Album Reviews

Sort By: Post DateTitle Publish Date
Album Reviews
Brian Wilson's And Van Dyke Parks' Orange Crate Art  Makes Vinyl Debut
Evan Toth  |  Jul 30, 2020
This year, Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ 1994 project, Orange Crate Art, turns 25 years old. To celebrate, Omnivore Records has reissued and remastered the album and brought attention and care to a somewhat disremembered historical artifact created by two musical luminaries. Of note, Omnivore’s campaign is the first time this album has been released on vinyl.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Bill Frisell's Valentine  Gets to the Heart of the Musical and Sonic Matter
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 25, 2020
Last year, producer Lee Townsend brought guitar-great Bill Frisell’s trio, fresh off the road and shortly after concluding two weeks at The Village Vanguard where almost 60 years ago another famous trio made an indelible record or two, into Tucker Martine’s Portland, Oregon studio for three days of recording.

The result is a first for Frisell—a trio recording with long time accompanists, bassist Thomas Morgan and drummer Rudy Royston that is simultaneously densely packed with musical ideas and yet throughout, window wide open to the spaces between the notes.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
A Love Letter  From and To Jimmy Heath Is a Fitting Finale
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 27, 2020
While you wait for that soon to be released Coltrane Ballads reissue, do yourself a favor and pick up tenor saxophonist Jimmy Heath’s worthy final recording. The younger brother of MJQ bassist Percy Heath passed away at age 93 January 19th, 2020 at home in Loganville, Ga.

Heath was as well-known as a composer and arranger as he was as a performer. He began as an alto saxophonist, emulating Charlie Parker but soon switched to tenor to get out from under Bird’s plumage.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson   And the Love Is Mutual
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 03, 2020
This agreeable set of standards sung by Louis Armstrong backed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, then consisting of Herb Ellis, Ray Brown and Louis Bellson recorded at the then new Capitol Studios, L.A. in 1957 but not released in stereo until 1959, was a follow-up of sorts to the highly successful Norman Granz-produced Ella & Louis (Verve MGV-4003) recorded August of 1956.

Like this set, there Armstrong and Fitzgerald were backed by the Oscar Peterson Quartet, but with Buddy Rich drumming instead of Louis Bellson.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Miles' & Gils' Porgy And Bess  Still Sublime After All These Years
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 09, 2020
Miles Davis's second collaboration with arranger/orchestrator Gil Evans (and the first recorded in stereo) is arguably the duo's best effort—a majestic, moody re-working of George Gershwin's classic folk opera recorded in three summer of 1958 sessions at Columbia's 30th street studios.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Lifeline Quartet's Music of the Underground Railroad
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2020
There’s no better time than now to release a live performance of Civil War era “lifeline” spirituals dedicated to Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave herself, who is best known as an “Underground Railroad” organizer personally responsible for smuggling to freedom hundreds of slaves, first to the North and then after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that allowed the recapture of freed slaves in non-slave states, to Canada.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Rough And Rowdy Ways, Number 39 Is Supreme Bob Dylan Storytelling
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 18, 2020
The big Bob Dylan knocks are that he’s a serial plagiarist, a user, a manipulator and most damning of all that he’s “inauthentic”. Joni Mitchell is reputed to have said about Bob “….he’s borrowed his voice from old hillbillies. He’s got a lot of borrowed things. He’s not a great guitar player. He’s invented a character to deliver his songs. It’s a mask of sorts”.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Janaki String Trio's Young Beethoven  Is Musical and Sonic Gold
Ty Webb  |  Sep 28, 2020
In this, the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthday, Yarlung Records offers a recording worthy of the master, a delectation from the Janaki String Trio that was originally recorded in 2006 in Zipper Hall. The sonics are as inviting as the playing.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Dialogues on Race Volume One  Is The Emmett Till Story Set to Unforgettable Music
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 29, 2020
As I reached my home the other day after an early morning run a neighbor pulled over in his car and asked how I was doing. I said, “great, under the Covid-19 circumstances”. Noting my Biden/Harris lawn sign he said “The Democrats have been taken over by the progressives. Doesn’t that bother you?” I said “No, I’m fairly progressive myself. The GOP has been taken over by Trump, who isn’t sure he’ll hand over the reins of power if he loses the election, doesn’t that bother you?”

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Gimme Some Truth  John Lennon The Ultimate Mixes
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 09, 2020
Another murder most foul to revisit. Where were you on December 8th 1980 when the terrible news broke that John Lennon had been assassinated? A girlfriend and I were having dinner with Chuck and Nancy (not Schumer and Pelosi) and with Arnold and Maria (yes, Schwarzenegger and Shriver).

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Big Star's #1 Record  Gets Five Stars From Our Newest Contributor
Nathan Zeller  |  Oct 11, 2020
We find ourselves during the ongoing pandemic abstaining from pleasurable activities like hanging out on the street. Listening to the 1970’s power pop group Big Star will one day help ease the way back to that once taken for granted lifestyle.

Discovering older musical acts like Big Star is for a child of the 21st century like me mostly a matter of pure luck. I happened upon Big Star’s song “Thirteen” on an episode of “That ‘70’s Show” airing on Netflix. That tune, a captivating piece of tender musical perfection, led me to discover Big Star the group and boy, am I thankful for that!

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Lang Lang—The Classical Music Superstar Critics Love to Hate Hate Delivers his "Goldberg Variations"
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 20, 2020
Lang Lang, a certified classical music "superstar" much loved by audiences for his performances of the romantic repertoire and detested by the cognoscenti and critics for being overly dramatic and self-indulgent, waited until age 38 to release a fully realized recording of Bach's mathematically certified "Goldberg Variations"—a piece definitely at odds with his romantic "sweet spot" and one he says he mastered—at least technically—20 years ago, though he performed it for a teacher at age 17 from memory.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Yung Lean Starz Standard Vinyl Update [Final]
Malachi Lui  |  Oct 24, 2020
As promised in the original Starz vinyl report, I got the standard edition to compare to the disappointing glow-in-the-dark 2LP.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Rush's Permanent Waves Marks Forty Years With a Celebratory Box set
Nathan Zeller  |  Oct 24, 2020
Every Canadian is bound to hear the question: “What does Canada offer to the world?” Maple syrup seems to be the general consensus among friends. While delectable, I’m not here to discuss maple syrup. After all, this is AnalogPlanet, not BreakfastPlanet! Rush better answers the question (Not to mention, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen the Band!, Arcade Fire and BTO (etc.)_ed.).

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
The Wonderful Sounds of Male Vocals
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 27, 2020
Analogue Productions returns with another in its very popular “Wonderful Sounds” series that began with a Christmas compilation and followed up in 2018 with a female vocalist assemblage.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X