October's COVERMOUNT CD is Forever Young: The Best Of 1974. Exactly what it says on the tin, with 15 killer songs by Can, King Crimson, Fela Kuti, Betty Davis, Gram Parsons, Robert Wyatt and TWO unreleased tracks from Dylan’s new 1974 Tour box set!

Cheap Trick may no longer be playing the stadiums that the group's monumental talent surely warrants, but they do have one of the most loyal cult followings in all rock & roll. Thus, when Epic Records decided to release a four-disc box set celebrating the quartet's 20th anniversary with the label, someone there was smart enough to let the band put together a collection for the collectors. Which means 32 of the 64 tracks here are previously unreleased, including many live cover tunes (Beatles, Velvet Underground), demo takes, and a few things only a fan would want. Some hits are here (including "Surrender"), but, as a good example, there's no "He's a Whore," which Cheap Trick probably figured their fans should already own.

The 33 tracks jammed onto this single-disc Cherokees retrospective almost form a wide-lens snapshot of the changes undergone by Aussie rock (and, in similar senses, rock around the globe) from the early to late '60s. Although this only covers releases from 1964-1968 (with an unissued cover of the Rivieras' "Little Donna" thrown in), stylistically it encompasses everything from early-'60s style surf music to British Invasion, garage rock, vaudevillian rock (a 1967 cover of Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher"), and good-time psychedelic pop. The common ground is both musical competence and, to be harsh, a lack of originality, though nothing's lousy, and some of it's good. Most of the first third of the disc might as well have been the work of an entirely different band than the British Invasion-inspired one that had a few Australian hits in the mid-'60s, since it's almost wholly given over to surf instrumentals in the style of the Shadows and, occasionally, Tornados.

A two-CD, 53-track set that includes for the first time ever the A and B side of every single the group released, all in their impossible-to-find-on-CD original U.S. mono single mixes. But this one-of-a-kind collection—which is remastered by Aaron Kannowski, the engineer responsible for our other acclaimed collections of singles by fellow Dunhill label acts The Grass Roots and Steppenwolf—doesn’t stop with The Mamas and the Papas’ singles. It also includes the solo single sides that group members Mama Cass Elliot, Denny Doherty and John Phillips cut for the Dunhill and ABC labels, again in their rare, original single mixes. Many of the solo singles and B-sides have never been on CD, let alone in their single mixes; plus, over the course of listening to this set (which clocks in at over 150 minutes), you’ll hear such legendary songs as “Monday, Monday,” “California Dreamin’,” “Creeque Alley,” “I Saw Her Again,” “Words of Love,” “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” “Glad to Be Unhappy,” “Dedicated to the One I Love,” and “It’s Getting Better” exactly as folks heard them over the radio back in those halcyon days.

A collection of hard-stompin,’ party-down, all original songs penned from the rock and roll heart of George Thorogood. Along with his unstoppable, longtime band, The Destroyers, the album showcases tracks like the tour de force anthem “Gear Jammer,” the heartfelt country ballad “Oklahoma Sweetheart,” and the previously unreleased “Back In The U.S.A.” Additionally, hard-hitting barnburners like “I Really Like Girls,” and “If You Don’t Start Drinkin’ (I’m Gonna Leave),” served up with classic Thorogood swagger and tongue-in-cheek panache.

A slick 3-CD gatefold package that walks you through a legendary back catalogue of folk giants Fairport Convention. Featuring tracks such as Si Tu Dois Partir, Meet On The Ledge, Who Knows Where the Time Goes?, Matty Groves and many more.

An eclectic, psychedelic fusion of jazz & rock ‘n’ roll! Fuzzed-out acid rock & blues swirl together to create some of the best late ‘60s psych out of Boston. Schamach’s jazz-leaning tendencies shine through a variety of influences on these all-original compositions, giving their sophomore album a creative edge over other bands in the Bosstown Sound scene.

In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.