New vinyl reissues: February 27, 2026
It’s your favorite time of the week, when you get to read our ramblings about some of the upcoming vinyl reissues hitting your local record store this Friday. You will not be surprised to hear that it’s another jam-packed roster, with lots of below-the-radar stuff as well as some more high-profile releases.
Before we get into all that, I wanted to let readers know that I (Ned) will be making another appearance on Steve Westman’s Live Audiophile Roundtable this Saturday, February 28 at 12 noon Eastern/9 am Pacific. Westman’s show tackles the vinyl renaissance that we’re currently living in, with an emphasis on audiophile cuts, sound quality, best masterings, and the emotional resonance that great music can have on the listener. Sometimes Westman hosts industry insiders and interviews them about important projects, and other times it’s more of a panel discussion about anything and everything vinyl. This week our topic is “1990s Classics That Need AAA Vinyl Releases!” so as you can imagine, there’s going to be plenty to talk about. Tune in live, or catch the episode anytime on YouTube via this link. And subscribe to Westman’s channel while you’re there!
Now let’s put on our bibs and tuck in to the week.
De Wolfe Music Library Reissues [Be With]
De Wolfe is a library-music institution, responsible for the scores of countless films, TV programs, advertisements, and more. The London company was formed all the way back in 1909, but their real value to vinyl collectors comes from the hundreds of library-music LPs they released in the 1960s, ’70s, and ‘’80s, featuring orchestrated funk, lounge-inflected pop, groovy dinner-party jazz, and much more. Be With Records have gotten their hands on four highly coveted De Wolfe records and are reissuing them this week. Barbara Moore’s Bright & Shining from 1981 is an alternate-dimension gloss-pop symphony, with sunshiney vocal harmonies cooing over slick studio-rat yacht rock. Hogan, Hawk, and the Dirty John Crown from 1972 is the funk soundtrack to a grimy exploitation flick that never existed, with flute, vibes, squelching synths, and fuzz guitars setting the mood. Soul City Orchestra’s Meal Ticket is 1977 personified, with wah-wah guitars and high-altitude disco grooves. But the prize of the pack might be Simon Haseley and Peter Reno’s Great Day, a 1972 collection of easy-breezy instrumentals and genuinely cinematic funk, situated within ambitious orchestral arrangements and lock-step prog-rock chops. These impossible-to-find library-music essentials are now available via any reputable record vendor. Hey, maybe 2026 isn’t all bad. NL
Fugees: The Score [Sony]
The New York hip-hop trio Fugees had already established their underground bona fides with the release of their debut, 1994’s Blunted on Reality, but when their follow-up, 1996’s The Score, hit the streets, Pras, Wyclef Jean, and Lauryn Hill became superstars. Much of that came by way of their juiced-up cover of “Killing Me Softly,” which was a massive hit on radio and MTV, but there’s not a false moment on the whole LP as the three musicians cycled through streetwise rap, head-nodding R&B, and reggae. Though copies of the album aren’t terribly hard to come by, Sony should still get some flowers for getting a new vinyl edition of The Score back in stores this week. It’s a must-have for any serious hip-hop collector. RH
Various Artists: Eternal Journey: The Arrangements and Productions of Charles Stepney [Ace/BGP]
Charles Stepney was an esteemed Chicago-based arranger and producer who died in 1976 at the height of his powers. In addition to big hits for Earth, Wind & Fire, Stepney was an in-house producer for Chess subsidiary Cadet Records, where he produced Terry Callier’s cult faves Occasional Rain and What Color Is Love, as well as work for the Rotary Connection and Minnie Riperton’s phenomenal 1970 solo debut, Come to My Garden. This two-LP compilation provides an overview of Stepney’s career, providing the first dedicated survey of his oeuvre, which married soul, psychedelia, jazz, and stunning orchestral accoutrements. Tracks include Riperton’s “Les Fleurs,” Ramsay Lewis’s take on “Dear Prudence,” Marlena Shaw’s “California Soul,” Callier’s “What Color Is Love,” and samples of Stepney’s work with established Chess artists like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, and Bo Diddley. This is already on the shortlist for compilation album of the year. NL
Rush: Rush [UMe]
As news continues to circulate about what’s in store for Rush fans when Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, and new drummer Anika Nilles hit the road this summer, it might be a good time for folks less familiar with the band to go back to where the Canadian power trio began. Universal is making that even more possible this week with a new vinyl pressing of Rush’s self-titled 1974 debut. At the time, the group still had drummer John Rutsey in the fold. As he was a much more straightforward player than the late Neil Peart, Rush’s music was much more meat-and-potatoes heavy rock fare, as expressed best by “Working Man,” their tribute to the blue-collar grunts of the world that was a surprise radio hit in Cleveland. My assumption is that this pressing will feature Sean Magee’s hi-def master, which was used for the 40th anniversary reissue in 2014 and again for a 2023 repress. Opinions vary on the sound of those more recent editions, so I’m going to withhold judgment until I can get my greasy mitts on a copy of this new version. RH
The Temptations: Cloud Nine & Harry Chapin: Verities and Balderdash [Mobile Fidelity]
Two new Mobile Fidelity reissues are now leaving the warehouse. The Temptations’ 1969 LP Cloud Nine is thought of as one of their best, including the psychedelic title track and the epic “Runaway Child, Running Wild.” It was the Motown group’s first without lead singer David Ruffin, and they rose to the challenge, uncovering a grittier sound that spoke to the tumultuous moment in American culture. MoFi has cut a DSD digital transfer of the album master to two LPs at 45 RPM, in a limited edition of 3,000. Meanwhile, Harry Chapin’s Verities and Balderdash, from 1974, is the one that contains the song. You know the one—the song that will haunt you to your very bones as you lie gasping on your deathbed. You could have taught your son how to throw. You could have taken an extra minute to look at his dumb finger paintings. But no. No, you had planes to catch and bills to pay. This platter of eternal regret is pressed at 33 RPM, also from a DSD digital transfer and in an edition of 3,000. NL
Gal Costa: Gal Costa [Vampisoul]
Brazilian superstar Gal Costa was at the vanguard of the Tropicália movement in the late ’60s and parlayed her breakthroughs into a lengthy, influential career of incredible Brazilian pop. 1969’s Gal Costa—her first solo LP, following a 1967 collaborative LP with Caetano Veloso—is a remarkable work, blending gently dusky bossa nova with the disorienting psychedelia of Tropicália, spiked through with an avant-garde playfulness and an orchestral ambition. Featuring contributions from Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, and Jorge Ben, the album has been reissued on vinyl a handful of times, on labels both reputable (the excellent crew at the Polysom pressing plant as part of their Clássicos Em Vinil—read our story on the company here) and less so (Four Men with Beards; Russian bootleg labels). This time around, the heroes at Spanish label Vampisoul have been entrusted with this essential masterwork, and their rendition will assuredly be a top-notch addition to any Brazilian musical collection. NL
The House of Love: The House of Love [Cherry Red]
One of the breakout bands from the early days of Alan McGee’s Creation Records, the House of Love fused ’60s psychedelic rock and the UK indie pop of the ’80s with minimum friction and maximum emotional effect. As fantastic as their full discography is, the quartet’s strongest statement might still be its 1988 self-titled debut. With shimmering guitars blending together like an animated Peter Max painting, frontman Guy Chambers sorts through the pieces of his broken marriage and his lustful hopes for future relationships on instantly memorable tunes like “Christine,” “Road,” and “Touch Me.” The House of Love has been reissued frequently, with the most recent edition coming in 2018 to celebrate the album’s 30th birthday. The vinyl version out this week is a repress of that anniversary release with a remastered version of the album and a second disc collecting the group’s early singles, including the John Peel favorite “Destroy the Heart.” RH
Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul & Stephen Stills: Stephen Stills [Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series]
First launched in September 2023, the Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 Series has rounded third and is heading for home, with just a few titles left to fill out its roster of 75 reissues from the Atlantic Records catalog, all cut at 45 RPM on two LPs. (Whither Foxtrot, Analogue Productions?) This week we’re getting Aretha Franklin’s Lady Soul, a bona fide soul classic from 1968 that includes “Chain of Fools,” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” and “Since You’ve Been Gone (Sweet Sweet Baby).” At less than 30 minutes, this did not need to be a double album cut at 45 RPM, but those licensing contracts can be pretty strict. This one was not cut from tape but rather a 192/24 digital transfer, by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab. The other Atlantic 75 title out this week is Stephen Stills’s self-titled debut from 1970, released in the wake of CSNY’s Deja Vu and their conquering of the folk-rock world. Recorded partly in London with a bevy of well-known guests including Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton, Stephen Stills showcases the musician’s many talents (songwriting, singing, and guitaring—so much guitaring) and hints at the many indulgences to come. This one was cut from tape by Bernie Grundman. Both the Franklin and the Stills discs were pressed at QRP and come in Stoughton tip-on gatefolds. NL
Van Morrison: Moondance [Rhino Reserve]
There’s been a lot of Moondance going around, so I’ll try to explain it as best I can: The 1970 Van Morrison classic was one of the first reissues in the just-launched AS40 Series, a curated selection of Warner/Rhino titles released as part of Acoustic Sounds’ 40th anniversary. Those are all cut at 45 RPM and pressed across two LPs, so Rhino has also decided to separately release a single-disc 33 RPM version on their Rhino Reserve imprint. (To undercut the competition? It’s unclear why they’ve decided to do it right on top of Acoustic Sounds’ version.) Both of these new Moondances are cut by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab from a high-res digital file, as the original analog tape is apparently now in poor shape. We’ll reserve judgment on these new cuts until we hear them, but Rhino Reserves have generally been pretty unimpeachable thus far, so chances are it sounds very good, digital cut or no. (The fact that it’s digital is why it’s not part of Rhino’s higher-end Rhino High Fidelity series, which only cuts from tape.) Whether it will best your OG green-label pressing, the recent Steven Wilson remix, or any of the fabulous analog cuts Warner/Rhino has released over the past couple of decades remains to be seen—or heard, I should say. NL
Ryuichi Sakamoto & Toshiyuki Tschuitori: Disappointment-Hateruma [Wewantsounds]
One of the first albums that Ryuichi Sakamoto released under his own name was Disappointment-Hateruma, a largely improvised collaboration with avant-garde percussionist Toshiyuki Tschuitori. Originally issued in 1976 by ALM Records, the five-song LP finds the two musicians messing with all manner of noise and noisemakers—pan drums, gongs, synthesizers, field recordings of the subway, and piano—to create curious, often explosive storms of sound. It’s a far cry from the work that the late Sakamoto is best known for, but an interesting document of his ability to meet any creative moment put in front of him. The album has long been out of print but is getting its first-ever vinyl reissue this week with audio remastered from the original analog tapes by Heba Kadry and new liner notes from journalist and critic Andy Beta. RH
Patto: Roll ’Em Smoke ’Em Put Another Line Out [Sommor]
Spanish label Sommor—a branch of the esteemed Guerssen label—continues their reissue series of the albums of the British prog-grunt-rock band Patto, whose origins were in psychers Timebox and whose members went on to perform in Boxer and the Rutles. Their third album, 1972’s winningly titled Roll ’Em Smoke ’Em Put Another Line Out, is a bit of a squishier prospect than the first two Patto LPs, with the band’s playing style sounding loose to the point of slackened, and the songwriting less deliberate, relying on blues grooves and James Brown–style repetition rather than tightly constructed tunes. With troubling studio in-jokes like “Mummy” sitting alongside the more successful tracks, the album finds the band road-weary, drug-bleary, and occasionally capable of pulling off galvanizing firecrackers like “Loud Green Storm.” It’s a consistently fascinating album, even if it doesn’t always feel great going down. NL
Split Enz: Second Thoughts [Chrysalis]
Last year, Chrysalis kicked off a series of releases reissuing the work of New Zealand art-pop group Split Enz with a five-CD box set that combined the band’s first two albums with two discs of archival material. At the same time, the label issued a vinyl set with those same full-lengths (1975’s Mental Notes and 1976’s Second Thoughts) plus one LP of bonus tracks. (Check out our review of that collection right here.) The next step in this campaign, out this week, gets everything else from that CD set on wax: the remastered edition of the original 1976 mix of Second Thoughts and a second LP, dubbed Wide Angle Enz, of live material and rough mixes. All the audio was remastered by Phil Kincade using the original analog tapes, and the lacquers for this set were cut by Harry Rudkins at AIR Studios. RH
Jon Lucien: Search for the Inner Self [Kent]
Virgin Islands–born soul singer/songwriter Jon Lucien had a varied career strewn across many labels including RCA, Columbia, and Mercury, but some of his earliest recordings have now been collected by the UK label Kent (part of Ace Records) and pressed to wax, where they belong. Recorded in New York in 1969 and produced by Beau Ray Fleming and Lockie Edwards Jr., these 10 tracks are sumptuous loverman soul, highlighted by the minor-key “Search for the Inner Self,” which was eventually released as a single on Ampex Records in 1971. While several tracks were released on CD in 1999, this long-lost late-’60s soul has found its forever home in this well-researched collection. NL
Circle X: Prehistory [Drag City]
Though formed in Louisville, Kentucky, the experimental rock quartet Circle X made their biggest collective splash in New York City in the late ’70s, fitting perfectly into the post-punk/no-wave scene alongside other sonic misfits like DNA, Mars, and Glenn Branca. And by the time they were set to record their first full-length, 1983’s Prehistory, the group had been drinking in the influence of music from North Africa and the Middle East. As such, the six songs on their debut LP are a thick mass of Arabic rhythms, clanging metal, dub production techniques, and the unbound shout-singing of Tony Pinotti. This brilliant document is back on vinyl this week for the first time in 42 years thanks to the wise and wonderful folks at Drag City. RH
John Phillips: Songs of Gentleness 1972–1976 [Strawberry Rain/Sharp-Flat]
This four-LP set collects the lovely, forlorn folk music of John Phillips, who is not that John Phillips—this one was born in India to English parents, grew up in colonial Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), worked as a journalist in Zambia, and recorded music in South Africa. Influences of Donovan and early T. Rex can be heard in his work, which was largely unreleased in his lifetime, apart from a 1969 album, John, that came out on RPM in South Africa and is now unfathomably rare. The other three LPs in this set collect unheard music and demos, revealing Phillips’s complex interiority; he apparently dealt with gender dysphoria, drug abuse, and depression during his lifetime. Phillips died of cancer in 1995, but this collection is a testament to an unappreciated talent. NL
Sodom: Get What You Deserve [Noise]
The sixth album from German thrash metal trio Sodom is getting quite the deluxe treatment this week. The five-LP box set includes two versions of 1993’s Get What You Deserve (a remaster of the original album and a remix); a remastered/remixed edition of Aber bitte mit Sahne, an EP released around the same time; and a double-LP recording of the band playing live in Frischborn. Also included are two concert films on DVD and a book of liner notes. If that seems like overkill, you need to spend some time with this white-hot record, which finds Sodom leaving their dabblings in death metal behind and returning to their thrashy roots with the help of new drummer Guido “Atomic Steif” Richter. RH
Magnolia Electric Co.: Hard to Love a Man [Secretly Canadian]
Hard to Love a Man, the 2005 EP from Jason Molina’s Magnolia Electric Co., has been issued on vinyl for the first time with the addition of three bonus tracks. Molina had established his moony, melancholy songwriting chops under the Songs: Ohia banner, but with Magnolia, he formed a well-rounded, road-steady band with vibes of classic rock, soul, and country. The EP is a laidback set of beautifully heart-rending bummers, made all the more poignant through the 20/20 hindsight of Molina’s tragic early death. But the mood lightens up in the band’s pedal-steel-augmented bar-band cover of “Werewolves of London,” which was written by Warren Zevon, who also died before his time, and recorded at Electrical Audio Studios in Chicago with Steve Albini—another one we lost way too soon. But hey, it’s not like you were gonna put on a Jason Molina record for the laughs, right? NL
Bee Gees: You Should Be Dancing [UMe]
A novel take on the career-retrospective box set, You Should Be Dancing collects some of the Brothers Gibb’s 12-inch remixes on four LPs, all cut at 45 RPM. Naturally, the emphasis is on their late-’70s disco period with extended versions of “Stayin’ Alive,” “Tragedy,” the title track, and more. There’s also SG Lewis’s 2021 remix of “More Than a Woman” and two mixes of “Decadance,” a remix of “You Should Be Dancing” that first appeared on the Bee Gees’ 1993 album Size Isn’t Everything. Of special note is an extended remix of the “If I Can’t Have You,” which was of course a big hit for Yvonne Elliman, but the Bee Gees’ version is one of their best Saturday Night Fever–era tracks and was initially released as just a B-side, although it turned up on later compilations. NL
Belle Gonzalez: Belle [Ojo de Mujer]
Belle Gonzalez was a Filipino-Polish-Italian-Belgian singer, pianist, teacher, and record store proprietor who recorded a gentle album of her own compositions for EMI in 1972. Belle very much fits in with the singer/songwriter movement of the era, with sentimental, introspective tunes given attractive treatments of tasteful strings, electric piano, and acoustic guitars. If you listen very hard, you might detect some traces of European art song or South American rhythms, but this may be a bit generous. More notable for its rarity than for anything mysterious or bizarre-sounding in the proceedings, Belle nevertheless has some haunting stretches, and Gonzalez’s voice is a bit more muscular and strident than you might expect. It’s been re-released on the Ojo de Mujer label, which has shown impeccable taste in its reissue slate thus far. NL
Paul McCartney: Man on the Run soundtrack [UMe]
A new documentary on Paul McCartney hits Amazon Prime Video this weekend. Directed by Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), Man on the Run covers McCartney’s ’70s period, both with Wings and on his own, and naturally, there’s a soundtrack album to go with it. Three unreleased tracks make their debut: “Gotta Sing Gotta Dance” (from a 1973 TV documentary), the Rockshow version of “Live and Let Die,” and a rough mix of Back to the Egg’s “Arrow Through Me.” There’s also a previously released demo of “Silly Love Songs” and a handful of tracks from McCartney/Wings albums from the period. It seems like a somewhat arbitrary overview of McCartney’s post-Beatles period, with some overlap with the recent Wings triple LP from the end of last year, but it should make for a nice Saturday-afternoon listen, and it comes with a poster. NL
Jazz Alley
There’s some new cream this week for all you cats down Jazz Alley. Craft’s Original Jazz Classics series drops two new ones: San Francisco pianist Vince Guaraldi and Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete collaborated on three albums, the second of which—1965’s From All Sides, which sounds a little like Charlie Brown Goes to Ipanema—is now on Kevin Gray–mastered and RTI-pressed vinyl. And Wes Montgomery’s Full House, recorded live at the Tsubo jazz club in Berkeley in 1962, features the Brubeck-influenced title track and two other Montgomery originals, alongside takes on Dizzy Gillespie and Lerner & Loewe. It, too, was cut by Kevin Gray from analog tape and pressed at RTI. Meanwhile, the Verve/Acoustic Sounds series continues with two from the Oscar Peterson Trio: 1962’s Affinity and 1964’s collaboration with trumpeter Clark Terry, Oscar Peterson Trio + One, both cut from tape by Matthew Lutthans and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. NL
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Shawn Amos: Harlem [Put Together Music]
Nanjo Asahito: M [Black Editions/La Musica Records]
Art Boulevard: 1987 > 1985 A Story Backwards [Spittle]
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express: Oblivion Express; Second Wind [Strut]
Andrew Bird: The Mysterious Production of Eggs deluxe [Wegawam]
Blossom Toes: Live on Radio & TV [1960’s Records]
Chapterhouse: Whirlpool [Music on Vinyl]
John Chowning: Stria [Important]
Chick Corea: Forever Yours: The Farewell Concert [Candid]
Lyn Collins: Think (About It) [Ace/BGP]
Cranes: Particles & Waves [Music on Vinyl]
Damily: Fanjiry [Bongo Joe]
The Exploited: Punk’s Not Dead 45th anniversary edition [Captain Oi!/Cherry Red]
Franco & L’Orchestre O.K. Jazz: La Rumba de Mi Vida [Planet Ilunga] (repress)
Frou Frou: Details [Interscope Vinyl Collective] (subscriber exclusive)
Gare du Nord: Gold [Music on Vinyl]
Joao Gilberto: En Mexico [Ojo de Mujer]
The Glass Cage: The Glass Cage 12-inch [Supreme Echo]
Guerre Froide: Guerre Froide 12-inch [Born Bad]
John Harrison: Creepshow soundtrack [Waxwork]
Hawkwind: Hawkwind [Atomhenge/Cherry Red]
James Horner: Braveheart soundtrack 30th anniversary edition [Decca]
The Jaybirds: Going Our Own Ways [Guerssen]
Kishi Bashi: Sonderlust 10th anniversary edition [Joyful Noise]
Jorma Kaukonen & Jack Casady: Bear’s Sonic Journals: Before We Were Them [Owsley Stanley Foundation]
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Gimme Back My Bullets 50th anniversary edition [UMe]
Magma: Live [Charly]
Merzbow: Animal Magnetism [Urashima]
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones: Medium Rare; Pin Points and Gin Joints [Rude]
Jacob Miller: Mixed Up Moods [LMLR]
Willie Nelson: Country Music [HighTone/Craft]
The 1975: I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It [UMe]
Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra: Live at Widney High December 26th, 1971 [The Village] (repress)
Peter Patzer: Patterns [Trunk]
Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It; Encouraging Words [Dark Horse]
Rise Against: The Unraveling [Fat Wreck Chords]
Paul Rodgers: Cut Loose [The Orchard]
Todd Rundgren: Saban Theatre 2016 [Cleopatra]
Joseph Kabasele: And the Creation of Surboum African Jazz 1960–1963 Kallé Chauffex Bruxelles! [Planet Ilunga] (repress)
Bim Sherman: Ghetto Dub [Week-End]
Sigh: Hail Horror Hail [Peaceville]
State of Art: Dancefloor Statements 1981-1982 [Spittle]
Klaus Wiese: Uranus [Black Sweat]
John Williams: Home Alone soundtrack [Mondo]
Phil Yost: Bent City [Uno Loop] (repress)
Various Artists: Sálo or the 120 Days of Sodom soundtrack [Cold Spring]
Various Artists: Techno Kayo Vol. 1: Japanese Techno Pop 1981–1989 [Rush Hour]
