New vinyl reissues: March 20, 2026

Howdy. It’s a busy week in the vinyl reissue world, with new releases from Mobile Fidelity, Vinyphyle, Acoustic Sounds, Craft, Guerssen, and many other fine labels. And after yesterday’s idle speculation about the world’s oil situation and how it it will likely affect our favorite hobby—which, for better or worse, is very much based on access to petroleum—I don’t have a whole lot else to banter about today.

So let’s get right into it!

Marvin Gaye: I Want You [Vinylphyle]; I Want You 2 [UMe]

The latest Vinylphyle arrives a little too late for Valentine’s Day but in plenty of time for National Grindin’ Day (a holiday I just made up, but let’s say it falls on 6/9). Marvin Gaye’s 1976 album I Want You just celebrated its 50th birthday, but it’s as horny as ever, a libidinous soul suite that flirts with silky-smooth disco and outré synth experiments. It should be interesting to hear a high-quality analog cut from the usual Vinylphyle go-to, Joe Nino-Hernes, who has been doing a bang-up job with the series so far. I Want You is a richly detailed production with supple bass, gossamer strings, and gobs of Gaye backing-vocal overdubs, so the odds are good that it should sound pretty darn intoxicating. Along with the Vinylphyle pressing of the LP itself, Universal is also releasing a 2-LP set of outtakes and alternates called I Want You 2. These tracks all appeared on the double CD deluxe edition of the album some years back, but this is their first time on vinyl, so be gentle. (There’s also a bundle of both releases that shaves a few bucks off the cost.) NL

Rocketship: A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness [Slumberland]

Rocketship, the Portland-by-way-of-Sacramento band, got saddled with the “twee” genre tag when their first album, A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness, was released in 1996. While some of the jangling, sugary, uptempo sound of twee makes an appearance, droning psychedelia and motorik rock also gets tossed into the eight-song LP to delirious effect. The original 1996 vinyl release and subsequent reissues in 1999 and 2016 are still coveted by collectors, but demand for the new, more widely available pressing out this week is equally high. According to Slumberland, they sold out of their first run of copies when the reissue was first announced back in January. But they’ve assured me that they quickly ordered a second run to fulfill online orders and to make sure stores are stocked up. RH

​​Head: Blackpool Cool [We Are Busy Bodies]

The Scottish fusion quintet Head recorded three albums in the 1970s that have gone on to be desperately sought by crate-diggers and collectors around the world. They can rest easy for a spell, as Head’s third, 1977’s Blackpool Cool, is now being re-released for the first time by Canadian label We Are Busy Bodies. It’s a ferocious, funky affair in the vein of Miles Davis and Weather Report, with occasional forays into hard rock via a grimy and exploratory sound that embraces all the pleasing idiosyncrasies that a jazz band based in Scotland might acquire. The album has been remastered by Noah Mintz at Lacquer Channel in Toronto, and this new pressing should be the best opportunity yet to hear this overlooked but intensely compelling work. NL

Aerosmith: Aerosmith [UMe]

For as big as Aerosmith’s legacy remains in the hearts and minds of rock fans around the world, it’s astonishing that it has taken the powers that be until now to capitalize on the band’s studio albums in the form of oversized reissues. This week sees the re-release of the Boston quintet’s 1973 self-titled debut, the record that introduced the bluesy, glammy outfit to the world courtesy of Stones-worshipping jams like “Mama Kin” and “Somebody” and the quintessential power ballad “Dream On.” This new edition of Aerosmith comes in a variety of configurations, from a 5-LP box set (also available bundled with a satin bomber jacket) to a single-disc remixed version (in black and red vinyl). The version I want for my collection is the “Legendary Deluxe Edition,” which includes a remastered edition of the original album mix, the remixed version, a 1973 recording of the band playing at Boston nightclub Paul’s Mall, and a handful of outtakes from the Aerosmith sessions. RH

Bo Diddley: Bo Diddley & Muddy Waters: Folk Singer [Chess/Acoustic Sounds]

Two more albums in Acoustic Sounds’ Chess Records series are here: Bo Diddley’s self-titled debut album, first released on Checker in 1958, is wall-to-wall classics, including the titular “Bo Diddley,” “Who Do You Love?” and “Before You Accuse Me.” Diddley introduced the shave-and-a-haircut syncopated rhythm to rock ’n’ roll, but he also bridged the gap between electric blues and rock ’n’ roll with songs like “I’m a Man” and drew from deep wells of soul with tunes like “Dearest Darling.” In short, Bo Diddley is an essential text for anyone who likes beat-driven music and, apart from a Sundazed pressing in 2014, has not been issued properly on vinyl since the ’80s (although cheapo and gray-market pressings abound). Meanwhile, Muddy Waters’s acoustic effort, 1964’s Folk Singer, has been reissued on vinyl ad infinitum, particularly by Acoustic Sounds/Analogue Productions, who alone have released a 180g version, a 200g version, a 2-LP 45 RPM version, and on and on; Mobile Fidelity also got into the game with a 2-LP 45 RPM UltraDisc one-step pressing a couple years back. Anyway, here it is again, although this time it’s the mono mix. Both LPs are cut from analog tape by Matthew Lutthans at the Mastering Lab and pressed at Quality Record Pressings. NL

Eddie Palmieri: Vámanos Pa’l Monte [Craft]

Craft Recordings have been doing the lord’s work over the past few years with their ongoing reissues of key albums from the catalogs of Tico Records and Fania Records, two New York labels that specialized in Latin music. This week, Craft turns its attention to Eddie Palmieri’s phenomenal 1971 album Vámanos Pa’l Monte. The title translates to “let’s go to the mountains,” a metaphorical entreaty to the Latin diaspora, hoping that a return to a simpler life would be a bulwark against the inequalities faced in the US. Palmieri was joined by a typically solid band for this session, including his younger brother Charlie on organ and the great vocalist Ismael Quintana. The re-release is an all-analog pressing cut from the original master tapes, available on either black or “barro & humo” colored vinyl. RH

Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart: Bongo Fury [UMe]

Childhood amigos Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart remained closely entwined as they came up through the LA scene of the late ’60s—with Beefheart famously delivering the lecherous lead vocal on “Willie the Pimp,” from Zappa’s 1969 album Hot Rats. When they toured together for the first time in 1975, it was billed as a reunion of sorts, and the resultant album Bongo Fury is mostly culled from a pair of Austin shows, with some additional studio work as well. It’s as daffy and off-kilter as you would expect, with some righteous Mothers rocking, Beefheart absurdism, and slippery Zappa nonsense all packed together cheek by jowl. To mark its 50th anniversary, Universal is releasing a 5-CD expanded edition with the full audio from both Austin shows as well as the complete studio sessions. The 2-LP vinyl version contains the album in full, newly cut from tape by Bernie Grundman, as well as an extra disc of highlights from the big CD box. There’s also a single-disc version of just the album, in both orange/black and standard black vinyl. NL

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan: Love & Devotion [Real World]

We have Peter Gabriel to thank for helping introduce Pakistani qawwali vocalist Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to a global audience. The former Genesis vocalist not only booked Khan at his WOMAD festival to great acclaim in 1985 but also facilitated the release of two albums of Khan’s hypnotic, uplifting music: 1986’s Best of Qawwal and Party Volume One and 1988’s Qawwal and Party Volume Two, both of which were recorded at Fair Deal Studios in Middlesex, UK. Then when Gabriel started his Real World label, he reissued the above records on individual CDs in 1992 as Devotional Songs and Love Songs, respectively, and combined both for the 2013 release Love & Devotion. It's that last iteration that is getting a 2-LP reissue this week, the first time this music has been on vinyl in nearly 40 years. RH

Kool and the Gang: Live at P.J.’s [Mobile Fidelity]

Jersey City’s finest, Kool and the Gang, released two live albums in 1971, and the second of those, Live at P.J.’s, is getting a Mobile Fidelity release. The album was recorded live at the West Hollywood nightclub with some additional studio sweetening in the form of string overdubs, although without evidence I wonder if some of the other tracks (like the album opener, “N.T.”) might be studio concoctions as well. The Gang was still entirely instrumental in those days, having not yet brought singer James “J.T.” Taylor on board and stormed the charts with a series of hits. At this point, the band was trafficking in breezy soul-jazz and vise-tight funk, emphasizing the groove rather than the songwriting chops that would make them one of the most vital R&B bands of the ’70s. This MoFi release follows the US tracklist, meaning that “The Penguin” is not included. It’s cut from a DSD digital transfer of the analog tape and limited to 2000 copies. NL

Bratmobile: The Real Janelle/The Peel Session [Kill Rock Stars] 

Bratmobile has long been a love-’em-or-hate-’em artist from the first wave of riot grrrl, primarily due to the singular vocals of frontwoman Alison Wolfe, which can be… let’s say, an acquired taste. This music fan has always loved them, which means I’m especially fired up for this reissue that originally dropped on last year’s Record Store Day Black Friday, which pairs the long-out-of-print The Real Janelle EP from 1994 with the four songs the band recorded for John Peel’s radio show a year before that. The material from the latter is especially fun, as it kicks off with a lovingly arch take on Blur’s then-hit “There’s No Other Way” before the trio zips through a few hopped-up punk originals. RH

Supertramp: Even in the Quietest Moments…; Breakfast in America; …Famous Last Words… [A&M/UMe]

We remain skeptical of the half-speed mastering process, but it seems to have a stranglehold on the British vinyl reissue scene. The catalog of Supertramp has been undergoing it recently, and the three newest installments arrive this week: 1977’s Even in the Quietest Moments…, 1979’s Breakfast in America, and 1983’s …Famous Last Words…, albums that mark Supertramp’s gradual decline from the heights of their earlier work and their irritating fondness for ellipses in album titles—with an exception to be made, in both cases, for Breakfast in America, which remains their biggest album and is jammed to the gills with hits like the title track, “The Logical Song,” “Goodbye Stranger,” and “Take the Long Way Home.” Quietest Moments has its, uh, moments—notably the strummy hit “Give a Little Bit”—but …Famous Last Words… was recorded amid strife between the band’s two songwriters and feels a bit like a desultory farewell; after it was done, guitarist/vocalist Roger Hodgson said sayonara, although the band carried on into the ’90s without his distinctive high voice. Miles Showell cut these half-speed masters at Abbey Road with Supertramp producer/engineer Peter Henderson overseeing. Like all Showell half-speeds, these are cut from digital. NL

Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine: Straw Donkey: The Complete Singles [Chrysalis]

Despite saddling themselves with a memorably stupid band name, the London-based indie/punk/dance duo Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine had a remarkably strong discography during their initial 11-year run, including a run of singles that cracked the Top 30 of the UK charts. Originally released in 1995, Straw Donkey gathers all the A-sides from the band’s singles into one handy set, and it is receiving a remastered reissue this week. RH

Secos & Molhados: Secos & Molhados [Elemental]

The fine folks at Polysom reissued Secos & Molhados’ debut album as part of their Clássicos Em Vinil series, but that was way back in 2010, and all the other vinyl appearances the album has made since then have not exactly been above board. Fortunately Elemental is taking it on, reissuing the legendary 1974 album and hopefully introducing it to an audience beyond Brazil, where it is rightly established as a classic. Secos & Molhados (it means the dry ones and the wet ones) is a charming caravan of Brazilian pop styles, incorporating languid beachside folk, glam rock, psychedelia, and good-time boogie rock, all delivered with the help of lead singer Ney Matogrosso’s androgynous countertenor. NL

Rotting Telepathies: Rotting Tapes II [Black Editions/La Musica]

In the ’90s, cassette label La Musica released a series of roughly recorded jam sessions and freeform live performances from 1982 by Rotting Telepathies, a short-lived band featuring guitarist/vocalist Michio Kadotani and former High Rise bassist Asahito Nanjo. The music primarily stayed in a grinding post-punk mode but would occasionally devolve into pure noise freakouts. The best of these cassettes, Rotting Tapes II, has been remastered by Timothy Stollenwerk for its first-ever vinyl release by Black Editions, with a lacquer cut by Philip S. Rodriguez at Elysian Masters. It captures a performance at Tokyo’s Shinjuku Jam, where Kadotani, Nanjo, and drummer Masaru Hirano were joined by a pianist known only as Kira, who adds plunking notes and harshly played chords to the group’s noise-rock assault. RH

Beat In: Beat In, Los Negativos: Piknik Caleidoscópico, and Oliver: Standing Stone [Guerssen]

Spanish label Guerssen is celebrating its 30th anniversary all year long, and this week they offer up three LPs worth investigating. First is the first-ever release from the Madrid garage band Beat In, who recorded several demos during the early ’90s but never put out any records during their brief lifespan. The songs are retro nuggets that recall the psychedelic artyfacts from the 1960s, and Guerssen has been collecting their tapes for years, using the label’s 30th anniversary as the perfect opportunity to release the work of a band that anticipated the Spanish garage-rock revival of the ’90s but never got its due. Guerssen is also reissuing the 1986 debut album from Los Negativos. Piknik Caleidoscópico’s title is evocative enough to give you a sense of the contents: vintage-sounding psychedelic rock with trippy psych-folk detours amid the garage-rock dancefloor stompers. Lastly, Guerssen has repressed their reissue of Oliver’s 1974 private-pressing wonder: Standing Stone is an indescribable freak-folk record that is trippy, bluesy, proggy, and pastoral all at once. For this repress, Guerssen is reinstating the blue cover that first pressings came in. NL

Vanessa Paradis: M&J; Variations sur le Même T’Aime; Vanessa Paradis; Bliss; Divinidylle; Love Songs; Les Sources [Universal France]

Best known here in the US for her 14-year relationship with noted scarf enthusiast Johnny Depp, Vanessa Paradis is a bona fide superstar in her native France. Between her turns in front of the camera as an actor and model, Paradis cultivated an impressive career as a singer, releasing a series of albums that all cracked the Top 20 in the French charts. Universal France is deluging her fans with vinyl pressings of her first seven studio albums this week. It represents a fascinating journey that took Paradis from the syrupy synthpop of her 1988 debut M&J (released when the breathy vocalist was 15) to her Lenny Kravitz–produced, English-language self-titled album from 1992 to the shape-shifting pop-rock of 2007’s Divinidylle to her pop-noir turn on 2018’s Les Sources. RH

RCA Living Stereo Series [Analogue Productions]

One of the current gripes in the vinyl world these days is that the digital-loving Sony doesn’t ever make analog vinyl, nor do they license their releases out for others to make analog vinyl for them. However, you could say an exception is being made with Analogue Productions’ RCA Living Stereo Series, most of which is cut from Classic Records plates that were made over two decades ago but which is also slated to include some new masterings by Matthew Lutthans. (RCA—perhaps the most important American record label in the development of long-playing stereo vinyl—is now owned by Sony.) It’s not clear what sort of arrangement Chad Kassem has with Sony in order for them to relinquish the master tapes, but we won’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Unfortunately, this series is all being cut at 45 RPM, meaning that the lengthier side-long movements are being split in half, which, sonics aside, doesn’t necessarily make for an optimal experience in absorbing the work. And that is the case with both of this week’s new releases: Jascha Heifetz’s performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto (with a very long first movement), played with Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and Charles Munch and the Boston Symphony’s take of Saint-Saëns’s mighty “Organ” Symphony (which is made up of two very long movements rather than a symphony’s standard four). These particular titles were both cut by Bernie Grundman many years ago and were pressed at QRP. NL

Jazz Alley

Of our Jazz Alley regulars, only the Blue Note Classic Vinyl Series has new reissues this week, and they come from later in the jazz canon than we’re usually used to seeing. Medeski Martin & Wood’s 1999 live album Tonic finds the New York City combo in acoustic-trio mode; the new pressing was cut from digital by Kevin Gray. John Scofield’s 1991 album Mean to Be was recorded to tape, although the Blue Note Classic spreads its CD-era duration across two LPs, both cut by Kevin Gray as well. Both of these were pressed at Optimal. Meanwhile, Speakers Corner is reissuing Joe Zawinul’s 1971 excellent album Zawinul, which links the Austrian keyboardist’s legendary breakthrough on Miles Davis’s 1969 album In a Silent Way (the Zawinul-composed titled track reappears here) with the work Zawinul would go on to do with Weather Report. Featuring appearances by Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Hubert Laws, Woody Shaw, Jack DeJohnette, Joe Chambers, and others, this one’s all-analog, cut by Kevin Gray as well.

On the Elemental label, Light as a Feather—the second album by Chick Corea and Return to Forever, a 1973 Latin-tinged effort with Flora Purim on vocals—makes a return to wax. And on Impex, Bud Shank’s 1959 collaboration with guitarist Laurindo Almeida, Holiday in Brazil (also known as Brazilliance Vol. 2) comes back to vinyl for the first time in decades with an all-analog cut by Chris Bellman and a pressing from RTI. For those with incredibly deep pockets (hey, have you heard about our paid subscriber tier?), the Electric Recording Co. is reissuing John Coltrane’s 1958 Prestige album Soultrane at their absurdly expensive price point, and I’d love to tell you more about it but there’s no point because it’s already sold out. Lastly, check out this cool cosmic-jazz album from Frederiksberg Records. It’s from a German ensemble called Green Cosmos, recorded in the late ’70s and unreleased until now. Morganmusiken finds the band playing a form of meditative jazz that’s about texture and space rather than dense rhythms or virtuosic musicianship. NL

OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Cannonball Adderley: Somethin’ Else [Wax Time]
Alice Cooper: Love It to Death (retail edition) [Rhino High Fidelity]
Laurindo Almeida: Acapulco ’22 [Jazz Samba]
Band of Horses: Everything All the Time [Sub Pop]
Pat Benetar: Crimes of Passion [UMG]
Big Sexy Noise: Live in Italy December 2011 [In the Red]
Bikini Mutants: Let’s Mutate [Sealed]
Blueboy: Jimmy [Aquavinyle]
Bolt Thrower: In Battle There Is No Law [Darkness Shall Rise]
Bow Wow Wow: Love, Peace & Harmony: The Best of [Music on Vinyl]
Brand New: Leaked Demos 2006 [PMTraitors]
Roland Brival: Créole Gypsy [Soundway]
Charlie Brown: Have You Heard the Gossip? [Bear Family]
The Business: Keep the Faith [Back on Black]
Cannibal Corpse: Kill [Metal Blade]
Chibuku: Maxambe [Modulor]
John Coltrane: My Favorite Things [Wax Time]
Cryptopsy: None So Live [Back on Black]
Miles Davis: ’Round About Midnight [Music on Vinyl]
Devo: Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (retail edition) [Rhino High Fidelity]
Craig Dove: Craig Dove [Holy Basil]
Elixir: The Son of Odin [High Roller]
Bill Evans: Portrait in Jazz [Jazz Images]
Feeder: The Singles [BMG]
Robert Lester Folsom: If You Wanna Laugh, You Gotta Cry Sometimes: Archives Vol. 3, 1972–1975 [Anthology]
Astrud Gilberto: The Astrud Gilberto Album [UMG]
Glenn Gould: Bach: Concerto in F major/Partitas 1 & 2 [Vinyl Passion]
Lou Gramm: Released [Friday]
Harddrive: Deep Inside [Strictly Rhythm]
George Harrison: Live in Japan [Dark Horse]
Hawkwind: Warrior on the Edge of Time [Atomhenge]
Billie Holiday: The Commodore Masters [20th Century Jazz Masters]
Laurie Holloway: Cumulus [Morgan Blue Town]
John Lee Hooker: The Big Soul of John Lee Hooker [Wax Time]
The Human League: The Sound of the Crowd: Greatest Hits in Concert [Secret]
Jungle Rot: Dead and Buried; Fueled by Hate [Back on Black]
Pat Kelly: So Proud [Burning Sounds]
Clint Mansell: Black Swan soundtrack [Music on Vinyl]
Model 500: Classics Vol. 2 [Metroplex]
Morbid Saint: Spectrum of Death [High Roller]
OneRepublic: Dreaming Out Loud [UMe]
Oz: Decibel Storm; Roll the Dice [High Roller]
Arvo Pärt: Tabula Rasa [Vinyl Passion]
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry & The Upsetters: Battle of Armagideon [Music on Vinyl]
Liz Phair: Liz Phair [UMG]
Sam Phillips: Gilmore Girls soundtrack [Mutant]
Edith Piaf: Essential [Number One Essential]
Django Reinhardt: Swingology [Jazz Images]
The Revolutionaries: Dutch Man Dub [Burning Sounds]
The Rippers: Honesty [Morgan Blue Town]
Todd Rundgren: The Complete Live at the Ridgefield [Cleopatra]
Sacred Reich: Alive at the Dynamo [Back on Black]
Sacrilege: Behind the Realms of Madness [High Roller]
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Harakiri - Death of a Samurai soundtrack [Commmons]
Schlippenbach Trio: Elf Bagatellen [Cien Fuegos]
Seven Mary Three: Orange Ave. [Music on Vinyl]
Ravi Shankar: Sounds of India [Wax Time]
Nina Simone: I Put a Spell on You [UMG]
The Sixth Great Lake: Up the Country [Dust & Memory]
The Skatalites: Ska Authentic Vols. 1 & 2 [Studio One]
Sponge: Rotting Piñata [Music on Vinyl]
Woody Shaw: In My Own Sweet Way [In and Out]
T. Rex: Electric Warrior (retail edition) [Rhino High Fidelity]
T. Rex: 1972; 1973 Whatever Happened To The Teenage Dream? [Demon]
Temptress: See [Ripple Music]
Three Days Grace: Transit of Venus [Sony]
Shania Twain: Greatest Hits [UMG]
The Tyde: Once [Dust & Memory]
Westlife: 25: The Ultimate Collection [Sony]
Hank Williams: Classic Hits [New Continent]
John Williams: Hook soundtrack [Music on Vinyl]
Larry Willis: Just in Time [Steeplechase]
Christopher Young: The Monkey King: Havoc in Heaven’s Palace soundtrack [Music on Vinyl]
Various Artists: Body & Soul: Legendary Ladies of Jazz [Vinyl Passion]
Various Artists: Hopes and Dreams: Rare & Unreleased Psych-Soul Nuggets from the 1970s [Tramp]
Various Artists: Indian Talking Machine Part Two: Instrumental Gems from the 78RPM Era [Sublime Frequencies]
Various Artists: Now That’s What I Call an Era: Feels Like Heaven 1978–1985: Essential Synth-Pop [Universal]