The Rolling Stones have rereleased their 1973 album, “Goats Head Soup” (Polydor), as a deluxe boxed set featuring a newly remastered stereo mix by Giles Martin, son of famed Beatles producer George Martin. The boxed treatment also includes rarities and outtakes as well as alternative mixes from the sessions. On the 2-CD set, a new track, “Criss Cross,” is debuted with a new video as well. (That cut was originally known as “Criss Cross Man,” found on numerous bootlegs.) The other gem is “Scarlet,” an infectious and raunchy track featuring guitar work by Led Zeppelin guitarist and Stones chum Jimmy Page. The original release of “Goats Head Soup,” found the Stones at a crossroad and the uneven album was received in the ’70s with mixed reviews. Mick Jagger has even recently commented that not everyone loved the album.

“It’s not an album that’s revered as much as ‘Exile on Main Street’ in people’s minds,” he said. “Including me.” Even 50 years later, it still remains very much a non-Stones kind of album. It does however hold the distinction of spawning what may have been the first ever power ballad, “Angie,” a string-drenched sobber that miffed most Stones fans with its sentimentality and shmaltzy lyrics. That said, “Goats” isn’t a bad album and the new mix does feature the band exploring new terrain. Also worth the listen: “All the Rage,” another unreleased cut that has a wild, post “Brown Sugar” strut to it.

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Deadheads will rejoice, or at the very least, trade oranges with the reissue of “Anthem of the Sun (Rhino). This celebrated album from 1968 features Mickey Hart’s first recordings with the band (he joined in 1967) and the reissue is the second in the Grateful Dead’s new series that will introduce original albums in remastered sound. (The band’s self-titled debut kicked off the series three years ago.) “Anthem” is notable for the Dead’s earliest exploration into longer songs (the cut “Alligator” goes on for over 11 minutes). Albums like this weave a tapestry that would become trademark Dead and comparing this new disc side-by-side with the original ’68 mix demonstrates countless differences, with the original mix being a bit more primal, psychedelic and experimental.

While some say it pales in comparison to albums like “Blues Over Allah,” “Anthem” redeems itself with “song cycles,” meaning songs that were meant to be performed in sequence together. It’s how the Dead innovated itself with its name-brand style and sound. This sophomore studio LP isn’t like any other Dead studio album as it quickly shifts gears – which is polite way of saying that the band was just trying to find its footing. The behavior is odd but what makes it great is that the songs are tangible. A lot like oranges.

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Taking its title from the opening line of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” Fleetwood Mac’s 1969 album, “Then Play On” (BMG) is the third album that arrived prior to the Stevie Nicks- Lindsay Buckingham era of the group and was the first to feature Danny Kirwan and the last to feature Peter Green. The expanded “Celebration Edition” reissue features four bonus tracks, including “Oh Well,” parts 1 & 2, which fades in acoustic, electric guitar and rhythms before breaking into a funked-out jam. The set also includes liner notes from band biographer Anthony Bozza and a foreword from Mick Fleetwood, who wrote, “All future incarnations of Fleetwood Mac would acknowledge that our original band, led by our Patriarch and Founder Peter Green, lit a flame that leave us with a “Love That Burns.” The album itself features the original U.K. track listing, and was remastered at half speed for dynamic range. This is more than a glimpse at Mac’s early sound, which offered a broader stylistic range than the classic blues of the group’s first two albums. The key is breaking the chain between the Peter Green beginnings, and “Rumors.” Overall, “Then Play On” should be revered as a genre-pushing record and a Jenga piece of the vast Fleetwood Mac repertoire.

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