Buckingham Nicks
(Rhino; one LP, $24.98; one CD, $14.98)
For nearly 50 years, the self-titled album by Buckingham Nicks — the sole release from Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’s pre-Fleetwood Mac duo — has been out of print. Its elusiveness has given the album, which was a commercial flop but nonetheless prompted Mick Fleetwood to ask the duo to join his band, a hallowed aura. Now that it’s finally been rereleased and remastered (and added to digital streaming providers for the first time), “Buckingham Nicks” can be heard for what it actually is: not necessarily a lost masterpiece, but the still-crucial sonic origin story of two great, and very different, American songwriters. Several Buckingham compositions — the tart, punchy “Without a Leg to Stand On,” the rollicking, bluesy rocker “Don’t Let Me Down Again” — play like test runs for his finest later work with the Mac, while a sparser early version of the Nicks-penned “Crystal,” which Fleetwood Mac rerecorded for its self-titled 1974 LP, invites some fun which-do-you-prefer close listening. Nicks’s most biting number, “Long Distance Winner,” is about the difficulties of being in a relationship with a relentlessly competitive man — suggesting that the seeds of discontent, and her ever-sharpening pen, certainly predated “Rumours.” LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Nick Drake, ‘The Making of Five Leaves Left’
(Island; four CDs, $112.67; four LPs, $158.00)
On his 1969 album, “Five Leaves Left,” the smoky-voiced English songwriter Nick Drake sang with eerie serenity about tormented thoughts and the inevitability of disillusion and loss. This set traces the songs from early solo versions to the final studio recordings, which found an exquisite balance of folky guitar picking, jazz undercurrents (from Pentangle’s bassist, Danny Thompson), and chamber-music arrangements for strings and winds. It also includes some low-fi dorm-room demos that Drake made for his arranger, Robert Kirby, offering suggestions for instrumental hooks and countermelodies. Tempos, keys and titles changed slightly along the way, but this compilation proves that Drake heard his songs clearly from the start; the rest was polishing the details. He was never as diffident as he sounded. JON PARELES
Bob Dylan, ‘Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series Vol. 18 (1956-1963)’
(Columbia/Legacy; deluxe edition of eight CDs, $159.99; two CDs of highlights, $33.98; four LPs of highlights, $119.88)
Bob Dylan’s latest archival doorstop — eight CDs in its full “deluxe” edition, with dozens of unheard tracks — is an exhaustive look at his earliest days in music. It opens with a 15-year-old Bobby Zimmerman belting out “Let the Good Times Roll” on a music store acetate, then traces the young singer as he absorbs Woody Guthrie’s influence and quickly begins to chart new territory of his own. Highlights include the first public performances of anthems like “Only a Pawn in Their Game” and “Blowin’ in the Wind” (with Dylan already proclaiming that it “ain’t a protest song or anything like that”), as well as a complete recording of Dylan’s 1963 concert at Carnegie Hall; the Princeton scholar Sean Wilentz contributed an extensive historical essay. BEN SISARIO
Marianne Faithfull, ‘Cast Your Fate to the Wind: The Complete UK Decca Recordings 1964-1969’
(Proper Records UK; six CDs, $89.99)
On April 15, 1965, an 18-year-old Marianne Faithfull released not one but two debut albums: a self-titled LP of baroque pop in the vein of her 1964 hit “As Tears Go By” (one of the first songs written by the team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards) and, at her own insistence, “Come My Way,” a collection of folk songs culled mostly from her coffeehouse repertoire. Remastered versions of both albums, plus two others and a rich collection of singles and B-sides, are included in this expansive boxed set, which compiles material from a largely overlooked period of Faithfull’s career (when she was often dismissed as a “record label puppet,” as the liner notes put it, or, as we’d say today, an “industry plant”). It effectively proves that Faithfull had creative agency long before her late-1970s punk reinvention. Especially valuable here is the inclusion of Faithfull’s 1966 album “North Country Maid,” a lovely early showcase for her skills as an interpreter and an album that had a great influence on the British folk revival. This set was released to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Faithfull’s recording career, and she was closely involved before her death on Jan. 30, which makes her insight in the liner notes carry extra weight. “I don’t think people realize how much care and real consideration we put into this early material,” she writes in an introductory note. “It took a long time for me to really appreciate it, but now I do and I’m really proud of what we did, and I hope you all like it as much as I do.” ZOLADZ
Freddie Hubbard, ‘On Fire: Live From the Blue Morocco’
(Resonance Records; three LPs, $75.98; two CDs, $25.99; digital album, $12.99)
Freddie Hubbard’s 1960s studio recordings provide ample evidence of his brilliance, but thanks to “The Night of the Cookers,” a two-volume live set recorded in Brooklyn in 1965, the trumpeter’s live prowess in this era is the stuff of legend. Further evidence arrives on this newly issued 1967 set, recorded at a club in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx. Hubbard and his band stretch way out on a set of originals and standards that often push past the 15-minute mark. As the title indicates, Hubbard’s bravura style represents the peak of hard-bop pyrotechnics, but just as impressive are his sidemen, such as the saxophonist Bennie Maupin and the pianist Kenny Barron, both captured in the early chapters of long and illustrious careers that are still ongoing, and the underappreciated drummer Freddie Waits, who blazes through up-tempo numbers like “True Colors.” HANK SHTEAMER
Mad Skillz, ‘From Where???’
(Big Beat/Atlantic/Get On Down; two LPs, $39.98)
One of the great freestyle rappers of the 1990s, Mad Skillz made the transition to recording artist with his 1996 studio debut album, “From Where???” It is an elegant compromise between the yuk-yuk punchlines demanded in battles and the long tail of the boom-bap that shaped New York rap in the first half of the decade (though Mad Skillz himself was from Virginia). An emphatic rapper, Mad Skillz spits out syllables like they taste bad, over production from the Beatnuts, EZ Elpee, Shawn J Period and a young J Dilla. Nowadays, Mad Skillz is best known for his annual “Rap-Up” series of songs recapping the year’s highs and lows, and you can hear flickers of that hyper-referential omnivorousness throughout this underappreciated album. This long overdue domestic vinyl reissue is in an edition of 1,000. JON CARAMANICA
Cecil McBee, ‘Mutima’
(Mack Avenue/Strata-East Records; one LP, $34.99; one CD, $15.99; digital album, $10)
You can’t tell the story of jazz in the 1970s without a serious look at Strata-East, a New York label founded by the trumpeter Charles Tolliver and the pianist Stanley Cowell. But until this year, when Strata-East partnered with the Mack Avenue imprint for a comprehensive reissue program, its robust catalog remained obscure. Around 30 titles are streaming now: A great entry point is the 1974 bandleading debut by the bassist Cecil McBee, out on vinyl and CD this month as part of a new crop of physical releases. Released in an era when electric fusion was in vogue, “Mutima” represents a strongly contrasting aesthetic. Touching on abstract improvisation (as on the remarkable 11-minute double-tracked McBee piece “From Within”), uplifting modal jams (the title track) and a dash of righteous funk (“Tulsa Black”), it’s a gritty, proudly uncompromising listen — in other words, quintessential Strata-East. SHTEAMER
Joni Mitchell, ‘Joni’s Jazz’
(Rhino; four CDs, $59.98; eight LPS, $199.98)
By the mid-1970s, only musicians steeped in jazz had the harmonic and rhythmic knowledge to keep up with Joni Mitchell’s songwriting — the chords that came out of her idiosyncratic guitar tunings, the leaps and meter shifts of her melodies. It’s no wonder that she found collaborators as renowned and virtuosic as Wayne Shorter on saxophones and Herbie Hancock on keyboards. Except for a handful of demos, the songs on “Joni’s Jazz” are remastered from her existing albums. But together, sequenced to hopscotch across her catalog (and ignore hits), they present a musician who transmutes musical, verbal and emotional risks into poised performances. PARELES
The Rolling Stones, ‘Black and Blue’
(Interscope/UMe; two CDs, $25.22; four CDs and one Blu-ray, $155.99; five LPs and one Blu-ray, $229.98; five marbled LPs, one Blu-ray and extras, $271.23)
What if Jeff Beck had joined the Rolling Stones? That was one of the possibilities between Mick Taylor quitting as lead guitarist in 1974 and Ron Wood officially joining the band late in 1975. Two American lead guitarists — Harvey Mandel from Canned Heat and the studio guitarist Wayne Perkins — sat in on the 1976 album “Black and Blue.” It’s one of the Stones’ lesser albums, full of grooves barely shaped into songs as the Stones toyed with disco, funk and reggae. This expanded “Black and Blue” set unveils jam-session auditions with Beck, placing his fleet, long-lined, meticulously phrased leads atop the Stones’ bluesy crunch. He wouldn’t have meshed with the Stones’ self-described guitar “weave” the way Wood does, but the band sounds like it’s having fun. The deluxe versions also include a vociferous concert set from a 1976 tour. PARELES
Bruce Springsteen, ‘Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition’
(Sony; four LPs and a Blu-ray, $129.99; four CDs and a Blu-ray, $79.99)
The recent don’t-call-it-a-biopic “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere” shone a light on “Nebraska,” the Boss’s dark D.I.Y. landmark from 1982, with portraits of characters sinking into despair and crime in an America devoid of hope. This collection digs into Bruce Springsteen’s process in creating the album, with outtakes from the solo cassette recordings (including original versions of hits like “Born in the U.S.A.” and “Pink Cadillac”) and the long-rumored “Electric Nebraska” sessions, an abandoned attempt to record the songs in the studio with the E Street Band. Also included is Springsteen performing “Nebraska,” beginning to end, live (without an audience) in New Jersey in 2025. SISARIO
Unrest, ‘Perfect Teeth 30th Anniversary Edition’
(4AD; one LP, $23.78; two CDs, $18.68; two LPs, $32.28)
A time capsule from a pivotal moment in indie-rock, when the alternative explosion (almost) let oddball experimentation cross over into mainstream consciousness. Unrest, an eccentric Washington, D.C., band led by Mark Robinson, had been mixing elements of punk and jangly guitar pop since the mid-80s, and become a critics’ darling with its 1991 album “Imperial f.f.r.r.” For “Perfect Teeth” in 1993, they kept their charming weirdness intact, with ballads set at a near-soporific crawl (“Angel I’ll Walk You Home”); crisp, uptight dance riffs (“Make Out Club”); and bits of pure, inexplicable electronic noise (“Food & Drink Synthesizer”). This two-years-late anniversary edition adds a second disc of B-sides and leftover tracks — though even that was not enough to accommodate “Hydro,” their 33-minute jam on a single note. SISARIO
Various Artists, ‘Music From the Land of the Sky: The 1925 Asheville Sessions’
(Rivermont; one CD, $25.95; two LPs, $39.95)
Two years before he set up shop in Bristol, Tenn., and recorded the music that is often credited as the foundation of the country music industry, the highly influential producer-scout Ralph Peer took his equipment to Asheville, N.C., one of a few Southern cities he was scouring to find what was then referred to as “hillbilly music.” Those sessions — a few dozen songs recorded over nine summer days — have been restored for the first time from the original 78 RPM discs, and 28 of the songs are on this intimate and affecting compilation. Some highlights: the bendy, achy singing of Kelly Harrell on “The Wreck on the Southern Old 97,” and the almost frantic harmonica solo on Jim Couch’s “St. Louis Tickle.” CARAMANICA
Various Artists, ‘Telepathic Fish: Trawling the Early 90s Ambient Underground’
(Fundamental Frequencies; two LPs, $39.99)
For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. Which is to say, for every rave, a chill-out room. And eventually, by the early ’90s, those absorptive spaces designed for sonically swaddled escape were branching out into their own events, like the Telepathic Fish ambient parties in South London. This highly distilled compilation, organized by that crew’s surviving brain trust, is full of music that’s serene but purposeful — the set’s high point, Spacetime Continuum’s “Flurescence,” is perhaps one of music’s purest attempts at reproducing the lulling tranquillity of the amnion. Throughout this collection, you can hear the earliest flickers of trip-hop, downbeat and modern ambient music beginning to gestate, the soothing storms emerging from the calm. (As for the techno-psychedelic imagery that used to play in these quiet rooms, head to YouTube and fire up some of the era’s abstract digital proto-screensaver art.) CARAMANICA
Various Artists, ‘The Bottle Tapes’
(Corbett vs. Dempsey; six CDs, $50.00; digital album, $40)
“It was about as far from a jazz atmosphere as a padded room is from a boudoir.” That’s how the writer and record producer John Corbett describes the Empty Bottle — the Chicago rock club where he and the reed player and composer Ken Vandermark booked a weekly series from 1996 through 2005 — in the liner notes to this new set. As chronicled in these seven-and-a-half hours of live recordings, drawn from the archive of the devoted D.I.Y. taper Malachi Ritscher, their effort grew into an international mecca of adventurous jazz and free improvisation. Along with fiery performances by avant-garde heavyweights such as Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves and Thurston Moore, highlights include collaborations that likely would never have occurred if not for this series, such as the trio of the saxophonist Von Freeman, a mainstay of the Chicago scene since the ’50s, and two anarchic Dutch avant-gardists, the pianist Misha Mengelberg and the drummer Han Bennink, romping their way through Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation.” SHTEAMER
Wilco, ‘A Ghost Is Born Expanded Edition’
(Nonesuch; two CDs, $19.98; two LPs, $39.98; nine CDs, $159.98; nine LPs, $249.98)
In 2004, when Wilco first released its Grammy-winning fifth album, “A Ghost Is Born,” its clean sonics, eggshell-smooth surfaces and ample use of negative space made it feel like a far cry from the band’s 2002 release, the folky collagist’s masterpiece “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.” This revelatory new boxed set assembles the missing connective tissue between those two albums and allows “Ghost” to be considered in a new light. A collection of demos culled from sessions in Chicago and New York, co-produced with the experimentalist Jim O’Rourke, suggest an alternate universe in which “A Ghost Is Born” sounded like a clearer stylistic sequel to its predecessor, while an exhaustive nine-CD/nine-LP edition gives superfans a glimpse into the frontman Jeff Tweedy’s endless search to find these songs’ most fitting forms. The static and the sprawl help bring a vital moment in Wilco’s history into focus. ZOLADZ
Jon Caramanica is a pop music critic who hosts “Popcast,” The Times’s music podcast.
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