These Vinyl Weekend Offers & Exclusives Are Record-Breaking (But Not Like That)

Ride Me Back Home, by Willie Nelson (Gold Vinyl, B&N Exclusive)
What can we say about Willie Nelson? The man’s a legend as much for his persona as his body of work, which is one of the best and most consistent in American music. Ride Me Back Home—offered on gold vinyl exclusively through Barnes & Noble—is a strong addition to that catalog, with a strong focus on lyrics that’s often missing from modern pop music. In that spirit, the compositions are kept to guitar, piano, slide guitar, and harmonica to push Nelson’s voice to the front. It’s a smart move, since Nelson’s voice gets clearer and warmer with age. The album’s title track is a great example of how well Nelson’s singing boosts good lyrics, as are “Immigrant Eyes” and “Just the Way You Are.”

Madame X, by Madonna
After relocating to Portugal in 2017, Madonna made some inroads into Lisbon’s arts community and found that Portuguese music (specifically fado) is awesome. In fact, it’s one of the primary influences on her upcoming album, Madame X (which comes on cool rainbow vinyl). This album sees Madonna trying a lot of new things, from a duet with reggaeton singer Maluma on the opening track, “Medellín,” to the use of vocoder and avant-garde composition on “Dark Ballet,” to straight-up reggae pop on “Future,” which features a cameo from Quavo. These tracks are all home runs, and it says a lot that Madonna—who has nothing to prove—still wants to experiment.

Western Stars, by Bruce Springsteen (Clear With Blue Smoke Color Vinyl, B&N Exclusive)
Springsteen reasserts his legacy as The Boss with Western Stars, an album of all-original compositions that, according to the man himself, was inspired by the 1970s California pop sound made famous by Glen Campbell and Burt Bacharach. It’s also available on clear/smoke blue vinyl exclusively through Barnes & Noble. Since it’s Springsteen, we expected and got plain-spoken, character-driven songs with hints of melancholy, but this album’s orchestral feel caught us by surprise. It suits his acoustic material really well, and adds some cinematic flair to his lyrics, which range from large subjects—highways, deserts—to individual perspectives. “Hitch Hikin’” and “Sundown” were our favorites.

Rolling Stones Rock And Roll Circus, by Rolling Stones (3 LP Set)
This one-of-a-kind, three-platter box set captures a piece of the Stones’ career that a lot of younger fans don’t know about. The Rock and Roll Circus was filmed in London in December of 1968, and was intended to be a TV special to promote Beggars’ Banquet. That didn’t work out, but the Stones and their musical guests—including the Who, Taj Mahal, and Jethro Tull—put on some amazing performances that are finally, and definitively, captured here. The best stuff in this box set comes from the Dirty Mac, a supergroup comprised of John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, and Hendrix guitarist Mitch Mitchell, whose version of “Yer Blues” is incredible.

Africa Speaks, by Santana (Picture Disc, B&N Exclusive)
Santana’s twenty-fifth album, titled Africa Speaks, is clearly influenced by African music, which Santana and others have described as a “unique fusion of rock, Latin and jazz.” Since all three of those styles are well within Santana’s wheelhouse, it almost goes without saying that this album is great. Its spontaneous feel comes from most of these songs being recorded in single takes, an approach encouraged by the album’s producer, Rick Rubin. The cameos from singers Laura Mvula and Buika also add a lot to Africa Speaks; they sound so good with this band behind them (which includes Santana’s wife on the drums!) that you’d think they’d been there for years.

Dumbo 2019 Soundtrack (Red Vinyl, B&N Exclusive)
The remake of the classic Disney film Dumbo meant a redo of the soundtrack as well. That work was entrusted to legendary film composer Danny Elfman, whose goal was to give the film a very distinct musical identity. In some cases—the main theme, for example—this means simpler compositions than one might expect from the Oscar-winning composer, driven by his belief that Dumbo is, after all, a simple story. This is a good thing, though: Elfman’s intuition results in a dynamic soundtrack that is in turns playful and sinister; the differences between the spritely woodwinds and timpani of “Meet the Family” and the tense strings in “Holt in Action” are startling.

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