Short Cuts

A trio of new releases share some wonderful and often heartfelt aesthetics across a variety of genres, dance music-infused sounds, personal identity, and artistic freedom, and we’re covering all three of them today together under our Short Cuts album review banner. Read Mark Smotroff’s roundup review of three wonderful LPs from the always adventurous female singer Lady Blackbird, chart sensation and vocal marvel Chappell Roan, and a full live concert reissue from the vaults of the late, legendary dance music pioneer Sylvester. . .

Part 2 of our RSD 2024 Short Cuts roundup focuses on a pair of Holy Grail releases for reviewer Mark Smotroff — Gandalf’s self-titled 1969 debut and Parliament’s own 1970 debut, Osmium, the latter of which is now expanded into a 2LP Deluxe Edition. Read on to see if either or both of these RSD offerings are worthwhile additions to your own collection. . .

It’s not often you get new titles from three legendary artists of yesteryear like gospel icon Sister Rosetta Tharpe, piano virtuoso Art Tatum, and soul-jazz organ pioneer Brother Jack McDuff all released on the same day. But this year, all three of them are being celebrated on Record Store Day 2024 — this year’s first installment of which happens to fall on this upcoming Saturday, April 20 — with newly unearthed, previously unreleased, multidisc live concert recordings on 180g black vinyl. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of all three of these releases to see which one, or ones, belong on your “must have” RSD 2024 shopping list. . .

Looks like another year has gone by with a seemingly endless release-cycle parade consisting of scores of brand-new LPs from both known artists and untested newcomers alike, along with a myriad of archival vinyl reissues and overstuffed box sets galore — a good number of them presented in the much-preferred AAA form to boot. With the calendar set to turn over to 2024 any day now, that means it’s high time to assess the best of what we’ve heard on wax during the past 12 months. Read on to see AP editor Mike Mettler and chief LP reviewer Mark Smotroff’s respective lists of the top archival and new LP releases of 2023. . .

In retrospect, Tom Waits’ trajectory from singer/song writer to down-beaten jazz-fueled street person scowling at the piano in the 1970s made perfect sense. But when he came out of the gate in the early 1980s, his transformation was almost as dramatic as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust reinvention. Five new of-era 180g 1LP reissues from Island/UMe — namely, 1983’s Swordfishtrombones, 1985’s Rain Dogs, 1987’s Franks Wild Years, 1992’s Bone Machine, and 1993’s The Black Rider — all seek to remind us of just how fertile this period was in Waits’ overall canon. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review to see if any or all of these new wonderful Waits reissues belong in your collection. . .

Created with direct input from label founder Marshall Chess, VMP’s The Story of Cadet Records almost entirely AAA 180g 8LP super deluxe box set is a welcome addition to the analog fold. The eight albums offered herein — including rare titles from the likes of Muddy Waters, Etta James, and Ramsey Lewis — are a healthy cross-section snapshot of the expansive sounds Cadet was pursuing as the mid-1960s exploded both socially and musically. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why The Story of Cadet Records is worth the investment. . .

With so many pressing plants being fairly maxed out these days in terms of their production capacity, it’s been nice to see how Detroit’s Third Man Pressing has stepped up to the plate to deliver respectable, audiophile-grade vinyl pressings at fairly reasonable SRPs. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo review of three new Verve by Request 180g 1LP reissues from jazz greats Archie Shepp, Yusef Lateef, and The Ahmad Jamal Trio — all of which have been recently pressed at Third Man — to see if they make the grade. . .