ALBUM RELEASE NEWS

Have mercy! Rhino High Fidelity (a.k.a. Rhino Hi-Fi) does it again with today’s special box set release — namely, ZZ Top’s From The Top: 1971-1976, a limited-edition vinyl reissue collection containing the first five LPs from that little ol’ band from Texas — ZZ Top’s First Album (1971), Rio Grande Mud (1972), Tres Hombres (1973), Fandango! (1975), and Tejas (1976). Read on to learn about the source materials, the SRP, and where you can get From the Top exclusively. . .

If I could wave my magic wand, I’d set every unofficially released Rush track free — oh wait, it looks like the band’s parent labels read my mind (well, mostly). To that end, we’ve been informed that, on March 21, 2025, UMe/Mercury and Anthem Records collectively plan on celebrating the iconic Canadian trio’s half-century milestone marker with Rush 50 — a.k.a. R50 — a wide-ranging 50-track anthology that will be available as a 180g 7LP/4CD Super Deluxe Edition and 180g 7LP Deluxe Edition (among other configurations), and it will include a number of rare and unreleased Holy Grail tracks to boot. Read on to see all that R50 entails, and how to get any/all versions of it. . .

“It was the hippest of times, it was the squarest of times — mostly the latter.” Ever cleverly dour, that was how the principal members of Steely Dan (a.k.a. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen) opened the three-paneled liner-notes portion of the folded booklet within the MCA CD reissue of their masterful May 1976 ABC album The Royal Scam. Thankfully, the music found therein was much more hip than square — and, now, after a 40-year wait (!), The Royal Scam is finally seeing proper vinyl reissues courtesy separate Geffen/UMe and Analogue Productions editions on June 6, 2025. Read on to see all the royal LP details. . .

We duly announce that The B-52’s The Warner Reprise Years 9LP box set is slated for release from Warner Records/Reprise/Rhino on June 20, 2025. All 9LPs in this massive collection, which spans the balance of the pioneering alt-punk band’s kaleidoscopic recording career from 1979 to 1992, have been remastered and repressed on a literal rainbow variety of color vinyl options, so read on to see what those colors are, and how good each LP sounds. . .

What’s in your heh-ed, in your he-ehh-ehh-ed? If that deliberately enunciated lyrical refrain instantly brings to mind a certain chilling but ultimately cathartic song by Irish alt-rockers The Cranberries — “Zombie” — then you’ll be eternally pleased to learn that a trio of 30th anniversary vinyl editions of the album that song is from, October 1994’s No Need to Argue, will be released in spurts on both June 27, 2025, and August 15, 2025. Read on to see which version is coming out on wax when, and what tracks each edition contains. . .

It’s beginning to look a lot like. . . holiday vinyl. Tis that time of year when holiday music is in the air, and there is no shortage of holiday vinyl to go around for any and all of your holiday listening proclivities and/or gift-giving needs. Read Part 1 of Mark Smotroff’s holiday LP roundup to see which of these eight featured new vinyl releases could make their way onto your “nice” list for listening and/or gifting this year. . .