Best Reissues Of 2024: 10 Of The Year’s Most Essential Releases

9: Television: ‘Marquee Moon’ (black vinyl)

Although initially released as the very height of punk, early in 1977, Television’s Marquee Moon was light-years ahead of most of the era’s three-chord chancers. Brittle and angular in design, though also unafraid to flaunt the dazzling interplay of twin lead and rhythm guitarists Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, the New York City quartet’s landmark debut album included a slew of brilliantly tense, elliptical songs such as See No Evil, Friction and Torn Curtain. An enduring influence on successive generations of future-shaping guitar bands ranging from Echo And The Bunnymen to The Strokes, Marquee Moon invented post-punk long before the term officially entered the lexicon, and it returned on 180g vinyl in January as part of Rhino’s High Fidelity series. It’s never sounded better.

Must hear: See No Evil

8: Pink Floyd: ‘The Dark Side Of The Moon: Collector’s Edition’ (2LP crystal-clear vinyl)

The whopping 50th-anniversary box set edition of Pink Floyd’s ageless The Dark Side Of The Moon was a highlight among 2023’s reissues, and this follow-up edition already sits among the best reissues of 2024. Released on 19 April, the new Collector’s Edition has been pressed on two crystal-clear, 180g vinyl discs, with a UV artwork printing on the fourth side. It also features the album’s famous prism spectrum design seen through the playable side of the vinyl. Housed in a gatefold sleeve with a slipcase and an exclusive poster, this Moon landing is one Floyd fans will cherish.

Must hear: Time

7: Van Halen: ‘Live: Right Here Right Now’ (4LP box set)

Remarkably, for a band widely regarded as one of the biggest live draws of their era, Van Halen never released an official live album until they were ten studio records in. However, they put that right in 1993 with Live: Right Here. Right Now, a 24-track collection featuring the best of two particularly aggressive shows recorded at the Selland Arena, in Fresno, California, towards the end of the band’s massive world tour in support of 1992’s For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge album.

An excellent showcase for Van Halen’s Sammy Hagar-fronted era, Right Here, Right Now’s tracklist leans heavily on cuts from For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge, though it also dips into the Dave Lee Roth catalogue for spirited renditions of hits such as Panama, When It’s Love, Ain’t Talkin’ ’Bout Love and Jump. A Van Halen essential, this newly-remastered 4LP box-set edition of the album features all 24 songs from the original 1993 release, plus three additional live songs – The Dream Is Over, Eagles Fly and Mine All Mine – that confidently make the case for its inclusion among the best reissues of 2024.

Must hear: Panama (live)

6: Jethro Tull: ‘The Chateau D’Hérouville Sessions 1972’ (2LP black vinyl)

Having established themselves as one of rock’s premier acts with 1971’s Aqualung and the following year’s US chart-topping Thick As A Brick, Jethro Tull decamped to the Château D’Hérouville studio near Paris, France, with the intention of recording a new double album. After a series of setbacks, including equipment malfunctions and severe cases of food poisoning, they gave up on the sessions and returned to the UK, where they wrote and recorded what would become 1973’s A Passion Play.

Nonetheless, as The Chateau D’Herouville Sessions 1972 reveals, Tull did successfully record a mound of highly promising material during their French sojourn. For years known as the band’s “great lost album”, the material was eventually released in 2013, after receiving a Steven Wilson audio makeover as part of the A Passion Play: An Extended Performance collection. It now makes its overdue vinyl debut.

Must hear: Sailor

5: Eagles: ‘To The Limit: The Essential Collection’ (6LP box set, 3CD box set)

With Eagles criss-crossing the US and beyond on their final tour, the 12 April release of To The Limit: The Essential Collection is extremely well timed. One of those great, does-what-it-says-on-the-sleeve collections, this generous multi-disc, career-spanning set combines the band’s greatest hits with beloved album tracks and classic live performances.

Indeed, Take It To Limit caters for long-term fans and newbies alike, proffering 51 of the best Eagles songs released between 1972 and 2020. All the hits are present and correct, including New Kid In Town, One Of These Nights, Tequila Sunrise, Hotel California, Heartache Tonight and Take It To The Limit itself, along with fan favourites aplenty, such as Desperado, Victim Of Love and In The City. With its release coinciding with the group’s farewell tour, the collection fittingly contains highlights from the live albums Eagles Live (1980), Hell Freezes Over (1994), The Millennium Concert (2000), Live At The Forum ’76 (2017) and Live From The Forum MMXVIII (2020).

Must hear: Hotel California

4: Deep Purple: ‘Machine Head: Super Deluxe Edition’ (grey vinyl + 3CD + Blu-ray box set)

Hard-rock behemoths Deep Purple had famously intended to record Machine Head at the Montreux Casino, in Switzerland, but the venue burned down right before the sessions began. However, that unfortunate event did provide the catalyst for the album’s signature song – the legendary Smoke On The Water, a rock classic powered by one of the best guitar riffs in history.

Nonetheless, as further standouts such as Space Truckin’ and Highway Star prove, Machine Head was far more than one track. Arguably a career highlight for Deep Purple, it still stands as one of the best albums of the 70s. It’s long since cried out for some major TLC, and finally receives it with this new super-deluxe edition which also includes new stereo and Dolby Atmos mixes by Dweezil Zappa, plus two captivating live shows from the period – from Montreux, in April 1971, and from London’s Paris Theatre, in March 1972 – all of which cement the collection’s place among the best reissues of 2024.

Must hear: Highway Star

3: Alice Cooper: ‘Billion Dollar Babies: Trillion Dollar Deluxe Edition’ (3LP, 2CD)

Another career best for a group of indisputable rock legends, the Alice Cooper Band’s sixth album, Billion Dollar Babies, captured the zeitgeist with its heady mix of hard rock and glam laced with macabre lyrics exploring wealth, political corruption, decadence and the darker side of fame. A transatlantic, multi-platinum smash on release in 1973, the record’s excellent, newly-expanded reissue – dubbed the Trillion Dollar Deluxe Edition – now features session outtakes (Coal Black Model T), single mixes (Mary Ann) and rarities (Slick Black Limousine) alongside a hits-stuffed live show recorded in Texas on the album’s supporting tour and an oral history of the record’s creation narrated by the band’s surviving members plus producer Bob Ezrin.

Must hear: Elected

2: David Bowie: ‘Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth)’ (black vinyl)

David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars is, of course, one of 70s rock’s most future-shaping releases. However, as Waiting In The Sky (Before The Starman Came To Earth) reveals, this justly celebrated album could have sounded rather different, as several of its key tracks – not least the record’s signature hit, Starman – weren’t originally intended for inclusion.

With this in mind, Waiting For The Sky presents the record Ziggy Stardust could have been had Bowie boxed it off in its original guise. The songs are taken from the Trident Studios 1/4” stereo tapes dated 15 December 1971, and the record has been created from the project’s provisional tracklist.

One of the best Record Store Day 2024 releases, this limited vinyl pressing of Waiting In The Sky features four songs that didn’t make the final cut. On Side One, in the place of Starman – one of the last three songs recorded for the album – in February 1972, is Round And Round, a Chuck Berry cover and a regular in Bowie’s live set of the time. Initially picked to close the album’s first side was Bowie’s version of Jacques Brel’s Amsterdam (also recorded by Scott Walker), which would later appear as the B-side of Sorrow, from Bowie’s covers album, Pin Ups.

Meanwhile, Side Two features two further long-time favourites, Holy Holy and Velvet Goldmine. The former is a re-recording with The Spiders of Bowie’s standalone 1971 single, while Velvet Goldmine is a lost Ziggy-era classic that remained buried until appearing as a B-side on the 1975 reissue of Space Oddity.

Must hear: Amsterdam

1: Air: ‘Moon Safari’ (2CD + Blu-ray)

Air grabbed headlines at the very start of the year, playing their seminal debut album, Moon Safari, in full at a series of sold-out European shows during February and March. These dates coincided with the release of the 25th-anniversary edition of the record, which brought the multi-platinum assemblage of electronic pop back onto the shelves as a deluxe audio-video package. Highlights include a Spatial Dolby Atmos mix of the original album along with extremely rare or previously unreleased tracks, plus Mike Mills’ 1999 Air documentary, Eating, Sleeping, Waiting And Playing, filmed during the band’s first-ever worldwide tour. An absolute must-have, the expanded Moon Safari deservedly tops this list of the best reissues of 2024.

Must hear: Sexy Boy

Buy the best reissues of 2024, and more, at the Dig! store.