Record Store Day is back for another year! The nationwide event seeks to raise interest in and awareness of vinyl and independent record stores, offering up a heaving list of special releases and limited-edition records that are only available to specific participating stores to entice audiences new and old to pick up something special this weekend. The official Record Store Day 2025 takes place on Saturday the 12th of April, though the initiative has events running throughout the year.
To mark the occasion in conjunction with our Vinyl Week 2025 celebrations, we've selected our favourite exclusives that will be going on sale as part of the annual event. You can peruse the full list of exclusive RSD releases, but we've honed down the records that we are most excited about and are tempted to buy for ourselves.
Sam Fender – Me and the Dog EP
While I’m sure there are plenty of excellent albums yet to be released this year, they’ll have to go a long way to beat Sam Fender’s exceptional, soulful and politically charged People Watching. Fender’s Springsteen-via-Newcastle-upon-Tyne style is absolutely electric, encompassing everything from toe-tapping folk-style tracks to razor-sharp scathing rants directed at social injustice and heartbreaking autobiographical compositions that document journeys of grief.
As part of Record Store Day 2025, Fender has announced an EP that includes a handful of tracks not featured on the album, titled Tyrants and I'm Always On Stage. Also on the EP is People Watching, Me and The Dog (which has been a streaming exclusive until now) and a live recording of People Watching from his show at the O2 Arena. That final track is especially poignant for me, as I attended (and thoroughly enjoyed) one of his shows at the O2.
People Watching is a truly special album, so this Record Store Day exclusive pressing is a must-have in my opinion. It has also given me hope for a full deluxe version of the album to be released on streaming platforms in the future.
Words by Lewis Empson
Discover the exclusive Record Store Day 2025 release
Listen to Me and the Dog on Tidal
MJ Lenderman – And The Wind (Live and Loose!)
This isn't just MJ Lenderman playing songs from his Ghost of Your Guitar (2021) and Boat Songs (2022) live as they appear on the album; this is the breakthrough Asheville singer-songwriter giving extra vigour and vitality to those songs on stage through energetic reimaginings and a hearty backing band that includes fellow Wednesday bandmates Ethan Baechtold (bassist) and Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel guitar/tamborine).
His often sparse and lo-fi songs are now caffeinated, full-band jams and grooves that rollick from one to the next. There's a whole new dimension to the distorted, whisper-quiet Live Jack, while the sober Catholic Priest works better with its added instrumental expression.
Never once does this collection of amped-up performances, recorded in Chicago's Lincoln Hall and Los Angeles' Lodge Room in 2023, feel anything other than 'in the moment'. This is a very present live album worth not only hearing but also owning.
Words by Becky Roberts
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Listen to And the Wind on Tidal
Goat & Graveyard – Ship Of Fools/Light As A Feather
Let me introduce you to Sweden's finest anonymous, mask-wearing rock band that isn't Ghost. Goat mix psychedelic-rock guitar fuzz, funky beats and trancey experimental world-music flavours with joyously belted-out African-esque female vocals.
The best way I can think to describe how all this actually sounds together is that it's one big party. The band's energetic live shows and blissed-out jam sessions, many of which can be found on YouTube, are truly, hip-shakingly, hypnotically groovy.
Fellow Swedish rockers Graveyard, with whom Goat have collaborated here, are neither mask-wearing nor, despite the name, in any way satanic or dark. As a more pared-back and way less theatrical proposition than Goat, the Gothenburg four-piece sticks to guitars-bass-drums for bluesy hard rock, underpinned by a truly soulful feel thanks to some righteous grooves and Paul Rodgers-esque vocals.
Whether you're a fan of Goat or Graveyard, or both (or if you've yet to experience the joy of either band's music), it's going to be super exciting to stick this Record Store Day 7-inch on the turntable and boogie.
Do note, we haven't got the YouTube clip for the above track, mainly because there isn't one, so we have attached their most recent album instead.
Words by Chris Burke
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Waxahatchee – Much Ado About Nothing b/w Mud
Waxahatchee’s Tiger’s Blood was my album of 2024: a gorgeous, lush, hazy, Americana-tinged folk indie record from singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield, whose lilting, honest vocals and unflinching yet emotional lyrics have stuck in my soul since that standout single, Right Back To It. Perfect for dull, grey days as well as sunny, summery days.
Naturally, then, a 7-inch of three bonus songs that were recorded during the Tiger’s Blood sessions being on the RSD 2025 list has caught my eye.
Much Ado About Nothing is cut from the same cloth and sounds beautiful, but Mud (featuring MJ Lenderman on backing vocals again) and Next To Me are entirely unknown to me – and I can’t wait to hear them. The 7-inch record doesn’t get enough love, either, and I’m keen to grow my collection of 45s with this release.
Words by Kashfia Kabir
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Listen to Much Ado About Nothing on Tidal
Bloc Party – Little Thoughts
In the early noughties, Bloc Party’s brand of energetic indie rock left quite the impression, and if there’s one song I have to hit repeat on every time it appears on my playlist, it’s Little Thoughts.
There’s just something about the infectious drumming of ex-band member Matt Tong that I can’t get enough of, and this track showcases it perfectly. It’s absolutely relentless. The pacey drumplay doesn't pause for breath once – it just seems to get faster and faster the longer the track goes on.
As an aspiring air drummer for more than three decades, for me this is a track guaranteed to blow the cobwebs off my imaginary drum kit. Apart from the drumming, the song's pace is also encouraged by a similarly speedy bassline which helps catapult things along.
Little Thoughts has appeared on some versions of the band’s debut studio album Silent Alarm (which is 20 years old this year!), but a Little Thoughts EP was released on CD in Japan back in 2004. Now that it’s getting a vinyl release for RSD 2025, I can’t wait to pick it up.
And it actually has two bangers on there. The second is Helicopter which those unfamiliar with the band (and who live in the UK) will have heard in a recent EDF Energy commercial. Very glamorous.
Words by Andy Madden
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Listen to Little Thoughts on Tidal
Gil Scott-Heron – Moving Target
For me, the standout track on Moving Target is Washington D.C., not just for its social commentary – which, 43 years on, remains as relevant as ever – but for its catchy chorus.
It features in the Gil Scott-Heron documentary Black Wax, which captures the poet and godfather of rap at his charismatic best, strolling along the Potomac, boombox on his shoulder, singing along to his own track. The documentary as a whole is a must-watch – sections of it show that Heron missed his calling as a stand-up comedian.
I digress. Moving Target offers a more laid-back groove than some of Heron’s previous studio albums and a greater reggae influence (especially on No Exit). You still get plenty of social commentary – it’s not that much of a departure – but it’s a bit more polished this time around.
This is a chance to own a bona fide classic from a giant of the black music scene and one of the most influential musicians of his time.
Words by Joe Svetlik
Discover the exclusive Record Store Day 2025 release
Listen to Moving Target on Tidal
Klaus Doldinger & Giorgio Moroder – The NeverEnding Story OST
If you were born in the 1980s, The NeverEnding Story is a movie that is probably burned into your psyche for a couple of reasons.
First, because of that scene midway through the movie that had every single one of us in tears and traumatised for life; to this day, I have to leave the room and wait for it to finish whenever my wife and I rewatch the film.
Second, because it has one of the most over-the-top, memorable '80s soundtracks you’ll ever hear. Composed by jazz musician Klaus Doldinger and renowned producer Giorgio Moroder and with vocals from Limahl (of Kajagoogoo) and Beth Anderson, the opening banger alone immediately plucks my heart’s nostalgia strings.
With this special Record Store Day 2025 release, which features the whole soundtrack, including recordings originally thought lost to the ages, I can’t help but think it’s time to return to Fantasia.
Words by Alastair Stevenson
Discover the exclusive Record Store Day 2025 release
Listen to The NeverEnding Story OST on Tidal
Stone Temple Pilots – Live in New Haven 1994
For sheer enjoyability, Stone Temple Pilots' Purple is one of my favourite albums ever recorded, not to mention proof that 1994 was one of the best years for music. It's one of the CDs I had on repeat in my car back in the old days, enjoying heavy rotation alongside the likes of Radiohead's The Bends and a Feeder Greatest Hits album. Hey, it was a different time.
Live in New Haven 1994 was actually released on August 23, 1994, a month after Purple had hit shelves, so it's not surprising to see the setlist packed with favourites from the band's sophomore effort. Interstate Love Song, Meatplow, Still Remains, Vasoline, Silvergun Superman – they're all there, while heavy-hitters from the group's debut Core also feature.
17 live tracks on two separate LPs courtesy of one of the finest grunge outfits ever? Very nice.
Words by Harry McKerrell
Discover the exclusive Record Store Day 2025 release
Listen to Live in New Haven 1994 on Tidal
De La Soul – Bigger & Respect
You don't just get re-releases of golden oldies for Record Store Day, you also get lost classics that see the light of day as part of the event. Bigger and Respect were originally recorded during the studio sessions for De La Soul's excellent 2004 drop The Grind Date, but they never made it to the final cut.
As part of the celebration for the album's 20th birthday (2004 was 20 years ago?!), the group decided to unearth and revitalise Bigger and Respect from the archives. Presented on vinyl for the first time as a double 7in set, the once-lost tracks have been paired with instrumental versions ofRock Co.Kane Flow and The Future.
They're not the easygoing, sun-splashed tunes that you'll find scattered across the group's Daisy Age icon 3 Feet High and Rising. Instead they employ the harder, leaner aesthetic gaining traction as noughties hip-hop found its stride.
Naturally, they nailed it. Hey, this is De La Soul. They can do anything.
Words by Harry McKerrell
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MORE:
9 tips for new or returning vinyl fans that will help you on your record-collecting journey
Vinyl Week 2025: all of the latest reviews, advice and features
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