10 essential Record Store Day 2024 releases

10 essentials from the Record Store Day 2024 list.

Ahead of Record Store Day 2024 on April 20, we take a look at 10 essential releases from this year’s batch of new records, represses and limited edition treats.

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Ahmad Jamal

Live at Bubba’s

(Who’s Who in Jazz)

A recording of Ahmad Jamal’s intimate 1980 performance at Bubba’s Jazz Restaurant, Live at Bubba’s is an opportunity to relive the improvisational jazz presence of the late musician. Pressed on opaque amber or black vinyl and packaged with extended liner notes, this reissue also features bassist Sabu Adeyola and drummer Payton Crossley as they perform standards including “Waltz for Debbie” and “I’ve Never Been In Love Before”.

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At The Drive-In

In/Casino/Out

(Craft Recordings)

The second record from Texan post-hardcore band At The Drive-In returns to vinyl following an extended stint out of print. Few can claim the bottled magic of At The Drive-In, whose frenetic, explosive energy propelled them from the alternative underground to legendary status. In/Casino/Out, available on purple and green smoke vinyl, laid the groundwork for the band’s gargantuan third album Relationship of Command and remains a classic of the genre.

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Pharoah Sanders

“Harvest Time”/”Love Will Find a Way” 7″

(Luaka Bop)

Luaka Bop share Japanese radio edits of “Harvest Time” and “Love Will Find A Way” on this limited edition 7″, released as an accompaniment to the label’s recent reissue of Sanders’ 1977 album Pharoah. With striking Japanese artwork, this 7″ is perfect for the many Sanders completists.

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Pixies

Live From Red Rocks

(Demon Records)

Experience 27 Pixies classics in their live glory with this show recorded at Denver’s Red Rocks in 2005. Performed by the band’s original line-up and featuring all of their biggest anthems, Live From Red Rocks is getting its first-ever vinyl treatment with a 140g orange marble pressing.

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Sleater Kinney

“This Time” / “Here Today” 7″

(Loma Vista Recordings)

Following the release of their excellent 11th album, Little Rope, earlier this year, Sleater Kinney share two extra tracks from the same recording session on this special RSD red translucent 7″. If Little Rope is anything to go by, expect anthemic yet heart-filled rock from one of this generation’s most consistent acts.

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Sonic Youth

Hits Are For Squares

(UME)

Sonic Youth’s Hits Are For Squares gets its first vinyl pressing since 2010. A compilation spanning the New York band’s illustrious career, Hits Are For Squares has been curated by a selection of high-profile fans including Portia Di Rossi, Dave Eggers, Chloe Sevigny, Radiohead and The Flaming Lips. Available on coloured vinyl for the first time, this double gold nugget LP is by the fans, for the fans.

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Sun Ra

Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC

(Strut)

Inside The Light World: Sun Ra Meets The OVC showcases newly recovered sessions from 1986, capturing Sun Ra’s encounter with technological innovator and rocket scientist Bill Sebastian’s Outer Space Visual Communicator (OVC), a fractal light projector triggered by a keyboard. Featuring previously unheard versions of “Calling Planet Earth”, “Sunset On The Nile”, “Theme From The Stargazers” and more, this Strut-released double LP has been mixed from the original sessions and remastered from original reel-to-reel tapes. Packaged with in-depth sleeve notes and stills from the original OVC videos, this is one is a treasure trove for Sun Ra fanatics.

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The Flirtations

Still Sounds Like The Flirtations

(The Flirtations Records)

South Carolina soul group The Flirtations release their first album of new music in 55 years this RSD. The trio is best known for their 1969 hit “Nothing But A Heartache” but this new release, which features the Dap King horns and co-writing from Stevie Wonder, marks the return of their music for a new generation.

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Various Artists

Studio One Rude Boy

(Soul Jazz Records)

Soul Jazz Records’ compilations are always a surefire bet and one of their most interesting offerings for RSD 2024 is Studio One Rude Boy, an 18-track repressing of the long out-of-print collection. Featuring iconic tracks from Studio One by artists including The Wailers and John Holt, alongside more obscure picks from Dudley Sibley and Jim Brown, it’s a fitting ode to the Jamaican institution.

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Young Fathers

DEAD (10th Anniversary Edition)

(Big Dada)

Young Fathers’ Mercury Prize-winning debut gets the 10th-anniversary treatment this RSD with a double LP featuring a second disc of b-sides and rarities that have never been released on vinyl before. Pressed on colour vinyl and packaged with mirror effect gatefold sleeve, Dead (10th Anniversary Edition) is an opportunity to relive the thrilling extremities of genre-mashing that brought the Scottish trio directly to the foreground back in 2014.

Read more: The official list of Record Store Day 2024 releases