Album Reviews

Two late-period R.E.M. albums — October 2004’s and March 2011’s Collapse Into Now — have just gotten well-deserved 180g LP upgrades from Craft Recordings. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo review of these two somewhat underappreciated but wholly worthy entries in the Athens, Georgia alt-rockers deep catalog to see if they fit into your own upcoming LP listening plans. . .

The cover image is iconic. The opening strains of the recording are iconic. Even the original label design is iconic. Fifty years on, we now celebrate Mike Oldfield’s landmark progressive masterwork debut album, May 1973’s Tubular Bells, with an expanded 180g 2LP half-speed-remastered edition overseen by Oldfield himself. Read on to get Mark Smotroff’s take on this this avowed timeless classic. . .

The once-buried archival recordings that comprise Frank Zappa’s new 180g 2LP set Funky Nothingness are not just the components of a lost album, but more of an insightful transitional link into FZ’s compositional mindset. This new album also connects many musical dots between the aftermath of FZ’s October 1969 landmark jazz fusion masterpiece Hot Rats and October 1970’s Chunga’s Revenge — and beyond. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see just how quickly Funky Nothingness should jump to the front of your LP listening queue. . .

For the first time in many decades, XTC’s October 1978 sophomore album Go 2 is available again on vinyl, this time as a limited-edition 200g 2LP set via Ape House that includes the ever-elusive companion Go+ EP of dub remixes on its own disc. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this new, expanded edition of Go 2 is worth both the time and listening investment. . .

How can an album that has been included in numerous greatest albums of all time lists made by an artist inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame remain so elusive that its original pressings are still in high demand? Luckily, Craft Recordings has made that point somewhat moot by releasing an all-analog 180g reissue of Albert King’s seminal August 1967 LP Born Under A Bad Sign. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this new Craft edition is an absolutely essential addition to your blues LP listening collection. . .

Good news! Craft Recordings — the boutique vinyl arm of Concord Music, who control the catalogs of Fantasy, Riverside, Milestone, and many other related labels — has duly revived the Original Jazz Classics series as a brand imprint for the now times. One of the first titles being reissued by Craft under the vaunted OJC umbrella is out today, May 26, in a new, 180g 1LP all-analog remastered edition: Thelonious Monk With John Coltrane. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why this seminal mid-century collaboration between two jazz giants immediately belongs in your vinyl collection. . .

On Record Store Day 2023, Rhino Records issued another entry in their fine series of super-deluxe multidisc vinyl box sets celebrating the road trips of the Grateful Dead, a 180g 5LP box set titled Boston Garden, Boston, MA 5/7/77 (a.k.a. Boston 5.7.77). This new edition is an important historical puzzle piece in the band’s storied legacy, effectively completing a trilogy of live releases culled from their epic spring 1977 tour peak. AP’s resident Deadhead Mark Smotroff got his hands on one these new limited edition collections, so read on to see his reasoning as to why it’s an instantly essential entry in the Dead’s live legacy on vinyl. . .