Album Reviews

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. . .

Reviewing a new Brian Eno album is never an easy thing. Inevitably, those of us who have been following him from his earliest days in Roxy Music and nascent solo career have our deeply established favorites from different periods of his work. The fact is, Eno has quite a legacy behind him, so it’s nice to know his latest album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, fits into this continuum — and it’s presented on 180g recycled vinyl to boot. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s take on how it all sounds, and how this song cycle stacks up with the arc of his life’s work. . .

As good and desirable as blues guitarist Mel Brown’s 1967 Impulse Records debut album Chicken Fat is, the reality is he’s not quite a household name, even among many jazz and blues aficionados. That said, enough people have discovered Brown’s music to warrant its inclusion in a significant new reissue series from Verve By Request/UMe that’s being pressed by Third Man Records. Read Mark Smotroff’s dive-into-the-frying-pan review to see why you might want to add Mel Brown’s tasty-sweet funky 180g Chicken Fat LP to your vinyl collection. . .

There are many reasons why you’ll likely want to pick up the new 180g 1LP remaster of John Lee Hooker’s classic 1962 blues benchmark Burnin’, as great music and great sound are just part of the equation. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s firsthand experiences spinning this scorchin’ blues classic via this all-analog remastered LP from Craft Recordings. . .

In the mid-1990s, Elvis Costello stunned many in the music world with the release of an outstanding song he composed with no less than the great hit-making maestro Burt Bacharach, the composer of many iconic pop standards, acclaimed film soundtracks, and even a Broadway show. Soon enough, they collaborated on a celebrated full album, Painted From Memory, and now, 25 years later, the scope of their work together is being properly feted in both 140g 2LP+4CD and 140g 2LP editions of The Songs of Bacharach & Costello. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see which version of the release immediately belongs in your collection. . .

In 1972, Stax Records — the influential Memphis-based label that brought the likes of Otis Redding, Booker T. & The M.G.s, and Albert King to the world — recognized the need for a large-scale, highly visible public event to help heal America’s fractured African American communities. Craft Recordings, the current owners of Stax’s tracks, has seen fit to honor the gamechanging event that was duly dubbed Wattstax with a fantastic 50th anniversary reissue series, the jewels of which are a pair of timely analog-mastered gems: Wattstax: The Living Word and The Living Word: Wattstax 2. Get into the Wattstax groove by reading Mark Smotroff’s review of both of these fine 140g 2LP collections. . .