Albums improved by bonus tracks

someone mentioned expanded live albums above - I think the expanded/remixed version of Bowie's Stage is heaps better than the old 2LP (and IMO crucial document of one of the all-time great tours and one of the greatest bands ever assembled)

also not quite 'bonus tracks' but I've long held that the cassette release of Standing On A Beach with b-sides on the flip is the definitive version - conversely the 'bonus tracks' on the CD (Other Voices, Play For Today, A Night Like This) make it a weaker compilation

DEV-O Live (from the Freedom of Choice tour) is a pretty bizarre example. it was released as a 6-song EP (probably under contractual obligation), then later made it to CD in a vastly expanded version by Ryko, with 16 bonus tracks from a different date fleshing out more or less a full concert. except...all the original stuff is still there. all six of the original tracks are duplicated, and not really much different. idk why they didn't just do a full set, who cares if the "original" performances aren't there?

Yeah Valentijn the Bowie Ryko bonuses are legendary (at least in my own mind). The demo version of "Candidate" makes my list of top 20 Bowie songs, sometimes. I remember feeling like "what" when Aladdin Sane came with no bonuses. "Holy Holy" is awful, the alt version of "John," is amazing, the live StS tracks are inessential, the "Crystal Japan" bonus on Scary Monsters had me giving Trent Reznor a side-long glance about not giving Bowie any credit for "A Warm Place". I don't even really think about Low without it ending with "Some Are" and "All Saints", etc. etc.

"Lightning Frightening" from The Man Who Sold the World is my go-to example for totally inconsequential reissue bonus tracks, but I wouldn't really want it never to have been issued.

Second for the guy who mentioned "Mutations" by Beck 15 years ago on this thread.

My CD finished with "Runners Dialled Zero" and "Diamond Bollocks", although the album apparently finishes with "Static".

Great album.

― in twelve parts (lamonti)

would argue these don't count as bonus tracks, they were included on most or all of the initial editions of the album. where are these 'stanard' copies of Mutations that finish with Static anyhow?

the recent longer/restored Secret Messages by ELO is an improvement over the original release.

The LP of Cowboy Junkies The Trinity Session didn’t include the what-now-seem-essential songs “Blue Moon Revisited (Song for Elvis)” and “Working On A Building.”

Two “perfect” albums with even-better songs released in expanded editions are Emmylou Harris’s Wrecking Ball and The Waterboys’ Fisherman’s Blues.

Brigitte Fontaine & Art Ensemble of Chicago - "Comme à la radio"

adds "Le goudron" which is one of her most popular songs.

With good results, Love and Rockets added a bonus instrumental track to the *beginning* of both "Seventh Dream..." and "Express". For the former, "God and Mr. Smith" (based on "If There's a Heaven Above" which is moved from the beginning of Side A to the end of Side A, bookending the side with the same theme); and for the latter, the slowly building "Angels and Devils". The upbeat "Inside the Outside" was another bonus track on "Seventh Dream..." (a good addition to break up the other tracks' slow/medium tempos); certain additions also had "Ball of Confusion" (also a bonus track on "Express"). (Another "Express" bonus track was "Holiday on the Moon" - not my favorite L&R track, heh).