Mark Smotroff

Mark Smotroff  |  Apr 21, 2023  |  3 comments

The Jazz Detective label has done truly great work in preparing Chet Baker’s new 180g 2LP set, Blue Room: The 1979 VARA Studio Sessions in Holland, for its Record Store Day 2023 release on April 22. Read on to see why Mark Smotroff feels should be near the top of your own RSD 2023 acquisition wishlist. . .

Mark Smotroff,  |  Apr 19, 2023  |  First Published: Apr 18, 2023  |  16 comments

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Record Store Day — and it really should, as the very next RSD is slated for this Saturday, April 22. Since its 2007 debut, RSD has grown into an international pilgrimage event for vinyl-loving music fans around the world — and it shouldn’t surprise you in the least that we collectively love Record Store Day here at AnalogPlanet, seeing how we’ve been proud RSD supporters since Day 1. Read on to see what two of AP’s intrepid album lovers, vinyl evaluators, and inveterate collectors — namely, chief LP reviewer Mark Smotroff and AP editor Mike Mettler — cite as their top-tier RSD 2023 choices. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Apr 07, 2023  |  3 comments

These days, a new Depeche Mode album is cause for celebration, and the band’s just released 180g 2LP set, Memento Mori, is worthy of deep listening and devoted examination. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Memento Mori stands tall with other classic entries in Depeche Mode’s storied vinyl catalog. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Apr 05, 2023  |  11 comments

Two fascinating and enlightening new, concurrent Frank Zappa live albums come from the spring of 1980, an underexplored period of his career when he toured with a somewhat stripped-down reinvention of his touring group. The 2LP Zappa ’80 Mudd Club set was recorded near the start of the tour on Zappa’s beloved Nagra reel-to-reel analog portable in the storied, tiny New York club, while the 3LP Zappa ’80 Munich release is Frank’s very first all-digital live recording of the same band at the end of the tour, as captured in a huge German arena. Read on to see how Mark Smotroff feels both recordings stack up in the ever-expanding Zappa-on-vinyl catalog. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Mar 29, 2023  |  6 comments

While we haven’t followed every twist and turn of the career of Miley Cyrus, we have kept open ears and open minds regarding her evolution as an adult and bona-fide recording artist, someone not to be dismissed outright because of preconceived notions about who she is and where she comes from. To that end, AP editor Mike Mettler asked Mark Smotroff to check out her hit new LP Endless Summer Vacation, and here’s what he discovered. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Mar 24, 2023  |  3 comments

A new 180g 2LP edition of Elton John’s classic January 1972’s Honky Château album has just been released, and it includes two sides comprising solely of unreleased session demos. Mark Smotroff gives us his take on the expanded edition one of the Rocket Man’s most hailed early LPs, the one that kicked off an incredible chart runs of six consecutive No. 1 albums. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Mar 17, 2023  |  21 comments
Beginning in 1952 and extending into 1953, Savoy Records issued a five-volume series of 10-inch LPs dubbed The Birth of Bop. Taken as a whole, these recordings present a fine snapshot of many movers and shakers in the bebop music-making universe of the times. And now, Craft Recordings has collected them all into the newly remastered The Birth of Bop 10-inch 5LP box set. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this high-quality release belongs in your vinyl collection. . .
Mark Smotroff  |  Mar 10, 2023  |  3 comments

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. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Mar 03, 2023  |  7 comments

Jazz pianist Brad Mehldau launched onto the jazz scene in the 1990s, and he quickly made his mark as one of the more important modern-day jazz pianists of our times. Mehldau’s latest effort, Your Mother Should Know: Brad Mehldau Plays The Beatles, is a live tribute album that celebrates the very scope of The Fab Four’s music itself — and, ultimately, its impact on popular music as we know it today. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Mehldau’s new LP is worthy of spinning on your own fab turntable. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Feb 24, 2023  |  8 comments

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. . .

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