April 2020 New Music Releases
As with so many things, April 2020's slate of new music releases was broadly impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
Record Store Day got shifted to June 20 in the wake of the emerging crisis, and with it went a lengthy contingency of albums and singles. Ex-Styx frontman Dennis DeYoung's seventh solo studio LP – and first in more than a decade – was also pushed back. So was a new live album by Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, which spotlights the early days of Pink Floyd, along with the newest studio records from Yes guitarist Steve Howe and former Doors guitarist Robby Krieger.
Yet April, as with hearty citizens everywhere, soldiers on. Music will still be played, and records will still be released. Our remaining list of April 2020 new music releases is highlighted by Def Leppard, Joe Satriani, Rick Wakeman and the Monkees. (For now, anyway. As with those earlier delayed albums, this schedule is subject to last-minute coronavirus-related changes.)
Def Leppard's new live project combines a December 2018 concert at London's O2 Arena, where the band performed 1987's Hysteria in its entirety, with a date from their recent Las Vegas residency at Planet Hollywood. Wakeman is making a return to full-scale progressive rock, while Satriani advanced his next album with a single designed to sound like his first band, the Squares. The 24-song The Mike & Micky Show Live captures surviving Monkees members Micky Dolenz and Michael Nesmith during a 2019 performance.
More information on these and other new rock-related efforts can be found below. Remember to follow our continuously updated list of 2020 New Music Releases for details on projects issued throughout the year.
April 3
Alan Parsons Project, Ammonia Avenue (3CD/Blu-ray limited-edition deluxe reissue)
Bob Dylan, Japanese Singles Collection (2CD)
Frank Zappa, Carnegie Hall (3CD)
Monkees, The Mike & Micky Show Live
Paul McCartney, Tina Turner, Duran Duran and others, The Best of Bond … James Bond (2CD expanded reissue)
Rick Wakeman, The Red Planet
Testament, Titans of Creation
April 10
Cat Stevens, Back to Earth: Super Deluxe Box
Grey Daze [Chester Bennington], Amends
Paul Carrack, Love Songs (2CD)
Joe Satriani, Shapeshifting
Nightwish, Human II Nature
Strokes, The New Abnormal
April 17
Bangles, Gold (3CD)
Danzig, Danzig Sings Elvis
EOB [Radiohead's Ed O'Brien], Earth
Soul Asylum, Hurry Up and Wait
April 24
Def Leppard, London to Vegas (live)
The Fall, Reformation Post-TLC (4CD)
Hawkwind, Roadhawks (remastered)
Lou Reed, When Your Heart Is Made Out of Ice (live)
Roger O’Donnell [The Cure], 2 Ravens
Snowy White [Thin Lizzy], Lucky Star: An Anthology 1983-1994 (6CD)
Spirit, Tent of Miracles (2CD)
May and Beyond
Bon Jovi, 2020
Steve Howe [Yes], Love Is
Dennis DeYoung [Styx], 26 East: Volume 1
Deep Purple, Whoosh!
Record Store Day 2020
Kansas, The Absence of Presence
Robby Krieger [The Doors], The Ritual Begins at Sundown
Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets, Live at the Roundhouse