New vinyl reissues: April 10, 2026
It’s the week before Record Store Day 2026, and you might notice a bit of a drop-off in the new releases in today’s roundup. There’s still plenty to talk about, but generally the labels are targeting their big reissue guns for April 18, leaving us with a bit of breathing room for our New Releases posts this week and next.
However, we’ve still got a fine stack of wax to tell you about, and we also have a brand-new playlist with music from all the reissues in today’s rundown just for our paid subscribers. That’s at the bottom of this post, so feel free to scroll down and start listening if you’re on our paid tier.
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Be sure to check in with The Vinyl Cut for our ongoing Record Store Day vinyl reviews. These are actual reviews, written with actual vinyl in hand; we had a healthy slate of reviews earlier this week and will have another one later this week, as well as additional reviews all throughout next week. We’ve got a lot to listen to, and we’d like to tell you all about it before you line up outside your favorite record store on April 18.
One more thing: I (Ned) will be once again appearing on Steve Westman’s Live Audiophile Roundtable this Saturday, April 11, at 12 noon Eastern/9 am Pacific. We’ll be discussing all things vinyl, so please tune in. It will be livestreamed, of course, but you can also watch it after the fact on Steve Westman’s YouTube channel. And while you’re at it, subscribe to Steve’s channel for ongoing discussions in vinyl and audiophile developments.
That’s all we have for business; now let’s get into the week.
John Lee Hooker: That’s My Story & Lightnin’ Hopkins: Blues in My Bottle [Bluesville/Craft/Acoustic Sounds]
Here come a pair of new reissues from Craft Recordings and Acoustic Sounds’ Bluesville series, named for the roots- and blues-oriented sublabel of jazz powerhouse Prestige Records. John Lee Hooker’s That’s My Story was actually first released by Riverside Records in 1960, with Hooker playing acoustic country blues, backed unobtrusively by bassist Sam Jones and drummer Louis Hayes. The album opens with a reworking of Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want),” with Hooker turning the Motown classic into a remarkable blues shuffle, making it sound like a traditional song that’s been passed down through generations. Lightnin’ Hopkins’s 1961 Bluesville album Blues in My Bottle finds the Texas bluesman strumming a battered acoustic guitar and delivering a set of intense standards and originals. His guitar buzzes quite a bit, as if something loose was vibrating while he played, which makes me curious to see if the Acoustic Sounds mastering attempted to mitigate the sound issues in the recording. Both of these were cut from tape by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab and were pressed at Quality Record Pressings. NL
Scritti Politti: Songs to Remember [Rough Trade]
Following a gig supporting Gang of Four in early 1980, Scritti Politti frontman Green Gartside suffered a panic attack so severe that he left London for his family home in South Wales. During his months of convalescence, the young artist changed his perspective on making music, opting to leave behind the scratchy reggae-punk of his group’s early singles for a sound that embraced R&B, disco, and funk. This approach would reach its peak with 1985’s glossy masterpiece Cupid & Psyche 85, but Scritti Politti made great strides toward accessibility with 1982’s Songs to Remember. It’s a wonderfully wobbly debut album that wraps Gartside’s philosophical and political maxims, not to mention his gorgeous vocals, in rough-hewn psych-soul anchored by primitive drum-machine beats, slap bass, and wandering piano lines played by either Mike McAvoy or Robert Wyatt. The album gets a long overdue vinyl reissue this week with newly remastered audio overseen by Gartside and Abbey Road’s Alex Wharton. RH
Héctor Lavoie: Comedia [Craft Recordings]
Salsa legend Héctor Lavoe hit his arguable creative peak with 1978’s Comedia, the third album he released under his own name after nearly a decade leading Willie Colón’s orchestra. Produced by Colón and featuring arrangements by Latin music greats José Febles, Edwin Rodriguez, and Luis Ortiz, the record stays at hip-swinging simmer—never boiling over nor going cold, but warm enough for sweaty activities like dancing and lovemaking. Lavoe is in top form throughout, laying his butter-smooth vocals atop instant classics like the Ruben Blades–penned “El Cantante” and the orchestra sweep of “Porque Te Conoci?” Craft Recordings continues their redoubtable work of keeping the Fania Records catalog in print with this week’s vinyl reissue of Comedia in an all-analog pressing cut from the original master tapes. RH
Flyboys: The Complete Flyboys 1978–1980 [Frontier]
San Fernando Valley punk label Frontier Records would go on to issue seminal albums by Adolescents, Circle Jerks, and Christian Death, but their first-ever release was the self-titled 12-inch EP by Arcadia band Flyboys, who injected a power-pop sensibility into their brisk barrages. The band played relentlessly around Southern California, and was one of the foundational punk bands in the emerging LA scene in the late ’70s. But by the time Frontier released the EP, Flyboys had called it a day; nevertheless, it remains a cherished totem of early West Coast punk. The seven songs from the EP, along with an early 7-inch and some newly rediscovered demos, are being reissued as a full-length by Frontier, bringing the group’s brief but indelible legacy back into focus. NL
Duran Duran: Duran Duran; Thank You [Warner/Rhino]
This week, Rhino releases a pair of reissues that represent the highs and lows of Duran Duran in the ’90s. On one side of the coin, there’s the group’s 1993 self-titled album (often referred to as the Wedding Album due to its cover art) that was something of a creative rebirth for the UK pop band. With guitarist Warren Cuccurullo pushing his bandmates forward, Duran Duran adapted to the modern musical landscape with a sound that incorporated the beats of downtempo electronic and hip-hop and a tone that smoldered rather than burned hot and fast. Fueled by the brilliant singles “Ordinary World” and “Come Undone,” the album was a massive success. On the flipside, the band issued Thank You in 1995, a collection of covers that paid homage to some of the artists Duran Duran cited as influences. It is a strange beast, with fine renditions of Iggy Pop’s “Success” and Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” sitting alongside completely wrongheaded takes on Public Enemy’s “911 is a Joke” and Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives.” Though previously available on vinyl, both albums were squeezed onto single LPs, an especially egregious move for Duran Duran’s 62-minute running time. These fresh reissues rightfully press the music on 2 LPs using newly remastered audio. N.B.: Rhino shows Duran Duran as sold out on their website, so your best bet for getting a copy is to be at your local record shop on Friday morning. RH
Cymande: Promised Heights [Partisan]
Cymande’s third album, 1974’s Promised Heights, continued the eclectic group’s merging of global sounds, from the London rock scene where they operated to the polyrhythms coming up from Africa to the influences of American funk, R&B, and Latin to the rhythmic and lyrical ideas from the Caribbean, where many of the band’s members hailed from. Their first two albums are rightly considered classics of a particular brand of psychedelic funk that Cymande dubbed “Nyah-rock,” but Promised Heights is often overlooked, although it is every bit its predecessors’ equal. The album was reissued on pink vinyl by Partisan Records for its 50th anniversary in 2024, but now it has been repressed to black vinyl. NL
Rachel Love: Picture in Mind; Lyra [Slumberland]
Post-punk and twee-pop enthusiasts will recognize, if not the name, then the unmistakable honeyed vocals of Rachel Love. In the late ’70s and early ’80s, she was a member of Dolly Mixture, a trio that updated the bubblegum sound of the Shangri-Las and the Crystals with forceful guitars and bullish drumming. The group never managed to put out a proper album during their time, but had singles released on Paul Weller’s Respond label and made music with the Damned’s Captain Sensible. All three of the Dollys had active musical careers after the band split, but it took until 2021 for Love to issue her first solo album Picture in Mind. It's a dreamy self-produced affair with swimmy guitar textures, chittering programmed drums, and Love’s still-porcelain vocals floating through it all. She followed it three years later with Lyra, a quietly devastating collection of songs honoring her late husband Steve Lovell that she recorded with her sons. Both albums were previously only available as limited-run CDs but are getting their first vinyl pressings this week courtesy of the great indie-pop label Slumberland. RH
David Bowie, Eugene Ormandy, and the Philadelphia Orchestra: Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf [Music on Vinyl]
The late ’70s found David Bowie making some of the most progressive and challenging music of his career, but it also saw him moonlighting as a wholesome family entertainer, with an appearance on Bing Crosby’s Christmas special and this turn as narrator on this charming recording of Prokofiev’s educational classic Peter and the Wolf. First released in 1978 on Bowie’s label at the time, RCA, it found him pairing with some unlikely labelmates: the stalwart Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of their longtime conductor Eugene Ormandy. The orchestral recording was made in 1975 with Bowie adding his narration in a New York studio in November 1977, but the contributions are seamlessly integrated, and Bowie is very convincing in his role as kindly storyteller, explaining the roles of the members of the orchestra while moving the plot forward effectively. Side 2 features the Philadelphia Orchestra’s recording of Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, which can be performed with narration but was sadly not in this case. The album was reissued on vinyl by Dutch label Music on Vinyl back in 2014, and they now give it a refresh with a new yellow-vinyl pressing. NL
Meredith Brooks: Blurring the Edges [Capitol]
Oregon musician Meredith Brooks had a massive single in 1997 with “Bitch,” a song so inescapable that its slightly boundary-pushing title eventually became a nonissue. Anyone who spent any part of the late ’90s anywhere near a radio can now immediately hear the entire song in their head, but for those who missed out, “Bitch” was a sort of post-Alanis, Lilith Fair–ready pop-rock song with an absurdly hooky chorus and mild hip-hop undertones. It is quite possibly the most ’90s thing ever recorded. Anyway, the song’s parent album, the platinum-selling Blurring the Edges, was never released on vinyl, so Capitol Records is rolling the nostalgia dice and remedying that oversight with a fresh new pressing on light blue vinyl. You know you wouldn’t want it any other way. NL
Various Artists: Eccentric Sweet Soul [Numero Group]
A new comp from Numero Group is always a reason to perk up and pay attention. This one focuses on romantic soul, collected from a dizzying array of regional and private-press singles released in the US in the 1960s and ’70s, from R&B and gospel groups that never made the leap to the big time. You can expect tender harmonies, lovelorn lyrics, and broken-hearted vocals over mood-setting, gently funky grooves. Numero are some of the best crate-diggers out there, so expect to encounter plenty of stuff you’ve never heard before. NL
Jazz Alley
The most interesting thing down Jazz Alley this week is an unexpected reissue of Marion Brown’s 1976 album Awofofora, a fearlessly exploratory work that widens the purview of the saxophonist’s previously established free-jazz milieu to incorporate explicit Latin and funk elements, sounding a little like one of Miles Davis’s electric outfits making an appearance at a daytime street carnival. Bassist Fred Hopkins takes a leading role here, but Brown also gives himself a showcase on “And Then They Danced,” which sees him duetting with himself via overdub. Initially only released in Japan, it’s getting a long-overdue reissue from Belgian label Aguirre Records, featuring newly written liner notes.
Equally unexpected is UK label Jazzman’s reissue of Rickey Kelly’s My Kind of Music, a 1979 spiritual-jazz work that was initially released on the tiny Los Angeles Phonograph Records and reissued on the slightly larger New Note. Kelly, a music student at the time, plays vibes and marimba, and he’s capably backed on his own compositions by an outfit of excellent LA players including flutist Adele Sebastian, vocalist Dianne Reeves, and drummer Billy Higgins.
Meanwhile, the terrific Rhino Reserve line is revisiting two titles from the Warner catalog: John Coltrane’s 1961 album My Favorite Things needs no introduction, one of the saxophonist’s best-loved recordings and a pioneering work in modal jazz. It was part of Rhino High Fidelity’s mono box set of Coltrane albums from last year (read our review here) but is now reissued in its stereo mix, cut from tape by Matthew Lutthans. Rhino Reserve is also reissuing Miles Davis and Quincy Jones’s Live at Montreux, recorded at the 1991 festival and released in 1993. It finds Davis fronting two big bands—the Gil Evans Orchestra and the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band—with Jones conducting. This was Davis’s final recording before his death in September 1991. Mastering info is not available for that one at the moment but should be readily available on the Rhino Reserve hype sticker. Rhino is also reissuing Davis’s 1992 final studio album Doo-Bop, recorded before Montreux but issued after his death. (That is not part of the Reserve line.)
Additionally, Elemental Music is releasing an archival live show from pianist Mal Waldron and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, recorded at Oakland, California, jazz club Yoshi’s on June 8, 1994. There’s not much more I can add beyond what the LP’s informative title, Play Monk, Ellington & Strayhorn: Live at Yoshi’s 1994, can tell you, except to add that the lacquers were cut by Matthew Lutthans and the double LP includes an essay by Kevin Whitehead. Lastly, Analogue Productions is continuing their repressings of their Fantasy Records series from a couple decades ago with three Bill Evans re-ups: 1961’s Explorations, 1962’s Moon Beams, 1963’s Interplay, all originally released on the Riverside label. These are represses on 2-LP at 45 RPM, featuring the old analog mastering by Steve Hoffman and Kevin Gray from Analogue Productions’ original reissues, dating from the ’00s. NL
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Ange: Emile Jacotey; Au-Delà du Délire; Le Cimetiere des Arlequins [GM Editions]
Apocalyptica: Plays Metallica by Four Cellos [Black Sea Music]
The Band: Jubilation; High on the Hog [Friday]
Beatglider: Dreaming of Roads [Arlen]
Bobby Charles: Bearsville Studio Sessions (wide release after RSD 2025 [Bearsville]
Cockney Rejects: Peel Sessions ’79/’80 [Ruck]
The Cramps: Bad Music for Bad People; Psychedelic Jungle; Songs the Lord Taught Us (represses) [Capitol]
Critters Buggin: Guest [Loosegroove]
Danzig: I, II, III How the Gods Kill; IV (represses) [American Recordings]
Dimmu Borgir: Death Cult Armageddon [Nuclear Blast]
Edge: Edge [RidingEasy]
Flume: Skin [Mom+Pop]
Melody Gardot: Worrisome Heart [Decca]
Ian Gillan Band: Clear Air Turbulence [Friday]
Hindu Love Gods: Hindu Love Gods (wide release after RSD BF 2025) [Rhino]
Ice-T: Power Rarities (wide release after RSD 2025) [Rhino]
IQ: Are You Sitting Comfortably? [Giant Electric Pea]
Masabumi Kikuchi: Six Elements - Earth; Six Elements - Water [Rings]
Kix: Hot Wire [Friday]
Kris Kristofferson: The Austin Sessions [Friday]
Magma: Kobaia; 1001 Centigrades [GM Editions]
Monster Magnet: Superjudge; Dopes to Infinity; Powertrip; God Says No [PIAS]
Ennio Morricone: Danger: Diabolik! soundtrack [Intermezzo]
Alva Noto: Xerrox Vol. 1-5 [Noton]
Luciano Pavarotti: Sings Tenor Arias; Verismo Arias [Decca]
Pogues: Peel Sessions and More ’84/’85 [County Hell]
Todd Rundgren: Initiation (wide release after RSD 2025) [Bearsville/Rhino]
Stephen Sondheim/Original Cast: Company; Into the Woods [Music on Vinyl]
Alan Sorrenti: Figli Delle Stelle [Universal Italy]
Tash Sultana: Notion [Mom+Pop]
Summer Cannibals: Full of It [Kill Rock Stars]
Time Spent Driving: Just Enough Bright [Thirty Something]
Frank Turner: Campfire Punkrock [Xtra Mile]
Muddy Waters: Screamin’ and Cryin’ [Jerome]
Be sure to check out the playlist below for today’s new releases, available on Apple Music, Spotify, and Tidal for our paid-tier subscribers.
