Album Reviews

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.

Decide for yourself whether The Lovin’ Spoonful took their name from Mississippi John Hurt’s “Coffee Blues” (not to mention the tune for “Darlin’ Companion”) but fans of Taj Mahal will have no doubts about this gentle soul’s influence on Taj when you hear this earlier take on “Corrina, Corrina” and compare it to Taj’s on The Natch’l Blues (CS9698).

Two often overlooked albums by The Beach Boys are the main focus of a fantastic new 180g 5LP+1EP box set, Sail On Sailor – 1972, which features the band’s landmark 1973 album Holland plus 1972’s under-appreciated and much misunderstood Carl And The Passions – “So Tough” to form the heart of this excellent new collection buttressed by a previously unreleased, complete, of-era 1972 live performance from Carnegie Hall. Read Mark Smotroff’s thorough review of this truly special box set-cum-document of an artistically transformative, often powerful, and at times remarkably hard-rocking period for a quintessential Southern California band looking for — and ultimately reaching the summit of — some creatively fruitful new horizons. . .

In the Beatleverse, it is generally well known and quite accepted that the mono mixes of the early Beatles recordings are considered superior to the stereo counterparts for many reasons. Thus, a new box set assembling 21st century recreations of the U.S. Beatles albums in their original monaural sound has a special sort of appeal — and that’s where the 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 180g 8LP box set, which was released by Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/UMe on November 22, 2024, comes into play. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if The Beatles’ 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono 180g 8LP box set is fab enough to put on your holiday-purchase list, or if you should buy each album individually. . .