SPIN RSD 2025

There’s 334 different titles on hand for this year’s Record Store Day, which usually falls on the third Saturday of April but thanks to Easter it will be here a week earlier.

There’s a lot of good stuff, too. Last year’s RSD might have boasted more of a selection. But the 2025 list, in all its glory, teems with a cache of quality titles aimed at getting folks to line up at the door of their local mom-and-pop despite the deficit in volume.

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From platinum pop star gems to rare rock concerts to previously unreleased jazz recordings to long-overdue new albums, this season’s inventory has something for every level of music fan — from the cash-flush casual shopper with a small collection to the vinyl obsessive whose basement looks like a dusty old secondhand shop with stacks on stacks of vintage wax. 

In an effort to assist you in muddling through this year’s list, SPIN has selected a few choices that will no doubt pique the interest those who choose to venture out into their neighborhood on Saturday, April 12 in order to stave off the masses and grab some gems before the next customer grabs them on your behalf. Good luck out there! 

Pale Saints Slow Buildings (4AD)

The final album from this beloved 4AD band is also their only one without original singer and bassist Ian Masters, finding guitarist Meriel Barham taking over lead vocals with Colleen Browne covering bass duties. This estrogen-charged version of the Saints gave the group a new luster, evidenced on songs like “Little Gesture” and “One Blue Hill.” In honor of its belated 30th anniversary, Slow Buildings returns to vinyl and spread across two discs to include the EP for the single “Fine Friend” and a handful of demos and unreleased tracks. Housed in a handsome gatefold sleeve, this edition is pressed on “petrol blue” vinyl. 

Carla Thomas Sweet Sweetheart (Craft Recordings) 

When Carla Thomas walked into American Sound Studio in 1970, she cut one of the best albums to be released on Stax Records that year. Unfortunately, Sweet Sweetheart — which features songs written by the likes of James Taylor, The Bee Gees and Carole King and Gerry Goffin among others — was shelved until 2013, when it was released as part of a compilation on Ace Records. Pressed on translucent light blue vinyl, this 55th anniversary edition makes its long-awaited vinyl debut for Record Store Day, giving this sweet soul classic its overdue flowers. 

Charles Mingus

In Argentina: The Buenos Aires Concerts (Resonance Records)

Zev Feldman continues to dominate the RSD game with a robust new crop of previously unreleased recordings that’s sure to delight longtime fans of the man they call the “jazz detective.” And one of the true jewels of these latest titles is this rare concert recording from iconic composer-bassist Charles Mingus. Captured at Teatro Coliseo and the Teatro Sociedad Hebraica Argentina (SHA) on June 2-3, 1977, this 3LP set showcases Mingus’s seldom-taped quintet from the era, featuring trumpeter Jack Walrath, tenorist Ricky Ford, pianist Robert Neloms and longtime drummer Dannie Richmond performing such Charlie standards as “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” and “Fables of Faubus.” Six months after these Buenos Aires concerts, Mingus would be diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease, which would claim his life on Jan. 5, 1979. 

Neurotic Outsiders

Neurotic Outsiders (Rhino)

Though grunge may have long overshadowed the hard rock decadence of the Sunset Strip scene by 1995, that didn’t stop Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols, Duran Duran’s John Taylor and the Guns ‘N Roses rhythm section of Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum from putting together this unsung supergroup within the confines of the famous Viper Room. The band’s sole album was released in the fall of 1996 to minor hype. But 29 years later, it’s time to give this band a second chance as their debut steps out on vinyl for the first time and expanded to include bonus tracks from a rare Japanese EP. 

Lou Reed Metal Machine Music (Legacy Recordings) 

One of the most challenging albums ever pressed on acetate, Lou Reed’s fifth solo album, largely composed of atonal electric drone music, confounded critics and fans alike upon its release in the summer of 1975. It was legendary music scribe Lester Bangs, however, who championed Metal Machine Music at the time, citing it as “the greatest record ever made in the history of the human eardrum” in the March 1976 issue of CREEM. In honor of its 50th anniversary, Legacy Recordings is reintroducing Metal to the masses with this Record Store Day with 2500 copies pressed on metallic silver vinyl. 

Cypress Hill Live at the Fillmore (Legacy Recordings)

DJ Muggs has always been the heartbeat of Cypress Hill. But on Live at the Fillmore, the producer displayed his talents as an arranger as well, orchestrating a live band from behind the turntables on this San Francisco stop of the group’s tour behind their 2000 rap-metal crossover Skull & Bones. The core unit of Muggs, rappers B-Real and Sen Dog and percussionist Eric Bobo were at the top of their game on this night as they barreled through such fan favorites as “Hand on the Pump” and “Insane in the Brain” with blunted aplomb. Bringing in a pair of guitarists and a bass player mid-set, they transform such classics as “Lick a Shot” and “I Ain’t Goin’ Out Like That” into a smoked out fusion of hard rock and hip-hop that jumps out the speaker and right in your face, proving why the likes of Deftones, Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down cite them as influences. If you never had the chance to catch Cypress Hill on stage in their heyday, consider this a souvenir of what you missed out on. 

Nick Lowe y Los Straitjackets

(Not) Indoor Safari Vol. 1 (Yep Roc)

It’s been well over a decade since British New Wave icon Nick Lowe and his famous masked backing band, Los Straitjackets, released a live album on vinyl. Limited to 3,000 copies, this career-spanning set catches the combo on tour in support of Lowe and co.’s latest studio album, Indoor Safari. And in addition to performances of such new songs as “Tokyo Bay” and “Blue on Blue,”  this limited edition record also features freshly re-arranged versions of such Nick chestnuts as “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (made famous, of course, by Elvis Costello) and “When I Write The Book” from the first Rockpile LP. A fantastic find for music fans of a certain age. 

John & Yoko 

Power To The People – Live at the One To One Concert, New York City, 1972 (UMe)

The horrors of the Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, NY, were exposed by Geraldo Rivera in 1972 and rang the alarm on the conditions by which children with special needs were living in, with reports and accounts of neglect and abuse rampant throughout its program. On August 30 of that year, Geraldo organized a pair of concerts at Madison Square Garden to benefit these kids, with John Lennon and Yoko Ono — along with the Plastic Ono Band and Elephant’s Memory — headlining the shows, which raised over $1.5 million. This EP, produced by Sean Ono Lennon, pulls four performances from both the afternoon and evening performances during the One to One Benefit Concerts, including three songs that were never before released until now. 

Hindu Love Gods Hindu Love Gods (Rhino)

Warren Zevon Piano Fighter: Giant Years (Rhino)

Hard to imagine it’s been 22 years since Warren Zevon left this mortal coil at the young age of 56 after a valiant and public battle with mesothelioma. This pair of releases showcase the LA songwriting legend’s underrated ’90s period, where he kicked off the decade with a loose collection of blues and pop covers backed by three-fourths of R.E.M. called the Hindu Love Gods, where they banged out covers of songs by Prince, Georgia Satellites and Muddy Waters among others. Out of print on vinyl since its initial release, this dog-eared classic that introduced Zevon to a new generation returns to the format with this limited run of 5000 copies. Piano Fighter, meanwhile, chronicles Warren’s three-album run for the Warner Bros.-affiliated Giant Records, including 1991’s Waddy Wachtel-produced Mr. Bad Example, the incredible 1993 live LP Learning to Flinch — which features Zevon performing his most beloved Asylum-era songs solo on acoustic guitar or piano — and 1995’s self-produced Mutineer, all of which make their debut on vinyl in this box set here in North America, 2250 units of which have been created for Saturday. All three Giant albums were remastered from the original analog tapes by Bernie Grundman and have never sounded better. 

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.