As 2024 most certainly can attest, there isn’t a shortage of new music to discover in the modern age. But while the likes of such diverse acts as Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Rod Wave are pushing things forward, it’s rivaled by a catalog scene that just gets better and better with each passing year.

And in the past 12 months, there has been an avalanche of titles that enhance and further the stories of some of our favorite artists beyond their regular works. Shout-out to those deluxe editions of Queen I, the first Weezer LP and Talking Heads: 77, which, along with the Mr. Bungle vinyl box set, Lou Reed’s final recording, the latest installment of the Miles Davis Bootleg Series and the 30th anniversary vinyl reissue of Plastikman’s rave classic Muzik comprise a sampling of what came out this year from music’s back pages. Needless to say, it was quite a task deciphering what constitutes a year-end list of this magnitude.

However, we’ve conjured a collection that brings together archival releases that not only added to the catalogs of these artists, but enhanced them as well, whether it’s amending a masterpiece with bonus particulars, reimagining an existing LP or delighting fans with never-before-heard material from a mythical vault. And whether we’re talking about a mammoth 17-CD compendium or a single straight reissue, each of these picks do a sublime job in forwarding the legacy of its subject matter in new and exciting ways.