Critic’s Picks: 16 Best Album Reissues of 2024

Release Date: Sept. 20, 2024

Label: Legacy Recordings

Billed as the first arena rock tour in the United States, Bob Dylan’s triumphant reunion with the boys in The Band found the rejuvenated collective taking a victory lap in the winter of ‘74, nearly eight years after being vilified for going electric in 1966. This time around was different, and as these 27 discs can attest, Dylan and The Band were at peak performance, whether they were playing old warhorses such as “Like a Rolling Stone” and “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” or such obscure gems as “Hero Blues” and “Ballad of Hollis Brown.”

By the end of the tour, or the 27th disc of this set, they rip through a version of “Blowin” in the Wind” with such electric abandon it reintroduces the song as a visceral rock anthem. This is a must-own for anyone who believes in the transformative power of rock n’ roll.

Release Date: Aug. 16, 2024

Label: Sub Pop

Upon signing to them in the early ‘90s, Velocity Girl was the band who put the pop in Sub Pop, seeking solace in the scrappy sweetness of the British C86 movement while the group’s contemporaries on the Washington, D.C., punk scene were looking to Fugazi and Government Issue for guidance. Recorded in Memphis with Shellac’s Bob Weston producing, the band’s first full-length from 1993 received a belated 30th anniversary glow-up in 2024 with this “Ultra” edition that not only gives the album a long-overdue remix, but also amends the original LP with four B-sides, including the crunchy “Crazy Town” flip “Creepy,” and five live versions of album cuts recorded during a 1993 John Peel Session along with an impassioned rendition of “Always” from the band’s 1990 debut single “I Don’t Care If You Go.” Even three decades later, Copacetic shimmers with a timeless veneer.

Release Date: Oct. 18, 2024

Label: Geffen-UMe

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ fifth album together is also their most underrated, anchored by the massive MTV hit “You Got Lucky” but supplemented with some of the band’s deeper treasures such as “Finding Out” and “The Same Old You.” While once calling it “a good little rock n’ roll record,” Petty was never satisfied with the end results of Long After Dark because of indecision about the final tracklisting.

This expanded edition course corrects with the addition of an entire disc’s worth of songs that should have been on the original LP, including the roaring “Finding Out,” one of five tracks recorded at the Record Plant in L.A. for the French TV show Houba Houba, and “Never Be You,” a quintessential Tom ballad that would later be covered by Roseanne Cash as well as Maria McKee (for the 1984 Walter Hill crime flick Streets of Fire).

“Long After Dark was the sound of change about to happen,” declares legendary music critic David Fricke in the liner notes to this magnificent reissue. In this case, the change is hopefully people’s perception of this unsung Heartbreakers classic.

Release Date: Aug. 2, 2024

Label: Rhino

Rock’s greatest faux brotherhood since the Ramones issued a harsh bummer to its fanbase when the band announced in April it was taking an unexpected hiatus from touring in order for Deaner to focus on his mental health. But that didn’t stop Ween from celebrating the 30th anniversary of its greatest album, the band’s fourth and first to be recorded inside of a genuine studio, highlighted by such essential faves as “Freedom of ‘76,” “Roses Are Free” and “Voodoo Lady.”

This vinyl-only deluxe edition of Chocolate and Cheese features both a beautiful remaster of the original LP from master audio engineer Bernie Grundman, and a bonus album comprised of 15 previously unreleased tracks from the recording sessions, including the swinging “Junkie Boy” and the fractured heartbreak anthem “I Really Miss You (And I’m All Alone).”

Release date: Nov. 15, 2024

Label: Metalface Records/Rhymesayers

The dearly departed supervillain of hip-hop had one epic 2004, bookending the year with two albums largely considered to be the twin towers of his fun-filled oeuvre. The 20th anniversary edition of the Metal Faced One’s cuisine-crafted solo album Mm..Food is brilliantly reimagined with new artwork from Sam Rodriguez and digitally expanded to include remixes of such album standards as “One Beer” and “Hoe Cakes,” along with snippets of a revealing interview with the man born Daniel Dumile himself, in which he riffs on writer’s block, his evolution from Zev Love X to DOOM and his collaboration with Minneapolis-based rap imprint Rhymesayers Entertainment that continues to bear valuable fruit in the afterlife.

Release date: Nov. 29, 2024

Label: Stones Throw

Then, for the other bookend, in honor of the 20th anniversary of DOOM’s legendary collab with super-producer Madlib comes the “Demo” edition of their sole album Madvillainy. It is actually the original version of the LP that was stolen from Madlib in Brazil and leaked online during the BitTorrent era.

Release date:  Sept. 26, 2024

Label: Missing Piece Records

Endorsed by the likes of Michael Stipe and Brian Eno, Hugo Largo crafted ethereal art pop that fell somewhere between 4AD and SST. Huge, Large and Electric collects the group’s first two albums — 1988’s Drum and 1989’s Mettle — along with an entire LP’s worth of unreleased studio material and live cuts that date back to 1984 up through the group’s final iteration in 1991.

Release Date: March 8, 2024

Label: 12XU

Love Child was once hailed by renowned rock journalist Deb Sprague in Trouser Press as “one of Gotham’s most mercurial bands, able to leap from twee pop tunes to galvanizing skronkadelic constructs in a single bound.” Never Meant to Be: 1988-1993 pulls together highlights from the group’s indelible output on Homestead Records (whose former label manager, Gerard Cosloy, released this new set on his own 12XU imprint) along with rare compilation cuts and radio appearances (including a John Peel session).

Release Date: June 14, 2024

Label: MPL/UMe

Practically 50 years after it was recorded in London on a hot August day, the soundtrack to Paul McCartney and Wings’ aborted “rockumentary” finally arrived in June. And it is everything fans have been waiting for since the official film was released 14 years ago as part of the Band on the Run box set from 2010 (and was also given a theatrical glow-up this year as well). Working in collaboration with new members Jimmy McCulloch on guitar and drummer Geoff Britton, these sessions — cut live at what was then known as EMI Studios — feature arguably the best lineup of Wings in peak form as they run through such classic songs as “Jet,” “Live and Let Die,” “Let Me Roll It” and covers of Bill Monroe’s “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” The Beatles’ “Let It Be” and The Moody Blues’ “Go Now,” sung by the late Denny Laine.

A fine companion to the 50th anniversary edition of Band that was also released this year (complete with an “underdubbed” version of the record), One Hand Clapping is the best Wings has ever sounded as a live band, arguably speaking.

Release Date: Sept. 6, 2024

Label: Reprise Records

This anticipated third volume of Uncle Neil’s Archives series is also its most comprehensive at 17 CDs cobbled together to articulate one of the most creatively robust and critically misunderstood spans in the old man’s 60-year career. And while there is a fair amount of previously released material on here, the unearthed treasures far outweigh any hindrance regarding their presence, as Archives Vol. III is curated biographically with Young’s pre-recorded, seconds-long “raps” guiding you through this chameleon-like era of his career that included his hot minute on Geffen Records.

Plus, with 15 completely unreleased songs and 121 previously unreleased versions of pre-loved Neil nuggets to sift through (including his bonkers 1978 version of “Hey Hey, My My” with DEVO), the addition of the entirety of his 1982 synth album Trans doesn’t seem so annoying, especially when it’s paired with its fabled lost precursor Johnny’s Island on the same disc.

Whether you’re a fan of the country Neil, New Wave Neil or Crazy Horse Neil, Archives Vol. III does a remarkable job guiding you through this most fertile period.

Release Dates: Nov. 22, 2024

Labels: Blue Note

Produced by “Jazz Detective” Zev Feldman along with legendary drummer Jack DeJohnette, who possessed the tapes nearly 60 years, Forces of Nature is a burning 1966 set from the old NYC jazz club Slugs’ Saloon that finds hard bop icons pianist McCoy Tyner and tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson cooking up a storm with DeJohnette and bassist Henry Grimes. Originally recorded by famed engineer Orville O’Brien, this crystal clear performance is prime Blue Note jazz just in time to honor the label’s 85th anniversary.

Release Date: March 22, 2024

Label: Impulse! Records

Cut by legendary producer Ed Michel for release in the early ‘70s, yet shelved by Impulse! for more than 50 years, Alice Coltrane’s Carnegie Hall Concert is nothing short of magical. Playing on a 1971 bill that also included The Young Rascals and Laura Nyro, this two-disc set finds the iconic harpist/pianist working with a mind-blowing double quartet featuring bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee along with drummers Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis and a supreme sax tandem of Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. (Also on hand were percussionist Tulsi Reynolds and Kumar Kramer on harmonium.)

With one half of the set dedicated to her then-new LP Journey in Satchidananda and the other honoring her late husband John Coltrane (performing his hits “Africa” and “Leo”), the official release of this extraordinary performance is a revelation.

Release Date: Oct. 4, 2024

Label: Rhino

Joni Mitchell’s foray into jazz and jazz-fusion during the mid-to-late ‘70s yielded the very best work of her illustrious career – an exploratory journey into her own sense of sonic wanderlust that is captured so exquisitely on this fourth volume of her acclaimed Archives collection. Starting off on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in the final weeks of 1975 and touching down while on her 1976 Tour of the United States, these six discs unfurl the robust creativity that transpired in and around the four albums she released during this time — 1976’s Hejira, 1977’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, 1979’s Mingus and 1980’s live Shadows and Light — through insightful demos, alternate takes and rough mixes. She also had an extraordinary cache of concert and live-in-the-studio material featuring collaborations with such wizardly musicians as guitarists John McLaughlin, Robben Ford and Pat Metheny, bassists Eddie Gomez, Stanley Clarke and Jaco Pastorius, keyboardists Herbie Hancock, Jan Hammer and Lyle Mays, Wayne Shorter on soprano sax and drummer Tony Williams, to name a few.

Add a 36-page book that contains a freewheeling and engaging interview with Joni by legendary filmmaker Cameron Crowe (“I hit on a cop in Memphis,” she tells him at one point), this box exhibits the creative genius of an artist whose influence on everyone from Taylor Swift to Willow Smith continues to resonate well into today.

Release Date: Aug. 2, 2024

Label: Omnivore Recordings

Minneapolis might be revered for the likes of Prince, The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. But an unsung hero of the Twin Cities is country rock pioneer Steve Young, whose seminal 1975 album Honky-Tonk Man is reintroduced to the world as part of this excellent three-disc set that includes the remastered original LP along with two extra CDs of live material where Young delivers unique renditions of songs such as Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice (It’s Alright)” and Gregg Allman’s “Midnight Rider” alongside original fare such as “Traveling Kind” and “The White Trash Song.”

Release Date: Nov. 29, 2024

Label: Republic Records

It was cool going to the neighborhood spot to hunt for exclusives on Record Store Day’s Black Friday event. But Taylor Swift fans had to make a quick Target run to pick up — at long last — the physical version of the complete Anthology edition of TTPD, an album that deserves more love than it got this year. The store exclusive not only includes a second disc containing all of the songs originally dropped two hours after the standard LP was released, including the Eras Tour surprise song highlight “The Black Dog” and the Aaron Dessner-produced “The Bolter,” but acoustic takes on such original tracklist highlights as “Fortnight,” “Down Bad,” “Bud Daddy I Love Him” and “Guilty as Sin?” as well.

Of the 19 (!) variants of TTPD that have been made available for Swifties throughout the year, the Target version is by far and away the most definitive, capturing the essence of Taylor’s vision in its most complete form.

Release Date: Nov. 8, 2024

Label: Numero Group

Since forming to play a New Year’s Eve party in 1990, Tsunami instilled a DIY ethos within the Washington, D.C., punk scene. The band eschewed signing to established imprints such as Dischord and TeenBeat by forming its own label, Simple Machines Records, and releasing not only the group’s own music, but] friends’ as well (Franklin Bruno, Ida, Retsin). And it is from the label’s own archives that Numero Group has put together Loud As Is, a comprehensive compendium of Tsunami’s salad days for a new generation to discover.

This five-LP set gathers together 11 7-inch singles and four-track demos along with the group’s three albums, 1993’s The Deep End, 1994’s The Heart’s Tremolo and its final LP, 1997’s A Brilliant Mistake, which makes its debut on vinyl in this box. Plus, in typical Numero fashion, Loud Is As captures not only the sound of Tsunami, but its essence as well through perceptive essays, rare photos and assorted memorabilia contained within the set’s accompanying book. If you’re looking for what the Riot Grrl ethos felt like on the East Coast, you need to experience this unsung American band.