Album Reviews

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Duke Ellington & John Coltrane Together Make Beautiful Music
Michael Fremer  |  May 08, 2022  |  16 comments
What seemed like an unlikely pairing in 1962 of “jazz elder” 63 year old Duke Ellington with John Coltrane, who had just assembled his ”classic quartet” destined to explore uncharted musical (and spiritual) territory, produced a surprisingly cohesive and satisfying album.

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Album Reviews
With Crash, Charli XCX Shifts Her Sound & Aesthetic
Malachi Lui  |  May 14, 2022  |  9 comments
Last year, British electropop star Charli XCX tweeted, “rip hyperpop.” The tweet shocked many—especially coming from the artist who brought bubblegum bass and hyperpop to broader audiences through projects like 2016’s SOPHIE-produced Vroom Vroom EP or 2020’s quickly recorded quarantine album how i’m feeling now—but Charli has always gone at her own pace, on her own terms. Yet, her new album Crash presents her as merely another generic pop star, supposedly as a performance art piece about selling out that doubles as her last record on Atlantic (and therefore her as-of-now last chance to use those major label resources). Crash is Charli’s Let’s Dance: the album where a pop star fully embraces the mainstream after years of artsier excursions. Unfortunately, the end result lacks personality, trading her strengths for lyrically emptier and sonically blander songs laser-focused on mass appeal.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Yarlung's GRAMMY nominated Fire and Fancy  Is Music For Moderns
Michael Leser Johnson  |  May 16, 2022  |  3 comments
In my previous review of the Korppoo Trio by the Sibelius Piano Trio and Yarlung Records, I spoke a great deal about the recording philosophy of this boutique classical outfit and their AAA, 45rpm chamber music records. From the same recording sessions that brought us that exquisite romantic delight, we have another outing with musicians Petteri Iivonen, Juho Pohjonen, and Samuli Peltonen, this time with a decidedly different program.

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Album Reviews
On The Insufferable What's It Gonna Take?, Van Morrison Declines Even Further
Malachi Lui  |  May 30, 2022  |  67 comments
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
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Album Reviews
Arcade Fire’s WE: Calculated & Concise, But Inconsistent
Malachi Lui  |  May 31, 2022  |  14 comments
Between the excessive sprawl of 2013's James Murphy-produced Reflektor and the failed experimentation of 2017's punchable Everything Now, it might seem as if Arcade Fire spent the last decade actively trying to lose people's interest. Now, however, they're back; at least, that's what their Nigel Godrich-produced new LP WE wants you to think. Split into more introspective "I" (A) and outward-facing "WE" (B) sides, WE is a concise 40-minute summation of the band's previous work. Every Arcade Fire record finds them striving for epic heights and always falling short, though you can't say they're not trying really hard.
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Album Reviews
Combat Rock + The People's Hall: The Clash Cash In
Malachi Lui  |  Jun 04, 2022  |  23 comments
By 1981, The Clash was in shambles. Seeking more direction following their 1980 triple album Sandinista!, co-frontman Joe Strummer and bassist Paul Simonon rehired the band's notoriously difficult original manager, Bernie Rhodes, to the dismay of other co-frontman Mick Jones. Jones sought to continue the band's expansive forays into dub, reggae, and hip-hop, while Strummer wanted something more streamlined. Yet despite all of that, plus drummer Topper Headon's spiraling heroin and cocaine addiction, The Clash toured and managed to record new material at The People's Hall in the Republic of Frestonia (a small area in West London populated by squatters hoping to secede from the UK) as well as Electric Lady Studios in New York City.
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Album Reviews
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest Is A Colorful, Cinemascopic Half-Speed Mastered 45rpm Vinyl Me Please Reissue
Mark Smotroff  |  Jun 17, 2022  |  19 comments
I discovered New York’s Grizzly Bear in a most typical way, for me — over the in-store PA system at Amoeba Music here in San Francisco. When their in-store play got to the band’s then-big hit — “Two Weeks,” from their May 2009 album Veckatimest — I realized I had indeed previously heard the song’s distinctive, earworm-inducing, millennial-whoop-flavored signature hook. Soon enough, I started collecting the Grizzly Bear catalog on vinyl. While I’ve enjoyed my 180g Veckatimest reissue, I’ve long suspected there might be more depth tucked away in the recording. Thus, I was excited to learn the good folks at Vinyl Me Please were re-releasing Veckatimest in a half-speed mastered, 45rpm colored vinyl edition.
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Album Reviews
Poll Winners Win Again: Barney Kessel, Shelly Manne, and Ray Brown Score on Craft Recordings' QRP-Pressed, Grundman-Mastered 180g Vinyl Reissue
Mark Smotroff  |  Jun 24, 2022  |  23 comments

There’s a striking new reissue from Craft Recordings I’m sure many jazz fans and collectors are as excited about as I am: 1957’s The Poll Winners. This LP features three of the greatest jazz musicians of their time — Barney Kessel on guitar, backed by Shelly Manne on drums and Ray Brown on bass. How does Craft's QRP-pressed 180g reissue sound and compare to my original LP? In short, it is pretty fantastic. The new edition is much bigger-sounding in many ways, notably on the low end. Read on to find out more. . .

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Album Reviews
The Beach Boys’ Very Best 180g 6LP Box Set: A Super-Sunny 21st Century Soundtrack for Endless Summers
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 01, 2022  |  13 comments
Reviewing The Very Best of The Beach Boys: The Sounds of Summer, the massive new 60th Anniversary 180g 6LP Beach Boys box set retrospective from UMe/Capitol/Brother Records, has been a daunting yet fun challenge. That said, having its contents mixed and mastered by the band’s longtime engineer/archivist Mark Linett has enabled a remarkable continuity from track to track — no small task, given the diversity of music and technological differences in recording across a 60-year period.
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Album Reviews
QRP-Pressed 180g Vinyl Reissue of Bill Evans Trio’s Trio ’65 Does Full Justice to a Laid Back, Forward-Leaning & Quite Dynamic Recording
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 08, 2022  |  2 comments

Trio ’65 showcases pianist Bill Evans as a career artist in a growth phase. This Acoustic Sounds Series, QRP-Pressed 180g LP reissue of a consummate Verve Records/Rudy Van Gelder classic handily answers the following question very much in the affirmative: Do I really need this version in my collection?

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Album Reviews
Hampton Hawes’ Four! Is Another Spirited 180g Entry in Craft Recordings’ Acoustic Sounds Series, Thanks to a QRP-Pressed, All-Analog Master by Bernie Grundman
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 15, 2022  |  12 comments
In some ways, it is curious that Craft Recordings has chosen to reissue Hampton Hawes’ 1958 outing Four! (exclamation point very much included) as the first entry in his Acoustic Sounds series, as Hawes’ earlier quartet sessions with guitarist Jim Hall were apparently highly regarded back in the day. Personally, I’m glad they have reissued this album. For one thing, the all-analog mastering by Bernie Grundman feels very sympathetic to the time period and to the recording. Read on for more...

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Album Reviews
Explorin’ the Open Sounds of the Bernie Grundman-Mastered, RTI One-Step-Pressed, Craft Recordings Small Batch Series 180g 1LP Release of Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 22, 2022  |  22 comments

The prospect of reviewing a new, ultra-deluxe 180g version of the March 1958 hard-bop classic Relaxin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet has been simultaneously daunting and exciting. It is the first time I’ve gotten my hands on one of these tasty, fancy editions that’s an upstanding member of Craft Recordings’ popular and acclaimed Small Batch series. This series uses RTI’s noted one-step vinyl manufacturing process, which effectively delivers a pressing made off a first-generation metal mother made from the original lacquer. Good news: The Craft Relaxin’ LP is nicely centered, fairly flat, and RTI’s special Neotech’s VR900 vinyl formulation is especially quiet and transparent. Read on to glean more. . .

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Album Reviews
Fleet Foxes Serve Up a Harmonious 180g 1LP Live Performance Featuring Bandleader Robin Pecknold Mostly Going at It Alone, and Acoustically
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 29, 2022  |  4 comments

Fleet Foxes’ new live and mostly acoustic A Very Lonely Solstice LP leans more toward the full-album concert experience I was hoping for on record. There is a nice sense of the church ambiance — this performance was recorded live at St. Ann & The Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York in December 2020 — that wonderfully captures the woody essence of Fleet Foxes bandleader Robin Pecknold’s strummy nylon-string guitar. Read on to learn more. . .

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Album Reviews
The Oscar Peterson Trio’s 180g 1LP We Get Requests Impresses, Featuring an Unstoppable Three-Piece Band at Its Creative Peak on a Stunning New Edition From Verve & Acoustic Sounds
Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 05, 2022  |  9 comments

The Oscar Peterson Trio’s seminal 1964 release We Get Requests features his classic trio at a creative peak. This fine recording is an especially fantastic listen in a pristine new Verve Records/Acoustic Sounds Series 180g 1LP presentation that’s coming out August 19 via UMe. This reissue delivers on so many levels, and is in every way better than my original 1960s-era vinyl pressing. Read on to learn why this new edition is worth pre-ordering right now. . .

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Album Reviews
Exemplary New Abbey Road Studios Half-Speed-Mastered 180g 1LP Of The Who Sell Out Delivers a Rich, Warm & Round Listening Experience
Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 12, 2022  |  10 comments

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. . .

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