Album Reviews

Named for a now defunct Northern New Jersey, Route 23 lawn furniture emporium (bought my chaise lounges there!), Fountains of Wayne has been making consistently tuneful and erudite observations about just plain folks since 1996 when they released their eponymous first album on Atlantic Records. The core was then and is now, the delightfully bratty-voiced Chris Collingwood and his multi-instrumental partner Adam Schlesinger.

Wow! Leave it to Sundazed to pull off the ultimate Christmas gift for Byrdmaniax-not that any of them will wait until then to devour this quintuple 45rpm box set. All of these A and B sides were originally conceived of as the “next” Byrds single, but for one reason or another, were shelved. Now Sundazed has resurrected them with fabulous sound and impeccable, sumptuous packaging.

Truly, you can live without The Hollies' version of "That's How Strong My Love Is," compared to The Rolling Stones' white boy version, which you can also do without once you've heard Otis Redding do it. 

Smartly arranged and orchestrated, nicely recorded and beautifully packaged, Bright Eyes’s latest double LP set is a wistful set that begins oddly but effectively with a denouement of a song about the encroaching pincer forces of corporate, military and religious aggressors (“If you think that God is keeping score, hooray!”)

Kitsch fans alert! This obscure 1960 oddity by composer/arranger Bob Thompson consists of a dozen short, lushly orchestrated impressions of various forms of transportation, each introduced with a stereo high-fidelity sound effect recording of a train, ocean liner, motor scooter, sports car, Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, or what have you.

The forced revisiting of old, long neglected favorites is one of the great benefits of reviewing reissues. I hadn’t played this chestnut for years, maybe decades and never in the mono mix since by then stereo ruled—at least for me and a small minority of other kids.

There was a time when recordings studios were scenes, and the scenes produced great records, much like bar and club scenes produce great performers.