In May 1969, The Who’s Tommy was a near instantly iconic release which — in a make-or-break moment — stabilized the then-precarious career of Britain’s now legendary rockers. As one of the first rock operas — and still one of the best and most successful of them — Tommy caused quite a sea-change in the pop/rock music world by opening new doors and possibilities for composers, producers, and fans alike, and its impact is still felt to this day. The good news is, Tommy has just been reissued by Polydor/UMC in a quite wonderful half-speed-mastered 180g 2LP edition. Read on to find out exactly why this version of Tommy belongs in your collection and on your turntable, post-haste. . .
Freedom is 73 minutes of prime 21st century Journey, whether it’s the affecting balladry that made the band a household name or the more adventurous, progressive-leaning epics that hearken back to the band’s early/mid-’70s roots. Founding guitarist Neal Schon speaks exclusively to AnalogPlanet about the challenges of sequencing Freedom for double vinyl, how listening to jazz and blues records growing up influenced his playing and arranging skills, and what vintage deep cut he’d like to pull out of the vaults to play during Journey’s upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations. Don’t stop readin’ . . .
One problem that seems to plague many turntable designers is they frequently start with the assumption that the record you’re going to play on their creation is perfect — as in, it’s flat, smooth, and perfectly centered. Unfortunately, this is rarely true, as most records do have errors of one type or another. Thankfully, the DS Audio ES 001 eccentricity detection stabilizer is here to help determine just how off-center your records might be, and how to fix the issue. Read on to find out more about how the ES 001 does its job. . .
The Manley Chinook MC/MM phono preamplifier is one of the most highly regarded, favorably reviewed phono stages on the market. A true hi-fi bargain in audiophile terms — a veritable giant killer, you might even say — we think it’s a perfect candidate for an AnalogPlanet review. So, just how good is the Chinook? Read on to find out. . .
The ongoing Verve Records and Acoustic Sounds reissue series has once again delivered a new vinyl edition of an iconic album that is arguably better than the original in most every way. This new reissue of the October 1956 mono vocal jazz classic Ella And Louis features singing legend Ella Fitzgerald at a superstar-ascending crossroads, teamed with one of the architects of modern jazz, Louis Armstrong — a.k.a. “Pops,” a.k.a. “Satchmo,” a.k.a. “Satch.” Read onward to find out why this new 180g edition honors the now-rare originals while improving upon them in many ways. . .
Everybody oughtta make a change sometime, as the lyric goes, and Eric Clapton fully embraced that concept when he switched record labels from RSO to Reprise Records in 1983. To properly fete Slowhand’s six studio albums during his initial 1983-98 Reprise era, a 180g 12LP box set dubbed The Complete Reprise Studio Albums – Volume 1 is set for release on September 30. Read on for all the details. . .
Show of hands: How many of you had, or still have, a Technics turntable in your gear arsenal? Technics has just announced the U.S. market debut of its Premium Class SL-100C direct drive turntable, which was initially released in the EU/UK last year and is considered to be the burgeoning sibling of its vaunted class brethren, the Technics SL-1500C. Read on to see if it’s right for you, and/or someone you know. . .
An excellent new, 180g half-speed-mastered vinyl reissue of The Who’s December 1967 classic third studio album The Who Sell Out has recently been released by Polydor/UMC, and the results are quite impressive. If you are a serious fan of this record, there is enough significant new detail resonating in this new Abbey Road Studios-cut 1LP edition to make it worth your while to pick up. Read on to find out all the details. . .
Mike Campbell, the consummate sideman, is now fully embracing his role as the frontman and bandleader of The Dirty Knobs, the long-running sideproject of his that has become his primary creative focus since the unfortunate passing of his lifelong friend and Heartbreakers/Mudcrutch bandmate Tom Petty in 2017. Here, Campbell tells Analog Planet exclusively why he prefers vinyl for his Dirty Knobs releases, how a somewhat inadvertent recurring mono listening situation in his youth ultimately informed his ongoing stereo proclivities, and which Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers song he feels will stand the test of time. Read on, into the great wide open. . .
Celluloid heroes never really die, and neither do The Kinks. To wit: The Kinks will be releasing Muswell Hillbillies / Everybody’s In Show-Biz - Everybody’s A Star in a deluxe box set configuration that combines deluxe LP reissues of these two classic early-1970s Kinks albums in addition to an all-new Ray Davies remix LP on September 9, 2022, via BMG. Full details, including who cut what and where for the LPs, follow. . .