New vinyl reissues: February 6, 2026
It’s time for our weekly plunge into the refreshing waters of the latest vinyl reissues. And it’s quite a deep pool this week, so we hope you saved a little bit of covetous anticipation after the Record Store Day announcement landed yesterday. Because wow, that is quite a list. While we hate to encourage consumerism for consumerism’s sake, there’s enough on the RSD list to excite any genuine music lover—so much so that we suspect anyone eligible for a tax refund this year isn’t going to wait until the last minute to file their returns. (Record Store Day this year comes on April 18, three days after Tax Day, which is either massively convenient or inconvenient for you, depending on the state of your finances.)
And before we get into this week’s reissues, I just wanted us all to take a moment to point and laugh at the chuckleheads on the message boards who say there is nothing in this year’s RSD list that interests them. When you say that, what you are actually announcing to the world is: “I have extremely narrow interests in music, and zero curiosity about discovering new things.” Your musical palate is one of buttered noodles and dino nuggets.
Of course, we at The Vinyl Cut are fully in favor of saving money and not buying things needlessly—if you sit out Record Store Day for that reason, that’s wonderful, and more power to you. But to say “I don’t like anything on this list of more than 350 different pieces of music” simply means that you don’t know jack about music. We are all about discovery here (hence these weekly new-release emails!), so stop whining, get to Googling, and find something amazing that you’ve never heard before. It’s in there, I promise.
To that end, we’ll be previewing many of this year’s Record Store Day titles in the weeks leading up to the big day—much as we did for Black Friday last year. So we’ll be here to point you in the right direction and help you find something cool that you maybe didn’t know about. As to whether you’d actually like to wake up early, stand in line, and shell out mad bucks for something in particular? That’s entirely up to you, and no judgment shall be passed upon you if you decide to sit that part out.
Enough blathering. When you’re done oohing and aahing over the Record Store Day list, here’s what’s coming at you this very week.
Yet Another Killer Batch of Rhino Reserves
Even after the deluge of Rhino Reserves that we got last month as part of the Start Your Ear Off Right campaign (nine! We got nine Rhino Reserves in January), this week sees the release of four more, and boy, they’re goodies—all destined to set up shop somewhere in the soul-music section of your heart. First up are three choice releases from the Stax/Atlantic vault: Otis Redding’s debut album Pain in My Heart from 1964; Redding’s fourth full-length, 1966’s The Soul Album; and the rousing debut from Sam and Dave, Hold On, I’m Comin’, also from 1966. If those don’t set your heart racing and your toe tapping, I’m not really sure what we can do for you. But there’s more! A new Rhino Reserve pressing of Donny Hathaway’s ecstatic, chill-inducing Live album from 1972 is also on its way. These are all cut from analog tape by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab and pressed at Fidelity Record Pressings. We’ll have reviews for each of them in the coming days. NL
Real Gone Music
Reissue label Real Gone Music has a slew of fresh releases out this week, including the first-ever vinyl issues of Deicide’s 2000 album Insineratehymn and Olu Dara’s 1998 LP In The World - From Natchez to New York. Great as those probably are, the records that have our attention are the three we will be reviewing in tomorrow’s edition of the newsletter: The Emotions’ 1972 album Untouched, a soul/funk gem originally released on Volt; Lovemen, the 1972 debut from Memphis soul trio the Temprees; and Seeking Other Beauty, the dynamic 1973 full-length from the keyboardist known as Bayeté. All three are all-analog reissues and, not to tip our hand too much, sound great. RH
Bat for Lashes: Fur and Gold [BMG]
Natasha Khan made quite a splash with her 2005 debut record as Bat for Lashes, and now Fur and Gold is receiving a 20th-anniversary reissue. The CD version comes with an extra disc of demos and BBC sessions, but the vinyl version is just the album itself (that second disc is being released on vinyl separately for Record Store Day). It’s welcome nevertheless, because the Mercury Prize–nominated LP has been awfully hard to come by on record in recent years. Khan is a sui generis artist—something that has become abundantly clear over the two decades of her remarkable recording career—but for those not familiar, Bat for Lashes haunts the same atmospherically lit hallways as Björk, Kate Bush, and latter-day PJ Harvey, with moody, gothic-tinged, somnambulant songs that blend synths and natural instruments in a way that sounds peculiarly lost in time. Fur and Gold contains some nursery-rhyme-like qualities, but what’s more striking is Khan’s maturity and depth as a songwriter, evident even on her first time out. NL
Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden half-speed master [Parlophone]
When Talk Talk set about recording their 1988 album Spirit of Eden, the London group was more than willing to leave behind the art pop sound that scored them hits with tracks like “It’s My Life” and “Life’s What You Make It.” Instead, they took over Wessex Studios, lighting the recording house only in candles and improvising for months on end. Out of those sessions, they constructed six tracks of blues- and jazz-informed post-rock that seemed to fall in and out of focus as they gently floated forward. Original pressings of this album are still very much coveted, and I don’t see that demand quieting down even with this week’s half-speed master reissue of the album. RH
Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical: Galaxia Tropical [Analog Africa]
In 2020, German label Analog Africa released Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical, a collection of 14 recordings from the Peruvian cumbia band, led by Raúl Llerena Vásquez, AKA Ranil, who passed away shortly after the album’s release. These are the globe’s best examples of Amazonian cumbia, also known as chicha, which is performed with psychedelic twinges of surf and a traditional Andean influence—combining elements of Peruvian, Colombian, Ecuadoran, and Brazilian styles. Analog Africa is now releasing a second compilation of Ranil y su Conjunto Tropical tracks, which were hugely successful in the Peruvian Amazon in the 1970s. Their first volume of Ranil already commands hefty prices on the secondary market, so it may be best not to wait too long on this one. NL
J Mascis + the Fog: More Light; Free So Free [Baked Goods]
The pair of albums that J Mascis recorded after the initial breakup of Dinosaur Jr. are finally back on wax. Although credited to J Mascis + the Fog, they’re essentially solo albums, with Mascis playing nearly everything. 2000’s More Light saw Kevin Shields and Robert Pollard dropping by to lend a hand (MBV and GBV together at last!), while 2002’s Free So Free featured a handful of guests but still saw Mascis playing the lion’s share of parts. These records don’t sound too far removed from Dinosaur Jr.’s signature sound, and thank goodness for that, as these chewy, occasionally sludgy, occasionally poppy tunes sound absolutely swell more than two decades later. It’s their first time back on vinyl in more than two decades, so these are very welcome reissues indeed. NL
Clifton Chenier: King of Louisiana Blues and Zydeco [Arhoolie/Smithsonian Folkways]
The king of zydeco, the immortal Clifton Chenier, is getting a massive, career-spanning box set from Arhoolie Records, the legendary label’s first release since being acquired by Smithsonian Folkways (the perfect home for Arhoolie’s stylistically vast catalog that documents blues, folk, and dozens of other regional forms of North American music). From the 1950s to his death in 1987, Chenier pretty much defined zydeco music, the joy-inducing Louisiana musical genre that combines blues, R&B, and early rock ’n’ roll with a decidedly Black French Creole element that puts the accordion and the washboard in the lead instrument roles. Chenier’s accordion and yearningly soulful voice makes his best recordings some of the most valuable artifacts of American music. With a heaping selection of his best work, some unreleased tracks, and a 160-page book, this six-LP set should be the type of item that becomes a cornerstone of one’s record collection. NL
Lô Borges: Lô Borges [Vampisoul]
Released just a few short months after Clube da Esquine (the 1972 masterpiece recorded in collaboration with Milton Nascimento), Lô Borges’s solo debut album is a stunning patchwork of the 19-year-old’s songwriting mind. There are fuzzy nuggets, dreamily gossamer flights of fancy, jazzy iterations of post-Tropicalía MPB, and soul-derived folk confessionals all sharing groove space. The reissue comes via the Spanish reissue label Vampisoul, and it’s already being shown as sold out in a few places already, including Vampisoul’s exclusive US distributor, Forced Exposure. If you’re anything like me, this is an album you don’t want to be without, so do what you must. NL
Deutsche Grammophon Original Source Series Batch 10
The next batch of the Deutsche Grammophon Original Source Series arrives this week, featuring analog cuts from the German classical institution’s archives. Claudio Abbado conducts the London Symphony Orchestra on Stravinsky’s Petrouchka, a 1980 digital recording that was simultaneously recorded on eight-track analog; this is the first time the analog reels have been used. Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra tackle Respighi’s Roman showpieces (Fountains of Rome, Pines of Rome, and Feste Romane) in a 1977 recording. Fourteen-year-old violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter’s 1978 recording debut found her delivering fresh, vibrant accounts of Mozart’s third and fifth Violin Concertos, with Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic providing support. And lastly, Carlo Maria Giulini’s first recording with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 1978 found him making his mark with a rendition of Beethoven’s Third, an “Eroica” that’s famous for its ponderously slow—but not lethargic—opening movement. These were all cut directly from four- or eight-track analog tape at Emil Berliner Studios and pressed at Optimal. From what we’ve heard, there have been problems with previous DG One Source pressings, but audiophiles are well familiar with the Pope/Bush dilemma (that being the collision of two vinyl-buying philosophies: Alexander Pope’s “Hope springs eternal” and George W. Bush’s “Fool me—y’can’t get fooled again.”) NL
Blur: Leisure; Parklife; 13 [Parlophone]
If yesterday’s announcement that Blur will be releasing the previously Japanese-only 1996 concert recording Live at the Budokan for this year’s Record Store Day is already trying your patience, here’s something to tide you over: represses of three albums from the Britpop act’s ’90s run. The trio of LPs also just happen to be the best work the quartet ever did. Their 1991 debut Leisure found Blur comfortably fitting the rhythms of acid house into their jangly pop, while 1999’s 13 was the group’s comedown album as frontman Damon Albarn reckoned with the end of his relationship with Elastica’s Justine Frischmann and guitarist Graham Coxon took account of his struggles with alcohol. But the band’s high-water mark will forever be 1994’s Parklife, a pitch-perfect collection of songs that peeled back the layers of British society for the purposes of both celebration and mockery. RH
2Pac: Me Against the World [Interscope]
With a looming prison sentence and all manner of other legal troubles roiling around his head, West Coast rapper Tupac Shakur poured every ounce of his fears, anger, frustration, and defiant joy into Me Against the World, his masterful 1995 album that’s being re-released on vinyl this week in honor of its 30th birthday (give or take 11 months or so). The new edition has been pressed on “midnight mist” vinyl and features fresh artwork and an exclusive poster. RH
The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Axis: Bold as Love [Analogue Productions UHQR]
I was hugely impressed with Bold as Love, Sony Legacy’s five-LP box set from late last year that comprehensively covered the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s Axis: Bold as Love era. That box contained analog pressings of the 1967 album in stereo and mono, cut by Bernie Grundman, and they really sound killer—my new keeper copies, without a doubt. Grundman also did cuts of Axis for Analogue Productions, who are releasing two new UHQR boxes this week: the Axis: Bold as Love album in both stereo and mono. Will these new versions, cut at 45 RPM across two LPs each and pressed on 200-gram “clarity” vinyl at QRP, sound even better than the Bold as Love versions from last year? Oh, I dunno… probably. Will they be so much better that it justifies the fact that each of these UHQR doorstops individually costs more than the five-LP box set does (which also includes outtakes, alternate versions, and live performances, plus great liner notes and photos)? That’s between you and the sky, friend. NL
Wale: The Gifted [Get on Down]
After breaking into the consciousness of the blogosphere in 2008 with his Seinfeld-themed mixtape The Mixtape About Nothing and scoring a management deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, DC rapper Wale’s star kept climbing for the next few years. Not content to rest on his creative laurels, he also kept shaking things up, working with new producers and collaborators every step of the way. So when he made his third proper album The Gifted in 2013, he called on new pals like Travis Scott and Lee Major to provide the beats and welcomed contributions from guests such as singers Tiara Thomas and Sam Dew. The only constants are Wale’s playful personality and agile rapping style that allows him to make the right adjustments to meet any musical moment. Never before released on vinyl, The Gifted is getting a limited-edition run this week via Boston label Get on Down. RH
Chris Whitley: Living with the Law [Music on Vinyl]
The late Chris Whitley made a small but long-lasting impact with his 1991 debut, Living with the Law, a low-key, denim-washed effort that infused heartland rock with something a bit bluesier, folksier, and more American Gothic. The brilliant Whitley went on to make musical left turn after musical left turn, delivering a series of albums that explored all kinds of sounds, from feedback-squall noise rock to skeletal one-man blues to experimental hip-hop-inflected jazz and beyond. Living with the Law finds Whitley at his most conventional, armed with a batch of radio-ready tunes that could share playlist space with Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, and the Black Crowes. Apart from a 1991 European release, this album’s only incarnation on vinyl has been a 2013 reissue from Music on Vinyl, who have re-upped their version with a new 35th-anniversary edition on gold vinyl. Pity about the gold, but this is a worthwhile record that should really shine on wax. (Note: Due to legal rigamarole, Music on Vinyl has made that link only viewable to customers in Europe, but North Americans should be able to see it with a VPN; the album itself is available to worldwide customers through international distributors, just not directly through MoV’s site.) NL
Unsane: Occupational Hazard [Lamb Unlimited]
Since 1988, New York noise rockers Unsane have been pummelling their fans into blissful submission with each assaultive power chord, feedback shriek, and drum barrage. The band has been through the wringer a few too many times in their nearly 30 years of existence, but seem to be on solid ground these days with concerts scheduled for this year and a new reissue of Occupational Hazard, the group’s 1998 album originally released on Relapse. The music is pretty much par for the course for Unsane, but it carries a little extra sonic oomph thanks to the engineering work of Billy Anderson and Bruce Hathaway. The new vinyl edition comes with the bonus track “No Soul,” previously only available on a 1996 Man’s Ruin 7-inch single. RH
Various Artists: Don’t Let Him Hurt You! Girl Group Sounds USA 1962–1968 [Ace]
This new comp from UK label Ace Records collects a trove of girl group singles from the 1960s, with tunes by the Goodees, Les Chansonettes, Tutti Hill, the Sweethearts, Miss Cathy Brasher, the Half-Sisters, and more. Now, are we saying we’ve heard of these artists? No. No, we are not. And that’s the whole appeal, really. This is a much deeper dive into the genre than we typically see—no Ronettes or Shangri-Las tracks here—and Ace Records has a sterling reputation when it comes to these types of genre-specific explorations. Throw in ample liner notes by Mick Patrick and this is one we’re going to be tracking down this week. NL
Sony Music UK reissues
The British arm of Sony Music is keeping plenty busy this week, dipping into their voluminous catalog and pulling out six LPs from three vital British artists for vinyl reissues. The best of the bunch is the pair of Adam & the Ants records hitting shops tomorrow: Prince Charming, the fantastically sleazy 1981 album that features hit “Stand & Deliver,” and Singles, a two-LP overview of bandleader Adam Ant’s career from the woozy 1978 track “Young Parisians” to 1994’s unabashedly romantic pop confection “Wonderful.” Also in the mix from Sony UK are two classics from Britpop bruisers Manic Street Preachers (1992’s Generation Terrorists and 1998’s This is My Truth Tell Me Yours) and the first two studio albums by indie rockers Kasabian (2004’s Kasabian and 2006’s Empire). RH
Jazz Alley
The wallets and wives of jazz addicts can breathe sighs of relief this week, as it’s a short list this time around. The headline is that two new Tone Poets are coming at ya: Trombonist Bennie Green’s 1958 album Back on the Scene is, indeed, back on the scene, with its Latin-inflected tunes and gentle swing in a new pressing. And Dizzy Gillespie protege Lee Morgan was still a teenager when he cut 1957’s City Lights, with Paul Chambers, Art Taylor, Curtis Fuller, George Coleman, and Ray Bryant. These are both analog cuts by Kevin Gray and pressed at RTI with tip-on gatefold jackets. The only other prominent old-school jazz reissue is a new pressing of saxophonist Archie Shepp’s 1968 Impulse! album The Way Ahead, cut from analog by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound and pressed at RTI—but the LP is only available if you’re a paying member of the Verve’s monthly Verve Record Club, and signing up will probably necessitate a long conversation with both your wallet and your wife. NL
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Michael Abels: Get Out soundtrack [Waxwork]
Alice: Ultimate Memorial 1972–1979 [Universal Japan]
Andwellas Dream: Love & Poetry [Numero Group]
The Automatics: Britannia [Label 51]
Nanjo Asahito: M [Black Editions]
Band of Skulls: Baby Darling Doll Face Honey; Sweet Sour; Himalayan [Artist Royalty Collective]
The Brains: The Brains [Cleopatra]
Dennis Brown: Deep Down [Charly]
Complesso Gisteri: Mostra Collettiva [Holy Basil]
Hollie Cook: Hollie Cook [Mr Bongo]
D12: D12 World [Shady]
Morgan David and His Winos: Savage Young Winos [Liberation Hall]
Deicide: Insineratehymn [Real Gone]
Desmond Dekker: 007 Shanty Town [Music on Vinyl]
Elektriktus: Electronic Mind Waves; Electronic Mind Waves Volume 2 [Ictus]
Frehley’s Comet: Frehley’s Comet; Second Sighting/Live + 1 [Friday Music]
Godsmack: Awake 25th anniversary edition [Republic/UMe]
Life of Agony: Soul Searching Sun [Music on Vinyl]
Living Colour: Time’s Up [Music on Vinyl]
Miguel: All I Want Is You [Legacy]
The Mynabirds: Generals [Saddle Creek]
The Pentangle: Basket of Light [Music on Vinyl]
Jean-Luc Ponty: Enigmatic Ocean [Friday]
Project Pat: Ghetty Green [Get on Down]
Eskew Reeder: The Magnificent Esquerita! [Charly]
The Queers: Durango ’87 [Rad Girlfriend]
Joe Satriani: Not of This Earth; Is There Love in Space [Music on Vinyl]
Claudio Simonetti: Dario Argento’s Jenifer soundtrack [Deep Red]
Soda Stereo: Ruido Blanco - En Vivo; Doble Vida; Canción Animal [Music on Vinyl]
TLC: FanMail [Sony]
Leon Ware: Leon Ware [Real Gone]
Jack West: Essential Curvature [Ota]
Wishbone Ash: Live at the Capitol Theater 1/19/1974 [Renaissance]
Bill Withers: Just as I Am [Music on Vinyl]
Yes: Tales From Topographic Oceans super deluxe (12 CD/2 LP/1 Blu-ray) [Rhino]
Various Artists: The Lost Boys soundtrack [Friday Music]
Various Artists: Solomon King soundtrack [Real Gone]
