Celebrating Anni-Frid Lyngstad in advance of her 80th birthday tomorrow. —Ed.

I love ABBA. I love them so much I contacted the Swedish ambassador last week to see if I could buy them. “ABBA are a national treasure,” the ambassador informed me. “But a thousand kroner would probably do it.” I was rather taken aback really, given ABBA are Sweden’s biggest export behind Swedish Red Fish and Swedish meatballs.

ABBA’s frothy brand of Europop and disco bring back fond memories of my first and last visit to a discotheque. The experience was unforfeitable insofar as it ended with me throwing up in the parking lot, but it wasn’t ABBA’s fault–staring at the revolving glitter ball above the dance floor gave me vertigo.

From disco classic “Dancing Queen” to “Waterloo,” ABBA’s songs were good, innocent fun. Who can resist their infectious melodies and perfect harmonies? Lots of people, evidently. ABBA were anathema to the “Let’s burn down the disco crowd,” and none other than Robert Christgau saw fit to describe their “real tradition” as “the advertising jingle.”

Formed in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad, ABBA first made their mark by winning the 1974 Eurovision Contest–a sure step to superstardom, as evidenced as by such memorable bands as Teach-In and Herreys. It took awhile for ABBA to catch on with US listeners, but when they did they did it big—in the years between 1974 and 1981 they placed a dozen singles on the American Top 40.

The ABBA sound is a study in contradictions. On one hand their music is as frothy as it’s frosty; detractors will tell you their music is as cold as a dip into a Hellasgården ice bath. But to pop and disco lovers their music is something you’ll want to warm your hands over—especially if you spent your formative years listening to “Dancing Queen.”

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Intervention Records will continue its Sun Records Hi-Fi Series—featuring classic titles from the Memphis label, mastered to vinyl from original master tapes in the Sun vaults—with a brilliant new pressing of Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!, the first long-playing record from one of country music’s most enduring icons.

The album, featuring “I Walk The Line,” “Cry, Cry, Cry,” and “Folsom Prison Blues,” has been given the ultimate treatment for this 180-gram, 45 RPM mono release, featuring audio from original master tapes mastered to vinyl in an all-analog process, plus restored artwork featuring new liner notes. Pre-orders for Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! are open now, with a release date of February 20, 2026. The album can be pre-ordered here.

“I never imagined that I’d hear the iconic voice of Johnny Cash on Intervention Records!” said Shane Buettner, Intervention Records’ founder. “And I don’t think music fans around the world have ever heard Johnny’s voice, or Sam Phillips’ famous Sun Studio sound, as clearly and definitively as they will on this new 45 RPM mono cut. This is as close you can get to a time machine back to Memphis in the 1950s!”

Originally issued in the fall of 1957—the first long-player for Sam Phillips’ Sun Records—Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! showcases the stripped-down sound that would make the future Man in Black one of the most enduring and respected musicians of the 20th century. Backed only by his “Tennessee Two” (Luther Perkins on lead guitar and Marshall Grant on upright bass) and augmented by Phillips’ signature studio slapback that gave Cash’s “boom-chicka-boom” sound its kick, Hot and Blue Guitar! is the album that introduced many to Cash’s sonorous baritone.

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Molly Hatchet don’t get no respect, and to the extent that most people remember them at all, it’s for “Flirtin’ with Disaster,” a mad and power-chord crazy gallop towards self-destruction that deservedly stands as a classic of post-Skynyrd Southern rock. And that post-Skynyrd tells you everything you need to know. Southern rock was rapidly un-Southerning itself, and “Flirtin’ with Disaster” is the proof. (By 1981, Molly Hatchet were playing straight-ahead hard rock.) Not that it saved Molly Hatchet from being branded as a second-rate Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jacksonville late-comers aping their hometown betters.

But this is unfair, and Molly Hatchet’s eponymous 1978 debut is the proof. It’s an unapologetic Southern Rock album, and no wonder. Danny Joe Brown may sound too much like Ronnie Van Zant for his own good, but that “Hell yeah!” he opens the album with is almost as iconic (to fans anyway) as Van Zant’s “Turn it up!” And just like Jacksonville’s Finest, Molly Hatchet had themselves a three-guitar army, even if nobody is going to say they were capable of the heights of Rossington, Collins, King, or later Gaines. Still, they had their moments—check out “Boogie No More” on 1979’s Flirtin’ with Disaster. It’s deja vu all over again, a chicken-fried guitar rave-up by three guys you’ll need to consult the liner notes to name.

Molly Hatchet is an essential Southern Rock album for a couple of reasons, but the main one is that the band can do a variety of things and do them well. I’ve never heard any stories about them cutting their bones in a suffocatingly hot shack by an alligator-infested swamp with Danny Joe putting a gun to the drummer’s head as a kindly request to play a song for the twentieth time, but at their best they’re tight as Van Zant on a whisky tear, and sound just as inclined to break said whisky bottle over your head. At their best, these unreconstituted rednecks sound like a bar brawl in progress.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Since its original release in 1988, Talk Talk’s critically acclaimed fourth album Spirit Of Eden has grown to become one of the most influential albums of the ’80s.

A step away from its hugely commercially successful predecessor The Colour Of Spring, Spirit Of Eden is steeped in legend for its long and improvisational recording sessions that created a body of work that would go on to be vital in the creation of post-rock as a genre and has subsequently been credited by NME in 2013 as one of the top 100 of their “500 Greatest Album Of All Time,” Q magazine’s “40 Best Albums of the ’80s’,” and was 419 in Colin Larkins acclaimed book All Time Top 1000 Albums.

This new reissue is a single-vinyl cut at half-speed by Matt Colton at Metropolis and overseen by drummer Lee Harris and Mark Hollis’ son Charlie. It will be released on February 6, 2026 and is available to pre-order here.

Upon its original release it was met with huge critical acclaim despite it being a hugely challenging album to market—the nature of the music meant that it did not offer up any obvious singles for radio promotion or the ability for the band to play it live due to its improvisational nature.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | From the garage-fueled shadows of upstate New York, The Chesterfield Kings return with Loose Ends: 1989–2004 Rare, B-Sides & Unreleased—a ferocious collection from one of rock & roll’s most enduring underground legends. In stores now via Wicked Cool Records, this anthology cracks open the vault to deliver a fuzz-drenched feast of rarities, forgotten gems, and unreleased recordings spanning the band’s wildest years.

For the first time ever, these deep cuts and obscure one-offs—many previously scattered across hard-to-find vinyl and CD pressings—are being digitally remastered and compiled into one explosive release. It’s a time capsule of pure rock swagger: stomping rhythms, snarling guitars, and that signature Kings attitude that has influenced generations of garage revivalists and true believers. Among the treasures is one previously unreleased track: the band’s never-before-heard version of “White Christmas.” As frontman Andy Babiuk explains:

“We did a lot of obscure recordings that came out on vinyl and CDs on various labels but very few were ever printed. For the first time we’ve compiled all of these recordings and we’re glad that they are finally coming out digitally remastered for everyone to check out. One unreleased track we found is a recording of the classic ‘White Christmas’ that we were asked to record for the film Christmas With The Kranks. They used the song ‘Hey Santa Claus’ that we wrote for the movie, but not ‘White Christmas,’ so this is the first time that this never released Chesterfield Kings’ version of the Christmas classic can be heard!”

Featuring covers of The Kinks, The Lyres, and others, Loose Ends captures the raw energy and spirit that have always defined The Chesterfield Kings.

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Celebrating Barry Brandt in advance of his birthdate tomorrow.
—Ed.

My favorite story about Angel, Washington, DC’s glammed-out, all-white spandex retort to Kiss, which seemed poised for superstardom in the mid-seventies (giant billboards on the Sunset Strip, selection by the readers of Circus magazine as the Best New Group of 1976, and tours of the great American arena circuit with the likes of Aerosmith, Blue Oyster Cult, Journey, and Rush) is pure Spinal Tap.

The band, with some major financial backing from Casablanca Records mogul Neil Bogart, had developed one of the most elaborate stage shows in rock, a fantasia of smoke, magic, and mirrors that led one wag to suggest that the band might be better off staying home and sending its props on the road. One gimmick involved the band appearing magically on stage one by one in puffs of smoke, to be introduced by the face on the giant Angel logo—which none other than Ian MacKaye pointed out to me is ambigrammatic, meaning it reads the same when turned upside down as when viewed normally—that served as the band’s backdrop.

One night, as Punky Meadows, Angel’s guitarist and the most androgynous pretty boy in a band full of androgynous pretty boys, told me: “Of course, all we were doing was coming up through trapdoors from beneath the stage. Well, one night, the big talking head introduces [drummer] Mickie Jones, and Mickie isn’t there. We’re looking at each like, ‘Where the fuck’s Mickie?’ Turns out his trapdoor got stuck. And all those stoned kids in the audience are going [Meadows sucks on an imaginary joint], ‘That’s really weird, man…'”

Angel was ahead of its time as a hair metal band, but while publicity photos featuring Meadows sporting hair the females of the era would have died for and a pout that put Scarlett Johansson’s to shame helped increase Angel’s popularity amongst certain sectors—predominantly teenage girls—it didn’t win them any points with critics.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | John Coltrane’s impact on modern music is immeasurable. The saxophonist’s groundbreaking work at Atlantic Records in the early 1960s helped expand the language of jazz and redefine the possibilities of improvisation. In honor of Coltrane’s upcoming centennial next year, Rhino is starting the celebration early on November 28 with a vinyl boxed set featuring six albums in mono, reissued as part of the acclaimed Rhino High Fidelity series.

1960-1964 Mono (Rhino High Fidelity) brings together Giant Steps, Coltrane Jazz, My Favorite Things, Olé Coltrane, Coltrane Plays The Blues, and Coltrane’s Sound. Available exclusively at Rhino.com and internationally at select WMG stores, the collection is limited to 2,000 individually numbered copies. Pre-order here.

Each album is AAA cut from the original analog mono master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed on 180-gram heavyweight vinyl at Optimal. The records are presented in glossy gatefold jackets with the alternate French cover art and the original U.S. cover art inside the gatefolds, and exclusive new liner notes by music writer Syd Schwartz. The set showcases Rhino Hi-Fi’s industry-leading standard for audiophile sound and presentation, built on the label’s 45-year legacy of award-winning archival releases.

Few artists have altered the course of music as profoundly as Coltrane. From his early collaborations with Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk to his revolutionary work as a bandleader, Coltrane’s relentless pursuit of new ideas reshaped jazz. His years at Atlantic captured a creative surge that bridged tradition and transformation and were followed by recordings that revealed a spiritual depth that defined his later work. As his centennial approaches, Coltrane’s legacy remains a benchmark for artistic courage and innovation.

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There has been no shortage of single and various artist Soul anthologizes over the years, but most came encoded on compact disc and ranged in worth from outstanding to moderate to shoddy. Vinyl sets became few and far between, but recently that circumstance has begun to change. Behold A Crate Diggers’ Collection of Rare Soul, a compilation of three 180gm LPs assembled by Rhino Custom in an edition of 1,000 copies.

The purported scarcity of the originals corralled here, everything initially issued on 45s from ’64-’75 either by Atlantic and its subsidiaries Atco and Cotillion or Warner Brothers and its sub-label Loma, offers a fine angle of presentation. However, the secret to any various-artist comp, and especially one devoted to a genre so deeply tied to the emotional, is not rarity but listenablity, though the opportunity to hear these selections on vinyl is an unequivocal plus.

A Crate Diggers’ Collection of Rare Soul smartly drafts a smattering of ringers and immediately taps into a cornerstone of the style. Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” was issued posthumously by Atco in ’68 both as a single and on The Immortal Otis Redding. Oft covered and sampled as it features the confidence, precision, and verve of Otis, Booker T & the MGs, and the Memphis Horns, there’s simply no substitute for the original.

Another stone beast is ’66’s deep and slow groover “You Put Something on Me” by Don Covay & the Goodtimers. A somewhat slept-on soul figure both at the time and hence, akin to the majority of the artists on this set Covay was recorded by Atlantic, but like “Sookie Sookie” before and “Somebody’s Got to Love You” after it, “You Put Something on Me” failed to chart, which is difficult to fathom since it pairs with “Hard to Handle” as the best track on this set’s first side.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Melanie loved the holidays—so much so that she celebrated Christmas twice, once on December 25 and again, in honor of her Ukrainian heritage, on January 7.

It’s a tradition that she shared with her husband Peter Schekeryk, himself born in the Carpathian Mountains; and which was naturally passed onto their children Leilah, Jeordie, and Beau Jarred. Yet it was not until the mid-1990s that Melanie and company set about realizing her long-cherished dream of recording a Christmas album, combining Melanie’s own Christmas compositions and the all-time favorites that need no introduction across the much-loved Antlers.

Several remastered and revised editions of the album followed over the decades before Melanie’s death in January 2024, alongside a clutch of digital singles that further celebrated the holidays. And now the best of these projects has been brought together as the very aptly-titled Melanie’s Christmas Treasury—a beautifully arranged and pristinely produced collection.

Today, however, we get a delicious taste of what’s to come, and an almost heartbreakingly pure rendition of “Silent Night”—one of half a dozen tracks on the collection remixed by rockabilly maestro Danny B Harvey, and hitherto available in digital form only.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | From American Bandstand to The Sounds of Philadelphia and Live Aid, Philadelphia has always been a hub for musical excellence. Tracing back a lineage of decades or even centuries, every neighborhood has a story to tell about the famous artists who have performed in and called the city home.

Now, in a beautiful coffee table book and new collection that spans generations of the city’s most iconic artists and performances, The Philadelphia Music Book: Sounds of a City, 2nd Edition ($49.95 hardcover) due November 12, 2025 (Camino Books) is a weighty, glossy, 390-page, 296-image volume. This edition (the first available to the public) adds new content alongside dozens of updates and revisions that further flesh out the city’s musical culture.

Proceeds from the sales of the book will help Philadelphia Music Alliance (PMA) create, support, and sponsor programs and events that enrich and strengthen Philadelphia’s musical community. PMA is the city’s premier music authority dedicated to celebrating the significant contributions of Philadelphians across all music genres.

Over a dozen contributors lend their knowledge, understanding, and lived experience in Philadelphia, including local journalists who recount the stories of Philadelphia’s homegrown musical heroes and capture their triumphs and challenges in the full context of their lives.

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With the death of Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac several years ago, the possibility of a full-fledged reunion of that group’s classic lineup is over. Fortunately, McVie and her partners in that iconic group have left a fulsome recorded legacy behind.

Most incarnations of the group made albums that have stood the test of time. Also, much of their work, particularly in the 1970s, reflects the heyday of well-conceived albums that were impeccably recorded during the analog years of studio innovation and sound. Reissues of the group’s music have been steady, with many albums being reissued over and over again. Two recent reissues prove that even for albums that have been reissued often before, new reissues offer much for fans, particularly audiophiles.

The group’s 1975 self-titled album, celebrating its 50th anniversary, was their breakout commercial release featuring new members Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. While some often regard the album as the precursor to their mega-smash Rumours, it stands on its own, and only Rumours is equally as good when considering the Buckingham/Nicks version of the group.

Members Mick Fleetwood and John McVie have been constants in the band throughout their entire history. The album was Christine McVie’s sixth with the band, after she left Chicken Shack. After appearing uncredited on keyboards on two Mac albums, she joined the group full-time for Future Games (1971). Ever since Bare Trees, McVie was coming more and more into her own as a songwriter and a more confident singer. With Fleetwood Mac, she hit her stride with such songs as “Warm Ways,” “Over My Head,” and “Sugar Daddy.” Her “Say You Love Me” was so strong that Lindsey Buckingham handled most of the lead vocals, and the two then collaborated on co-writing “World Turning.”

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Dropping the needle on the vinyl edition of Rachael Sage & The Sequins’ Canopy is a reminder of why we do what we do at The Vinyl District. There’s a kind of magic that unfolds when rich, colorful grooves meet the stylus—pops and warmth, subtle textures, and that ineffable presence you only get when spinning wax. This album, sampled straight from the turntable, transforms a living room into a sonic sanctuary, woven from tradition, innovation, and Sage’s unmistakable call for empathy and hope.

The tactile act of lifting the album jacket, flipping through liner notes, and watching the record spin brings you closer to Sage’s vision—her stories feel less like broadcasts and more like intimate conversations. “Canopy,” the title track, pours out of the speakers with a depth only vinyl can muster. Its message of inclusivity, environmental care, and radical kindness resonates even more as the analog sound fills the room, the chorus blooming like sunlight after spring rain.

As side one plays out, “Just Enough” leaps into focus—Americana flavors blazing, horn section popping, handclaps snapping crisply in the vinyl mix. The groove is tangible, basslines anchoring the optimism, harmonies conjuring a flicker of the ‘60s—no digital translation needed. It’s that summer festival feeling only records can evoke, each note and nuance alive beneath your fingertips.

Following closely is “Belong To You,” a standout moment on side one that delivers pure emotional resonance. Rooted in a gospel ballad tradition, Sage’s vocals are soft but assured, wrapping the honest lyrics in an atmosphere of sincerity and warmth. The arrangement glows with the soulful interplay of Hammond organ and harmonica, while Dave Eggar’s cello anchors the whole song in something timeless and deeply moving. There’s a sense of devotion woven through every line—devotion not just to romantic love, but to friends and family—a message that feels even more intimate spun from a turntable. The Sequins’ backing harmonies add another layer of heart, making “Belong To You” a quiet but unforgettable centerpiece of the album’s first half.

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Liz Hogg is a Brooklyn, NY-based guitarist who divides her expertise between classical guitar and electric rock stylings. On the rock side of the spectrum, she’s bent the strings in numerous bands, including Fables, UFOs, and Beach Arabs, and with Aagoo Records’ November 12 release of Goodbye World Hello Something, she’s completed her second solo album, available on LP and digital. While Hogg is a highly skilled instrumentalist, the 10-song set is less about flash and more focused on solid, often downright catchy songwriting.

Liz Hogg’s prowess on guitar shouldn’t be understated, but just as impressive is her adaptability, which ranges from her excellence as a classical guitarist as documented on the 2019 CD Presenting Liz Hogg: Music by Mignone/ Villa-Lobos /Krenek/ Darr/ Bach/ Matiegka, to the ’80s underground rock power trio energy of Beach Arabs’ 2013 cassette Wild Movement, to the pricklier exploratory solo rock-aligned environments of her self-titled 2018 LP.

And now here’s Goodbye World Hello Something, a larger-scale solo affair that’s infused with pop hooks while continuing to emphasize Hogg’s abilities as a guitarist. Opener “Things I Said Before” is the album’s biggest slice of melodic maneuvering, combining tropical ambiance with a bold guitar groove to arrive in the vicinity of ’80s Downtown NYC.

“Wonder When” picks up the tempo and dishes a hook reminiscent of The Cars, although Hogg’s singing and the tightly wound intensity of her playing ultimately pushes the song into a distinctive direction. “On Paper” is more laid back and layered, with a few gorgeous crescendos along the way, and then “Belly” revs matters back up with a hint of power pop and a few angular touches that can bring Mary Timony to mind.

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