New vinyl reissues: June 19, 2026
It’s another fine week in Vinyldom, with reissues, more reissues, and even more reissues behind those first reissues. Plus, reissues!
We’ll get right into what’s on tap, including two new Vinylphyles and the welcome return of Jazz Alley after a week’s hiatus, but first, just a quick bit of vinyl news.
The week’s big announcement is that Interscope-Capitol’s Definitive Sound Series has announced their next title, and it’s a one-step all-analog pressing of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 bedroom companion Let’s Get It On. Like the previous DSS release, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (and read my supersized piece on the Pet Sounds DSS and Vinylphyle right here, if you haven’t already), this one is cut by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. It comes out July 17 and is available for preorder on the Motown Records site, although you may note that this one costs $110, which is $10 more than the previous 1-LP entries in the series. Hey, at least Hormuz is open again, right?
Also, here’s this week’s playlist for paid-tier subscribers, available on Apple Music, Tidal, and... uh... what’s the other one? Oh yeah, Spotify. This week’s excellent playlist features selections from all the releases I discuss this week, as well several worthwhile albums that my fingers ran out of time to type about. (You can see which ones by checking out the long list at the bottom.) People are saying The Vinyl Cut’s weekly playlists are becoming essential listening, and in fact more and more people are saying it each and every day.
To get yourself some of that essentiality, simply upgrade your subscription. In addition to these (absolutely crucial) playlists, you’ll also get full access to our archives, commenting privileges, and eligibility in our monthly vinyl giveaways. Did I sell you yet? Great. Click here:
And now without any more hard selling, let’s get into the week.
D’Angelo: Brown Sugar [Vinylphyle]
Two new Vinylphyles were announced this week and are already up for sale on the uDiscover Music site. D’Angelo’s 1995 debut album was a breakthrough in neo soul, where vintage soul sounds of the 1960s and ’70s were married to contemporary hip-hop and R&B production techniques. In contrast to much of the mechanized R&B of the early ’90s, Brown Sugar had a noticeably warmer, more organic sound, although today its ’90s programmed rhythms sound very much of their era. It’s D’Angelo’s sensuality and expressiveness that elevated the album out of the rigidity of the time, and his reliance on minimal tools to get his desired effect—the title track is little more than some keyboard riffing and a vocal hook over a simple beat—take much of its inspiration from the uncluttered sound of West Coast rap, which of course was in turn heavily influenced by ’70s funk and soul. For the new Vinylphyle disc, new analog master reels were made from the individual analog mixdowns, which on previous releases were compiled to digital. This makes it the first all-analog version of Brown Sugar ever available; the 53-minute album is now a double LP. It’s cut by trusty Vinylphyle mastering engineer Joe Nino-Hernes and pressed at RTI.
The Band: Music from Big Pink [Vinylphyle]
The other new Vinylphyle is the Band’s seminal 1968 debut Music from Big Pink, an album whose modest sound belies the huge influence the album had in its day. The Band already had a long history at this point, having backed Ronnie Hawkins for years before becoming Bob Dylan’s touring outfit, but with Dylan off the road following his motorcycle crash and the group at loose ends in their newly adopted home of Woodstock, New York, the four Canadians and one Arkansan decided to become their own self-contained entity, writing and singing their own material. Drawing from folk and country music as well as blues and gospel, the album single-handedly brought the psychedelic era to a close and started a groundswell of back-to-roots music that in turn ushered in the sounds of the 1970s. Despite its mammoth cultural footprint, the album has always had something of a difficult presence on vinyl. The first US Capitol pressings are pretty grim (mine sounds dreadful), with the UK pressing sounding much more tolerable. There were also a pair of MoFis, of which one apparently is good and one is lousy (I’ve heard neither), and a recent remix cleaned up some of the sound but sounds pretty different from the original and is not really a proper replacement. With Nino-Hernes cutting this one from the original analog tape, this has a solid chance of being the best Big Pink has ever sounded. I’m hoping to have a lot more to say about these two choice reissues in the coming weeks.
Various Artists: Rokk í Reykjavík [Arena Rock]
The 1982 television documentary Rokk í Reykjavík documented the music scene in Iceland in the early 1980s, when punk, post-punk, and new wave bands were defining the island nation’s cultural identity. With a population smaller than most US cities, Iceland nevertheless birthed an incredibly fertile and imaginative scene at the time, as the bands digested their overseas influences, blended them with their own heritage, and came up with something entirely their own. The double-LP soundtrack album features 21 bands performing 33 songs, all captured during live performances, and it’s like finding a lost wing in the museum of post-punk, with dazzlingly vigorous and inspired performances from bands you’ve never heard of. (Well, maybe you’ve heard of one of them: Tappi Tíkarrass, whose singer at the time was a pre-Sugarcubes Björk Gu∂mundsdóttir.) Portland-based Arena Rock Recording Co. has reissued the soundtrack and reinstated the original 1982 cover art, with pink vinyl discs to match. I’ll have a longer look at this exhilarating release in the coming days.
Bob Marley and the Wailers: Burnin’; Natty Dread [Analogue Productions]
Bob Marley’s name doesn’t appear on the front cover of 1973’s Burnin’, the Wailers’ sixth album and second for English megalabel Island Records. Coming just a few short months after the group’s international breakthrough, Catch a Fire, it finds co-leaders Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston jostling for space in a band that would shortly go on to be Marley’s vehicle alone, with Tosh contributing “One Foundation” and the immortal toast section of “Get Up Stand Up” and Livingston offering “Hallelujah Time” and “Pass It On.” For his part, Marley dug up three old songs the Wailers had previously recorded, but also offered “I Shot the Sheriff” and “Get Up Stand Up.” Burnin’ was to be the epitaph of the original Wailers, with Tosh and Livingston quitting not long after its release. 1974’s Natty Dread, then is really the first full-fledged Bob Marley album, and he rose to the occasion by writing a full album’s worth of memorable songs, although he gave the songwriting credits to friends and family to keep the rights out of the hands of his former publisher, Cayman Music. Both albums get the UHQR (ultra high quality record) treatment from Analogue Productions, with analog mastering from the London tapes by Frank Arkwright and Ryan K. Smith. The discs are pressed at 33 RPM on “Clarity” vinyl at Analogue Productions’ Quality Record Pressings plant and come inside clamshell boxes. They are not cheap.
The Doors: L.A. Woman [Electric Recording Co.]
Hey, speaking of not cheap. The Doors’ 1971 swan song L.A. Woman—unless you want to talk about the post–Jim Morrison albums, which I don’t—has been reissued a ridiculous number of times in the recent past. Now the obscenely expensive boutique label Electric Recording Co. is sticking their fingers in the pie with yet another version. With a price of £395 ($522 USD), you’re mostly paying for licensing fees and a fancy jacket, although presumably it was cut from tape using Electric’s vintage gear and it was pressed at Record Industry in the Netherlands, who are at the top of their field. Anyway, this limited pressing of 450 sold out almost instantaneously, so what do I know? (A humble plea: If you are living comfortably enough to be able to splash out $522 for yet another pressing of L.A. Woman, might I tempt you with our paid subscriber tier? Pretty please?)
The Butterfield Blues Band: Keep On Moving & Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Brain Salad Surgery [Mobile Fidelity]
A couple of new MoFis are here—two in the same week! By the time of their fifth album, 1969’s Keep On Moving, the Butterfield Blues Band had shed its seminal Chicago-blues sound (as well as its epoch-shifting guitarists Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop) and had taken up the rock-with-horns approach of bands like Blood, Sweat & Tears and Chicago. It’s unfortunately a pale shadow of the heights Butterfield had reached earlier in his career. Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s Brain Salad Surgery from 1973 is both the pinnacle of the trio’s conceptual prog rock and an unmistakable bellwether of prog’s encroaching excess (it was released the same day as Yes’s Tales from Topographic Oceans). Both LPs were mastered from tape (in ELP’s case, a copy tape) to DSD and then cut to lacquer. The Butterfield disc is limited to 3000.
Los Orientales de Paramonga: 1972–1976 [Analog Africa]
The stellar Analog Africa label has yet another superbly curated collection of music that’s far from the beaten path of the Anglo rock most record collectors gravitate toward. This one collects the works of Los Orientales de Paramonga, a collective that hailed from the central Peruvian coastal town of Paramonga. After splitting with his early musical partner—who maintained a competing group under the same name—bandleader Victor Ramírez brought his Orientales to Lima, where they recorded two albums and several singles, from which this compilation draws. The music is a hypnotic and irresistible sort of surf-cumbia, with persistently rhythmic percussion joining forces with psychedelic guitar and organ. Analog Africa’s package comes with thorough liner notes, making this an essential survey of some remarkable music.
Local H: As Good as Dead [G&P]
Calling something “grunge” isn’t usually an enormously helpful description—basically any sort of rock music with a hint of aggression in the ’90s was labeled “grunge” at one time or another. But Local H’s 1996 sophomore album As Good as Dead seems like a pretty good encapsulation of where grunge eventually wound up in the wilderness years after Kurt Cobain’s death. Sludgy-yet-wiry guitar riffs? Check. Self-involved back-of-the-bus smartass lyrics? Check. Melodies relying on single notes repeated for dramatic effect? Check. Horrendous cover art? Check, please! We all look back fondly on our youthful discretions with nostalgia, and As Good as Dead is as good a potent time capsule as any of an era when lyrics like “That’s it, I quit/I don’t give a shit” were seen as edgy.
John Lee Hooker: The Real Folk Blues & Buddy Guy: I Was Walking Through the Woods [Chess/Acoustic Sounds]
John Lee Hooker’s 1966 album for Chess, The Real Folk Blues, was different from other albums in Chess’s Real Folk Blues series up to that point in that it was newly recorded and not a compilation of previously released material. That said, it’s a standout set featuring classics like “Stella Mae” and “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer.” Buddy Guy’s 1970 Chess album I Was Walking Through the Woods, on the other hand, was compiled from earlier sessions, in this case from stuff Guy laid down for Chess between 1960 and 1964. Both discs have been reissued as part of Chess’s Acoustic Sounds Series, featuring cut-from-tape mastering by the great Matthew Lutthans and pressed at QRP. This series is one of the finer things going at Acoustic Sounds at the moment, with excellent reissues of Chuck Berry, Etta James, Bo Diddley, and Muddy Waters having already seen the light of day. The Guy set seems slightly less essential to me, but the Hooker one should be a smokin’ good time.
Dave, The 2nd Coming, and Writing on the Wall [Guerssen]
The excellent Guerssen label has, expectedly, some fine things up its sleeve this week. First is an expanded 2-LP reissue of Whatever Happened to…?, the 2005 album from the un-Googleable band Dave, a psychedelic duo that recorded in a garage on a Fostex 8-track, consciously evoking the spirit of bygone psychedelia. They’ve also got the unreleased 1969 album of the Florida band The 2nd Coming, which featured a pre–Captain Beyond Larry Reinhardt on guitar and whose ranks also once contained Allman Brothers Band members Dickey Betts and Berry Oakley, although they had left by the time of Evaluations, which remained on the shelf when the band couldn’t pay their studio bill. Lastly, Guerssen is reissuing The Power of the Picts, the 1969 album from Edinburgh soul-psych band Writing on the Wall (first released on Middle Earth Records) as well as Lucifer Corpus, which collects the singles and other non-album material from the period. Trust that Guerssen will treat these archival releases right, with quality artwork and liner notes.
Jazz Alley
After a quiet week last week, Jazz Alley is once again teeming with reissues aplenty. The big alley cat this week is Craft Recordings’ Miles ’56: The Prestige Recordings, which collects Miles Davis’s two famous 1956 sessions with Rudy Van Gelder (May 11 and October 26) that resulted in the four classic Prestige albums Cookin’ (1957), Relaxin’ (1958), Workin’ (1960), and Steamin’ (1961). These have been reissued umpteen-bajillion times over the years, but if you still need an entry point, this 4-LP box, cut from tape by Paul Blakemore, should do the trick. Meanwhile, Blue Note is dropping two more in its Classic Vinyl Series. Kenny Burrell’s Blue Lights Vol. 1, from 1958 (and featuring cover art by Andy Warhol), was the first of two LPs from the same New York session where the guitarist was joined by Art Blakey, Duke Jordan, Louis Smith, Tina Brooks, Sam Jones, Bobby Timmons, and Junior Cook. And Hank Mobley’s self-titled album from 1958—not his debut by any stretch—is one of the rarest Blue Notes out there in its original pressing. These are both cut by Kevin Gray from tape and pressed at Optimal.
Verve Vault has two coming as well, including John Coltrane’s 1966 monumental big-band free-jazz opus Ascension, with both takes of the 40-minute piece included in the two LPs (Coltrane released the second take as the original album, then decided he wanted to instead use the first take for the repressings.) Verve is also releasing Cal Tjader’s 1968 album The Prophet, a platter of easy-listening plink-plonk from the vibraphonist. The Verve Vault discs are cut from tape by Ryan K. Smith and pressed at Optimal, and come at a very attractive price point. Lastly, the formidable French label Wewantsounds have dug up saxophonist Hadley Caliman’s 1971 album Iapetus, originally released on Mainstream and receiving its first vinyl reissue ever. It’s a glorious modal/spiritual exploration that’s well worth seeking out.
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
(*star denotes inclusion in this week’s paid-subscriber playlist)
*Air: Pocket Symphony [Rhino]
Dorothy Ashby: The Jazz Harpist [Wax Time]
At the Gates: The Red in the Sky Is Ours; With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness; Terminal Spirit Disease [Peaceville]
*Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express: A Better Land; Reinforcements [Strut]
Autopsy: Severed Survival; Mental Funeral; Acts of the Unspeakable [Peaceville]
*Anita Baker: Giving You the Best That I Got [Elektra]
Chet Baker: Chet Is Back! [Music on Vinyl]
*Barnes & Barnes: Zabagabee: The Best of Barnes & Barnes [Liberation Hall]
Art Blakey & The New Jazz Messengers: Buttercorn Lady: Live at the Lighthouse, Hermosa Beach, 1966 [Good Times]
*Luiz Bonfa: Introspection [Jazzybelle]
Harold Budd: Bandits of Stature; In the Mist [Darla]
The Byrds: Younger Than Yesterday [Music on Vinyl]
Chance the Rapper: Coloring Book [CTR LLC]
*The Common People: Of the People/By the People/For the People From [Cosmic Rock]
Sam Cooke: Mr. Soul [Music on Vinyl]
*Graham Coxon: Castle Park; The Sky Is Too High; The Golden D [Transgressive]
The Crickets: The Chirping Crickets [Rollercoaster]
*Carlos Dafé: Pra Que Vou Recordar [Jazzybelle]
Down: Over the Under [Nuclear Blast]
The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Powerful Stuff [The Last Music Company]
Earthquake Studio: Dub Harder Than Steel [Real Rock]
Electric Wizard: Come My Fanatics [Rise Above]
Serge Gainsbourg: Je T’aime Moi Non Plus [Universal France]
Goblin: Il Ras del Quartiere [Cinevox]
Billie Holiday: The Platinum Collection [Not Now]
Billie Holiday: Songs for Distingué Lovers [20th Century Jazz Masters]
Stephen Hough: Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos 1–4, Paganini Rhapsody [Hyperion/Universal]
Tony Humphries: Running Back Mastermix: Kiss FM Zanzibar Years Vols. 1 & 2 [Running Back]
Incubus: 8 [Music on Vinyl]
Jejune: Wait a Lifetime [Numero Group]
Tom Jobim: Um Encontro No au Bon Gourmet [Jazz Samba]
Jay-Jay Johanson: Tattoo [Music on Vinyl]
Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers [Wax Time]
Journey: Escape; Live in Houston 1981; Frontiers; Greatest Hits 2 [Sony]
Judas Priest: The Best of Judas Priest [Sony]
Kiss: MTV Unplugged [Universal]
Yusef Lateef: Lost in Sound [Charlie Parker Recs]
Stephen Layton: Bach: Mass in B minor [Hyperion/Universal]
Lifesavers: Poplife [Retroactive]
Lightning Bolt: Wonderful Rainbow [Thrill Jockey]
Henry Mancini: Lifeforce [Music on Vinyl]
Freddy McGregor: Mr. McGregor [Music on Vinyl]
*Mental as Anything: Get Wet; Cats & Dogs [Syray]
Luis Miguel: Mis Romances [Warner Music Latina]
*Monolake: Interstate [Field]
*The Muffs: Blonder and Blonder [Omnivore]
Mark Murphy: Live at Club 43, 1966 Manchester, UK [Jazz Rewind]
My Dying Bride: Turn Loose the Swans; The Angel and the Dark River; The Light at the End of the World; The Dreadful Hours; Feel the Misery [Peaceville]
Naglfar: Harvest [Back on Black]
*Ne-Yo: In My Own Words [UMe]
*Novos Baianos: Novos Baianos F.C. [Jazzybelle]
Of Monsters and Men: Beneath the Skin [UMe]
Art Pepper: The Return of Art Pepper [Jazz Wax]
Placebo: Re:Created [Elevator Lady Ltd.]
*Phill Pratt: Star Wars Dub [Burning Sounds]
*Primal Scream: Beautiful Future [Rhino/Parlophone]
Scarface: The Diary [Rap-a-Lot]
Sophie: Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides [Future Classic]
The Suburbs: A Pagan Ritual: Live at the Cabooze 1983 [Suburbs Music]
The Suicide Machines: Cherry Bomb Metallic [Hollywood]
Sun Ra: Sound Sun Pleasure/We Travel the Space Ways [Pan Am]
*Supertramp: Brother Where You Bound; Free as a Bird (half speed) [UMe/Polydor]
Tol & Tol: The Very Best [Music on Vinyl]
*Kim Wilde: Teases & Dares [Demon]
Jah Woosh & Sis Bee: Rebellion [Burning Sounds]
YG: Still Brazy [Universal]
Various Artists: Hard Philippines [Akenaton]
Various Artists: Re-Form Ver-1.0 [WRWTFWW]
Various Artists: Stand by Me [Friday Music]
