Album Reviews

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Talking Heads: 77 Gets Well-Deserved, and Totally Killer, 4LP + 4 7-Inch Singles Super Deluxe Edition Box Set Treatment, With Original LP –> AAA All the Way
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 08, 2024

The phrase “auspicious debut” is often overused when discussing many an upstart band’s first album — but when it comes to Talking Heads, it’s a phrase that certainly fits the bill whenever you’re both discussing and listening to the fledgling punk/new wave NYC quartet’s first LP, September 1977’s Talking Heads: 77. And now, this important debut album gets its full box set due today, November 8, 2024, with Rhino’s 4LP + 4 7-inch singles-comprised Talking Heads: 77 – Super Deluxe Edition box set, with the original album therein remastered AAA all the way. Read AP editor Mike Mettler’s review to see why 77 is another vital vinyl box set to add to your collection — plus see his suggestion for the official, more affordable alternate option of half the box’s contents if your bankbook is currently lacking. . .

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Album Reviews
Talking Heads’ Complete Stop Making Sense Concert Film Soundtrack Finally Sees the Expanded Release It Richly Deserves, Via Stunning New 40th Anniversary 2LP Edition From Rhino
Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 25, 2023

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. . .

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Album Reviews
Tango Italiano?
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2008

The acclaimed violinist Salvatore Accardo commissioned arranger Francesco Fiore to re-imagine his dear friend Astor Piazzolla’s “Adios Nonino,” for, violin, piano and orchestra. Not a bandoneon can be heard on this lush, extraordinarily moving tribute to the great tango composer’s father, whose middle name was “Nonino.”

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Album Reviews
Tank and The Bangas Make New Fans With Friend Goals
Nathan Zeller  |  Feb 16, 2021
To quarantine means to isolate for the safety of others. What it does not entail, is the ineptitude to collaborate, as shown by Tank and The Bangas with their newest EP, Friend Goals.

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Album Reviews
Taylor Swift's 1989 : Deep Retro-Pop Fun
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 28, 2015
Taylor Swift’s 1989 released in October of 2014, sold 1.27 million albums in its first week and debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 chart. By the end of the year it had sold 3,660,000 copies, remaining at the top of the chart for most of that time.

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Album Reviews
Taylor's Midlife Crisis
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2012

Dad did love his work, more than his family and marriage to Carly Simon, or more accurately put,  forced to choose between the two by Simon, he chose the road and his career.

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Album Reviews
Tears For Fears Exhibit a Consistently Timeless and Innovative Nature on the New Abbey Road Half-Speed-Mastered 40th Anniversary 180g 1LP Reissue of Their Synth-Centric 1983 Debut Album, The Hurting
Mark Smotroff  |  Jun 29, 2023

Tears For Fears’ synth-centric March 1983 debut album The Hurting set the stage for the broader scope of their ensuing worldwide mega-breakthrough. This key album is now being properly feted with a 180 1LP reissue from Mercury/UMC, as half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of the fine new 40th anniversary edition of The Hurting to see just how Tears For Fears laid the groundwork for their still-innovative soundscapes. . .

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Album Reviews
Tennis Anyone?
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2007

A friend told me that Blonde Redhead purists simply hate this album, or at least they’re disappointed by the New York based group’s 7th. Disappointed by what they claim is overproduction, over-thinking and artifice in place of substance.

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AAA Vinyl
The "Chirping Crickets" Is Rock'n'Roll's DNA
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 16, 2017
When The Crickets' "That'll Be the Day" exploded on the radio in 1957 and the absolutely geeky looking 21 year old Buddy Holly and group appeared December 1st on The Ed Sullivan Show, a generation of kids were moved the way the next one was by The Beatles. You didn't have to look like Elvis. Anyone could be a rock'n'roll star. In fact, "That'll Be the Day" was the first demo cut by The Quarrymen, the skiffle group that eventually morphed into The Beatles.

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Album Reviews
The "Mason-less" Traffic Debut Reissued in Mono
Michael Fremer  |  May 01, 2010

I once pissed next to Dave Mason in the Cambridge Boathouse bathroom back in 1970 something. That has nothing to do with this review except that it’s a review of a Traffic album and Dave Mason was in Traffic but you wouldn’t know that from the cover of their first American album.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
The 200g 45rpm 2LP UHQR Edition of Steely Dan’s Katy Lied Sounds As Good As Any Vinyl World That It’s Welcome To
Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff, Ken Micallef  |  Feb 20, 2025

Who are these children / Who scheme and run wild. . . No, that’s not a comment on the youth of today, but rather a piercing lyrical couplet of sorts that can only mean one thing — it’s time for us to dive deep into the just-released 200g 45rpm 2LP UHQR edition of Steely Dan’s March 1975 treasure of an LP, Katy Lied. Read Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff, and Ken Micallef’s combo review to see if the UHQR version of Katy Lied meets and/or exceeds the standards set by its companion SD releases in this all-important reissue series. . .

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Album Reviews
The Abbey Road Half-Speed Mastered 180g 2LP Reissue of The Who’s Tommy Is an Amazing Vinyl Journey, Delivering A Dramatically Improved, Rounder & More Robust Listening Experience
Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 26, 2022
In May 1969, The Who’s Tommy was a near instantly iconic release which — in a make-or-break moment — stabilized the then-precarious career of Britain’s now legendary rockers. As one of the first rock operas — and still one of the best and most successful of them — Tommy caused quite a sea-change in the pop/rock music world by opening new doors and possibilities for composers, producers, and fans alike, and its impact is still felt to this day. The good news is, Tommy has just been reissued by Polydor/UMC in a quite wonderful half-speed-mastered 180g 2LP edition. Read on to find out exactly why this version of Tommy belongs in your collection and on your turntable, post-haste. . .

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Album Reviews
The Airplane's Self-Indulgent Studio Extravaganza Improves With Age
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2006

Considered a sprawling, self-indulgent mess when first released in 1967 (RCA LOP-1511 mono/LSO-1511 stereo), and a warning to other bands and to record executives footing the bills for unlimited studio time (even the extra dollar added to the list price couldn't have paid for the studio time), After Bathing At Baxter’s has worn remarkably well, and in retrospect is a powerful, smoldering document reflecting a chaotic, violent and dangerous time in America—the kind of time we’d be having now if people would fucking wake up and smell the fascism.

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Album Reviews
The Album That Changed Jazz and Rock
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2009

You can bet this blistering, groundbreaking jazz-rock fusion album from 1971 spun Jeff Beck’s head around big time, turning him from heavy metalist-rocker (his version of The Yardbirds’ “Shape of the Things to Come” on the Jeff Beck Group’s album Truth is arguably the first “heavy metal” rock arrangement) to the jazz-fusionist he became on Blow By Blow. Others followed too, of course.

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Album Reviews
The Alternative Universe of Wayne Shorter's "Emanon"
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 25, 2019
Darkness into Light, Evil into Good, Ugliness into Beauty, Ignorance into Knowledge, Confusion into Certainty, deliverance from oppression (and the other way around) and simultaneous alternative realities are familiar transformative comic book and biblical themes (Shorter is a known comic book fan; not sure about his biblical proclivities).

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