LATEST ADDITIONS

Who doesn’t love a great boutique vinyl shop that doesn’t break your cratedigging wallet’s heart? This is a story about Diggers Factory, an online record store that offers so much more than “standard” LPs — things like exclusive releases, color vinyl, merch, accessories, and, yes, even good old-fashioned cassettes. Read Shanon McKellar’s in-depth feature to learn more about how Diggers Factory do what they do, and check out her hands-on reviews on three top-tier current DF vinyl offerings. . .

Pat Metheny burst onto the scene in the mid-1970s as basically a fully formed, guitar-slinging compositional prodigy — and his official debut album, 1976’s Bright Size Life, has just been reissued as part of ECM Records’ vaunted Luminessence series. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see just how good this audiophile-grade LP edition of Bright Size Life is, and why you need to get a copy of it ASAP. . .

Lou Reed was — and still is, really — one of rock & roll’s most transformative and influential songwriters and performers. Before he made an indelible mark with The Velvet Underground and then as a solo artist over his five-decade career, Reed honed his craft by penning many a song for other artists as a staff writer for a legendary label during the early rock era. To celebrate that important early chapter of Reed’s history, Light in the Attic, in cooperation with Laurie Anderson and the Lou Reed Archive, has just announced a new 2LP set covering that era, Why Don’t You Smile Now: Lou Reed at Pickwick Records 1964-65, will be released on October 4, 2024. Read on to see all the tracks written by Reed that are included on this important release. . .

The much bandied-about cliché of a “return to form” has been dragged out many times when referring to legacy artists who deliver an unexpected late-career masterstroke. But in the case of Smoke & Fiction, the new studio album by Los Angeles roots-punk legends X that was released via Fat Possum on August 2, 2024, that phrase may very well be warranted. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see how X delivered the best of their trademark sound on this vital new LP. . .