It’s positively uncanny how the deeper we get into this third decade of the 21st century, the more demand there is for physical media.
Maybe it’s because people are finally beginning to wake up from the spoon-fed methods of streaming services — both audibly and visually — that owning your own is starting to sound like a wise alternative once again.
And folks are definitely doubling down on their love for vinyl — with this year’s Record Store Day taking place in the wake of recent news that album sales have hit the $1 billion watermark in 2025, based on information published by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
With nearly 360 different titles to choose from, RSD 2026 is gearing up to be one of the biggest grabs in the 18-year history of the successful shoppers holiday.
We combed through the list, as we do each year, to pick 12 titles SPIN readers should keep an eye out for while looking through the cherished RSD bin on Saturday, April 18.
Bruce Springsteen
Live from Asbury Park 2024 (Legacy Recordings)
Captured live at the 2024 Sea.Hear.Now Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey, just before Trump took office for a second time, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band were firing on all cylinders on this night, as this incredible set (making its debut on vinyl) sonically exclaims. Spread across five LPs, Live from Asbury Park is an over three-hour tour-de-force that covers the entirety of The Boss’s career, from early gems (“Blinded By The Light,” “Growin’ Up”) to popular hits (“Hungry Heart,” “Dancing in the Dark”) and sentimental fan faves (“Tougher Than The Rest,” “Racing in the Street”), all played at maximum joy.
Megadeth
Hidden Treasures (Capitol Records)
Originally released as an EP in the summer of 1995, Hidden Treasures is an odds-and-sods collection that — if anything — chronicled Megadeth’s truly random placements on film soundtracks at the time (including a spot on the original Super Mario Bros. movie from 1993 with an underrated track called “Breakpoint”). Long out of print in the United States, this RSD edition has been expanded into an LP by tacking on material from the 1994 A Tout Le Monde EP, including demo versions of such classic cuts as “Symphony of Destruction” and “New World Order.”
Violent Femmes
The Blind Leading the Naked (Craft Recordings)
The third Violent Femmes album never got any kind of reissue since it was last pressed by the Wisconsin trio’s old label Slash Records. So kudos to Craft Recordings for ensuring The Blind Leading The Naked — produced by Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads and featuring guest turns from folk guitar icon Leo Kottke, Stooges saxophonist Steve Mackay and English avant-rock legend Fred Frith — gets a proper reissue not only for RSD but its 40th anniversary as well. And on colored vinyl to boot.
Buster Williams
Pinnacle (Time Traveler Recordings)
Fans of such funky Herbie Hancock classics as Mwandishi, Fat Albert Rotunda and Sextant are already familiar with the work of bassist Charles Anthony “Buster” Williams and his place in the pantheon of jazz fusion. Originally recorded and released in 1975 on the Muse Records label, Buster’s solo debut found him working alongside a killer ensemble that included drummer Billy Hart, Sonny Fortune on soprano saxophone, the mighty Woody Shaw on trumpet and keyboardist Onaje Allan Gumbs among others, to craft a visionary work that brings electric and acoustic jazz together in funkiness and spirituality.”The title says it all,” writes journalist Mike Flynn in this special RSD reissue. “Pinnacle wasn’t just a debut. It was a statement of arrival — an artist stepping forward from a prolific past into a fearless, unbound future.”
Cecil Taylor Unit
Fragments: The Complete 1969 Salle Pleyel Concerts (Elemental Music)
The lineup of the Cecil Taylor Unit features on this newly unearthed complete performance from Nov. 3, 1969, at Salle Pleyel in Paris, France, was only around for about a year. But during that brief period of time they were together, the bass-less quartet pianist Taylor, Jimmy Lyons on alto saxophone, Sam Rivers on tenor/soprano saxophone and flute, and Andrew Cyrille on drums, was a fire-breathing jazz dragon whose vibrations can be felt all over this 3-LP set. “This was an amazing group that was able to bring Taylor’s music to life in unprecedented ways,” writes Cecil scholar Phil Freeman, who co-produced Fragments with the jazz detective himself, Zev Feldman. “The contrast between Rivers and Lyons is extraordinarily vivid, and the interplay between Taylor and Cecil is amazing.”
The Cecil Taylor Unit’s performance at Salle Pleyel in Paris on November 3, 1969, was a notable moment in avant-garde jazz. Featuring Cecil Taylor on piano, the concert showcased the group’s intense, free jazz style. The recording was transferred from the original tape reels at INA and restored and mastered by Matthew Lutthans at The Mastering Lab. The limited-edition 180-gram 3-LP set includes an extensive insert with rare photographs from the show and liner notes by acclaimed jazz critic and author Phil Freeman.
John Frusciante
To Only Record Water for Ten Days (Rhino)
After cutting two deeply experimental albums in the mid-90s while in the throes of a crippling heroin addiction, John Frusciante got clean, returned to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, tapped into both his spirituality and inner OMD fan, and put together his excellent third solo LP, To Only Record Water for Ten Days, which turned 25 in February. And to commemorate its silver anniversary, Rhino drops this expanded edition of Water, pressed on blue and orange vinyl to match the cover’s color scheme, and featuring four bonus tracks from the album sessions.
Bad Brains Live (ORG Music)
Originally released in 1988, Bad Brains’ first live album is culled from dates off the tour in support of their third LP, I Against I. And while some may prefer its successor, 1990’s The Youth Are Getting Restless (sourced from a 1987 gig at the Paradiso in the Netherlands), Live nonetheless shines in its own right with feral renditions of such Brains anthems as “Right Brigade,” “Sacred Love” and “Coptic Times.”
Ween Europe “90” (Rhino)
If you ever wondered what the meaning of “brown” is in Ween culture, this early duo gig from Basel, Switzerland, while Dean and Gene were staying with their tour manager in Europe to promote their 1990 debut GodWeenSatan: The Oneness, is the textbook definition Playing to a crowd of one, the pair and their drum machine perform like they’re playing to a full house. This show — along with the long lost studio sessions recorded in Eindhoven on Christmas Day 1990 that includes an early version of “Push The Lil’ Daisies (and Make M Come Up)” — comprise this essential RSD exclusive for Ween fans of all stripes. Get in line early for this one.
The Muffs Live at Fort Apache (Omnivore Recordings)
That sweet electric guitar crunch in the music of Olivia Rodrigo and Violet Grohl? That’s the influence of The Muffs you are hearing 30-plus years after the band’s second album, Blonder and Blonder, made this band one of the hottest acts on alternative radio. And this never-before-released live set from Boston’s legendary Fort Apache Studios — pressed on opaque yellow vinyl — is a perfect document of their feral sweetness onstage.
“This album captures us at a particular high point,” bassist Ronnie Barnett tells SPIN about the release. “We’d only just solidified the three piece lineup we would remain for the next 24 years, our Rob Cavallo-produced career defining second album complete with the post-Dookie hype machine behind us was only a month old and we just finished recording “Kids In America” for Clueless the day before. We would get better at being a three piece but this album most definitely and accurately is a true audio snapshot of us at that specific time snd place.”
Pink Floyd
Live From the Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975 (Legacy Recordings)
Few figures in American bootleg lore are as renowned as the late Mike Millard, who feigned being wheelchair-bound to secretly tape a ton of shows in Los Angeles from 1974 to 1980. And one of his most iconic captures is this revelation of a concert from the LA Sports Arena on April 26, 1975, which includes early tastes of 1977’s Animals, a complete performance of The Dark Side of the Moon and a hypnotic live version of “Echoes” from 1971’s Meddle. Initially released as part of the 50th anniversary edition of Wish You Were Here, this Steven Wilson remix of the original recording has been liberated as a standalone work available on both CD and clear-pressed vinyl.
Stone Temple Pilots
Live at Rolling Rock 2001 (Rhino)
The fifth Stone Temple Pilots album Shangri La-Dee Da is one of the San Diego band’s finest works, finding all four original members in perfect harmony as they oscillate between stomping hard rock and pop experimentation for their final work produced by Brendan O’Brien. This previously unreleased live album, sourced from a pay-per-view of the 2001 Rolling Rock Festival in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, is a perfect souvenir to commemorate Shangri’s 25th anniversary, peeling off impassioned renditions of such STP standards as “Vasoline,” “Interstate Love Song,” “Plush” and “Sour Girl” along with then-newer songs like “Days of the Week” and “Hollywood Bitch.” Scott Weiland is in top form here, one month before 9/11, reminding us of what a massive talent he was. He is missed.
Wire Read & Burn 03+ (Pink Flag)
This Record Store Day, UK post-punk legends Wire revisit the third edition of their Read and Burn EP series, originally released in 2007. Now redubbed Read & Burn 03+, the collection makes its first appearance on vinyl, augmented with three additional tracks, including “Dip Flash” — a reimagining of the classic 1978 single “Dot Dash” — along with the original mix of EP track “Our Time” and an alternate mix of the initial four-track set’s best tune, “Desert Driving,” which began as a variation of the Chairs Missing song “Heartbeat.” This was the last non-historic recording from the original lineup of Wire — Colin Newman, Graham Lewis, Bruce Gilbert and Robert Grey.