AllMusic 2017 Year in Review

Alice Coltrane

World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda

Luaka Bop delivers a treasure trove of rare recordings from the artist's non-jazz period and sheds new light on the importance of her contributions.

Artful Dodger

The Complete Columbia Recordings

A double-disc set containing all the Columbia recordings from the underappreciated hard-rocking '70s power poppers Artful Dodger.

Arthur Alexander

Arthur Alexander

Excellent 1972 album recorded with Muscle Shoals musicians.

Bob Dylan

The Bootleg Series, Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979-1981

Dylan's gospel years get revived in the 13th installment of the Bootleg Series.

Chris Bell

Looking Forward: The Roots of Big Star

Recorded from 1969 to 1971, 22 rare tracks offer a look at what the underappreciated pop genius was doing before Big Star.

Curve

Doppelgänger [25th Anniversary Expanded Edition]

Heavy yet energetic, sweet yet scathing, Curve's debut full-length is their defining work, and one of the best early-'90s alternative albums.

David Bowie

A New Career in a New Town [1977-1982]

A handsome, alluring, and exceptional-sounding box containing all of Bowie's LPs from 1977-1982.

Def Leppard

Hysteria [30th Anniversary Edition]

Def Leppard's 1987 blockbuster set the standard for pop-metal in the late '80s.

Dennis Coffey

Hot Coffey in the D: Burnin' at Morey Baker's Showplace Lounge

This 1968 club date is a hard-grooving, Detroit soul-jazz stunner from guitarist and organist Lyman Woodard and drummer Melvin Davis.

Dion

Kickin Child: Lost Columbia Album 1965

Complete with proper sequencing and remastered sound, this Tom Wilson-produced album is among the greatest folk-rock albums of the 1960s.

Duane Eddy

Guitar Star: The Complete RCA Singles A's & B's

All of the swinging, surfing, dancing, early-'60s RCA singles from the Guitar Man.

Ducks Deluxe

Coast to Coast: The Anthology

Everything the pioneering pub rock band ever recorded.

Dusty Springfield

The Complete Philadelphia Sessions: A Brand New Me

This compilation assembles all 15 of the artist's Gamble, Huff, and Bell sessions in a single volume, and includes an unreleased track.

Elvis Presley

A Boy From Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings

A triple-disc set containing everything Elvis Presley recorded between 1953-1955, including all the Sun sessions and Louisiana Hayride performances.

Erasmo Carlos

Carlos, Erasmo...

The singer/songwriter's visionary expansion of tropicalia was misunderstood in 1971, but is now justly regarded as a Brazilian rock classic.

Fairport Convention

Come All Ye: The First Ten Years

A mammoth seven-disc set that offers selections from the storied band's first 13 albums, live material, BBC sessions, alternate takes, and 55 unreleased tracks!

Fleetwood Mac

Tango in the Night [Deluxe Edition]

The Buckingham/Nicks era of Fleetwood Mac came to a glorious end on this glimmering 1987 album.

Game Theory

Two Steps from the Middle Ages [2017 Remastered/Expanded] [CD]

Reissue of final album from Scott Miller's smart pop band; more user-friendly, but still reflects their adventurous personality.

Grateful Dead

Cornell 5/8/77

One of the legendary Grateful Dead shows, which was inducted into the National Recording Registry in 2012, gets an official release.

Grupo Vice Versa / Hermeto Pascoal / Vice Versa

Viajando Com o Som: The Lost '76 Vice-Versa Studio Sessions

From the ether of history comes this glorious testament to the artist and the vast creativity of Brazilian jazz during the middle of the 1970s.

Hüsker Dü

Savage Young Dü

Exhaustive box set documents the first four years of the iconic punk band through rare live and studio recordings.

Jackie Shane

Any Other Way

First ever artist-approved reissue from the dynamic 1960s soul and R&B singer who lit up mid-'60s Toronto.

Jimmy Reed

Mr. Luck: Complete Vee-Jay Singles

Excellent triple-disc set containing all of Jimmy Reed's singles from 1955-1961.

John Lee Hooker

King of the Boogie [Craft]

Five-disc box set skims the cream from the blues icon's studio work, live recordings, and duets.

Laura Nyro

A Little Magic, A Little Kindness: The Complete Mono Albums Collection

This double-disc package offers painstaking mono remasters of Nyro's enduring first two albums and contains the artist's versions of many of the songs that established her.

Metallica

Master of Puppets [Remastered & Expanded Edition] [3 CD]

Gloriously complex 1986 record (and the final album featuring bassist Cliff Burton) revealed the speed metal band at its peak.

Neil Young

Hitchhiker

A dusky, hazy unreleased solo acoustic album Neil Young recorded in 1976.

Phil Seymour

Prince of Power Pop

Overview of the power pop hero's solo work includes a fiery unreleased live-in-the-studio session.

Prince and the Revolution / Prince

Purple Rain [Deluxe Expanded Edition]

The expanded Purple Rain marks the first deep dive into Prince's legendary Vault.

Raymond Scott

Three Willow Park: Electronic Music from Inner Space, 1961-1971

An invitation into the secret lab of one of the 20th century's most inventive musical minds.

Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes

Fever: The Remastered Epic Recordings

Remastered set features the first three albums from these Jersey Shore heroes in full, as well as a rare live set from 1976.

The Beach Boys

1967: Sunshine Tomorrow

A clearinghouse of strong outtakes and live material from the Smiley Smile/Wild Honey era.

The Beatles

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [50th Anniversary Edition 2 CD]

One of the most famous and influential albums ever recorded, the beginning of a new era of sophistication in rock.

The Beatles

The Christmas Records

The seven seasonal Beatles Fan Club singles from the '60s finally get a reissue.

The Creation

Action Painting [With Book]

Exhaustive collection of smash hits that never were by one of the most exciting bands of the '60s, with new stereo mixes added.

The Fall

Singles 1978-2016

Lavish seven-CD box compiling A-sides and select B-sides from the many singles and EPs by Mancunian post-punk innovators the Fall.

The Golliwogs

Fight Fire: The Complete Recordings 1964-1967

Before Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Fogerty and crew were a tough and tunfeul garage rock band that is well worth discovering.

The Move

Magnetic Waves of Sound: The Best of the Move

Excellent cross-licensed collection that delivers the highlights of Roy Wood and company's 1966-1972 lifespan.

The Orchids

Who Needs Tomorrow... A 30 Year Retrospective

Double-disc collection of songs, both released and unreleased, from the long and brilliant career of the Scottish indie pop band.

The Replacements

For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986

Superlative document of a 1986 club show that captures this band at its combustible best.

The Rolling Stones

On Air

The first official release of the Rolling Stones' BBC sessions from 1963-1965.

The Searchers

Another Night: Sire Recordings 1979-1981

A double-disc set chronicling the Searchers' exceptional power pop comeback of 1979-1981.

The Smiths

The Queen Is Dead [Super Deluxe Edition] [2 CD]

The Smiths hit their stride on their classic third album.

The Sneetches

Form of Play: A Retrospective

Career-spanning collection of the Bay Area power pop group's work, lovingly put together by the band's own bassist, Alec Palao.

The Who

Maximum A's & B's

Excellent career-spanning compilation highlighted by rare B-sides and non-LP singles.

Thelonious Monk

Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1960

Long thought lost to time and previously unreleased, this revelatory soundtrack to Roger Vadim's painstakingly restored film is offered in a deluxe package.

U-Men

U-Men

Definitive, career-inclusive set honoring the wild noise rock band that blazed the trail for Seattle's underground rock scene.

Various Artists

Even a Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973

The first fully licensed comp of obscure acid folk and underground rock from Japan, handsomely presented by Light in the Attic.

Various Artists

Gotta Get Up! The Songs of Harry Nilsson 1965-1972

A collection of covers of songs Harry Nilsson wrote between 1965 and 1972.

Various Artists

Noise Reduction System: Formative European Electronica 1974-1984

The follow-up to 2016's Close to the Noise Floor, another engrossing four-disc documentation of early underground electronic music.

Various Artists

Seafaring Strangers: Private Yacht

Brilliantly chosen, well-documented deep dive into a bevy of private press and barely heard soft rock treasures from the '70s.

Various Artists

Soul of a Nation: Afro-Centric Visions in the Age of Black Power - Underground Jazz, Street Funk & the Roots of Rap 1968-79

Fascinating, thought-provoking collection of jazz, funk, and R&B reflecting the Afrocentric ideals of the Black Power movement.

Various Artists

Warfaring Strangers: Acid Nightmares

A brain-fried collection of heavy bad trips from obscure '70s acid rockers.

Wilco

Being There [Deluxe Edition] [5 CD]

The group's breakthrough 1996 album is expanded to a five-disc set with demos, outtakes, alternate versions, and a full concert.

Willie Nelson

Willie Nelson and the Boys: Willie's Stash, Vol. 2

A cozy set of classic country covers recorded by Willie and his sons in 2012.