A Beatles Album Exclusive to Barnes & Noble, Plus More New Releases

The Singles, by the Beatles
This limited-edition set of Beatles singles is worth buying for the songs alone; “Ticket To Ride” and “Yes It Is” are on the first disc, and “Yellow Submarine” and the incomparable “Eleanor Rigby” are on the second. All four songs demonstrate how well-rounded the Beatles’ sound was, and how they’d mastered just about every aspect of pop songwriting, with “Yellow Submarine” standing as evidence that, for all their success, they didn’t take themselves too seriously. This set of singles is exclusively numbered and packaged in their original artwork, and the set comes with a Beatles poster and a single hub for your turntable, just in case you need one.

To Pimp a Butterfly, by Kendrick Lamar
Kendrick Lamar’s third album, released in March 2015 to widespread critical and commercial acclaim, broadens Kendrick’s range of influences to include funk, spoken word, and jazz. The presence of Dr. Dre and Pharrell (among many others) as producers on this album should be taken as a sign that Kendrick’s music is getting slicker and more upscale. That doesn’t mean it’s getting less real, though; Kendrick has a lot to say about how America treats its African-American community. “Wesley’s Theory” suggests a purposeful lack of financial education for black men, and “King Kunta” takes aim at ghostwriters in hip-hop.

Merry Christmas, by Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey has a real gift for Christmas music, which extends to both performing and writing it. This album, released in 1994 at an early peak in her career, features traditional Christmas songs and carols alongside songs she wrote with Walter Afanasieff. Carey’s original material received high praise from critics, especially “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” which has become a Christmas carol in its own right, and was also the bestselling holiday ringtone in the United States at one point. Her versions of “Silent Night” and “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” are two of this album’s major highlights, as both songs were seemingly made for voices like her.

Another Country, by Rod Stewart
Another Country is Rod Stewart’s twenty-ninth studio album, if you can imagine, and was recorded in his house with Pro Tools. That may sound awfully modern and progressive for someone Stewart’s age, but he’s never been one to get stuck in his ways, a strength that is illustrated quite well by this album. Incorporating bits of reggae, ska, and Celtic into his sound, Stewart shows that he’s not scared of trying new things at a point where most musicians feel like they don’t have to, which makes this album a lot of fun. Songs of note include “Batman Superman Spiderman,” influenced by the bedtime stories he told his youngest son, and the title track, in which Stewart muses about life in the Army and the subsequent distance from family and friends.