Album Reviews

The new Live at The Matrix, 1967: The Original Masters super deluxe box set that features early live recordings by The Doors as captured on the cusp of their impending, immense fame is a wonderful historic document on vinyl — and a crucial crossroads moment. Issued for the first time in as complete form as possible — and from better sources than what’s been previously available — these semi-professional recordings give us a glimpse of this legendary L.A. band just before they broke out as international music sensations. Read Mark Smotroff’s in-depth review to see if Live at The Matrix, 1967 deserves a place in your collection. . .

For the very first time, Rhino has released the entirely of Talking Heads’ soundtrack to their seminal September 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense, in a remastered 2LP set. In this all-new combo-style tag-team review, Mike Mettler and Mark Smotroff tell us exactly why this new 40th anniversary 2LP SMS set is the best-sounding edition of SMS to date. . .

Steely Dan and UMe have thrown fans of the band’s music some interesting choices when it comes to their current vinyl reissue series. We all know about the pricier, concurrent AAA UHQR editions from Analogue Productions that all have an admittedly steeper entry fee, but the hard reality is many of us can only afford the standard 180g 1LP editions being released under the Geffen/UMe label banner. What’s a budget-minded, audiophile-leaning Steely Dan fan to do? Read Mark Smotroff’s review of the new Geffen/UMe version of Pretzel Logic to see if it’s the right edition for you. . .

Two late-period R.E.M. albums — October 2004’s and March 2011’s Collapse Into Now — have just gotten well-deserved 180g LP upgrades from Craft Recordings. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo review of these two somewhat underappreciated but wholly worthy entries in the Athens, Georgia alt-rockers deep catalog to see if they fit into your own upcoming LP listening plans. . .

The cover image is iconic. The opening strains of the recording are iconic. Even the original label design is iconic. Fifty years on, we now celebrate Mike Oldfield’s landmark progressive masterwork debut album, May 1973’s Tubular Bells, with an expanded 180g 2LP half-speed-remastered edition overseen by Oldfield himself. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s take on this this avowed timeless classic. . .

The once-buried archival recordings that comprise Frank Zappa’s new 180g 2LP set Funky Nothingness are not just the components of a lost album, but more of an insightful transitional link into FZ’s compositional mindset. This new album also connects many musical dots between the aftermath of FZ’s October 1969 landmark jazz fusion masterpiece Hot Rats and October 1970’s Chunga’s Revenge — and beyond. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see just how quickly Funky Nothingness should jump to the front of your LP listening queue. . .

For the first time in many decades, XTC’s October 1978 sophomore album Go 2 is available again on vinyl, this time as a limited-edition 200g 2LP set via Ape House that includes the ever-elusive companion Go+ EP of dub remixes on its own disc. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this new, expanded edition of Go 2 is worth both the time and listening investment. . .