New vinyl reissues: October 31, 2025
Hello—it’s our usual Thursday email, in which we emerge out of the vinyl mines, wipe the sweat from our brows, and tell you about all the appealing, interesting, weird, and wonderful vinyl reissues coming out this week. Although it’ll be Halloween, there is no overarching spooky theme to the albums hitting record stores tomorrow. It’s just another pre-holiday week in which all the big labels are vying to get their stuff out in time for gift-giving season.
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Now, without further ado, let’s see what we’ve got for the week.
Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18: Through the Open Window, 1956–1963 [Legacy]
It’s A Complete Unknown: The Prequel. The latest installment in Bob Dylan’s never-ending Bootleg Series covers his earliest-ever recordings, from informal high school and college recordings made in Minnesota to live tapes from his first years in Greenwich Village. The 8-CD box has all the bits and pieces, including performances from Gerde's Folk City, the Gaslight, and Dylan’s first-ever billed concert, which took place in the chapter room on the fifth floor of Carnegie Hall. There’s also a full concert in the venue’s performance hall proper, from 1963. The 4-LP edition mirrors the 2-CD abridged version, culling highlights from the best-sounding of these; there are also some Freewheelin’ and The Times They Are a-Changin’ album outtakes shuffled into the deck. More than just a collection of juvenilia and ephemera, this should be the final word on Dylan’s nascency, with this collection filling in all the gaps of his early years. The question the organizers of the Bootleg Series surely must be asking now is: Which gaps are left? NL
Miles Davis: Kind of Blue corrected speed [Analogue Productions]
The world isn’t hurting for vinyl editions of Kind of Blue, the landmark 1959 album from trumpeter Miles Davis. According to Discogs, there are at least 336 different pressings of that album for a collector to choose from. So why bother with the new version being released by Analogue Productions this week? According to the press notes, this is being touted as the “definitive version,” as it includes the speed-corrected versions of the first three songs on the LP, which were apparently affected by a tape machine at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio running a little slow. (Details of this are spelled out in a four-panel insert included with each copy.) But here’s the rub: The pitch-adjusted “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” and “Blue in Green” have already been issued on vinyl before, for a 1995 Classics Records edition cut by Bernie Grundman. In fact, the same PR announcement makes clear that Analogue Productions is simply reusing BG’s plates from that release. The only difference between the 2025 and 1995 versions is that this new pressing opts to put the corrected tracks on the A-side of the two-LP set rather than the bonus disc. The original wrong-speed takes are now considered bonus material, along with the alternate take of “Flamenco Sketches.” In spite of all that rigamarole, reports on the sound of the 1995 release have been overwhelmingly positive, which bodes well for what may be the 337th pressing of this modal jazz masterpiece. RH
New Order: Movement; Power, Corruption & Lies; Low-Life; Brotherhood [Rhino]
With expanded CD and Blu-ray audio versions of the first four albums by New Order on the way, Rhino is giving a small nod to us analog enthusiasts by reissuing those same records as stand-alone vinyl editions this week, using the same plates cut to create the LPs that came in the “Definitive Edition” box sets of recent vintage. And not a moment too soon, it would seem. Reviews for those sets on Discogs have been brutal, with buyers complaining of warped or dusty discs, bloated price points, and being saddled with the bonus material on CDs and DVDs—or, as one commenter calls them, “a bunch of obsolete formats.” The good news is that no one seems to have issues with how the vinyl sounds, which is a relief to hear, and a credit to the work of Frank Arkwright at Abbey Road, who handled the mastering and cut the lacquers for all four. RH
The Who: Who Are You [Universal]
1978’s Who Are You will never be remembered as a top-tier Who album, but as the final LP recorded before drummer Keith Moon’s untimely demise that year, it marks the end of that glorious era that saw the original four-piece band holding the championship belt for the Best Live Band on Earth for several years running. Who Are You finds them well on the downslope, with a really good title track and around eight or so other tracks that are, y’know, fine. Nevertheless, the album is being given the mega-deluxe box set treatment, with a 7-CD/Blu-ray set encompassing all the outtakes and alternates, with copious live recordings—including the one at Shepperton Studios in May 1978 that was filmed for The Kids Are Alright. The vinyl configuration is slimmed down to a mere 4 LPs, featuring the album proper and three discs of live tracks recorded in 1979 with replacement drummer Kenney Jones. That means there’s a lot that isn’t making its way to vinyl, and these big Who sets are always a mess of configurations and exclusive tracks. (There’s even a separate Blu-ray you have to buy if you want the instrumental version of Who Are You.) Annoying. But, hey. It’s the Who. Even at their worst, they’re one of the best. NL
Outkast: Stankonia [Legacy]
Just in time for their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Outkast is re-releasing their 2000 album Stankonia in deluxe form, complete with new, trippier artwork from Andre 3000 and a handful of bonus tracks, including remixes and rarities. (A standard 2-disc pressing of the album with the original cover art intact is also available.) The legacy of this album is already firmly set, with its musical daring that blended psych-funk, gospel, and house music into the duo’s Dirty South hip-hop and its undeniable singles “So Fresh, So Clean” and their first number-one hit “Ms. Jackson.” Stankonia also netted Outkast a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album on the strength of sales that topped five million, all well-deserved milestones for one of the best artists in the rap game. Now if we could just get Three Stacks to put down the flutes long enough to get back into the studio with Big Boi… RH
Bill Fay: self-titled; Time of the Last Persecution [Proper]
English songwriter Bill Fay recorded two astonishing albums for the Decca subsidiary Deram in 1970 and 1971: Bill Fay and Time of the Last Persecution are remarkable documents that aren’t easily categorizable—part London pop, part urban folk-soul, part damaged art-rock, and part sui-generis mystic prophesying. Fay plunged into undeserved obscurity, but much like Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan, he eventually was recognized and appreciated retrospectively and even went on to record a few albums for American indie label Dead Oceans in the 2010s. Fay passed away in February, so it’s a fitting tribute that UK label Proper Records is making these first two incredible albums available again, in all their tangled brilliance. NL
Depeche Mode: Speak & Spell; Construction Time Again; Some Great Reward; Black Celebration; 101; Exciter; Playing the Angel [Sony]
For unknown reasons, Sony is quietly issuing new vinyl pressings of the Depeche Mode catalog. And there’s no logic to which albums they’re releasing at any given time. This week, for example, the label is cherry-picking from throughout the synthpop group’s discography, including 1981’s Speak & Spell, their debut and the only full-length to feature founding member Vince Clarke; 1983’s Construction Time Again, the first one to include contributions from Alan Wilder; 1984’s Some Great Reward, the secret masterpiece of their long career; Black Celebration, the 1986 release that was apparently a huge influence on the first Nine Inch Nails album; 101, the document of the then-quartet’s triumphal live set at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in 1988; Exciter, an atmospheric affair from 2001 produced by LFO founder Mark Bell; and 2005’s Playing the Angel, a record that emerged from a dark period of frontman Dave Gahan’s life. RH
Donner Party: Donner Party [Trussed Recordings]
In the years before he became one of the pillars of the Portland music scene, Sam Coomes lived in the Bay Area and, in the mid-’80s, formed the band Donner Party with a couple of high-school pals. During their brief time together, the trio, rounded out by drummer Melanie Clarin and bassist Reinhold Johnson, knocked out a couple of albums of ragged and spirited alt rock that leaned as much into their twangy country influences as it did their punk roots. While their second album was issued on Camper Van Beethoven’s label Pitch-A-Tent, the Party’s momentum fizzled out and Coomes eventually made his way north. This week, UK label Trussed Recordings is gracing us with an expanded reissue of the group’s 1987 self-titled debut. That sprawling gem, originally issued on garage-rock-leaning Cryptovision, has been remastered by the great Mikey Young and tacks on a nice selection of previously unreleased demos. RH
Diamanda Galás: You Must Be Certain of the Devil [Intravenal Sound Operations]
Around six years ago, Diamanda Galás got control of the rights to her back catalog, and since then she has been slowly reissuing the material though her own imprint Intravenal Sound Operations. Considering how often the ownership of an artist’s work changes hands in the ever-shifting landscape of media consolidation and how challenging it can be for underground artists to navigate that minefield of legal bullshit, it feels like a major victory. This week, Galás is reissuing You Must Be Certain of the Devil, a devastating work from 1988 that she marked as the final installment in her “Masque of the Red Death” trilogy, which interpreted scripture, poetry, and song through the lens of the AIDS epidemic. For Devil, Galás wrote a suite of material based on the gospel and blues traditions. But true to form, she played fast and loose with those genres, juicing them with goth-rock intensity and her singular soprano vocals that swung from operatic trills to bone-chilling wails, often within a single measure. The audio for this reissue has been remastered by Heba Kadry, with new lacquers cut by Paul Gold at Brooklyn’s Salt Mastering. RH
Procol Harum: self-titled [Esoteric]
The first Procol Harum album has never been very difficult to snag on vinyl; in fact, I checked my shelf just now and there’s a version from Record Store Day 2019 that I still haven’t cracked open. No matter. Cherry Red, the parent company of Esoteric—which is responsible for the thorough line of comprehensive CD reissues of the entire Harum catalog—is taking a whack, replicating the original British track listing (that means you need to take a hike, “A Whiter Shade of Pale”), using the mono masters instead of the dreadful fake stereo mixes, and adding a bonus 12-inch EP with the pertinent singles and B-sides (ah, come back, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” all is forgiven). Cherry Red is touting a new mastering job and a lacquer cut at Abbey Road but isn’t providing any further details, leading me to assume it will be a very nice-sounding disc cut from a digital file. This has always been an underlooked gem of British psychedelia, reveling in all of the period-appropriate whimsy while emitting some of the warning rumbles of prog. Will this new pressing be definitive? Do I really need to buy another copy? Is there any bottom to this endless thirst for vinyl? NL
The Fall: The Unutterable [Cherry Red]
Being a collector of records by the Fall, the mercurial Mancunian outfit fronted by the occasionally maniacal Mark E. Smith, is an exhausting affair. With nebulous, ever-changing rights issues, the band’s voluminous discography has been reissued and repackaged dozens of times on various imprints around the world. Lately, Cherry Red has gotten a hold of the Fall’s catalog and has been doling out new pressings of the band’s work with regularity. This week, their focus lands on The Unutterable, the group’s 21st studio album, released in 2000. As strong as anything in the band’s discography, it benefits from an engaged Smith, who spouts and spits his blank-verse poetics over a bed of driving, warped agitpop. This double-LP release is only the second time the album has been issued on vinyl and is a handsome partner for the 4-CD edition also being released this week. RH
Buffalo Tom: Sleepy Eyed 30th anniversary edition [Beggars Arkive]
1995 should have been Buffalo Tom’s year. Twelve months earlier, the Boston trio was enjoying a wellspring of buzz drawn out by their 1993 release Big Red Letter Day, that record’s college radio hit “Sodajerk,” and a splashy appearance on cult TV drama My So-Called Life. That momentum fed into the sessions for their fifth studio effort, Sleepy Eyed, resulting in raw but unabashedly catchy tunes like “Summer” and “Sundress.” The album did reasonably well when it was released in, yes, the summer of ’95, but couldn’t make inroads in the post-grunge, Britpop-adjacent era of alternative rock. Sleepy Eyed is long overdue for a reappraisal, which will hopefully follow this week’s deluxe reissue, which spreads the album tracks over three sides of vinyl and adds on some wonderful acoustic demos from the archives of guitarist/vocalist Bill Janovitz. RH
Joseph Kamaru: Heavy Combination 1966–2007 [Disciples]
This definitive introductory compilation to Kenyan musical legend Joseph Kamaru has been given a wide release, meaning that a global audience can now easily experience Kamaru’s socially conscious music. Compiled by his grandson, the collection’s songs run the gamut from highlife to benga, the dominant Kenyan popular musical form that is derived from that country’s traditional and folk music. Be sure to read our full review of Heavy Combination here, and give Kamaru a listen this weekend on Bandcamp or via your streaming service of choice—chances are good you’ll then immediately need to make a trip to the store to pick up this excellent vinyl collection. NL
Robert Ham
Eternity’s Children: Eternity’s Children; Timeless [High Moon]
The two albums by Eternity’s Children, the pop group that started and ended in New Orleans with a short stint in Los Angeles in between, have been out of print on vinyl since both were released back in 1968. In fact, their second LP, Timeless, was only ever released in Canada. With their gently psychedelic, sunshine-y sound, original copies of those records now command triple-digit prices among collectors. Budget-conscious fans will now have a chance to own them, as High Moon records is bringing reissues of these discs, with audio remastered by Dan Hersch, to market this week. Look for our full report on these next week. RH
Rhino Rocktober [Rhino]
This is the last week of Rhino’s massive Rocktober campaign, with 43 vinyl reissues appearing in independent brick-and-mortar record stores. We’ve reviewed many of the releases in two earlier newsletters—see the two boxes below—and tomorrow we’re gonna review a few more. Check back in with The Vinyl Cut in 24 hours’ time for vinyl reviews of the Stooges, Rush, the Faces, and Warren Zevon.
Ned Lannamann
Ned Lannamann
OTHER REISSUES OF NOTE:
Alessandro Alessandroni: Angoscia [Sounds from the Screen]
Avengers: self-titled [Superior Viaduct] (repress)
Badfinger: Live at the Performance Center, Cambridge, MA - March 31, 1974 [Renaissance]
The Blasters: American Music [Liberation Hall]
Blondie: No Exit [BMG]
The Blood Brothers: Crimes [Epitaph] (single-disc edition)
The Blue Aeroplanes: Outsider Art: The Other Best of… 1985–2025 [Chrysalis]
Dennis Brown: Money in My Pocket [LMLR/Culture Factory]
The Cars: Heartbeat City deluxe (4CD/1LP) [Rhino]
Climax Blues Band: Live at the Paris Theater, London, 1979 [Renaissance]
Crown Heights Affair: Dance Lady Dance [Reissued Sounds]
Death in Vegas: The Contino Sessions [Concrete/Sony]
Devo: Energy Dome Frequencies: Songs from the Devo Documentary [Rhino]
Doom: Complicated; Incompetent [13th Real]
Effigies: Fly on a Wall [BFD]
Falco: Falco 3 [Sony]
Fourplay: Elixir [Chesky]
Frank Chickens: We Are Frank Chickens [Reissued Sounds]
JJ Grey & Mofro: Orange Blossoms [Alligator] (wide release of RSD reissue)
Grizzly Bear: Yellow House; Veckatimest; Shields [Warp]
Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on You [Charly]
Inoyamaland: Danzindan-Pojidon [WRWTFWW] (repress)
Lorin Maazel: The Unreleased Berlin Recordings [Lost Recordings]
Amy Macdonald: A Curious Thing 15th anniversary [UMR]
Reba McEntire: The Hits [MCA Nashville]
Ramsay Midwood: Shoot Out at the OK Chinese Restaurant [Juke Joint 500]
Los Natas: Delmar; Ciudad de Brahman [Heavy Psych Sounds]
Luciano Pavarotti: Novanta [Decca]
Chuck Prophet: Night Surfer [Yep Roc]
Phantogram: Nightlife EP [Barsuk]
Pineapple Thief: 10 Stories Down + 8 Days Later [Kscope]
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief Live Recordings [XL]
Gerry Rafferty: Can I Have My Money Back [Reissued Sounds]
Rilo Kiley: Under the Blacklight [Rhino]
Mark Ronson: Record Collection [Sony]
Les Secrétaires Volantes: Les Secrétaires Volantes [Blow the Fuse]
Nina Simone: Let It All Out: Selected Singles 1961–1978 [Ace]
Stereophonics: Language.Sex.Violence.Other? [V2]
Ten Years After: Ssssh [Chrysalis]
Thompson Twins: Industry & Selection: A Thompson Twins Collection [BMG]
KT Tunstall: Eye to the Telescope [BMG]
Wishbone Ash: Live at the Capitol Theater - January 19, 1974 [Renaissance]
Van Halen: Diver Down [Mobile Fidelity]
Tatsuro Yamashita: Artisan [Moon]
Y&T: Live at Sherwood Hall, Salinas, California - October 1, 1983 [Renaissance]
Various Artists: Classic Holiday Singles Box Set [Universal]
