10 Record Store Day 2023 Releases to Cop

Since its inaugural installment in 2007, Record Store Day has grown from a celebratory Saturday for music nerds and vinyl lovers to a major cultural moment full of limited releases, re-issues of old standards and alternate versions of cult classic albums. Now in its 17th year, Record Store Day is bigger than ever — and there’s a veritable pile of exclusive vinyl touching down at participating neighborhood record stores this Saturday, April 22.

Digging through the crates is hard enough on a standard Saturday (so many good choices!) not to mention a day as special as this one, so the music lovers from the Hypebeast team have teamed up to bring you 10 standout Record Store Day 2023 releases to cop, from rare jazz B-sides to classic albums from some of the Wu-Tang Clan‘s finest. Be sure to get out to your local record store this weekend to support, and remember to move with purpose — some of these records are extremely limited.

Roy Ayers – Stoned Soul Picnic

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 1,000

You likely know Roy Ayers for his effortless blending of smooth soul, R&B and jazz — it’s the sound that propelled him to stardom during the ’70s and ’80s. However, before Ayers was cranking out slaps like “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” and “Searching” or working with artists like Erykah Badu and Mary J. Blige, his music was much more jazz-focused. Stoned Soul Picnic, first released on Atlantic in 1968, is one of those records. It shares a name with a track composed by Laura Nyro and a memorable 5th Dimension album that were released the same year, and it’s a sunny day-ready slice of vibe-heavy jazz. Produced by Herbie Mann, Stoned Soul Picnic sees Ayers play the vibraphone alongside jazz titans like Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Hubert Laws. This re-release features a splatter vinyl and is limited to a scant 1,000 copies, so you’ll need to be quick if you want to catch these vibes.

Larry Lovestein & The Velvet Revival – You

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 7,500

Mac Miller was at a career crossroads in 2012. 2011’s Blue Slide Park, his debut album, was the first independent album to go #1 in 16 years, but it was widely panned for its lack of substance, with Pitchfork memorably calling Miller a “crushingly bland and intolerable version of Wiz Khalifa.” Underneath Miller’s goofy, fratty public persona of the time, however, lay the serious and soulful artist that skyrocked to prominence in the latter half of the decade, and Miller began to show that artist on 2012’s You, recorded under his jazz-focused alias: Larry Lovestein & the Velvet Revival. You, though not Miller’s most famous record, is a pivotal moment in his career, and now it’s coming to vinyl for the first time 11 years later. The special-edition release is presented on a gold pressing and comes with a poster of Larry Lovenstein’s only live performance, which went down at LA’s Baked Potato jazz club.

Miles Davis – Turnaround: Unreleased Rare Vinyl from On The Corner

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 5,700

Released at the height of Miles Davis‘ electronic experimentations, On The Corner, which turned 50 last year, was a funky, James Brown and Sly Stone-inspired record that was a precursor to everything from electronica and hip-hop to post-punk. As one of the most seminal records in Davis’ legendary oeuvre, On The Corner has seen a variety of vinyl re-releases in the last half-century. Instead of competing with comprehensive editions like 2007’s The Complete On The Corner Sessions, which was a six-disk box set, Turnaround: Unreleased Rare Vinyl from On The Corner is a succinct sampling of four excellent recordings Davis and his accomplices — including Herbie Hancock, Michael Henderson and Al Foster — cut both shortly before and after On The Corner was recorded. The release’s presentation is just as punchy as its sound too, thanks to a color-flipped version of Corky McCoy’s classic album artwork and a sour, Warhead-like blue hue on the record itself.

Ol’ Dirty Bastard – Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 7,500

Ol’ Dirty Bastard’s 1995 debut album Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version arrives as a picture disc version with an alternative record sleeve and pressing featuring monochromatic imagery of the late Wu-Tang Clan figure. The double LP includes all 15 explicit versions of the album’s original tracks that were remastered in 2020. The March 1995 record has been certified double platinum since its release and continues to serve as a testament to the ingenuity of ODB.

Beach House – Become

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 8,000

Just 8,000 Beach House fans will have the opportunity to spin the band’s Become EP firsthand. Printed on a crystal clear vinyl, the project spans five unreleased songs that were originally created during the recording sessions for their eighth studio album, Once Twice Melody. “We didn’t think they fit in the world of OTM, but later realized they all fit in a little world of their own,” the band said of the songs. “To us, they are all kind of scuzzy and spacious, and live in the spirit realm. It’s not really where we are currently going, but it’s definitely somewhere we have been.”

Orville Peck – Bronco

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 1,600

Over 15 tracks, Bronco, the second studio album from Orville Peck is a celebration of romance, queerness and contemporary country music. A marked development in the country-pop star’s maturation as a lyricist and instrumentalist since his debut Pony, the 2022 LP will receive a limited round of pressings on a glitzy, double-metallic gold vinyl.

RZA as Bobby Digital – Bobby Digital in Stereo

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 2,000

Years after the formation of the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA took the leap to venture out on his own, releasing his debut solo album, Bobby Digital In Stereo, in 1998. The experimental record saw the rapper assume the alter ego of Bobby Digital, a hedonistic comic book-loving MC. Scattered with appearances from his Wu-Tang collaborators, the album was met with mixed reviews, but nonetheless, was RIAA-certified gold just a few months after its release. RZA fans can now revisit the record as a colored vinyl, complimentary to the iconic album’s cartoon-inspired cover.

Slum Village – Trinity

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 2,000

One of the most hotly-debated albums of its time when it was released in 2002, Slum Village’s Trinity is offered on vinyl for the first time since the mid-2000s. The 2LP is offered with a special colored pressing — one in “Canary Yellow” and the other in “Tangerine” — and features the original 23 tracks. Fans of Slum Village can revisit the group’s widely-discussed era following the late J Dilla’s departure and the official arrival of Elzhi, and look back at how the group managed to keep its sound and spirit alive despite the initial pushback from listeners.

Raphael Saadiq – The Way I See It

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 2,000

Raphael Saadiq’s The Way I See It returns to the fold for the first time in over a decade. The Record Store Day 2023 exclusive arrives with a red vinyl pressing and features the original tracklist composed of guest appearances from Joss Stone, CJ Hilton, The Rebirth Brass Band and Stevie Wonder, along with the “Oh Girl” remix bonus track that features JAY-Z. Fans can finally get the chance to listen to Saadiq’s take on his influences on wax, and remember why he’s widely considered as one of the most versatile musicians of the modern age.

Dirty Projectors & Björk – Mount Wittenberg Orca (Expanded Edition)

Record Store Day

Pressing Run: 1,500

The ever-enigmatic Björk is making her presence felt this Record Store Day, thanks to the release of the expanded edition of Mount Wittenberg Orca, a long out-of-print LP she created with Dirty Projectors. Inspired by a conversation Björk and Dirty Projectors’ David Longstreth had about the small theaters in 1500s Italy that opera was born out of, the original seven songs on Mount Wittenberg Orca were made to be played, unamplified, in Housing Works, a famed Manhattan bookstore. The album sees Björk and Longstreth crooning side-by-side alongside vocal harmonies from Dirty Projectors’ own Angel Deradoorian, Haley Dekle and Amber Coffman across seven tracks, and there are also 13 additional tracks ranging from recordings of the live Housing Works performance in 2009, early demos and even recordings of album rehearsals.