LATEST ADDITIONS

Pat Metheny burst onto the scene in the mid-1970s as basically a fully formed, guitar-slinging compositional prodigy — and his official debut album, 1976’s Bright Size Life, has just been reissued as part of ECM Records’ vaunted Luminessence series. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see just how good this audiophile-grade LP edition of Bright Size Life is, and why you need to get a copy of it ASAP. . .

Lou Reed was — and still is, really — one of rock & roll’s most transformative and influential songwriters and performers. Before he made an indelible mark with The Velvet Underground and then as a solo artist over his five-decade career, Reed honed his craft by penning many a song for other artists as a staff writer for a legendary label during the early rock era. To celebrate that important early chapter of Reed’s history, Light in the Attic, in cooperation with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, has just announced a new 2LP set covering that era, Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65, will be released on October 4, 2024. Read on to see all the tracks written by Reed that are included on this important release. . .

The much bandied-about cliché of a “return to form” has been dragged out many times when referring to legacy artists who deliver an unexpected late-career masterstroke. But in the case of Smoke & Fiction, the new studio album by Los Angeles roots-punk legends X that was released via Fat Possum on August 2, 2024, that phrase may very well be warranted. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see how X delivered the best of their trademark sound on this vital new LP. . .

Affordable turntables are always a good thing in our book, especially if they help usher audiophile newbies into the fold. That’s one of the main reasons why we’re going to take a look at Audio-Technica’s AT-LP70XBT fully automatic wireless belt-drive turntable today. Read on to see all features and specs for the AT-LP70XBT table, and why you can recommend it as a potential starting point for the budding audiophile(s) in your life. . .