Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
"Heigh Ho"—Blake Mills Goes to Work
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 26, 2016  |  4 comments
Though he's but thirty years old, guitarist, record producer, studio session and touring band member Blake Mills has had already had a dizzying career. He's toured with Jenny Lewis and Band of Horses and Lucinda Williams. He's done session work for Norah Jones, Weezer, The Avett Brothers and Andrew Bird among many others and he produced Alabama Shakes' Sound & Color for which he received a producer of the year, non-classical, Grammy nomination.

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Album Reviews
"In A Silent Way" Finally Reissued AAA By Mobile Fidelity
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 19, 2013  |  15 comments
Note: What's directly below is a very personal review of Sony/Legacy's late 2000's In A Silent Way 180g vinyl reissue originally published on musicangle.com, followed by an update review of Mobile Fidelity's recent AAA reissue.-ed.

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Album Reviews
"In Between" Time For Miles Put in Focus
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2005  |  0 comments

This mostly fabulous sounding 10 LP set cut almost exclusively from original analog master tapes puts into focus a so-called “in between” period for Miles: between the end of the Kind of Blue era and the beginning of the Miles/Shorter/Hancock/Carter/Williams quintet era chronicled on Mosaic's The Complete Studio Recordings of The Miles Davis Quintet 1965-1968 (Mosaic MQ 10-177).

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Album Reviews
"It's Monk's Time"—Speakers Corner Reissues Columbia Records Monk Classic
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 30, 2013  |  4 comments
A few months ago my friend and fellow Stereophile writer (not to mention Pulitzer Prize winner, author of a new book "Insurgents" about General Patraeus, etc.) Fred Kaplan and I were lamenting the absence of reissues of Thelonious Monk's Columbia catalog.
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Album Reviews
"Josh At Midnight" Reissued by Ramseur Records
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 03, 2016  |  11 comments
Fred Hellerman's obituary appeared in today's (Sept. 3, 2016) New York Times. Hellerman was the last surviving member of The Weavers, the folk group that helped usher in what became known as the "folk revival" of the late '50s and '60s.

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Album Reviews
"King" Cole Classic on S&P Vinyl Better Than the Original Pressing
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2004  |  0 comments

This 1957 classic, an early LP concept album filled with break- up songs, has always sounded better in mono because Capitol had a bad habit back then of tacking on way too much echo to stereo mixes. Hoffman remixed from the original 3 track master tape, cutting way back on the reverb to produce a positively stunning studio document from the golden age of analog recording.

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Album Reviews
"Lachesis/Clotho/Atropos" Spells Mind Blowing Musical Pleasure
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 06, 2019  |  5 comments
You know those records that “got away”? The ones you saw in the bins when they first were released that you mean to buy but somehow didn’t? One for me was Peter Walker’s Rainy Day Raga on Vanguard. I’ll pick up a copy eventually (I said that before, back in the ‘60s, but this time I mean it!) but for now there’s this old-time/modern psych-drone fest with the recently resurfaced Walker, now in his 80s, collaborating with Harmony Rockets (better known as Mercury Rev along with Wilco’s Nels Cline, Sonic Youth’s Steve Shelley and Martin Keith.

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Album Reviews
"Larry Young In Paris" From Resonance Records A Must Have
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 06, 2017  |  6 comments
Over the past decade or so vinyl-loving jazz enthusiasts have been treated to a series of previously unreleased but significant recordings discovered under beds, in closets and in the vaults of European radio stations. Some were never before heard. Others were bootlegged from radio broadcasts

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Album Reviews
"Le Quattro Stagioni" Or "The Four Seasons" To You, on Double 45rpm Featuring Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 05, 2013  |  6 comments
Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" composed in 1723 is an enduring set of four violin concertos so popular and oft-played that even folks who are not fans of classical music will be recognize it—especially the opener “La Primavera” (“Spring”).
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Album Reviews
"Monk's Dream" IMPEX Reissue Makes The Most of Master Tape
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 11, 2013  |  2 comments
Yes, yet another Thelonious Monk reissue review. What can I tell you? Love that Monk. Criss-Cross with the same quartet (and in serious need of a reissue) was the second jazz record I ever bought and it made an even bigger impression than Coltrane's My Favorite Things, which was my first.
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
"Music for Viola and Cello" Reissued by The Electric Recording Company
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 15, 2017  |  11 comments
Musical cults in the rock world can't compare to what goes on in classical music—as anyone who's perused some of the used record prices on popsike.com surely knows. That's certainly true of the late, legendary cellist Jacqueline Du Pré.

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Album Reviews
"Music From Big Pink" Gets Double 45rpm Remix For 50th Anniversary Reissue
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 22, 2018  |  24 comments
Startling when first released in 1968, The Band's debut continues to evoke mystery, grandeur and an abundance of musical depth that few rock records achieved then or now.

Books have probably been written about the album and certainly have been about the outfit known as The Band, the members of which though mostly unknown to buyers lured by a Bob Dylan cover (literally and musically), were touring and recording veterans—not that experience alone can explain what the group achieved here.

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Album Reviews
"My Guy" Highlights Uneven Wells Album
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2010  |  0 comments

Here’s one you don’t often see in the bins. Mary Wells auditioned for Berry Gordy when she was 16 and not long afterward had a monster, world-wide hit with “My Guy” back in 1964. It hit #5 in England and The Beatles asked her to tour with them.

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Album Reviews
"Newer Age" Artist Brings Elegance and Simplicity To Modern "Classical" Music
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2007  |  0 comments

French minimalist acoustic musician Colleen has established an unlikely strong international cult following in the wake of releasing four full-length albums, three of which were available in limited edition vinyl.

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Album Reviews
"Nilsson Sings Newman" Issued By Speakers Corner on Quiet Vinyl For the First Time
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 24, 2013  |  8 comments
Warner Brothers put Randy Newman on a college tour in 1969 with Ry Cooder and Captain Beefheart. The idea was to familiarize college kids with the label's eclectic artistic mix.
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