Our Hips has been overshadowed by the band’s earlier success and later achievements (with The Charlatans and 1997’s Tellin’ Stories both hitting #1 on the UK album charts), but is an underrated gem. In fact, in his review of this reissue, our critic Austin Trunick called it The Charlatans’ best album. Although my personal favorite is their self-titled album, you really can’t go wrong with any of the band’s first five albums.

In celebration of its 30th anniversary, Beggars Arkive have reissued the album on petrol blue vinyl. LP1 features the original album, but then there’s a second LP featuring B-sides, BBC radio session recordings, and alternate mixes. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

Chicago: Chicago At The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Washington D.C.

(9/16/1971) (Rhino)

RRP: $89.98 (LP), $34.98 (CD)

Chicago At The John F. Kennedy Center For The Performing Arts, Washington D.C. (9/16/1971) is a full concert performance, two sets, performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. just days after the venue opened. Chicago’s 26-song performance came just five months after the New York City performances that made up the band’s At Carnegie Hall release and just before the band would start recording its fifth album, Chicago V, which included such classics as “Dialogue, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2” and “Saturday In the Park,” both of which are featured here, the former missing Pt. 2, which hadn’t even been written yet, and the latter being performed for the first time ever live. As such, Chicago At the John F. Kennedy Center is a historic document. The “Ballet For A Girl In Buchannon” suite from Chicago II is exquisite. The five movement “It Better End Soon,” from the same album, is replete with vibrant flute solo and smoking guitar solo care of Terry Kath. And “Goodbye” from the yet-to-be-recorded new album and introduced with the band talking about how it was “doing some new things,” and “realizing home isn’t home anymore and you have to move on” is a harbinger of things to come, foreshadowing the band looking to expand its palette after years in the spotlight.

Presented here in beautiful three CD or four LP packaging, Chicago At the John F. Kennedy Center is a needed addition to any fan’s collection, and despite all the music herein, the package is worth the price for its last four songs alone. As always, “I’m a Man” is fire, here with extended vibrant drum solo before segueing into the mind-blowing “Free.” “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” Is presented with a silky extended piano intro, deftly displaying the band’s instrumental prowess before moving on to the finale, “25 Or 6 To 4,” which always mesmerizes in a live setting. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Elvis Costello: King of America & Other Reams (UMe)

RRP: $139.98 (6CD Super Deluxe Edition), $19.99 (2CD edition)

By 1986, Elvis Costello had long abandoned the punky presentation that defined the earlier and more provocative persona that catapulted him to prominence in the late ’70s. Instead, Costello had begun to embrace other musics, from soul to country to overall Americana, and out of that exploration was born his 10th album, King of America. Finding Costello abandoning his old band The Attractions and even his moniker, choosing to go by his given name Declan McManus for writing credits, King of America featured a host of studio musicians and American luminaries such as T. Bone Burnett, who also co-produced the album; Jerry Scheff, the original Elvis’ bassist; and James Burton, who worked with Ricky Nelson, Elvis, Emmylou Harris and others; as well as session genius drummer James Keltner and famed jazz upright bassist Ray Brown.

The resulting album was another step forward in Costello’s remarkable career, featuring such staples as “Indoor Fireworks,” “American Without Tears,” his cover of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” and the gorgeous album opener “Brilliant Mistake.”

King of America & Other Realms is a deep dive into Elvis Costello’s 1986 album, fleshed out to six CDs and with an extensive book of history, notes, reminiscences, and lyrics written by Costello himself. The book that accompanies King of America & Other Realms is more than anyone could reasonably expect from the King, but the real draw here is the music. The original album is remastered. A second disc presents an alternate album of sorts, with different versions, non-used album tracks, and demos. A third CD features Elvis and band (Burton, Keltner, and Scheff, with Benmont Tench and T-Bone Wolk) performing a bang-up set at Royal Albert Hall in January of ’87. And then there are three additional CDs that further flesh out the album’s legacy, taken from across eras of Costello’s career, featuring live tracks, songs from other projects, songs with Emmylou Harris, a track written with Lucinda Williams, a track with Rosanne Cash and Kris Kristofferson, and additional demos and further explorations on a theme amounting to another 48 tracks that supplement the album proper, the “alternate” version, and the live show.

Ultimately, King of America & Other Realms is nothing less than an embarrassment of riches for any Elvis Costello fan. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Miles Davis: Miles 54: The Prestige Recordings (Craft)

RRP: $125.00 (LP), $25.00 (CD)

By 1954, Miles Davis had been at it for a decade, playing alongside such luminaries as Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie and beginning a career that would last the rest of his life and cement him as one of the greatest trumpeters of all time. However, he had also developed a nasty heroin habit and started a family that he was putting a distant second to his career. So what did Davis do? He moved back home, kicked his heroin habit cold turkey, moved to Detroit to further hone his playing style, and reemerged more powerful than ever.

Miles 54: The Prestige Recordings, released by Craft in 4LP or 2CD formats, features 20 tracks from Davis’ 1954 sessions after he returned to New York clean and having re-upped his contract with Prestige. The set both looks and sounds spectacular, with special note going to the LP box, which is stunningly presented in open-top box packaging with die cut front, allowing the multicolored artwork of the liner note booklet to pop through the plain white and black of the box package.

Of course, the music herein is the star. From the slow sophistication of “Blue Haze” to the freneticism of “Blue ’n’ Boogie” and two takes (1 and 2) of the smooth, relaxed “Bags’ Groove,” the recordings on Miles 54 represent prime era Miles Davis. So sit back, kick up your feet, and groove on to the best of them all. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Miles Davis: Miles in France 1963 & 1964 – Miles Davis Quintet – The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8 (Columbia/Legacy)

RRP: $224.98 (8 LP), $79.98 (6 CD)

In 1963, Miles Davis decamped to France with a crack band—Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, 17-year-old Tony Williams on drums, and George Coleman on tenor sax. His late ‘50s recordings were some of the greatest of his career; albums ‘Round About Midnight, Walkin’, Cookin’ with the Miles Davis Quintet, Miles Ahead, Bags’ Groove, Milestones, and of course Kind of Blue found Davis moving beyond hard bop into more freewheeling territory. And he showcases this transformative stylistic jazz on the 8LPs (or 6 CDs) of Miles in France 1963 & 1964.

Recorded in the summer of 1963 and the fall of ’64, the recordings here are essential to the understanding of Miles Davis and his new direction at the time. Four concert performances are highlighted here, the first three with his band featuring George Coleman and the last finding Coleman replaced by Wayne Shorter. There are multiple performances of Davis classics “So What,” “Joshua,” “Walkin’,” “Stella By Starlight,” “My Funny Valentine,” and “All of You,” all which find the band stretching out and improvising, going where the music takes them, tradition be damned.

Add to the set a liner note book featuring commentary by Coleman and Carter, as well as an essay for historical context by journalist Marcus J. Moore, Miles in France 1963 & 1964 beguiles from beginning to end. Davis would return to the United States and record 1965’s E.S.P. with his 1964 France band, featuring Shorter, yet another stellar and adventurous album in Davis’ grand catalog. Miles in France provides the seeds for that continued growth, a worthy addition to the collection of a man who’s genius just continues to amaze. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Bill Evans Trio: Explorations (Small Batch) (Craft Recordings)

RRP: $99.00

Pianist Bill Evans was something of an outlier in the jazz world. He didn’t release multiple albums per year like many of his contemporaries of the 1950s and ’60s, preferring to take his time between albums, relying on when he had a particular musical statement he wanted to make. And as such, the Bill Evans Trio—Evans on piano with Scott La Faro on bass and Paul Motian on drums—only released two studio albums (along with two live releases). By the time of 1960’s Portrait in Jazz, Evans himself was already well known, playing with Miles Davis and releasing his own Everybody Digs Bill Evans in 1959. Of course, Portrait in Jazz set the standard for Evans’ new trio, but it wasn’t until over a year later that they went back into the studio to follow it up. Explorations, released in 1961 showcases a group more accustomed to one another and as such (and despite Evans’ initial questioning of the quality of the material recorded) became one of Evans’ best records.

The album features the opening track, “Israel,” which Miles Davis had previously recorded during the Birth of the Cool sessions, and “Nardis,” which Davis composed for Cannonball Adderley, a version which Evans performed on himself in 1958. Elsewhere, there is the ballad “Elsa” and Bill Evans Trio’s versions of five standards, “How Deep is the Ocean?,” “Sweet and Lovely,” “I Wish I Knew,” “Haunted Heart,” and “Beautiful Love.”

Highlighted by Craft Recordings for reissue as part of its Small Batch Series, Explorations has never sounded better. For those not in the know, Craft’s Small Batch Series presents seminal albums with lacquers cut from the original tapes, analogue-mastered and press onto 180-gram vinyl using a one-step lacquer process, resulting in audiophile-quality vinyl with for all intents and purposes zero surface noise and as a perfect a version of the original recording as anyone with normal ears can discern. And they simply sound stunning. Presented with a liner note history and a replication of the original album front and back cover, all housed in a sleek black foil-stamped, linen-wrapped slipcase, Explorations is a feast for both the eyes and the ears. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Steve Martin: Steve in a Box: The Warner Years (1977-1981) (Rhino)

RRP: $79.98 (LP), $49.98 (CD)

The Steve Martin renaissance is in full effect thanks to his award winning Hulu comedy Only Murders in the Building, which he co-created, as well as co-starring in with his old pal Martin Short and new pal Selena Gomez. But even before he became a movie star in the late ’70s and early ’80s, he was one of the biggest stand up comedians in America.

Steve in a Box: The Warner Years (1977-1981) collects his four comedy albums on LP (or there’s also a CD version available): Let’s Get Small (1977), A Wild and Crazy Guy (1978), Comedy Is Not Pretty! (1979), and The Steve Martin Brothers (1981). A Wild and Crazy Guy was the most successful of the albums, debuting at #2 on the charts and going double-platinum, as well as winning the Grammy for Best Comedy Album. It ends with “King Tut,” one of the funniest novelty songs and one Martin also memorably performed on Saturday Night Live. A handful of his jokes haven’t aged well, but most of it is good natured and often downright silly.

Around the time of these albums, Martin acted in his first big screen starring role, in 1979’s The Jerk, a film he co-wrote. It was a big hit, making $100 million worldwide on a budget of just $4 million, and soon he was leaving standup behind for Hollywood stardom and a string of comedy and drama classics (many of which he also wrote). Steve in a Box is a great snapshot of how it all began. By Mark Redfern (Buy LP version here. Buy CD version here.)

Paul McCartney and Wings: Band on the Run (50th Anniversary Edition) (UMe)

RRP: $49.98 (LP), $19.98 (CD)

Released in November 1973, Band on the Run was the third studio album from Paul McCartney and Wings and the fifth album McCartney had released in the relatively short time since announcing his departure from The Beatles on April 10, 1970 (a week later his debut solo album, simply titled McCartney, was released). Up until Band on the Run, the critical reaction to McCarney’s post-Beatles work had been decidedly lukewarm, but the album was seen as a return to form and it eventually topped the charts in both the U.S. and UK, fueled by the hits “Jet” and its title track.

McCartney and Wings recorded the album at EMI’s studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to record somewhere more exotic. The experience didn’t quite live up to such rosy expectations, the quality of the studio being questionable and McCartney and his wife/bandmate Linda being robbed at knifepoint, resulting in the loss of some song lyrics and demo tapes. Drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough also left the group just before the Lagos trip, leaving McCartney to fill in for his departed bandmates on various extra instruments. Despite these challenges, Band on the Run is McCartney’s most successful post-Beatles album.

This year it was reissued on both vinyl and CD again in honor of its 50th anniversary. Both versions include the original album, along with a second LP/disc, Band on the Run (Underdubbed), which is a previously unreleased rough mix of the album without any orchestral overdubs, presenting fans a new way to hear this classic five decades later. By Mark Redfern (Buy LP version here. Buy CD version here.)

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Mötley Crüe: Dr. Feelgood: 35th Anniversary Limited Edition Box Set (BMG)

RRP: $199.98 (LP), $139.94 (CD)

For many, Mötley Crüe’s 1989 album, Dr. Feelgood was the glam metal progenitors at the peak of their powers. Paired with the production of Bob Rock, the album was primed to make waves and radio, and it did just that. Five singles (count ‘em, five!) hit the Billboard chart. “Dr. Feelgood” was all sleaze ’n’ roll. “Kickstart My Heart” was a perfect slice of power pop radio rock. “Without You” was big ballad cheese. “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)” was tongue in cheek hilarity set to rock and roll pulse. And “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S.)” was sing along bliss. Of course the album itself peaked at #1.

Upon its 35th anniversary, the Crüe have released a flamboyant box set, in both LP and CD formats, that features the album proper, an EP of demos, another EP of live performances, and all the assorted ephemera and miscellany that any hair metal fan could desire. The album itself does the heavy lifting here, with a special mention for all the fun extras (press release reproduction, guitar pick, poster, tour itinerary, patch, handbill). The live cuts are fairly rudimentary, but the demos, which include “Dr. Feelgood,” “Kickstart My Heart,” “Time for Change,” “Without You,” and a non-album track “Get It For Free” equal the album proper for cool, interesting, and actually worth repeated listens.

Dr. Feelgood would be Vince Neil’s last album with the band until the late ’90s. As he sings in the album closer, “Time for Change:” “Nothing stays the same, now it’s time for change.” It was. Relive the time before that change here, preferably cranked to 11. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

New Order: Brotherhood (Definitive Edition) (Rhino)

RRP: $149.98

Brotherhood is New Order’s fourth album and was released in 1986 between two bigger albums by the Manchester band, 1985’s Low-Life and 1989’s Technique, not to mention 1987’s Substance (which collected all the band’s 12-inch singles up until that point). Brotherhood, however, was also acclaimed at the time and features one of the band’s signature songs, “Bizarre Love Triangle,” which was their breakthrough single in the U.S. (and Australia).

The new Brotherhood (Definitive Edition) includes the original remastered album on both LP and CD. Then there’s another CD featuring rarities, including nine previously unreleased tracks from a 1985 recording session in Japan. Then there are two DVDs loaded with live performances (including a 1987 show at London’s Brixton Academy and two songs from their Glastonbury performance that year), as well as TV performances (on Top of the Pops and other shows) and footage of them recording in the Japanese studio. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

The Police: Synchronicity (Super Deluxe Edition) (UMe/Polydor)

RRP: $174.98 (LP), $124.98 (CD)

The Police’s fifth and final album, 1983’s Synchronicity is generally ranked as the trio’s best album. Not only does it feature the band’s signature hit, “Every Breath You Take,” which was the #1 single in America in 1983 when looking at the Billboard chart for the whole year, it also feels like their most complete artistic statement. While it’s a shame The Police didn’t release any new albums after Synchronicity, it’s always better to go out on top than to wither away with progressively more disappointing albums and never-ending reunion tours.

In honor of its 40th anniversary last year, the album has been reissued on vinyl and CD with a slew of bonus tracks. We were sent the 4-LP version, but there’s also a 6-CD one. Both editions include the original album, as well as B-sides and live recordings, plus a series of unreleased demos and alternative takes from Synchronicity, and six previously unreleased tracks, including some that would eventually morph into other songs, as well as covers of Eddie Cochran’s “Three Steps to Heaven” and Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music.” The LP version includes a 12-inch sized book on the album and four art print photographs, whereas the CD version features a September 1983 concert at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, spread across two discs. It looks like diehard Police devotees will just have to be gifted both versions. By Mark Redfern (Buy LP version here. Buy CD version here.)

Elvis Presley: MEMPHIS (RCA/Legacy)

RRP: $79.99 (CD), $37.98 (LP)

This year’s new Elvis Presley box set, MEMPHIS, available in both comprehensive 5CD or highlighted 2LP varieties, explores the recordings that Elvis made in his adopted hometown of Memphis. Of course these begin with the legendary Sun recordings he made in the ’50s, which make up the 23 tracks on the first CD of this set. These tracks are the most classic of the set, beginning with the King’s debut single “That’s All Right,” and ending with “”It Wouldn’t Be the Same Without You,” a track recorded in January of 1954 and not released until 1999.

After the Sun sessions, MEMPHIS features Elvis back in Memphis four more times over the course of his lifetime. His 1969 sessions, featured on the second disc of this set, found Elvis returning to Memphis after spending the majority of the ’60s as a movie star with soundtrack releases as his main musical product. Much of this material finds Elvis reclaiming the glory of his old days, featuring fine material performed inspiredly by a man returning to his roots. By 1973, Elvis returned once more, this time to Stax, and while these sessions, featured here on disc 3, find Presley occasionally in fine voice, such as on the lively “Talk About the Good Times,” much of the material here does not live up to the reputation Stax had made for essential soul music. A 1974 concert shows Elvis bringing his Vegas show to Memphis, and the final disc of this set finds the King holed up at Graceland, not leaving the house, choosing to record in his own Jungle Room, 16 cuts recorded in 1976, less than a year before his untimely passing.

The draw of MEMPHIS is less the tracks that are included, although the Sun sessions are perfection every single one, but rather the fact that everything but those Sun sessions and the 1974 concert are presented in remastered fashion that excludes overdubs. What you hear with the 1969 sessions, the ’73 Stax tracks, and the Jungle Room cuts from ’76 are just Elvis and whoever was accompanying him in the studio. There is no added orchestration, added horns, added backing singers, added pomp and circumstance. The tracks are raw, simply Elvis Presley’s voice and the instruments present around him as he sings. And as such, they are fascinating documents of Elvis’ talent without unnecessary adornment, the kind of adornment that became so synonymous with his later-day persona.

In sum, MEMPHIS represents a dust-to-dust narrative of Elvis’ recording life from his adopted hometown, the place where his star so gloriously rose, where he returned over the years to try to reclaim the old magic, and where he finally uttered his last gasp way too soon. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Skin Yard: Skin Yard Select (C/Z)

RRP: $85.00

The Seattle band, Skin Yard, was present at ground zero of what became the “grunge” movement. Formed in 1985 by bassist Daniel House and Jack Endino, who later became better known for his producing work, the band was extant until 1991. It was first featured on the seminal Deep Six compilation album along with early tracks from Green River, The Melvins, Malfunkshun, Soundgarden, and U-Men, and went on to release four albums with a rotating cast of drummers better known from their later projects—Matt Cameron (Soundgarden, Pearl Jam), Jason Finn (Presidents of the United States of America, Love Battery), Norman Scott (Gruntruck), and Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees, Mad Season).

Skin Yard Select highlights 14 tracks from throughout the band’s career, packaged as seven colored 7” vinyl records housed in a beautiful box featuring eye-popping skull-themed artwork by Mike Egan. The set includes studio tracks, alternate versions, rarities, remixes, and one previously unreleased song, and it is only available via C/Z Records, the label formed by House and which released not only that Deep Six compilation but also records by bands such as Built To Spill, 7 Year Bitch, and The Gits.

Listening to Skin Yard Select makes clear the band’s place in helping jumpstart a movement, though clearly one that bore no simple resemblance to its progenitors. “Stuck in a Plan,” from its self-titled debut, sounds like a (more) deranged, avant-garde Iggy Pop. An alternate version of “No Right,” from its third album, Fist Sized Chunks, is thrillingly distinct from its original version. “River Throat,” “Words on Bone,” “Burn a Hole,” and “Living Pool” (the latter here in alternate version) from 1000 Smiling Knuckles, the band’s last album to be released before it disbanded, sounds somewhat closer in style to what would become known as Seattle’s hallmark, but of course it’s only as close to such a sound as Skin Yard would ever come which is to say not terribly close. And “Hallowed Ground” and “Burn,” from the band’s second album, Hallowed Ground, stomp and grind with a ferocity and dangerousness uncommon to the time. But Skin Yard was not a common band. Skin Yard Select is the sound of a scene percolating, things bubbling up, everybody so very unaware of what was to come. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Talking Heads: Talking Heads: 77 (Super Deluxe Edition) (Rhino)

RRP: $149.98 (LP), $99.98 (CD)

The members of Talking Heads reunited in 2023 when their classic concert film Stop Making Sense was remastered and re-released. No, they didn’t perform any music nor release anything new, but it was still exciting to see David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison together again.

The band’s debut album, Talking Heads: 77, turns 50 in a few years, but rather than wait until that momentous anniversary, the album has been reissued this year via a Super Deluxe Edition on both vinyl and CD. We were sent the vinyl version and it includes the original album on one LP, plus a second LP of rare and previously unreleased singles, demos, and outtakes. Then an October 1977 concert at the historic New York venue CBGB (the band’s last time performing at the club) is spread across two LPs. Then there are four recreated 7-inch singles, including of course for the album’s best known song, “Psycho Killer,” and a detailed hardcover book on the band and the album, filled with archived photos. The CD version includes all the music across three CDs, the hardcover book, and the album on Blu-ray in the new Atmos Mix, 5.1 Mix DTS-HD MA, 5.1 Mix LPCM, and the 2024 Stereo Remaster. All of which makes sense as a superior gift for a Talking Heads superfan. By Mark Redfern (Buy LP version here. Buy CD version here.)

Talk Talk: It’s My Life (40th Anniversary Edition) (Rhino)

RRP: $49.98

Talk Talk’s second album, 1984’s It’s My Life, gets a 40th anniversary reissue on vinyl. Although they found even greater acclaim and lasting influence via 1986’s The Colour of Spring and especially 1998’s Spirit of Eden, It’s My Life’s title track is arguably the band’s best known single, at least in America, where it was their highest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at #31). The song gained a new lease on life when No Doubt covered it in 2003, recording it as a bonus track for their greatest hits album, The Singles 1992–2003. Alas No Doubt’s version charted even higher, peaking at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s “Such a Shame” was an even bigger hit in Europe, making it to #1 in Switzerland and Italy and #2 in West Germany and Austria.

The new reissue has been cut at Half-Speed by Matt Colton at Metropolis Studios. Talk Talk’s drummer Lee Harris oversaw the reissue, alongside Charlie Hollis, son of the band’s late frontman Mark Hollis (who died in 2019). By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

Tsunami: Loud Is As (Numero Group)

RRP: $100.00 (black vinyl), $110.00 (grey vinyl)

Tsunami formed in 1990 in Arlington, Virginia, the project of Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thompson and proceeded over the next decade to become the definition of your cult-obsessed ’90s indie band. The group released three albums on their own Simple Machines record label—1993’s Deep End, 1994’s The Heart’s Tremolo, and 1997’s A Brilliant Mistake—along with a host of early 7”s, EPs, b-sides, and compilation tracks.

Now, for the first time since the original releases, Tsunami’s catalog is available once again, in its entirety, remastered and in box set form from the geniuses at the Numero Group. Sixty-one songs across five LPs, featuring each of the band’s three albums along with a two-LP gatefold compilation of their other recorded tracks titled World Tour and Other Destinations, the Loud Is As box set is the ultimate tribute to one of the ’90s’ most under appreciated in its lifetime bands.

Per Numero’s modus operandi, Loud As Is comes complete with a comprehensive LP-sized book documenting the band’s history in both photograph, ephemera, and narrative including band member interviews, along with pieces on each proper album and the World Tour and Other Destinations compilation. Now we can all celebrate Tsunami and its legacy, all in one place, in one handy and expertly compiled fashion. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Various Artists: The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968, Volumes 1 and 2 (Rhino)

RRP: Volume 1& 2 Bundle $89.98, Volume 1 $49.98, Volume 2 $49.98

With Rhino’s The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: 1959-1968, Volumes 1 and 2, the history of the soul labels makes its way to vinyl. Culling tracks from the out-of-print 1991 9-CD box set, as well as liner note label history from the same, The Complete Stax/Volt Singles is an essential piece of music history. Each volume comes in beautiful three-LP packaging. Volume 1 starts with Veltones’ “Fool In Love” from 1959 and continues through William Bell’s “Just As I Thought” from ’63, with 41 tracks in between featuring staples of Stax/Volt’s marvelous catalog of singles from Carla and Rufus Thomas to the Mar-Keys, The Del-Rios, and eventually Booker T. & the MGs.

Volume 2 picks up where Volume 1 leaves off, starting in April of 1963 and going on for 41 tracks in total until The Fleets’ “Please Return To Me” closes out the set in 1964. Obviously, Volume 2 represents the meat of Stax/Volt’s catalog’s early years, with hits by Booker T. & the MGs, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, and Carla Thomas, with lesser known tracks from artists such as The Cobras, Barbara & the Browns ,and Wendy Rene. Throughout all the marvelous highs, the Stax/Volt history is presented here in sparkling-sounding 6-LPs across these two volumes. It’s essential soul music for anyone even remotely interested in the art form. And in case you’re wondering why the title’s date range goes to 1968 and Volume 2’s collection ends in ’64, Rhino will be releasing Volumes 3 and 4 in 2025. So buy these now and return next year for the rest of the marvelous history of these historic labels. By Frank Valish (Buy it here.)

Weezer: Blue Album (30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition) (Geffen/UMe)

RRP: $249.98

Weezer fans like to hotly debate the quality of the band’s modern output, but there’s no questioning their debut album, originally a self-titled release, but now known as Blue Album after many other subsequent self-titled Weezer albums also referred to by the background color of their album covers. The 1994 album features the classics “Buddy Holly,” “Undone – The Sweater Song,” “Say It Ain’t So,” and the climatic “Only In Dreams.” No list of the best music videos of that decade would be trustworthy without a mention of Spike Jonze’s inventive video for “Buddy Holly,” in which he inserted the band into the world of the 1970s sitcom Happy Days.

For its 30th anniversary, Weezer’s debut has been granted a very handsome and impressive vinyl box set reissue. It includes the original album plus 36 previously unreleased tracks, including eight kitchen tape demos, 10 early recordings from 1992 and 1993, 12 early live recordings from the same years, a 7-inch featuring four live recordings from Loyola Marymount University, and six BBC session recordings (including two that were never broadcast) on a 10-inch. While it’s a curious omission that none of the album’s beloved B-sides are included in this collection, the wealth of rare and unreleased tracks more than makes up for it.

Beyond the music, there’s also a fold out poster with the band styled like members of Kiss, an enamel pin, a 12-sided blue die, and more. The packaging is styled as if it’s a sweater, complete with a stray piece of yarn sticking out from a hole in the front. There’s no debate, this is a superior box set. By Mark Redfern (Buy it here.)

John Williams, Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat: Harry Potter: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtracks I-VII (Rhino)

RRP: $299.98

The upcoming new Harry Potter HBO TV series is in full swing. Deadline reported this week that a staggering 32,000 British kids had auditioned for the chance to be the new Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. The series is readapting all the books, with each one forming a season of the show. While it does seem a little strange to do new adaptations only 14 years after the last Harry Potter film came out, the common complaint of the movies was how much was cut out of each book. The series will no doubt have more time to include more details and subplots dropped from the movies.

Still, the Harry Potter movies were remarkable. Not only was the quality kept up across all eight movies, despite different directors being involved. Stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson were quite young when they were initially cast and their inexperience shows in the first movie, but they quickly improved and grew into their roles and stuck with the series and continued to have successful careers post Potter. They were surrounded by a who’s who of top class British acting talent, many of whom alas are no longer with us (Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, Dame Maggie Smith, Richard Harris, Michael Gambon).

And then there was the music. The incomparable John Williams scored the first three films—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)—and some of his themes were carried across the whole series, even as other composers stepped in. Patrick Doyle scored Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Nicholas Hooper took over for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009). The final book was wisely split into two movies—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011)—and two-time Academy Award-winning composer Alexandre Desplat scored those.

Harry Potter: The Complete Original Motion Picture Soundtracks I-VII is an impressive box set that collects all eight scores on vinyl. There is a different version for each Hogwarts house, with each version limited to only 500 copies worldwide. We requested and were sent the Ravenclaw version. By Mark Redfern (Buy Ravenclaw version here.)

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