Album Reviews

This Capitol release features an extraordinarily pure, tactile orchestral recording and a solo violin recording of equal sonic stature.

(This review, originally written back in 1995, appeared in Volume 1, issue 2 of The Tracking Angle as a review of Sony Legacy Gold CD ZK 66220, produced by Bob Irwin. It was an amazing sounding CD).

Wilco’s return to intimately drawn electro-acoustic folk and away from electronic experimentation gives the latest outing a comforting organic coherence and an intensely direct sense of musical purpose. The more tightly constrained concept yields greater discipline and a compelling concentration of useful ideas, tune after tune.

A “country” album from The Byrds? Back in 1968 when this album was released, “Country” was the enemy, the home of beer-swilling, drug-warrior, war in Vietnam supporting, long hair-hating rednecks.

This "wind-em-up-and let-'em-play" set from September of 1963 has Jimmy Smith playing thick, juicy Hammond B-3 and Wes Montgomery blocking citrus-y chords and cool runs up and down the fretboard backed by brash, horn-drenched Oliver Nelson arrangements.

Note: this is part 1 of a two part review. To access part 2, see "Recent Arrivals" on the musicangle.com home page
First, a few words for those who love the early Who but don’t know the complicated backstory. There is not and will probably never be a one-album Perfect Early-Who Best-Of.

Note: the impeccably packaged double 180g vinyl set just out (late November, '06), while still lacking top end shimmer and air, exudes an overall clarity, transparency and three dimensionality that leaves the CD far behind. And the bottom end rocks. The vinyl gets an "8" for sound


Though it commences with “Saving Grace,” a John Lee Hooker crawlin’ king snake-riffed rocker, there’s less confrontation and more contemplation on Tom Petty’s tune-soaked new solo album. The “I Won’t Back Down” Petty of Full Moon Fever is gone, replaced by a more accepting, older observer of time and terrain passing.