New vinyl reissues: August 14, 2026
Welcome back, friends. It’s a relatively streamlined week for new vinyl reissues—perhaps a good thing, as it looks like we’ll be getting a deluge of wallet-tempting stuff in the back third of 2026. Nevertheless, there’s still plenty to talk about today, although you may notice I’m keeping it on the brief side this week.
Yesterday, August 12, was National Vinyl Record Day, but don’t feel too bad about missing it—it isn’t really much more than an excuse for the record labels to whip up some quick day-long sales. The retail holiday ostensibly commemorates the anniversary of Thomas Edison inventing the phonograph in 1877, but of course, vinyl had nothing to do with it. The first recording was imprinted on a metal tube wrapped in foil, and the first commercially available “records” were wax cylinders, followed by shellac 78 RPM discs. Vinyl as a medium for music wasn’t commercially available on a widespread basis until the late 1940s. By calling it National Vinyl Record Day, I think they’re hiding the ball—the day should celebrate the invention of audio recording, regardless of format. It could be National Record, CD, MP3, 8-track, MiniDisc, DAT, and Rib/X-Ray Day, although all of that might be tough to squeeze into a “10% OFF!” email banner.
Here’s this week’s playlist, featuring selections from 30 of this week’s new vinyl reissues. If you’re not seeing it and want in, simply upgrade your membership to our paid tier, where you’ll get access to these weekly playlists, plus some other fine perks.
Warren Zevon: Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School [Mobile Fidelity]
After the success of 1978’s Excitable Boy and its hit single “Werewolves of London,” Warren Zevon had newfound artistic freedom but also a bit of a hurdle to overcome—“Werewolves,” for all its wit, was considered by some casual observers to be a bit of a novelty track that didn’t really make Zevon’s established songwriting smarts readily apparent. For the follow-up album, 1980’s Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School, Zevon incorporated some of his childhood training under composer Igor Stravinsky with two short string-quartet interludes. The rest of the album is filled with Zevon’s characteristic dark wit and near-nihilistic worldview, starting with the sound of gunshots on the opening title track. For all its good moments, the album also showed Zevon’s volatility, as he was suffering from multiple addictions at the time. Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School was recorded in LA with the cream of that city’s session-musician crop and has always sounded great, so it’s fitting that Mobile Fidelity have prepped this audiophile edition, with the master tape converted to DSD and cut at 45 RPM across two LPs pressed at Fidelity.
Bob Marley and the Wailers: Roots Rock Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon [Tuff Gong/Island/UMe]
This previously unreleased show from Bob Marley and the Wailers was recorded during a four-night stint at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on June 15–18, 1976, a few weeks after the release of Rastaman Vibration. It’s actually kind of remarkable that any Bob Marley material this well recorded and performed has not seen the light of day yet—his catalog has been so thoroughly exploited at this point that it stands to reason that everything had already been milked dry. Not so, apparently; this recording was shelved at the time because 1975’s Live! has just been come out a few months prior, and then the tapes were accidentally broken up and separated into different archival locations. Their recent reconstitution results in this new double album, and it features liner notes by Don Letts, who was present at the concerts. It comes on black vinyl or in a limited edition with “molten lava” red and “peridot swirl” green discs.
Primal Scream: Vanishing Point [Sony UK]
Following the epoch-shifting breakthrough of 1991’s Screamadelica, Scottish band Primal Scream found themselves at the vanguard of several musical movements at once, including the rock, psych, acid house, and dance music fronts, so their follow-up—1994’s Give Out But Don’t Give Up, an earnest but flawed exploration of Southern soul—was virtually doomed to wilt under those sky-high expectations. It took 1997’s Vanishing Point (and its teaser track, “Trainspotting,” which appeared in the film of the same name the previous year) to restore Bobby Gillespie and his cohort into the good graces of the arbiters of cool. The album is a dark, electro, psychedelic, narcotic trip inspired by the 1971 film Vanishing Point, and it was deliberately devised to be the antithesis of all the laddish, loutish Britpop that was in vogue in the UK at the time. The result was one of the most crucial and invigorating albums of the 1990s. This expanded reissue, with five additional tracks, is the first of three reissues Primal Scream is offering of their so-called “Bunker Trilogy”—its other two components being 2000’s scaldingly great Xtrmntr (due September 4) and 2002’s Evil Heat (due October 30). Irritatingly, this series is not being distributed by Sony in North America, although import copies should be arriving on our shores this week or next.
The Sundays: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic; Blind; Static & Silence [Parlophone]
For years, it seemed like the Sundays were impossible to track down on vinyl—a sensation only compounded by their complete exit from the music scene following 1997’s Static & Silence. And the Bristol, England, band’s dreamy, gentle pop has only become more beloved in the intervening years. Finally, we got some not-especially-good-sounding reissues of their three albums on Record Store Day in 2017 and 2018 in frustratingly limited editions. Thankfully, Geffen/Interscope reissued them again, to noted improvement, in 2024 and 2025, with 1992’s Blind cut as a 2-LP set. And now their UK label, Parlophone, is reissuing them anew (Blind is a single LP this time). Will these be substantially different from what came before? Will they sound better, worse, or exactly the same? I couldn’t tell you—but if you ever made a wish that we would some day be spoiled for choice with Sundays vinyl reissues, apparently your genie was listening.
The Hamilton Movement: She’s Gone: The Complete Works [Now-Again]
The Indianapolis soul outfit the Hamilton Movement released four singles between 1975 and 1977 on Look Out Records, but they never broke out of the local scene, leaving their rare 7-inches as the only tangible documents of their sound. Earlier this year Now-Again Records released a particularly coveted track, “She’s Gone,” on a 7-inch cut from tape by Bernie Grundman, and now the label is issuing a full-length LP with all of the group’s single sides plus three unreleased tracks. (There is no language suggesting that Grundman cut this LP, however.) The album comes with a large booklet detailing the Hamilton Movement’s history and should be the definitive word on an overlooked slice of Indiana R&B history.
The Byrds: The Notorious Byrd Brothers [Music on Vinyl]
While a Music on Vinyl repressing of a well-known album isn’t typically enough to get excited about, when the album is 1968’s The Notorious Byrd Brothers, well, it at least deserves a mention. This white-vinyl pressing is cut from digital—as are all of MoV’s reissues—but it should sound crisp and clean, and the pressing from Record Industry should be immaculate. (It should be identical, soundwise, to MoV’s 2012 version, which is still available around the internet.) Initially misconstrued as a lesser Byrds record, Notorious has in recent years become one of the defining albums of the late ’60s, capturing a transitional period when the Byrds were shifting from their psychedelic phase to their country period (and also seeing David Crosby depart the band under acrimonious circumstances). This is ground zero for the “cosmic country” sound, with the raga-rock of “Change Is Now” nestled alongside the pastoral river-bend folk of “Wasn’t Born to Follow,” with breathtaking stops along the way with “Goin’ Back” and “Get to You,” the two most gorgeous things the Byrds ever recorded. It’s not simply the LA folk-rock pioneering band’s best album—it’s one of the greatest albums of all time, so if you don’t own a clean original and are in need of a freshy, this new pressing might be just what Dr. Byrds ordered. (This is the stereo mix, not the rare mono mix, which has been reissued by Sundazed. Also, this limited, numbered edition of 1500 is not technically available outside of Europe, but it should be available as an import pretty easily.)
Jazz Alley
The twin centennials for Miles Davis and John Coltrane (both born in 1926) continue with the two latest Original Jazz Classic reissues from Craft. Cookin’, Miles Davis’s 1957 album for Prestige, has been reissued soooo many times that you probably own five copies already, but this OJC pressing was cut from the analog master tape by Kevin Gray, so you’re probably already thinking about picking up a sixth. (The Gray cut of Cookin’ that appeared in the recent Miles ’56 box was apparently treated with the Plangent digital process.) And John Coltrane’s Coltrane, also from 1957, was the legendary saxophonist’s first LP as bandleader, recorded a few months after he’d been fired by Davis (yes, Trane plays on Cookin’ as well). Coltrane, too, was cut from tape by Kevin Gray, and these OJC pressings are usually pretty dang nice, pressed at RTI and housed inside tip-on sleeves. (I’ll have full-length reviews for Cookin’ and Coltrane in the coming days.)
Another Coltrane album, 1966’s Meditations, shows that eons’ worth of musical development had passed in the nine years since that debut, with Coltrane and an ensemble featuring Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, and Elvin Jones exploring the choppier seas of free jazz. It’s part of the fantastic, all-analog Verve Vault series—as is George Benson’s 1968 album Giblet Gravy, a smooth, soul-inflected bit of easy jazz highlighted by Benson’s guitar. Both Verve Vaults were cut from tape by Ryan K. Smith and pressed at Optimal. Also this week: Gearbox is releasing a 1966 Danish concert from Ella Fitzgerald, Live at the Falconer Theatre, Copenhagen 6th February 1966; and Analogue Productions have re-pressed two Wes Montgomery titles from their Fantasy 45 series, 1960’s The Wes Montgomery Trio: A Dynamic New Sound and the 1962 live album Full House, using the 45 RPM plates mastered by Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman a couple of decades ago.
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
(*star denotes inclusion in this week’s paid-subscriber playlist)
Ian Anderson: Rupi’s Dance [Madfish]
Avantasia: The Metal Opera; The Metal Opera Pt II [Reaper]
Kurt Baker: Got It Covered [Oglio]
Robbie Basho: The Voice of an Eagle [Life Goes On]
Yasiin Bey: The Ecstatic [Rhymesayers]
Big L: Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous [Sony]
Stephen Bishop: Careless [Life’s a Bish]
*The Black Crowes: Lions [Friday Music]
Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers: Album of the Year [Music on Vinyl]
*Blue Öyster Cult: Agents of Fortune [Sony]
Bôa: Twilight (zoetrope) [Nettwerk]
*Cheap Trick: Heaven Tonight; At Budokan: The Complete Concert [Music on Vinyl]
*Clipse: Clipse Presents Re-Up Gang [Get On Down]
Cockney Rejects: Greatest Hits Vol 2 [Cadiz]
Conflict: The House That Man Built; To a Nation of Animal Lovers [Cadiz]
Guido & Maurizio de Angelis: Il Cacciatore di Squali [Beat]
Death Angel: The Evil Divide [Nuclear Blast]
*Descendents: All; Liveage! [Org Music]
*Dragon: Universal Radio [Eminent Vinyl]
Drautran: Unter Dem Banner Der Nordwinde; Throne of the Depths [Prophecy]
The-Dream: Love/Hate [Def Jam]
*Kelly Finnigan: B-Sides, Singles & Forgotten Gems [Colemine]
Macy Gray: On How Life Is [Music on Vinyl]
Havukruunu: Havulinnaan; Uinuos Syömein Sota [Svart]
Colin Hay: Man at Work [Compass]
*Jascha Heifetz: Rozsa - Concerto For Violin And Orchestra / Benjamin - Romantic Fantasy [Acoustic Sounds RCA Living Stereo Series]
Lennie Hibbert: Creation [Studio One]
*The Hillmen: The Hillmen [Liberation Hall]
Jethro Tull: J-Tull Dot Com: Another Cast of the Net [Inside Out]
Leibowitz/RPO: The Power of the Orchestra - Moussorgsky: Night on Bare Mountain, Pictures at an Exhibition [Acoustic Sounds RCA Living Stereo Series]
*David Lindup: Shatter soundtrack [Silva Screen]
*Little Richard: Here’s Little Richard [Specialty]
Curtis Mayfield: Super Fly (retail) [Rhino High Fidelity]
*Tommy McCook: Greater Jamaica Moon Walk-Reggay [Charly]
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Are a Drag; Blow in the Wind; Love Their Country [Fat Wreck Chords]
*The Monkees: Made for TV: Official Soundtrack to Season 1 (1-LP/2-CD/1 Blu-ray) [Rhino]
*Motörhead: The World Is Yours; Aftershock [BMG]
*Nerf Herder: IV [Oglio]
Jim Nollman: Orcas’ Greatest Hits [Smithsonian Folkways]
Piebald: We Are the Only Friends We Have [Iodine]
*Roberto Rueno y Su Apollo Sound: Lucky 7 [Craft/Fania]
*Run-DMC: Raising Hell [Profile/Sony]
Severed Heads: Cuisine (with Piscatorial) [Dark Entries]
Slick Rick: Behind Bars [Music on Vinyl]
Suede: Trash EP [Demon]
*Thao & The Get Down Stay Down: We Brave Bee Stings and All [Kill Rock Stars]
Josh Turner: Your Man [MCA/UMe]
Uada: Devoid of Light [Eisenwald]
The Veldt: Afrodisiac [Music on Vinyl]
Franz Waxman: Sunset Boulevard score [Enjoy the Ride]
Various Artists: Eccentric Soul: The Magic Touch Label Vol. 1 [Numero Group]
*Various Artists: Keep the Pressure On: The Beverley’s Rock Steady Singles 1966–1967; Intensified Sounds: The Beverley’s Rock Steady Singles 1967–1968 [Music on Vinyl/Trojan]
Various Artists: Tchic Tchic: French Bossa Nova 1963–1974 [Born Bad]
