Another April, another Record Store Day. With the list newly released for this year's RSD, we over here at The Needle Drop writers' room wanted to share some things we're particularly excited for (and might even go wait in line for hours to procure).

There are a LOT of things being released, as always; from live albums to reissues to first-time-on-vinyl to unearthed rarities, there's a little something for everyone. Below, we've shouted out ten releases that we want to draw your eyes and ears and hearts to. Check it out!

Ba bam!

Blur – Live at the Budokan [Parlophone/Warner]

Last year, fans of the Britpop era indulged in remastered anniversary editions of the best records of 1995. A sudden and passionate interest in monumental live shows — undoubtedly fueled by the Oasis reunion and Pulp’s return to Glastonbury (and everything) — had these aging gents digging in the personal archives to present their brash and brilliant youths in a clearer picture. Blur’s first vinyl pressing of 1996’s Live at the Budokan memorializes the band’s only live album and their 1995 Japan tour following the release of their no. 1 record, The Great Escape. Though it’s strange they’re not pulling a Pulp and releasing new audio from one of their more glorious moments in the UK, I read this Tokyo gig as a reassessment of their international acclaim at the time, which which constantly contested and downplayed next to the world-wide success of Oasis. The Essex boys touched the lives of many outside their home country, writing music that could be real to any average person living in a crumbling world. – Victoria Borlando

Deafheaven – Live on KEXP: Under the Blue Valley [Roadrunner]

Pay attention, blackgaze fans. For Record Store Day, Deafheaven are dropping their smashing in-studio session at KEXP on vinyl for the first time. Recorded last April in Seattle, the set includes four cuts (“Doberman”, “Magnolia”, “Amethyst”, “Winona”) from their latest album, Lonely People With Power, pressed in a 12-inch vinyl that allows you to enjoy the tight performances from the San California ensemble and the crispy mix, courtesy of KEXP’s audio engineers, without YouTube’s compression. Unfortunately, due to the nature of vinyl, you won’t be able to see vocalist George Clarke sipping tea during the slow-burning intro to “Winona” (but you can imagine it). – Daniel Gonçalves Benítez

En Vogue – EV3 [Real Gone Music]

The third – and in my opinion best – En Vogue record, 1997's EV3, is finally coming to vinyl this RSD, complete with two bonus tracks (“It’s About Love” and “Keep Your Money”) originally released only in Japan. The "3" in the title is doubly significant, as it was En Vogue’s first album slimmed down to a trio following the departure of Dawn Robinson, who left the group in the middle of the recording sessions. Riding off the back of their global hit “Don’t Let Go (Love)”, released as a single in late 1996, EV3 went platinum in the US and remains the group’s biggest-selling album, stuffed with classic ‘90s R&B tropes and off-the-charts harmony vocals. This forest green vinyl reissue is long overdue! – Alan Pedder

John Frusciante – To Record Only Water for Ten Days [Rhino]

Since its original release in 2001, John Frusciante's masterpiece To Record Only Water for Ten Days has been reissued officially only once, in 2017 by Australian label Twelve Suns. Part of the reason is because Frusciante is discreet about his solo career – he has rarely performed these songs live, and his two albums prior to Only Water were quietly pulled from shelves after he got clean and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in 1998, just before this album was released. Only Water was recorded by a newly-sober, focused Frusciante, who started playing with synths and drum machines – at the time, he said, he limited himself from listening to "too much" electronic music, so his work with the Chili Peppers wouldn't sound dull to him. This album is just as heart-wrenching as his previous ones, but just as Frusciante's guitar playing regained a crispness, his writing was clearer, more spiritual. The resulting songs are a mirror of just how much the musician has fought to be able to make them. As he sings in the final moments of "Moments Have You": "I defy you to realize it / How a shattering creates a song." – Amanda Cavalcanti

Laura Marling – Live at Albert Hall, Manchester [Chrysalis]

Singer-songwriter Laura Marling is treating fans to a new live album, Live at Albert Hall, Manchester, as a double LP Record Store Day treat. Marling set to the Manchester venue for a 2-night stint on her Patterns in Repeat tour cycle. While the first half is solo acoustic (including her famous 4-song Once I Was an Eagle opening suite), the second half finds Marling alongside a string quartet and choir for some soft reinventions of songs from across her catalog, including from her newest album. Getting to hear Marling in a setting such as this is a rare delight, and will surely satisfy fans looking to hear her intricate, poetic song craft on full display. – Jeremy J. Fisette

Look Outside Your Window – Look Outside Your Window [LOYW]

Back during Slipknot’s recording of 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, vocalist Corey Taylor, guitarist Jim Root, percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan, and turntablist Sid Wilson recorded 11 songs that have since become the stuff of legend: an unreleased Slipknot album said to lean in a more melodic direction. In a statement shared online, the collective commented, “We knew we were heading down a different creative path, entirely apart from Slipknot, and we followed it eagerly. We called the project Look Outside Your Window as a tribute to this experimental spirit.” Taylor originally wanted to include the songs in a remixed edition of All Hope Is Gone, but only one track, “Til We Die”, made it as a bonus track on the special edition. Another track, “Juliette”, appeared during the end credits of Crahan’s 2016 movie Officer Downe. Now, over 15 years later, the long-awaited album will finally see the light of day as a Record Store Day exclusive. – Nic Huber

Adrianne Lenker – Live at Revolution Hall [4AD]

There's a spirit in the air that only exists at Big Thief front-woman Adrianne Lenker's live shows. It's fueled by the traits she describes as "free treasure" in her song of the same name – understanding, patience, pleasure, attention. Now, that spirit is captured on the first-ever pressing of Live at Revolution Hall, Lenker's first live album as a solo artist. The 43-track, two hour-long record was compiled across three nights of performances at Portland, Oregan's historic Revolution Hall, with Lenker joined by touring bandmates Josefin Runsteen (violin, viola) and Nick Hakim (piano). The record features gems from across Lenker's career both as a solo artist and in Big Thief, from the twangy "Spud Infinity" to the heartwrenching "Real House" to fan favorites like "Vampire Empire" and "anything". Lenker sums it up best herself:

“Here is a little lighting in a jar, a capture of the spirit of all shows I’ve ever played and ever will play. The music is alive, and the magic of recording is letting us get close to that spark at anytime, anywhere, and if we want to - over and over again”. 

– Leah Weinstein

Pink Floyd – Live From the Los Angeles Sports Arena, April 26th, 1975 [Legacy Recordings]

Pink Floyd live concert restorations: so hot right now. Restored and remastered by Steven Wilson, the producer behind last year’s Pink Floyd at Pompeii – MCMLXXII, this RSD exclusive promises another dose of Pink Floyd at their creative and commercial peak. The show was originally recorded by Mike Millard, who secretly taped hundreds of seminal concerts in the Los Angeles area across the 1970s. Funny enough, in 2021 Rolling Stone magazine suggested that if Pink Floyd ever released a Bootleg Series, they should start with Millard’s tapes. This RSD exclusive will be released in a 4xLP set pressed on clear vinyl. Recorded just a few months before the release of Wish You Were Here, the collection includes early renditions of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” and “Have a Cigar”, as well as The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety. And for anyone craving even more of that Pompeii-euphoria, the record ends with their epic encore, “Echoes”. – Tony Le Calvez

Porcupine Tree – We Lost the Skyline [Transmission]

Porcupine Tree are re-releasing their mini-live album We Lost the Skyline on vinyl. In 2007, the band performed at the Park Avenue record store in Orlando, Florida, while promoting their album Fear of a Blank Planet. Due to space constraints, Porcupine Tree founder Steven Wilson opted to play as an unplugged, semi-solo act. Touring guitarist and backing vocalist John Wesley performs with Wilson on five of these eight songs. For Record Store Day, We Lost the Skyline has had a half-speed Abbey Road remaster, and plays on crystal clear vinyl. If you're not familiar with Porcupine Tree, get past the silly name and enjoy some damn good rock, with nods to '70s psychedelia and '90s Radiohead. – Tyler Roland

Sonic Youth – Diamond Seas [Geffen]

Sonic Youth is my all-time favorite band, but the essential archival releases since their dissolution have mostly been key live shows; the 2022 instrumental comp In/Out/In didn't make much of a case for what remains in the vaults. What their bulletproof catalog does lack, however, are reinterpretations as wild and exciting as the canon. This might do the trick: Plunderphonics pioneer John Oswald took 32 different live performances of "The Diamond Sea", the 20-minute standout epic from 1995's classic Washing Machine, and mixed them down together into two compositions, each totaling exactly 20:44. If that's anywhere near as cool as it sounds, it could be SY's own "All Too Well (Taylor's Version)". – Dan Weiss