Notable vinyl releases out this Friday - December 12, 2025

In the '90s, Jad Fair had five favorite bands and songwriters: Daniel Johnston, The Pastels, Sonic Youth, Teenage Fanclub, and Yo La Tengo. It's a good list, sure, but what's most remarkable about it is that, in the course of a dozen years or so, Fair made music with all of them in one form or another. Jad Fair has been prolific for half a century now, long before the Internet could create a simultaneous and seemingly eternal archive of everything someone with his predilections made. He's been involved in several hundred titles, at least, many of them out-of-print on tiny labels that do not exist anymore. In fact, one of those collaborations that Fair made in the '90s-Strange But True, with Yo La Tengo-has been hard to find, despite it's stateside release on October 20th 1998, by Matador Records. For the first time, the album is being reissued on vinyl by Joyful Noise and Bar/None.By the time Fair played a party with Yo La Tengo in the mid-'90s, they were all friends, fans, and collaborators, having worked on or released records together. When Fair suggested they all head into the studio, the trio bit. The result, Strange But True, is as wonderful, varied, and wild as some enormous lawn of native grasses. This collaborative album showcases the aritsts' uncanny range, bringing us back to a time when indie rock was still free to be as weird and unruly as it's makers wanted it to be.

Wish You Were Here 50 gives fans an exciting new perspective into one of Pink Floyd’s most iconic and best-loved records. Featuring 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond', the hypnotic 'Welcome To The Machine', the scathing 'Have a Cigar', and the essential title track, Wish You Were Here is undoubtedly one of the most important album releases in the history of popular music. The record’s themes of absence, isolation, transience, and comment on the insincerity of the music business are embodied in the iconic album artwork. 50 years since its release, Wish You Were Here sounds as resonant and vital as ever. This special anniversary edition allows fans, for the first time, to delve deeper into a pivotal moment in Pink Floyd’s history.

Nate Amos has always charted his own path. Whether it’s the candid charm of This Is Lorelei or the idiosyncratic chic of Water From Your Eyes, the New York City-based singer-songwriter has a knack for contorting the familiar into something new. But guitar pop isn’t the only thing he’s refashioned in his own image. After the breakout indie success of Box for Buddy, Box for Star, his quasi-debut album as This Is Lorelei, Amos rethought the typical album format altogether. The result is This Is Lorelei’s sort-of-second sort-of-album, Holo Boy—neither a retrospective compilation, nor a traditionally new LP, but an undeniable reaffirmation of Amos’ past and present talents. Heartening, tuneful, and playful as ever, Holo Boy’s songs were sourced from This Is Lorelei’s sprawling back catalog and re-recorded in May 2025. With more ears on his work now, Amos was excited by the idea of a release that would encourage new fans to delve deeper into his discography and allow him to revisit past songs of personal significance. Its mellifluous acoustic strums and breezy, thrumming electric guitar lines exude a summery, carefree glow and anchor a rather ambitious tracklist. Holo Boy features 10 re-recorded versions of songs written from 2014 to 2021, collected from nine different This Is Lorelei releases. With hundreds of tracks to choose from, Amos elected not to treat this LP as a best-of, or to spend hours listening back, but instead to pick interesting songs from a long span that are special to him. The album was sequenced intentionally and conceptualized as its own distinct work, but it was recorded quickly and instinctively to honor the straight-to-Bandcamp spirit of the original songs and to have an accurate document of This Is Lorelei in 2025. 1. I Can't Fall 2. But You Just Woke Me Up 3. Dreams Away 4. SF & GG 5. My Friend 2 6. Name the Band 7. This is a Joke 8. Mouth Man 9. Money Right Now 10. Holo Boy