As we enter the final home stretch of the holiday season, and — c’mon, fess up now — you’re still contemplating gift-giving options for those on your list at this late hour, we here at AnalogPlanet thought we’d lend an eleventh-hour helping ear, er, hand. To wit: We’ve compiled a hopefully helpful list of analog gear, LP, and box set-related suggestions for anyone and everyone on your list, whether they’re budding analog-audiophile newbies, inveterate collectors, discerning listeners, or hardcore gearheads. The bottom line is, all analog-comers are welcome here on AP, and now it’s time to add some much-better-than-fruitcake ideas into the holiday shopping mix. Read on to find out what we feel are some of the most wonderful — and quite affordable — holiday options for one and all. . .

All I want for Christmas is . . . more vinyl. Just ask Smithereens drummer Dennis Diken, who got his first real taste for wax during Christmas as a wee lad, when he received a literal cavalcade of 45s under the tree. In the spirit of the season, Smithereens vinyl fans can rejoice with the news that the four-man New Jersey-bred band’s October 2007 holiday-themed album Christmas With The Smithereens is out now in limited-edition 140g 1LP form, courtesy of Sunset Blvd. Records. Diken got on Zoom with AP editor Mike Mettler recently to discuss all those special 45s he got for Christmas back in 1962, the fine art of album sequencing, and why having Smithereens music on vinyl remains vitally important to the band’s legacy. . .

For a long time now, we’ve had the feeling there were seemingly a bazillion different versions of Vince Guaraldi’s beloved jazz soundtrack to the timeless “A Charlie Brown Christmas” 1965 TV special out there in the wilds of record collecting. Thus, we were quite excited to learn of the new, audiophile-leaning black vinyl 180g 2LP edition of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” — now in stores and very much in time for holiday gift giving, courtesy Fantasy/Craft Recordings — to hopefully provide us all with some higher-fidelity LP solace. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if this new, expanded 2LP edition of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is worthy of getting for those on your gift list — and/or, in the spirit of the season, also get one for yourself. . .

It’s a constant internal struggle we analog audiophiles face on a daily basis in terms of balancing our lofty hi-fi listening goals, system performance expectations, and overall playback aspirations with our concurrent desires to bring as many new converts into the analog fold as we can. Often, we find it downright difficult to manage these proclivities when it comes to separating the ideal from the real without giving off an air of superiority that leads us to appear to others as, well, a bit too exclusionary — all the more reason why a burgeoning new company like Dum Audio has arrived at the exact right place at the exact right time to help bridge that gap for us. Read on to find out how Dum Audio seeks to do just that with what they quite austerely call The Turntable and The System. . .

When is a DJ cartridge not a DJ cartridge? Danish manufacturer Ortofon seeks to bridge the DJ and hi-fi worlds with their top-of-the-line Concorde Elite moving-magnet cartridge ($439 SRP), one with a clear nod to audiophile listening. Does it hold up as a hi-fi cartridge? Read Ken Micallef’s review to see if the Elite is indeed worthy of Ortofon’s storied pedigree. . .

Two often overlooked albums by The Beach Boys are the main focus of a fantastic new 180g 5LP+1EP box set, Sail On Sailor – 1972, which features the band’s landmark 1973 album Holland plus 1972’s under-appreciated and much misunderstood Carl And The Passions – “So Tough” to form the heart of this excellent new collection buttressed by a previously unreleased, complete, of-era 1972 live performance from Carnegie Hall. Read Mark Smotroff’s thorough review of this truly special box set-cum-document of an artistically transformative, often powerful, and at times remarkably hard-rocking period for a quintessential Southern California band looking for — and ultimately reaching the summit of — some creatively fruitful new horizons. . .

Mark Smotroff was up bright and early on Record Store Day (a.k.a. RSD 2022) back on Black Friday, November 25 — and, spoiler alert, he was able to find most of the RSD Exclusive and RSD First LPs he wanted. Read on to find out what LPs he got, how they all sound, and where you might still be able to find any RSD 2022 goodies you want for your own collection. . .

I don’t know about you, but I am constantly running out of room to shelve all the new LPs and vinyl box sets I purchase at my local record shops, not to mention what arrives in the mail on a seemingly daily basis (Sundays included). I’m constantly re-prioritizing what gets shelved in my designated A-level wall-to-wall shelving units, so I could sure do with some more vinyl shelving options placed nearby my main listening room and home office area to handle all the new arrivals. With an eye on practical holiday shopping ideas for the AP faithful, I’m pleased to report Pangea Audio offers a new Vulcan LP storage rack, as well as a new Vulcan three-shelf audio gear rack to boot. Read on to see if Pangea Audio’s new Vulcan offerings are just what you might be looking for. . .

Kenny Wayne Shepherd, the pre-eminent teenage guitar phenom of the 1990s, is essentially all grown up now at age 45 — but he’s still a kid at heart, albeit with a lifetime of playing his signature blend of blues, rock, and soul well under his belt. What better way to bridge the gap between the gunslinging days of yore with the wizened experience level of the here and now than with Trouble Is… 25, a complete re-recording of the Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band’s platinum-selling sophomore album Trouble Is…, which was originally released in October 1997 on CD and cassette, but never on vinyl. Shepherd got on Zoom with AP editor Mike Mettler to discuss how his dad first introduced him to vinyl, what the re-recording process for Trouble Is… 25 entailed, how sitting on an amplifier at a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert was a “defining moment” in his life, and how mindful he is of sequencing his albums for vinyl playback — and, of course, much, much more. . .

Christine McVie, vocalist/keyboardist and one of the principal songwriters in Fleetwood Mac, passed away in her native England yesterday, November 30, at age 79, following a brief illness. McVie — who made her initial impact on Britain’s blues-centric concert and recording circuit in the late 1960s under her given name, Christine Perfect — was perhaps best known for chart-ready singalong Fleetwood Mac hits like “Don’t Stop,” “Little Lies,” and “Over My Head,” but her musical legacy runs much, much deeper than that. It seems only fitting that we here at AnalogPlanet salute such a stellar six-decade recording and performing career with highlights of McVie’s work on vinyl — some, if not many LPs and 45s of which are likely in your own collections. Read on to get our take on the legacy of this truly unique songbird on LP. . .