Album Reviews

Sort By:  Post Date TitlePublish Date
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
"The Royal Ballet" Re-pressed And Immediately Sells Out!
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 25, 2017
Originally licensed in 1959 from British Decca and issued by RCA Victor in America on its lavish Soria series as LDS-6065, the "Gala Performances" performed by The Royal Opera House Orchestra, Covent Gardens conducted by Ernest Ansermet continues to draw new enthusiasts to what many consider one of legendary engineer Kenneth Wilkinson’s most spectacular recordings.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Three Percussion Records You Should Own
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 26, 2017
Pictured are three percussion records you should own—especially if you feel like banging your head against the wall. One is an "oldie" Living Stereo novelty that's back in print, one was originally released in 1984 thanks to a grant from The National Endowment For the Arts (today an endangered species) reissued in the 1990s and one is a current release.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Erroll Garner's "Ready Take One" Turns Heads and Taps Toes
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 24, 2017
Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Taj Mahal's "Labor of Love" Is A Field Recording Your Ears Will Like and Your Heart Will Love
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 24, 2017
We think of "field recordings" as vital ancient musical history, primitively captured. These "field recordings" dating from the 1990s were recorded using a pair of Bruel & Kjaer 4165 microphones and B&K power supply, Cello preamp, Apogee 1000 ADC and a Nagra D digital recorder given by Mark Levinson (the man) to producer Timothy Duffy .

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Digging Into the Liturgy of the Phonograph's First Eleven Years
Tristram Lozaw  |  Dec 21, 2016
We make a seasonal exception to our vinyl-only review policy and publish Tristram Lozaw's review of the double Grammy Nominated (Best Historical Album and Best Album Notes) three CD plus harcover book set Waxing the Gospel: Mass Evangelism and the Phonograph, 1890-1900.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
"A Capitol Christmas" Double LP From the Vaults Worth Owning
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016
Producer/annotator Jay Landers has pulled from Capitol's rich vaults some of the label's best Christmas music that the label has issued as a double LP set complete with excellent liner notes (they are back.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
2007 Never Before Released Jazz Album Made For These Times
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 11, 2016
According to the liner notes for this record that's guaranteed to knock you out in a good way, both musically and sonically, the aggregate known as "The CO-OP" began as an "ad-hoc" backing band for the Swedish singer-songwriter Malin Johansson, A/KA Blue Utopia. The more you search online for information about Ms. Johansson or Blue Utopia, the less you'll find, not that it really matters.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Angel Olsen's "My Woman" Is Her
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 10, 2016
Angel Olsen's third album reminds me of Elvis Costello's first even though she's mostly vulnerable whereas Costello was angry and snarly. The similarity is in how both make fresh older rock conventions like power cords and '50s era rhythms.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Kult of Kogan Kontinues!
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 20, 2016
By now you know the drill: The Electric Recording Company finds a collectible and music-worthy title to reissue and does its fanatical-attention-to-details thing, both in the mastering from the original tape on a lovingly restored all-tube cutting system to a meticulously produced record sleeve and jacket that are in most ways difficult to distinguish from the original as described in previous ERC reviews.

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
Ravi Shankar's At Home Performance Led to The Concert For Bangladesh
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2016
This fascinating Record Store Day release last spring probably got lost in a crowd of LPs so you may have missed it. I did. it was recently sent to me for review by Northern Spy Records (NSPY).
Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
The Moody Electronica of Apple Rabbits' "Oberkampf"
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 26, 2016
Jay Fisher, in his mid-forties is Apple Rabbits. He writes and arranges, sings, plays guitar, bass, piano, keyboards and percussion. He also likes to experiment with electronica. The strings and flutes on this record are real though, and very convincingly recorded .

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
"American Tunes" Is Allen Toussaint's Most Generous Posthumous Musical Gift
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 26, 2016
The late Allen Touissant preferred working in the background for most of his long career. He got his start playing piano in the 1950’s, when his Dr. Longhair-influence rollicking style caught the ear of Dave Bartholomew, Fats Domino’s producer.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Sam Records Reissues Miles Davis's "ascenseur pour l’échafaud" Soundtrack in its Original 10" Format
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 18, 2016
Best known to American Miles Davis fans as side one of the twelve inch Columbia Records LP release Jazz Track (CL1268), Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (“Elevator to the Scaffold”), the jazz soundtrack to the Louis Malle film was originally released in France in 1958 on the Fontana label as a 10” LP.

Continue Reading »
AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
"Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Songbook" Coming Soon From Analog Spark
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 15, 2016
Originally released as a double LP back in 1956, Ella Fitzerald Sings the Cole Porter Song Book was both the first of her "songbook" albums and the first release on Norman Granz's then brand new Verve Records (MG V-4001/2).

Continue Reading »
Album Reviews
"Heigh Ho"—Blake Mills Goes to Work
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 26, 2016
Though he's but thirty years old, guitarist, record producer, studio session and touring band member Blake Mills has had already had a dizzying career. He's toured with Jenny Lewis and Band of Horses and Lucinda Williams. He's done session work for Norah Jones, Weezer, The Avett Brothers and Andrew Bird among many others and he produced Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color for which he received a producer of the year, non-classical, Grammy nomination.

Continue Reading »

Pages

X