Happy 2023! Welcome, friends, to The Second Disc's 13th Annual Gold Bonus Disc Awards!

A lot has happened in the last twelve months, but as we look to a new year with optimism and a hopeful spirit, we recognize the many roles music has played in our lives. With that spirit in mind, The Second Disc wishes to recognize 2022's cream of the catalogue music crop - those exemplary reissues and box sets, big and small, that proved to be truly outstanding for music lovers worldwide. Despite the many delays caused by the lingering effects of COVID-19, there was no shortage of worthy reissue titles in 2022.

After much deliberation, we're excited to unveil our favorites. This isn't your run-of-the-mill Top 10, however. To cover as much ground and spotlight as many titles as we can, we've organized 26 of our favorites from A to Z, and included some additional titles that were just too good to leave out. (And while our own Second Disc Records releases such as Liza Minnelli's Live in New York 1979 and Stoney and Meatloaf's Everything Under the Sun: The Motown Recordings) were, of course, ineligible, we hope those made your own personal best-of lists!) It was a very good year across multiple genres: we've got rock, pop, jazz, soul, hip-hop, classical, soundtracks, musicals, and more here.

As always, The Gold Bonus Disc Awards are dedicated to the artists, labels, and behind-the-scenes producers, engineers, and writers who continue to prove the value in physical releases of catalogue music. We also want to thank all the brick-and-mortar stores who still remain dedicated to bringing these fantastic titles to listeners everywhere. Most importantly, we want to recognize you, our readers, for your lasting support and good conversation year-round.

Without any further ado, here's Part One of TSD's A-to-Z list of our favorite reissues of the year, spanning A-M.

Joni Mitchell, The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) (Rhino)

One of the happiest launches in recent memory is that of Joni Mitchell's Archives series. The two-pronged approach has resulted in beautiful boxes packed with previously unreleased tracks as well as simpler but no less impressive collections of the remastered original albums. 2022 saw the release of The Asylum Albums (1972-1975) comprising four of Mitchell's most beloved LPs, all in splendid sound. Though the box naturally stands on its own, it's whetted appetites for the third Archives box set due in 2023 which will present the accompanying "bonus tracks," if you will, to that quartet of albums. No doubt it will meet, or surpass, the high bar set by the first two volumes.