Album Reviews

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Rick Rubin's Road to Ruen—The Ruen Brothers' "All My Shades of Blue"
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 20, 2018  |  14 comments
The faded Crown (or Coronet) Records cover art, the borrowed “360 Sound” “Stereo” arrows in the top strip where “Ruen Brothers” replaces “Stereo” and the retro attitudinal looks on the faces of the two brothers, one wearing string tie, one not, hint at what’s in the grooves of this audacious Rick Rubin produced debut of the brothers RUpert and hENry Stansall also known as the Ruen Brothers. They are not poseurs. They are serious. They are on a “wake up” mission that’s been developing for four years.

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The Wonderful Sounds of Female Vocals
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 16, 2018  |  19 comments
Humungous conflict of interest alert! I wrote this compilation’s liner notes and created the 22 song track order. Chad Kassem selected the female artists and the individual tracks sourced from albums he’d previously licensed and released on vinyl, SACD and high resolution download (maybe even R2R tape).

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Get to Know "The Unknowable" (Now With Audio Track)
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 13, 2018  |  2 comments
The first unknowable is the correct speed at which to play this oddly accessible 100% improvised double LP set of 13 spontaneous collaborations between saxophonist Dave Liebman and a pair of eclectic percussionists, Adam Rudolph and Tatsuya Nakatani. There's nothing written on the gatefold jacket or labels indicating speed, but I'm pretty sure its 45rpm!

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Does the “Lost” Coltrane Album Live Up to The Hype?
Album Reviews
Malachi Lui  |  Aug 10, 2018  |  21 comments
(Mr. Lui's new Rega P3 has yet arrive following the family's west coast move so he was allowed to review the deluxe CD edition—Ed.)

One of the events covered most by the music press in the last few months has been that a “lost” John Coltrane album has been found and finally released. The original session tape vanished when Impulse moved from New York City to Los Angeles, the label having dumped many tapes of unreleased material in the process. The music was thought to be lost forever, but the family of Trane’s first wife, Naima, found the “take home” session copy in 2004. The story of its discovery is sure to captivate many fans, making it the perfect marketing tool for this new archival release.

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Jack White's Latest Album Is Excellent (In Case You Missed It)
Album Reviews
Malachi Lui  |  Aug 02, 2018  |  16 comments
“Rock is dead. No modern rock artist can have a number one album. Anybody who makes something this weird can't make the Billboard 200 at all, right?”

But to the words of cynics, Jack White says “I don't care” and spreads his statement across a 44 minute album that blends roof-shattering rock, blues, electronic, hip hop, country, spoken interludes, and even jazz. “The one who is prepared is never surprised”, I guess.

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Charles Lloyd's "Modern Sounds In Country and Jazz"
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 28, 2018  |  3 comments
At 80 Charles Lloyd can musically pretty much do whatever the hell he wants, though he did likewise at age 30 in 1966 when he fronted a group featuring 21 year old Keith Jarrett, 24 year old Jack DeJohnette and at 31 the group’s “elder statesman” Cecil McBee, and produced the classic Forest Flower (Atlantic SD 1473), recorded live at the Monterey Jazz Festival.

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Buffalo Springfield "What's That Sound?" Box Set —A Reissue Done 100% Right!
AAA Vinyl, Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 18, 2018  |  15 comments
The Buffalo Springfield box set reissue fans have long awaited is finally here and it was well worth waiting for. Neil Young points out in the enclosed heavy paper full color "one sheet" that all five records were cut directly from the original master tapes, not tape copies. Each record has a Neil-created "SPARS code"

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Righting a Rolling Stones Catalogue Wrong: The New Rolling Stones "Studio Album Collection 1971-2016" Box Set
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 29, 2018  |  30 comments
The irony wasn't lost on Stones fans when ABKCO and Universal simultaneously issued Rolling Stones vinyl box sets back in 2010. ABKCO, which owned the group's British Decca-era catalog, hired legendary mastering engineer Bob Ludwig to handle mastering of its catalog while Universal, which controlled the group's own label, released a box set with no mastering credits.

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Cocteau Twins "Head Over Heels" Reissued by 4AD
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 06, 2018  |  8 comments
Sounding more like the recording engineer accidentally fed only the reverb buss to the 2 channel master instead of the intended mix of "dry and wet", the Cocteau Twins' ethereal, reverb drenched Head Over Heels released in 1983 became a much imitated template for "wave", "shoe gazing" and other musical genres that followed in its wake.

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"Buddy Holly" Sounding Better Than Ever on This Analogue Productions 200g Reissue
AAA Vinyl, Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 05, 2018  |  3 comments
Buddy Holly's last album before "the day the music died" released in 1958 belongs in every rock-based record collection. It's not even a close call. And this reissue sourced from the original analog tapes still in superb condition and cut by Kevin Gray is by far the best sounding edition ever.

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Duck Baker's "Les Blues Du Richmond: Demos and Outtakes 1973-1979"
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 05, 2018  |  1 comments
In his 2017 liner notes for this new release, finger style guitarist/musicologist Duck Baker writes "It may seem obvious that folkies would not want to hear some kid trying to sound like Eric Dolphy with a nylon-strung guitar, but back in the 1960s and early '70s this was not quite so clear-cut. Sandy Bull had recorded with Ornette's drummer Billy Higgins, after all, and people did talk about blending genres quite a bit (they still do talk about it, anyway).

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Katie Mahan Plays Gershwin (Direct-to-Disc)
AAA Vinyl, Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 05, 2018  |  2 comments
It takes nerves of steel and a healthy serving of humility to agree to record direct-to-disc a solo piano recital but that's what Katie Mahan signed on for here. The results are both musically and sonically rewarding. Mahan gave her first piano recital at age 6, having decided at age 4 that she wanted to be a concert pianist after attending a performance of Gershwin's "American in Paris". From her online bio:

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"You're Driving Me Crazy" With Joey DeFrancesco Is Van's Best In Quite Some Time
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  May 15, 2018  |  10 comments
Imagine Van and organist Joey Francesco getting together for a late night jam session with some friends and running through a set of Van tunes plus an assortment of standards. You don't have to imagine it because that's what this album sounds like and it's close to how these sessions were produced. Van and Joey clearly had great fun making this record. Van hasn't sang this freely and playfully on record in some time.

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The Great Sadness Makes a Great Noise
Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 02, 2018  |  1 comments
Indie records arrive more often than you might imagine from musicians giving vinyl a shot at reaching a new audience and possibly providing an additional revenue stream (though as most find out, it’s neither cheap nor easy). Unfortunately, vinyl doesn’t transform lackluster into exceptional music.

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John Sebastian's First Solo Album Improves With Age (Amended to clarify was cut from tape and is AAA)
AAA Vinyl, Album Reviews
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 18, 2018  |  7 comments
Simon split from Garfunkel, Buffalo Springfield broke up. So did The Youngbloods, The Lovin' Spoonful and of course The Beatles. Yes, many '60s groups remained together, like The Rolling Stones and The Grateful Dead, but as the tumultuous '60s came to a close, others fragmented with leaders going solo.

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