Americana / Alt-Country 1998
Lucinda Williams
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
via Beethobear Records
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Monday, May 18, 2026 • Vinyl Finds from Around the World
Taco
Taco (タコ) — the legendary early-80s Japanese collective centred on Yamazaki Haruomi, weaving post-punk, no wave and free improvisation into something that lands like a beautiful intrusion on the ear. A self-titled cornerstone of Japan's underground music history.
Memai No Naoshikata (めまいのなおしかた)
The mystery home-recording artist The Octopus returns after a 19-year silence, on the 造園計画 label. The red sleeve with its octopus motif and katakana 'ジ・オクトパス' frames the title 'Memai No Naoshikata' — 'how to cure dizziness' — fitting the artist's intimate, anonymous register.
LiFE CONTiNUES...
An ARS-series vinyl reissue of Eason Chan's hit-laden compilation, presented by Abbey Road Studios on 180g 33 1/3 RPM and pressed in Japan in numbered limited quantity. Includes 'Low-key', 'Open Road', 'Best Pals', 'Sin of Waste', 'Fallen Flowers Flowing Water' and the 'Best Pals (To My Friend) Special Mix' — essential Cantopop on heavyweight wax.
Arcane League of Legends Season 2 (Original Soundtrack)
The near-impossible-to-find 'Arcane: League of Legends Season 2' soundtrack returns to shelves in June. A 2LP with a sprawling cast — Mike Shinoda, Marcus King, Stromae, Twenty One Pilots, Stray Kids, Imagine Dragons, Eason Chan, Ashnikko — built to match Arcane's animated emotional whiplash.
Stranger Things 4: Volume 2 (Original Score)
The limited red 2LP variant returns. Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein's score for 'Stranger Things 4: Volume 2' keeps the show's signature dread-synth heartbeat alive — from 'A Proper Thump' and 'Project Nina' to 'Demogorgons In Tanks', it's the soundtrack of the season's most haunted set pieces.
Stranger Things: Seasons 1 & 2 (Soundtrack)
The long-out-of-print 2018 Sony 2LP soundtrack to seasons 1 & 2 of 'Stranger Things', surfacing again in small numbers. A wall-to-wall 80s mixtape — The Clash, The Bangles, Echo & The Bunnymen, Joy Division, Cyndi Lauper, Toto's 'Africa', Bon Jovi, Peter Gabriel and New Order's 'Elegia' — in gatefold sleeve with sticker.
Experimental Rap
JPEGMAFIA's sixth studio album, the follow-up to 'I Lay Down My Life for You'. The title says it plainly — another round of his sample-blown, instrument-warped, scream-wired experimental rap. Out in October on standard black or white colored 2LP.
1977 (30th Anniversary Edition)
Ash's debut '1977' — still the Irish trio's high-water mark, mixing Britpop polish with garage-rock muscle. Anyone who came of age with this one likely sang along to 'Goldfinger' with someone and dedicated 'Girl From Mars' to a high-school crush. The 30th anniversary edition arrives as green/black 2LP with B-sides.
Being Funny In A Foreign Language
The 1975's modern Britpop touchstone gets a 2026 transparent-vinyl rework — and a small bit of history. The label has retired the old pressing for good, and Matty Healy has now officially excised 'Human Too' from the tracklist to bring it closer to his ideal cut. This is the leaner, definitive version, shipping in June.
Getz / Gilberto
Bossa nova's most consequential meeting — tenor master Stan Getz, voice-and-guitar pillar João Gilberto, with Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano. The 1964 record that won Album of the Year at the Grammys and exported Brazil's hazy-evening pulse to the rest of the world. Reissued by Verve in 2024 on flame-orange vinyl, shipping in June.
Blue Morpho
Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien's first solo album under his own name (after the EOB project). Stacked lineup — Philip Selway on drums, Shabaka Hutchings on flute, production by Grammy-winning Paul Epworth. The record threads hypnotic psych-folk with deep trip-hop, carrying both late-era Radiohead's shadow textures and a wide ambient guitar canvas. Out 5/22.
Barrett
Syd Barrett's second and final solo album before he withdrew completely — stranger, lonelier and more fractured than Pink Floyd's mothership, with David Gilmour and Richard Wright stepping in to arrange, accompany and produce. A cult cornerstone for psych-rock and Floyd fans alike, here on the 2014 180g reissue, shipping in June.
A canonized 1998 American songwriting peak — Lucinda Williams won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album with this one and was recently inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Her smoke-scarred southern voice braids blues, country and indie rock into something that plays like a cycle of short stories with the dust still on them. Reissued on yellow vinyl for indie record stores (2023), shipping in June.