Album Reviews

Record collectors are demented and sad-- obsessive- compulsive freaks that only have one thing on their minds; the next record they need. You see, "want" is only for the completely normal and well adjusted individual who went to the mall to pick up U2's latest but came home happily instead with a totally rippin' new shirt from Old Navy. Lucky shit- bet he even has a girlfriend and a cool car.

If the point of this record is to transport the listener back in time to an intimate late-1800's musical recital in some well-to-do mid-westerner's or southerner's living room parlor, perhaps overlooking the Mississippi River, then it is a complete success. Even if it has some other purpose and I'm totally wrong, the record is a winner.

When Quantegy, the last analog tape manufacturer, went into bankruptcy late last year, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story saying something to the effect that the tape upon which his albums are recorded may become worth more than the recordings themselves and that the tape may have to be recycled so the group could continue recording.

This mostly fabulous sounding 10 LP set cut almost exclusively from original analog master tapes puts into focus a so-called “in between” period for Miles: between the end of the Kind of Blue era and the beginning of the Miles/Shorter/Hancock/Carter/Williams quintet era chronicled on Mosaic's The Complete Studio Recordings of The Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (Mosaic MQ 10-177).

Despite being an agnostic with an outright hostility towards religion, this double Grammy winning gospel/rock set by Ben Harper and The Blind Boys of Alabama masterfully recorded at Capitol's historic Studio B Hollywood Studio has spent more time on my turntable and iPod than most of what's been released lately.

No sound enhancement, whether it's SACD or 45rpm half-speed mastering will solve the problem of Patricia Barber's brand of torchy, “modern cool,” if you don't go for it in the first place. I dig it, your reaction may be different.

Red Norvo and Mildred Bailey, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Karen and Richard Carpenter, The White Stripes, The Fiery Furnaces and The Kills. Husband/wife, boyfriend/girlfried, brother/sister duos have been with us for as long as there's been recorded music.