Album Reviews

This record makes Scott Walker’s last two bleak outings sound positively festive. Harvey has never been an easy listen throughout her decade plus career. She could be dark, abusive, angry, pained, vulnerable, strong and raw-edged, but she could never be easy and she’s not here, as ghostly and pained a musical figure as you’re likely to encounter on record.

There’s a striking new reissue from Craft Recordings I’m sure many jazz fans and collectors are as excited about as I am: 1957’s The Poll Winners. This LP features three of the greatest jazz musicians of their time — Barney Kessel on guitar, backed by Shelly Manne on drums and Ray Brown on bass. How does Craft's QRP-pressed 180g reissue sound and compare to my original LP? In short, it is pretty fantastic. The new edition is much bigger-sounding in many ways, notably on the low end. Read on to find out more. . .

Underrated and anonymously well-exposed, the Los Angeles session guitarist Howard Roberts played for everyone from Frank, to Elvis, the Beach Boys, the Jackson 5, the Monkees and Dean Martin, to name but a few. That's Howard out front on "The Twilight Zone" theme song, among many others. The guy got around.

The production, arrangements and recording are strictly decent (but clean and well crafted) demo-quality, the drummer boat-anchors the tunes behind the beat&#151he’s no Ringo&#151and with tunes such as “You’re Like Lead” (you’re always bringing me down), and “Rubber Soul,” and with an album title like Love Is Not Enough (get it?) you have to wonder if these guys are doing Beatles or Rutles.

Riverside issued this Charlie Byrd album in 1960, two years before his collaboration with Stan Getz on the classic Jazz Samba (Verve V6-8432), which has been reissued by both DCC Compact Classics and Speakers Corner (still in print, I believe).

Reviewing a new Brian Eno album is never an easy thing. Inevitably, those of us who have been following him from his earliest days in Roxy Music and nascent solo career have our deeply established favorites from different periods of his work. The fact is, Eno has quite a legacy behind him, so it’s nice to know his latest album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, fits into this continuum — and it’s presented on 180g recycled vinyl to boot. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s take on how it all sounds, and how this song cycle stacks up with the arc of his life’s work. . .

Listening to this previously unreleased 1971 Royal Albert Hall live performance makes clear that by this time The Byrds were little more than Roger McGuinn’s backing band, but with Clarence White on guitar, Skip Battin on bass and Gene Parsons on drums, what a good backing band!