Album Reviews

The challenge of writing a review about a band you are admittedly not intimate with — one that some interwebs sources consider to be “the most successful group of the 21st century,” having sold more than 100 million albums and counting — has upsides, as well as down. Such is the case with Coldplay’s new 140g LP Moon Music, which was released by Parlophone on October 4, 2024, on a new vinyl alternative called EcoRecord. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if the songs on Moon Music spoke to him, and how well the EcoRecord format got across the band’s intentions. . .

Elvis Costello took a quantum songwriting leap on his third album and with a generous six weeks in the studio following a world tour with new songs written, came up with intricate arrangements and sonically sophisticated production that while complex, was not detrimental to the intense propulsion of the music.

Oops. I mistakenly called this Basie Jam in the March Stereophile's "In Heavy Rotation" listing. How's that? This was sent to me, along with others in the series, as test pressings in plain white jackets. Of course I have written often about the original Pablo issue of this monster of a record, so I have no excuses. Anyway, Basie Jam, another Pablo great, has yet to be issued at 45 rpm, so many of you have figured out my mistake and sent me e-mails about it. Sorry.

Joni Mitchell’s move to jazz on this 1974 game changer upset her hippie contingent, who wished she’d remained a “lady of the canyon,” and it didn’t exactly thrill fans who considered themselves jazz aficionados either—not with the likes of “jazz-lite” guys like Tom Scott, Joe Sample, Wilton Felder and Larry Carlton involved.