VIA PRESS RELEASE | GRAMMY Award-winning musician Jason Isbell today announced the tenth anniversary reissue of his critically acclaimed album, Southeastern.

Out September 29 via Southeastern Records/Thirty Tigers, the remastered reissue will include demos and live versions of the beloved songs. Pre-order the Southeastern 10th Anniversary Edition here.

Crowned as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone, Southeastern features 12 tracks infused with confessions, reflections, and promises that confront and make communion with those who have come before and remain with us still. The album, praised by critics and fans alike, is considered some of Isbell’s best work to date.

This special tenth anniversary reissue will feature a Deluxe 4LP Box Set which includes the never-before-heard original Southeastern demos and a brand-new live recording of the album from December 2022 at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN, allowing fans to experience the magic of a Jason Isbell live show from the comfort of their homes. An Indie Exclusive LP will also be available and comes pressed on transparent clearwater blue vinyl.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Van Halen will release a new boxed set this fall spotlighting the iconic band’s second incarnation, with singer Sammy Hagar, guitarist Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alex Van Halen, and bassist Michael Anthony. The upcoming set includes newly remastered versions of four multi-platinum studio albums, along with a selection of rarities recorded between 1989 and 2004.

The Collection II will be available on October 6 on 5 LPs for $124.98 and 5 CDs for $49.98. Pre-order both versions HERE. All the music in the set was mastered directly from the original master tapes, a process overseen by the band’s longtime engineer, Donn Landee.

The new set is the long-awaited sequel to The Collection, a compilation released in 2015 that focused on the six studio albums recorded by the band’s original line-up, which featured singer David Lee Roth. The Collection II picks up where its predecessor left off and covers the four consecutive #1 albums released during the Hagar era: 5150 (1986), OU812 (1988), For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (1991), and Balance (1995).

The journey begins with 5150, Van Halen’s seventh studio album and the band’s first to claim the top spot on the Billboard 200. Certified platinum six times in the U.S., the record treated fans to hits like “Dreams,” “Love Walks In,” and “Why Can’t This Be Love,” which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group returned two years later with OU812, a quadruple-platinum smash that delivered four Billboard Hot 100 hits, including “Finish What Ya Started” and “When It’s Love.”

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The Portland, OR-based “indie jazz” outfit Blue Cranes has been active since 2004. Their latest is My Only Secret, available August 11 on purple vinyl, compact disc, and digital through the teamwork of hometown labels Jealous Butcher Records and Beacon Sound. Featuring eight tracks, the contents are melodic, intense, and unpredictable on first listen. Additional spins reveal compositional depth and interactive spark that strengthens the whole.

Blue Cranes are Reed Wallsmith on alto saxophone, keyboards and percussion, Joe Cunningham on tenor saxophone, keyboards and percussion, Rebecca Sanborn on keyboards, Jon Shaw on bass, and Ji Tanzer on drums. My Only Secret is their sixth full-length (there’s also an EP and a remix album) and the follow-up to the only release in their discography to feature vocals (courtesy of numerous Portland cohorts including Laura Gibson and Laura Veirs), 2021’s Voices.

Voices took a long time to record (March 2015–September 2018) and was issued on CD in 2021. Like most of their catalog, it was self-released. The exceptions are Swim, which came out on LP and CD (both formats still available) in 2013 through Cuneiform Records, and My Only Secret, which was recorded in 2021-’22 under pandemic restrictions.

Voices establishes that Blue Cranes are meticulous in the pursuit of artistic growth, and My Only Secret underscores the band as adaptable to change, even when those circumstances made recording difficult. Unwilling to simply wait things out, their latest record is defined by a sense of necessity that’s often emphatic.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Steely Dan’s 1977 multi-platinum jazz-rock masterwork, Aja, has been remastered from analog and will be reissued on vinyl for the first time in more than four decades on September 29th via Geffen/UMe.

Aja marks the latest release in Geffen/UMe’s extensive reissue program of Steely Dan’s classic ABC and MCA Records catalog, which returns the band’s first seven records to vinyl—most of which haven’t been available since their original release. Overseen by founding member Donald Fagen, the series launched in November 2022 with the group’s legendary 1972 debut, Can’t Buy A Thrill, followed by 1973’s Countdown To Ecstasy in May 2023. The band’s beloved third album, 1974’s Pretzel Logic, was just released last month.

Aja has been meticulously remastered by Bernie Grundman from an analog, non-EQ’d, tape copy and will be pressed on 180-gram black vinyl at 33 1/3 RPM. Additionally, Aja, like all the titles, is being released as a limited edition premium 45 RPM version on Ultra High-Quality Vinyl (UHQR) from Analogue Productions, the audiophile in-house reissue label of Acoustic Sounds. Analogue Productions is also releasing this series of titles on Super Audio CD (SACD). Visit here for more details and to order.

Additional titles rolling out over the next year include 1975’s swing-pop perfection Katy Lied (featuring “Black Friday,” “Bad Sneakers,” and “Doctor Wu,” as well as the addition of Michael McDonald on vocals); 1976’s guitar-driven The Royal Scam (“Kid Charlemagne,” “The Fez”); and Steely Dan’s final album for MCA, and last for 20 years, 1980’s brilliant Gaucho (featuring “Hey Nineteen” and “Time Out Of Mind,” with Mark Knopfler on guitar).

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With roots spanning back to 1954, The Spinners had staying power. Having settled on a change of moniker in 1961, the new name stuck and they landed on the Motown roster soon after with limited success; it wasn’t until a label switch to Atlantic in 1972 that they started landing the big hits. The Complete Atlantic Singles: The Thom Bell Productions 1972–1979, available now through Real Gone Music in collaboration with Second Disc, documents the heights of the group’s commercial success across two CDs, rounding up 43 tracks that offer a magnificent deep dive into Philly Soul at its smoothest and most substantial.

Quite often, extensive collections, indeed sets like the one under review here, are fairly assessed as being best heard by those frequently described as “music obsessives.” The general idea is that the chronological ordering of singles details subtleties in artistic development that appeals to those holding an intense interest. However, for the more casual listener (and not that I’m particularly inclined to advocate for the positions held by casual listeners), the results can register like a pile-up of overkill.

While The Complete Atlantic Singles is probably best absorbed a disc at a time (and maybe even in shorter increments), I will add that soaking up all 43 tracks in one sitting, and that’s two hours 37 minutes (no, I didn’t sit the entire time), lacks even a trace of fatigue. And the sustained freshness derives from a triangle of creative verve, with the first and primary point of the three being The Spinners, naturally.

Philippé Wynne, Bobbie Smith, Henry Fambrough, Billy Henderson, and Pervis Jackson (and later in the period captured on this set, John Edwards) cohered into a powerhouse of vocal richness that stacked up well in comparison to their Philly soul counterparts The Stylistics and The Delfonics (both acts produced by Thom Bell).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | When Tony Bennett and Bill Evans recorded their first of two albums together in 1975, it marked a rare moment in pop culture—when a pair of equally respected but vastly different icons could combine their talents, while elevating each other’s artistries in the process.

Bennett was an internationally renowned singer, who had built a name for himself interpreting pop and jazz standards. Evans was one of the most innovative pianists in jazz music, who was revered for his conversational interplay and lyrical compositions. Best known for his work in trio settings, Evans rarely played with singers. He did, however, have a great appreciation for Bennett, which he professed in a 1968 Billboard tribute to the singer.

Several years later, the two legends finally met at Fantasy Studios for an intimate and somewhat spontaneous affair. Joined only by producer Helen Keane and an engineer, Bennett and Evans selected material and loosely worked out arrangements. An amalgamation of both men’s backgrounds, the set married pop (“Days of Wine and Roses,” “Young and Foolish,” “We’ll Be Together Again”) with jazz, including Evans’ own “Waltz for Debby” (featuring lyrics by Gene Lees). The session allowed Bennett to prove his chops as a serious jazz singer, while Evans offered thoughtful accompaniment—with ample improvisational interludes.

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Tiki Tumbao is a new label based in Miami, FL that’s dedicated to the dissemination of “gritty analog funk.” The imprint’s output currently consists of two 45rpm 7-inch singles, the Latin boogaloo-Nuyorican groover “Piropo” b/w “Son Del Barrio” by Tony & The Kings, and the tough Southern funk instrumental action of “Double Dippin” b/w “Dippin Deux” by The Swizzlas. Both are worthy acquisitions for ears attuned to inspired contemporary manifestations of classique soul-funk-R&B-Latin heat.

Founded by Travis Acker, the Tiki Tumbao enterprise cuts their sides all-analog at West Bird Studio in Miami with a focus on South Floridian acts. Additionally, Acker is a member of The Swizzlas. The immediate Tiki Tumbao vibe is reminiscent of such heavy-hitting labels in the neo-classique soul-funk-R&B zone as Daptone, Big Crown, and Colemine, but with a distinctive Latin twist in the 45 by Tony & The Kings.

Dishing up a solid plate of Fania-esque Latin verve with “Piropo,” the sextet features a sturdy rhythmic bedrock with Danny Naval on congas and percussion and Eddie Garcia Jr. on drums, as Matt Pyatt strengthens the foundation on bass. Broadening the sound is Charles Gardner on keyboards and Robert Smiley in saxophone. Leader Antonio Rivera handles the vocals, guitar, and percussion.

The singing is in English on “Piropo,” a choice that sets the track a bit apart from the more celebrated releases in the Fania discography, and if Rivera’s vocals are unlikely to make anyone forget Héctor Lavoe, he more than capably gets the soulful job done. But really, the tune’s raison d’être is its blend of instrumental firepower and finesse, the members of the ensemble resistant to overplaying as the songwriting is a few cuts above the standard stuff.

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