Album Reviews

“Strange Days” was the perfect album for its time. For music lovers at a time when records were the main means by which a generation communicated with its culture, the title, cover art, music and sound resonated with the meaning of the fall of 1967 (even though the album was recorded the previous spring at L.A.’s Sunset Sound).

This is the third album from Brooklyn based Clare and the Reasons and its first to be issued on vinyl. Movie, the group's 2007 debut features Van Dyke Parks and Sufjan Stevens to give you an idea of what's going on here.

All of Fiona Apple's albums have been been personal and confessional (some might say "self absorbed") but this one is really personal and confessional and attractively self-absorbed too.

Over the past few years, jazz fans have been treated to some astonishing, heretofore unreleased treasures. Unlike in the rock world, where such finds, along with “bonus tracks” usually tell you why they weren’t released in the first place (with Bob Dylan being a notable exception), these jazz releases have felt like un-mined diamonds, only occasionally in the rough.

Canada-born pianist Oscar Peterson was among jazz's most popular performers. HIs lyrical appeal crossed musical boundaries so that many people who didn't consider themselves jazz fans were fans of Oscar's.

Dr. and Mrs' J.C. Willke's double LP set "How to Teach Children The Wonder of Sex" is taken from a videotape of a lecture given by the couple to the faculty and staff of the University of Kentucky Medical Center back in 1966.