Record Store Day 2026 preview: 21st-century rock, pop & more

We’ve reached the last of our preview posts for this year’s upcoming Record Store Day, and today we’re looking at all the reissues of things released in the 21st century—i.e., the century you and I are living in right now. Therefore, almost everything we’re covering in today’s newsletter is a reissue of music released after December 31, 1999, when the great Y2K software meltdown changed music forever, as everyone remembers. There are also a handful of brand-new or brand-newish things in here too, but we’re sticking mostly to reissues, as is generally our purview here at The Vinyl Cut.

Need to catch up on our other previews?

• Record Store Day 2026 preview: Jazz, blues & Latin
• Record Store Day 2026 preview: Hard rock, punk & metal
• Record Store Day 2026 preview: Hip-hop, soul, R&B & reggae
• Record Store Day 2026 preview: 1960s & 1970s rock, pop, folk & country
• Record Store Day 2026 preview: 1980s rock & post-punk
• Record Store Day 2026 preview: 1990s rock, alternative & country

Yeah, it’s been a long road so far, and you may have noticed we stepped on the gas this week. That’s because next week we’re going to start rolling out our Record Store Day reviews; we’ve gotten our hands on some actual physical copies and will be letting you know in advance of the big day which pieces of vinyl are worth your while and what you can skip.

This also seems like a fine time to once again point out that Record Store Day is not for everybody. It’s a huge financial investment for record stores, particularly small independent stores that have to cough up the funds for inventory in advance. Some of the reissues are priced so high as to alienate customers, and others are really just unnecessary collector bait. Having said that, we love Record Store Day. For those stores that can balance the costs and get records into the hands of their customers, it can be a real windfall, enough to put the business into the black after having operated in the red for much of the year. So if you’re even slightly inclined to support your local store this April 18—do it. And if you’d rather not, we hope you have a very nice Saturday all the same.

We’ll start with all the US releases up top, but be sure to scroll down to the very end for our choice picks among the international releases, some of which we could be lucky enough to find in our local stores but others that will likely need to be tracked down by more, uh, online methods.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Read My Lips (25th anniversary edition) [UMR/Polydor]

British pop sensation Sophie Ellis-Bextor finally got her due here in the States thanks to the keen use of her 2001 single “Murder on the Dancefloor” as the soundtrack for Barry Keoghan’s naked promenade in the closing moments of the film Saltburn. And with the 25th anniversary of the album it was plucked from, Read My Lips, the timing couldn’t be better for a vinyl reissue. My chief concern with this re-release is the note that it features “exclusive voice recordings incorporated throughout the album,” which reads to me like a recipe for soppy overkill. On the other hand, the 2-LP set also includes as a bonus track “If This Ain’t Love,” Ellis-Bextor’s killer collab with Italian dance producer Groovejet, so I’m willing to suffer through any overheated additional chatter to have that tune as the backdrop for my own clothing-optional dance party. RH

Freeman: Free•man [Partisan]

Aaron Freeman—aka Gene Ween—released Free•man in 2014, and it’s his first real statement as a solo artist, coming after the 1987 home-recorded Synthetic Socks and a 2012 album of Rod McKuen covers. Free•man capably confronts Freeman’s problems with drugs and the up-and-down band dynamics of Ween, as on “(For a While) I Couldn’t Play My Guitar Like a Man” and “Gimme One More,” and while it’s not exactly a mature statement from Freeman’s ever-adolescent sensibilities, it does hint at maturity, acceptance, and spiritual sustainability. Is this the sort of thing brown-loving Ween fans will flock to Record Store Day for? You’d better believe it; the prices on original pressings of Free•man are well into the triple digits, making this limited edition one of the more highly anticipated reissues of the day. NL

John Frusciante: To Record Only Water for Ten Days [Rhino]

The string of solo albums from Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante is long and weird, but 2001’s To Record Only Water for Ten Days is among the more accessible, an enjoyably lo-fi effort that puts Frusciante’s songwriting to the fore. If at times it sounds like a collection of demos, that only gets the listener closer to the source of Frusciante’s ideas, which are given decidedly non-Chili-Peppers-style backing, with washes of synths, drum machines, and other atmospheric electronic blurbs and bleebles. But Frusciante’s expert chord-shaping on the guitar is still in full force, and if his singing leaves a little to be desired, he can certainly hold a tune better than his famous Chili Peppers bandmate. For its 25th anniversary, the album is being reissued on RSD across 2 LPs that include four bonus tracks. NL

Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris: All the Roadrunning [Mercury]

Mark Knopfler’s career pivot from frontman of massive arena-rock band Dire Straits to practitioner of relaxed, country-flecked Americana wasn’t exactly predictable, but his somber, speak-sing style and immaculate guitar tone translated incredibly well to his newfound path. A collaborative album with Emmylou Harris also seems inevitable in retrospect, as Harris’s one-time guitarist Albert Lee was a significant influence on Knopfler’s playing style. The pair recorded the album slowly over seven years, and it located a new spark inside Knopfler, with tracks like “This Is Us” sounding a little like vintage Dire Straits and others, like “Red Staggerwing,” drawing him closer to traditional country and bluegrass than he’d ventured before. Harris, ever the consummate collaborator, classes up the joint with her very presence, and the murderer’s row of Nashville all-stars gives every song tasteful backing without too much zest. It’s reissued on 2-LP smoke-colored vinyl for its 20th anniversary. NL

Mark Lanegan: Bubblegum (Original Draft) [Beggars Banquet]

When Mark Lanegan, the gravel-voiced singer/songwriter who once fronted psych-grunge band Screaming Trees, made what would become his sixth studio effort Bubblegum, he and his gang of collaborators apparently recorded two albums’ worth of material. Lanegan futzed with the running order of the LP before finally letting the finished version out into the world in 2004. This Record Store Day reissue takes the album back to one of those rough drafts. The opening two tracks—the growling lament “When Your Number Isn’t Up,” and “Hit the City,” a bruising rocker with PJ Harvey joining in on vocals—remain in place, but every other song has either been shuffled around or replaced with a different song from the album sessions. This RSD 2-LP release was mastered by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road and pressed on white vinyl. Profits from the sale of this album will go to the Mark Lanegan Foundation. RH

Adrianne Lenker: Live at Revolution Hall [4AD]

Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker released the 43-track Live at Revolution Hall digitally and on cassette in 2025, and here comes a vinyl edition for Record Store Day. Recorded over three nights in 2024 at a former high school auditorium in Portland, Oregon, the set is leavened with audio-verité recordings of happenings in and around the concerts. As for the music itself, it too was recorded unconventionally, with Lenker’s collaborator Andrew Sarlo moving throughout the venue and recording on a variety of formats, including cassette and reel-to-reel, with the fidelity maddeningly inconsistent between tracks. In that sense, it’s a frustrating and overlong document, but Lenker’s thoughtful and at-times chill-inducing songwriting always commands attention, and insightful listeners have surely extracted Live at Revolution Hall’s best bits into an absolutely killer 40-minute playlist. That won’t be doable with the 3-LP vinyl edition, but the immersive quality of the full version will likely gratify Big Thief’s many devoted fans. NL

The Mooney Suzuki: People Get Ready [Yep Roc]

It may already be time for a revival of the garage-rock revival of the 2000s. The music hasn’t dated at all, as it was already retro by design, and its brash, straightforward sounds are downright refreshing in their directness. New York’s Mooney Suzuki were at the forefront of the revival, taking their cue from the British blues and freakbeat bands of the 1960s, like the Yardbirds, the Misunderstood, and the Troggs. Their 2001 debut album, People Get Ready, is being reissued with a bonus track—their cover of Mose Allison’s “I’m Not Talking”—and a second disc containing a 1999 live show recorded at NYC Meatpacking District nightclub the Cooler. NL

Bob Mould: Body of Song [Yep Roc]

After confusing the hell out of his many fans with Modulate, an album inspired by his embrace of synth-pop and house music, Bob Mould found a middle ground on 2005’s Body of Song. He brought back the slash-and-burn guitars and loud drums of his Hüsker Dü and Sugar days but balanced them out with drum loops and synths. It’s not always successful, but when it hits, as on the wild “I Am Vision, I Am Sound” and the appropriately titled “High Fidelity,” it hits hard. This fresh 2-LP repressing from Yep Roc includes six songs that were previously released on the deluxe CD edition of the album. RH

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult: Sinister Whisperz: The Wax Trax! Remixes [Wax Trax!]

Way back in 2010, Groovie Mann and Buzz McCoy, the two creative mainstays behind My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, went about remixing a selection of songs from their time on Wax Trax!, the venerable Chicago industrial label. These updated renditions of disco-smut classics like “Kooler Than Jesus” and “Leathersex” wound up on Sinister Whispers, a CD-only release on the band’s own Sleazebox label. With some help from their former label, this collection is getting its first-ever vinyl release on Record Store Day in the form of a 2-LP set complete with a glow-in-the-dark cover and three previously unreleased tunes. RH

New York Dolls: One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This [Rhino]

In 2004, singer David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain brought their late proto-punk band the New York Dolls back to life with a new lineup and a whole lot of pent-up attitude. New music naturally followed in the wake of this rebirth, starting with 2006’s One Day It Will Please Us to Remember Even This, a solid effort that brought their glammed-up garage-rock sound comfortably into the modern era with the help of friends like Iggy Pop, Michael Stipe, and Laura Jane Grace. Originally issued on LP only in the UK and EU, the record is getting its first Stateside vinyl release for Record Store Day. RH

Klaus Nomi: Remixes Bundle [Omnivore]

German-born artist Klaus Nomi always kept one foot on the dance floor throughout his sadly short career. (He passed away in 1983 at age 39.) Classically trained and able to hit impressive vocal heights with his six-octave range, he fell into the East Village club scene after relocating to New York and started recording music that had a disco-pop bent, which sounded great when pumped through the sound system at Danceteria and Club 57. In 2023, Legacy Recordings celebrated Nomi’s club-ready side, commissioning a series of remixes of his work from the likes of Erasure’s Vince Clarke, German house producer DJ Hell, and Scottish artist Clarissa Connelly, among others. The two volumes of this remix series were released separately in limited numbers on vinyl in Europe, but they are being paired together for this Record Store Day release from Omnivore. RH

Paramore: All We Know Is Falling [Rhino]

Paramore were a bright spot in the emo-saturated world of pop-punk in the ’00s, but their debut, 2005’s All We Know Is Falling, was something of a false start, a pleasant but not needle-moving collection of radio-friendly songs with lightly tousled riffs and a veneer of teen frustration to make the clichés go down smoothly. From this vantage point, and without the added stakes of Atlantic Records hell-bent on breaking Hayley Williams as a massive star, it’s a quaint, nostalgic trip down post-Lavigne memory lane. Williams and Paramore would go on to prove themselves quite effectively, making this an innocuous blip in their trajectory. For Record Store Day, the LP is paired with Paramore’s 2006 EP The Summer Tic, pressed to vinyl for the first time. NL

Pixies: Live at Newport [Demon]

A year and change into their 21st-century reunion, the Pixies made an appearance at the 2005 Newport Folk Festival, using the storied annual event’s long history of folk music to play acoustically for the first time. Their patented max-fuzz, soft-loud formula worked quite well in the stripped-down format, and the set was released as a DVD in 2006. Now it comes to vinyl, spread across two LPs (one green, one yellow) and includes all the big songs you’d expect from their initial five-album run: “Gigantic,” “Where Is My Mind?” “Gouge Away”... you get the idea. NL

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live from Asbury Park 2024 [Legacy]

As I write this, Bruce Springsteen has just kicked off a tour in Minneapolis, and all reports suggest he’s got newfound fire in his belly, stoked by his anger at the Trump administration and the ICE murders of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. This is probably going to be the tour I’m gonna want a live album of, but nevertheless, a 2024 concert played in his hometown of Asbury Park is making its way to Boss fans on Record Store Day. The 5-LP, three-hour set may be short on the political vitriol, but it is packed with early hits from his New Jersey years, including a large helping from his 1973 debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. A CD edition of the live album has been postponed, but the vinyl box set is pressed and ready, and will be taking up large chunks of record-store real estate on April 18. NL

Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros: Global a Go-Go [Dark Horse]

When we published our rundown of the most interesting punk records being released on Record Store Day, some folks were wondering why this didn’t make the cut. One spin of this wonderful 2001 album should put that question to rest. Though ex-Clash member Joe Strummer and his remarkably talented backing band the Mescaleros are as punk as they come, their music, especially on Global a Go-Go is rooted more in folk, dub, and global rhythms. To these ears, this era of Strummer’s career was less about pummeling listeners into submission with jeremiads and more about welcoming folks into the conversation. Studious fans already know that this album was already given a Record Store Day release in 2010, but it’s coming around again 16 years later in another limited pressing on “splatter color” wax. RH

Thievery Corporation: Culture of Fear [Thievery Corporation]

By the time of 2011’s Culture of Fear—the sixth album from Washington, DC’s Thievery Corporation—the duo of Rob Garza and Eric Hilton had perfected their blend of electronics and live instrumentation, blending samples, synths, and guest collaborators into a pan-global blend of downtempo rhythms. Garza and Hilton’s impressive musical appetites are on full display, as they touch on hip-hop, bossa nova, jazz, ’70s funk, kosmiche, and all manner of musical styles. That they blend it all together into such a palatable final product does give Culture of Fear an unfortunate sheen of anonymity, as if it’s music designed for an airport lounge or a YouTube preroll. Yet there is inventiveness to be heard for those digging in deeper, and it should sound pretty stellar on this Record Store Day red-and-black vinyl reissue, cut across three sides with an etching on the fourth. NL

Wire: Read & Burn 03 [Pinkflag]

The original lineup of Wire—Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert, and Robert Grey—came apart and reconnected multiple times in the years since the group’s formation in 1977. But their third act, which lasted from 1999 to 2007, ended with Read & Burn 03, the final in a series of EPs on which the quartet returned to the angular art-punk sound of their first iteration. Not long after the EP came out, Gilbert would leave the band permanently. While the other two Read & Burn entries have already been issued on vinyl, the third volume is getting its long overdue debut on wax. Added to the four songs from the original release are a trio of bonus tracks, including “Dip Flash,” a tune that reconstructs “Dot Dash,” a 1978 non-album single, and an alternate mix of the EP’s closer “Desert Diving.” RH

Neil Young & The Chrome Hearts: As Time Explodes [Reprise]

This live album from Neil Young was recorded during 2025’s tour with his backing band the Chrome Hearts, which is essentially his former backing band the Promise of the New with the addition of Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham on keys. The LP includes the new song “Big Crime,” a politically charged howl against Trump, fascists, and billionaires—the lyrics not-so-subtly repeat the phrase “big crime in DC at the White House” over and over. But it also includes Young digging deeper into his back catalog, pulling out lesser-heard songs like “Name of Love” and “Looking Forward” (both from CSNY albums that aren’t called Deja Vu), or “Daddy Went Walking” and “Long Walk Home.” Before its wide release in a few weeks, the RSD edition of As Time Explodes comes on clear vinyl with a poster that contains lyrics. NL

NON-US RELEASES

Coldcut: Sound Mirrors [Ninja Tune]

Jon Moore and Matt Black have always cast a wide net in both their listening habits and their collaborators in their ongoing electronic music project Coldcut. 2006’s Sound Mirrors might be their most far-reaching effort, with everyone from British rappers Roots Manuva and Soweto Kinch to avant-garde vocalist Annette Peacock and critic and poet Amiri Baraka making contributions. Musically, the duo follow a similarly mercurial path with downtempo head-nodders sitting alongside ambient sprawl and pounding industrial rhythms. With the album celebrating its 20th birthday this year, Ninja Tune (the label run by Black and Moore) is pressing up a new edition for Record Store Day on marbled vinyl and in a special mirror-board sleeve. RH

Brian Eno with Jon Hopkins & Leo Abrahams: Small Craft on a Milk Sea [UMR]

When musicians Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins, and Leo Abrahams created the score for Peter Jackson’s 2009 film The Lovely Bones, their recording sessions proved so fruitful that they had an impressive amount of unused material. The three men built upon that leftover music and improvised new work inspired by it, the bulk of which wound up on 2010’s Small Craft on a Milk Sea, an album that scintillates and soothes in equal measure with slowly spreading ambient experiments and electro bangers. This Record Store Day reissue includes all the music from the original album and adds on the material from Seven Sessions on a Milk Sea, a collection of improvised pieces made by the trio for a series of promotional films. RH

Essential Logic: Extended Play - Volume I & II [Hiss and Shake]

In 2001, vocalist and saxophonist Lora Logic restarted Essential Logic, the post-punk band she started after her dismissal from X-Ray Spex. This iteration of the band was far removed from the angular attack of early efforts like “Aerosol Burns” and “World Friction.” With support from former Blondie member Gary Valentine and Bad Manners co-founder David Farren, the music was straightlaced new wave with occasional forays into reggae. The band released their new material through a mail-order-only CD. The following year, Logic released a quartet of tracks on a new EP that she had recorded in the late ’90s, also under the Essential Logic name. These ones were even further afield, with hip-hop inspired grooves and even a piano ballad. All of these tunes eventually wound up on Fanfare in the Garden, the comprehensive history of Essential Logic in all its various iterations that Kill Rock Stars released in 2003. This very limited Record Store Day release (only 500 copies!) puts the material from those two post-reformation EPs on wax for the first time. RH

The Fall: Are You Missing Winner [Cherry Red]

As always, the version of the Fall that recorded 2001’s Are You Missing Winner was a much different group than the one that recorded their previous album (2000’s The Unutterable) and wouldn’t be the same by the time they worked on its follow-up (2003’s Country on the Click). But for this one glorious moment, the band featured a fantastic trio of musicians—bassist Jim Watts, guitarist Ben Pritchard, and drummer Spencer Birtwistle—that crafted perfectly repetitive garage-rock/jangle-punk grooves for Mark E. Smith to growl his surreal poetry atop. Initially, the only vinyl release of AYMW was a truly wretched-sounding picture disc. Thankfully the keeper of the Fall’s recorded legacy, Cherry Red Records, reissued the LP on wax back in 2021 and are repressing it for Record Store Day on pink-and-black-swirl vinyl in honor of its 25th birthday. RH

Kaiser Chiefs: The Future Is Medieval - Alphabetised Compendium [UMR/Polydor]

Back in 2011, the British indie rockers Kaiser Chiefs surprise-released their new album The Future Is Medieval online. The trick was that fans were asked to create their own version of the record by making a 10-track mix from among the 20 songs the band had made available, downloadable for a nominal fee. A CD version with 13 tracks was eventually released, as was a limited vinyl version (with three extra songs) sold only at gigs and a record shop in the band’s hometown of Leeds. Oh, and a 10-inch box set version released under the name Start the Revolution Without Me was briefly sold through the band’s website. All of this is to say that, for Record Store Day, Kaiser Chiefs are re-releasing the 23-track, 2-LP version of the album with the added trick of putting all the songs in alphabetical order. RH

The Orb: Bicycles & Tricycles [Cooking Vinyl]

Bicycles & Tricycles, the 2003 album from the Orb, was pretty much par for the course for this long-running electronic music project: a puckish, funky collection of tunes dipped in dub, house, and downtempo featuring fun guests like reggae toaster the Corpral, British actor Neville Jason, bassist Gbatokai Dakinah, and ex-KLF member Jimmy Cauty. The record was initially only available on CD in Japan but was given a UK and US release the following year, including a limited 2-LP set with a much different tracklist. I’m not sure yet what version is being released on Record Store Day, but I’m assuming it’s a repress of the 2004 edition, as the press info for this reissue promises the addition of “Now Here,” a track that was previously only available in Japan. RH

The Tears: Here Come the Tears [Craft Recordings]

The departure of guitarist Bernard Butler from Suede during the making of 1994’s Dog Man Star was one of the more seismic events of the Britpop era. Not surprisingly, though, the musician and his former band both managed well without the other, with Butler maintaining a healthy career as a session player and Suede releasing three more albums of dramatic glam-pop. The surprise came in 2003 when, just as Suede was going on a hiatus, Butler reached out to his former bandmate Brett Anderson about working together again. The two formed the Tears, a short-lived but no less impactful band that picked up right where the pair left off with sweeping, string-laden anthems and guitar bombast. The group’s lone 2005 full-length Here Come the Tears was issued on vinyl in limited numbers in the UK, so this new pressing from Craft Recordings is already one of the most highly anticipated releases for Record Store Day. RH

OTHER 21st-CENTURY REISSUES OF NOTE (US list):
A-ha: Analogue [Rhino]
Bat for Lashes: A Fleet of Bats: Early Demos [BMG]
Kaitlin Butts: Yeehaw Sessions [Republic]
Caamp: Caamp 10th anniversary edition [Caamp, LLC]
Ethel Cain: Inbred 12-inch [Daughters of Cain]
The Cure: Acoustic Hits [Rhino]
Empire of the Sun: Walking on a Dream [Capitol]
Selena Gomez: Droplets [Interscope]
Dallas Good & Richard Reed Parry: Were “The Watchtowers” [Yep Roc]
Gotan Project: Best Of [Yabasta]
Carly Rae Jepsen: Disco Darling [School Boy/Interscope]
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Big Fig Wasp [Having Fun]
Elton John: Positiva Presents: Elton John - The Remixes [UMR/EMI]
Madonna: The Confessions Tour: Live from London [Rhino]
Bruno Mars: Collaborations [Atlantic]
Matchbook Romance: Visions 7-inch [Epitaph]
Mayday Parade: Tales Told by Dead Friends [Craft Recordings]
Tate McRae: Hung Up on You 7-inch [Nettwerk]
Muse: Muscle Museum; Muse [Warner]
Mutemath: Mutemath [Rhino]
Pepper: Give’n It [LAW]
Phoenix: United; Alphabetical [Rhino]
Porcupine Tree: We Lost the Skyline [Transmission]
Corrine Bailey Rae: Live at Webster Hall, New York [Capitol]
St Germain: St Germain (10th Anniversary African Project Remixes) [Rhino]
Stone Temple Pilots: Live at Rolling Rock 2001 [Rhino]
Stray Cats: Rumble in Brixton (Live) [Surfdog]
Teenage Fanclub & Jad Fair: Words of Wisdom and Hope [Merge]
TV Girl: The Night In Question: French Exit Outtakes [Blissful Serenity]
Scott Weiland: Live [Scott Weiland]
Paul Weller: Weller at the BBC Vol. 2 7-inch [Parlophone/Warner]
Brian Wilson: On Tour [Oglio]
Cory Wong: Cory Wong and the Green Screen Band [Cory Wong]
Donovan Woods: Not a Greatest Hits Vol. II [Meant Well Inc.]
Christopher Young: Sinister soundtrack [Haxan]
Various Artists: Just Tell Me You Love Me: A Tribute to Fleetwood Mac [Craft Recordings]
Various Artists: Undertale: 10-Year Anniversary Remixes [Monstercat/Firaga]

Record Store Day will also have a ton of brand-new (or newish) releases, which we’ll list here festival-poster-style:

Bryan Adams • Air • All Time Low • Amble • Jon Anderson • Angel of Man • Johnny Blue Skies • Bluey • Brandi Carlile • Neko Case • Charli XCX • Tyler Childers • Collective Soul • Lucy Dacus • The dBs • Deafheaven • Olivia Dean • Dr. Demento • Alabaster DePlume • Dijon • doPE • Drum Corpse • Hilary Duff • English Teacher • Fall Out Boy • Gabby’s Dollhouse • Ghost Funk Orchestra • Good Kid • Ariana Grande & Cynthia Ariva • Violet Grohl • Haim • Hemlocke Springs • Niall Horan • Jack Johnson • Katseye • Khruangbin • KPop Demon Hunters • The Last Dinner Party • Laufey • The Locustz • Demi Lovato • April March • Laura Marling • Marc Maron • Metal Machine Music • Momma • Gaby Moreno • Deb Never • Operation Irie • Panda Bear & Sonic Boom • Peaches • Gigi Perez • PinkPantheress • Robert Plant • Ruel • Sages • Sleep Token • Sleepy Pokémon Beats • Son Volt • Spacey Jane • Starcrawler • Billy Strings • Tyler Swiff • Wisp • Wolf Alice • Zerobaseone