THIS WEEK

Other reissues & archival releases

The Allman Brothers Band: Brothers and Sisters (Mercury)
Shown above is the four-CD Super Deluxe Edition. Disc 1: the original 1973 album, remastered. Disc 2: previously unreleased rehearsals of “Wasted Words,” “Trouble No More,” “One Way Out,” “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town,” and “Done Somebody Wrong,” along with outtakes of “Southbound,” “Double Cross,” and “Early Morning Blues,” plus a new archival find, “A Minor Jam.” Discs 3 and 4: live at Winterland, Sept. 26, 1973, a month after the album’s release. The plain Deluxe Edition has just the first two CDs.

Merry Clayton: The Best of Merry Clayton (Ode/Legacy)
To this day, Clayton’s guest vocal on the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” never fails to give me goosebumps. She’s featured in the current documentary-film celebration of background singers, 20 Feet from Stardom. This CD is the first compilation of her own recordings, sourced primarily from her three Ode albums: 1970’s Gimme Shelter, 1971’s self-titled set, and 1975’s Keep Your Eye on the Sparrow. Which means that the version of “Shelter” here is Clayton’s cover, not the Stones original. Other selections include takes on the Doors’ “Tell All the People,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge over Troubled Water,” Neil Young’s “Southern Man,” Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” and the Who’s “The Acid Queen.”

Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me (Omnivore)
Soundtrack to the documentary, which opens July 3. All tracks are previously unreleased versions of Big Star songs.

The Three O’Clock: The Hidden World Revealed (Omnivore)
Return to the ’80s — specifically, the Paisley Underground of Southern California — with this collection of hits and rarities (demos, alternate takes/mixes). Twenty tracks represent the band’s output from 1981 to ’86.

The Swimming Pool Q’s: 1984-1986, The A&M Years (Cipher Bureau via Bar/None)
Never before released on CD: the New Wave band’s self-titled album and Blue Tomorrow, here in a two-disc set. Standard Edition not enough? The Special Expanded Edition adds Pow Wow Hour, a 17-song CD of rarities, and Auto Zoom, a DVD of vintage live clips, promotional videos, TV appearances, and interviews.

Jethro Tull: Around the World Live (Eagle Vision)
Four-DVD box, spanning the 35 years of 1970 (Isle of Wight) to 2005 (Switzerland), with much of the material previously unissued.