Mark Smotroff

It’s been a mere 5 days since Ozzy Osbourne passed away at age 76 on July 22, 2025. On that day, we posted an abbreviated tribute to the man and his music on AP, with the added kicker that we’d be posting more about him a little bit later. After AP editor Mike Mettler conferred with main LP reviewer Mark Smotroff, we decided to take a different approach with our tribute. Read on to see our collective choices of 15 great tracks on wax that best honor the legacy of Ozzy and Black Sabbath. . .

David Bowie’s March 1975 LP release on RCA, Young Americans, was an album that in some ways divided fans and his career, having come out in the aftermath of shedding his Ziggy Stardust persona and not long before the full-flowered emergence of his suave and sophisticated Thin White Duke phase. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Parlophone’s new half-speed-mastered 180g 1LP reissue of this transitional and transformational Bowie release gives you good reason to reconsider the music and sound of Young Americans, one of the more underappreciated classics in the mid-’70s Bowie catalog. . .

In the aftermath of The Mothers’ September 1973 hit LP Over-Nite Sensation, Frank Zappa began a process of trying to capture his amazing band on video for a hopeful television program. It took the better part of a year to eventually accomplish the task, as two trial efforts were deemed unusable at the time. Thankfully, modern restoration techniques have helped salvage such historic works in these 21st century tymes (sic), and that second session — now officially titled Cheaper Than Cheep — is being released by Zappa Records/UMe today, June 27, 2025, as a 180g 3LP set. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why Cheep is anything but, and is instead another worthwhile addition to the Zappa-on-vinyl canon. . .

Last week was indeed a tough one for those of us who listen to a lot of music on vinyl that initially made literal waves in the latter half of the 20th Century. Just two days prior to Beach Boys architect Brian Wilson’s passing at age 82 on June 11, 2025, funk/soul pop pioneer Sly Stone also passed away at age 82 on June 9, 2025. In the following in-depth analysis, AP editor Mike Mettler and our chief album reviewer Mark Smotroff combine forces to give us their collective overview of Sly’s best moments on vinyl. . .