Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
Bob Dylan's Morose Masterpiece Untangled in Black By Mobile Fidelity
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 27, 2013  |  31 comments
Dylan claims Blood on the Tracks' pained, heartbreaking and often very angry and vicious songs weren't personal confessionals, though he was in the midst of a painful divorce. His son Jakob says they were. Does it really matter if they were about or inspired by his life? He delivers them as if they were very personal as does any great actor, but they are just as satisfying or disturbing thought of as having been inspired by his personal circumstances at the time.

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Album Reviews
"Blade Runner" Soundtrack Delivers Sonic Fireworks
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 24, 2013  |  21 comments
Ridley Scott's 1982 "future noir" classic "Bladerunner" based on Philip K.Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" was a box-office flop when first released. Like "TRON", another flop, it has gained stature over the years, though like "TRON", the movie's visual and sonic pleasures are greater than the storytelling.
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Album Reviews
Aaron Neville's A&M Debut Remains a Musical and Sonic Treat
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 17, 2013  |  1 comments
Well before Aaron Neville's gorgeous warble turned to wobble and he began using it as vocal ground cover—so much so that Saturday Night Live easily satirized it—his was a gorgeous instrument capable of both technical excellence and exquisite emotional communication as this impeccably produced and recorded 1991 release demonstrates.
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Album Reviews
Elvis Back Up Tapes Astonish
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 10, 2013  |  4 comments
When first released by RCA as a single LP back in 1988 (RCA 9589-1-R) this album, probably sourced from digital, created a sensation—at least among the legions of Elvis Presley fans.
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Album Reviews
David Bowie's "The Next Day" Offers a Bleak Yet Satisfying World View
Michael Fremer  |  May 30, 2013  |  20 comments
David Bowie fans who lost the thread around his Tin Machine days or who meandered mystified or perhaps less than fully satisfied through his end of century output and beyond need to return for The Next Day his first album in a decade, following his 2004 heart attack and major surgery. Not that Heathens wasn’t a good outing
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Album Reviews
Johanna Martzy's Bach Unaccompanied Violin Sonatas Reissued by The Electric Recording Co.
Michael Fremer  |  May 08, 2013  |  15 comments
Through her early EMI recordings, among others, the late Hungarian violinist Johanna Martzy has achieved fame, notoriety and a cult following that escaped her during her lifetime.

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Album Reviews
Thom Chacon Delivers It Straight Up On Sophomore Effort
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 25, 2013  |  1 comments
Singer/songwriter Thom Chacon delivers hardscrapple tales in a voice well-suited to the task that will immediately remind you of what's his name? Maybe John Prine, or John Mellencamp, or Steve Earle or Bruce or Guy Clark or?

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Album Reviews
Sinatra Swings Because He Can
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 21, 2013  |  10 comments
Frank Sinatra recorded this album for Capitol in the summer of 1960—the same year he left the label and with a few hundred thousand dollars of his own money started Reprise Records. You can be sure plans for the new label were well underway during the production of this thirty three minutes and change long album.

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Album Reviews
"Wretches and Jabberers" Review Lost In Transition From Musicangle.com Here Now
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 06, 2013  |  4 comments
Note: This review appeared on the musicangle.com website in April of 2011. An analogplanet.com reader looked for it here and couldn't find it. Neither could I. I am having the webmaster look into this because I worry that other reviews got lost in the move. In the meantime, I'm re-posting the review now. There may still be copies available at your favorite online LP seller. It's also available in high resolution on HDTracks—ed..

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Album Reviews
Friday Music's "Rascal's Greatest Hits" Reissue: You'd Better Run!
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 04, 2013  |  8 comments
Greatest Hits albums from the '60s are a crap shoot: how many were made from original tapes strung together to produce reels for lacquer cutting? A few but not most. Instead the originals (hopefully) were pulled and tape copies of the hits were made and those were strung together for the hits package.

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Album Reviews
Bryan Ferry's "The Jazz Age" Takes Familiar Repertoire To An Old Place
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 02, 2013  |  4 comments
Note: The pressing issue I encountered with the copy I bought was corroborated by some readers but not all. The producer's QC copy was fine, so we exchanged copies. The replacement I was sent (autographed by Bryan Ferry, thank you!) sounded fine throughout.
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Album Reviews
Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 24, 2013  |  12 comments
Decca Records and air travel did not get along well. Imagine in a four year span losing both Buddy Holly and label mate Patsy Cline.
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Album Reviews
Jimi Hendrix Mono Mixes Focus The Action
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 21, 2013  |  37 comments
Phil "back to mono" Spector would be happy. Not about his upcoming HBO biopic starring Al Pacino but about the mono craze sweeping the record business if not the country. True its a single bristle sweep, but it's better than no brush at all.
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Album Reviews
Cassandra Wilson's "Belly of the Sun" Finally Issued on AAA Double Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 19, 2013  |  3 comments
Back in 2002 the adventurous, eclectic jazz singer Cassandra Wilson returned to her home state of Mississippi to record this album in the Clarksdale train depot as well as in a boxcar not far from the now immortalized "crossroads" where, as legend has it, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil.
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Album Reviews
"Heartworn Highways" May Be Out of Print But Copies Are Still Stocked Somewhere (Or Other)
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 19, 2013  |  4 comments
The documentary "Heartworn Highways" produced and directed in the mid-1970s by James Szalapski but not released until 1981 documented the rise of a generation of singer-songwriters that included Steve Earle, the late Townes Van Zandt, David Allan Coe, Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Steve Young and Charlie Daniels.
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