Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
Grace and Sophistication From Genre Bending Mini-Orchestra
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 01, 2011  |  1 comments

If you're not acquainted, Pink Martini is either a large band or a "small orchestra" of 12 and occasionally more, created back in 1997 by Portland pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale and the group's lead singer China Forbes. The two began collaborating for fun while at Harvard.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Graham Nash Weighs In on Déjà vu 51 Years On
Michael Fremer  |  May 24, 2021  |  25 comments
Fifty one later Déjà vu still delivers a powerful musical, lyrical and sonic jolt, especially on this newly remastered 50th anniversary set that includes the original record on 180g vinyl mastered by Chris Bellman, cut using the original master tape.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Grant Green's sunday mornin'—A Blue Note That Got Away!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 15, 2019  |  23 comments
Single-line guitarist Grant Green's fourth Blue Note album released in 1962 is as easy to listen to and relaxing as the title suggests. Kenny Drew is on piano with Ben Tucker, bass and Ben Dixon on drums in a set of six tunes with inspiration and/or vaguely religious themes, three of which are Green originals.

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Album Reviews
Granz Produces a Sizzler!
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2011  |  1 comments

Don’t let the October 16th 1956 mono recording date fool you: this Jean-Baptiste “Illinois” Jacquet session was recorded in Los Angeles, probably at legendary Radio Recorders, and the sound will knock you down.

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Album Reviews
Green Day Insomniac  25th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition (Revised)
Nicholas Coleman  |  Mar 31, 2021  |  0 comments
Green Day’s Insomniac 25th Anniversary Deluxe Limited Edition double LP is pressed on black or translucent orange vinyl (add $2) and includes Winston Smith’s cover art printed on prismatic silver foil. The first LP is a remastered version of the 1995 album. The second LP includes on side A selected live tracks from their revered 1996 Prague show and on side B an etching.

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Album Reviews
Green Day Tweaks Bush: Different Reaction Than Dixie Chicks Got!
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2006  |  0 comments

This most popular of Green Day albums, a swell kiss off to Bush and his rogue administration is now so old it’s grown whiskers, but it hasn’t lost any of its punch. In fact, cut to wax it intensifies into a category five musical and political hurricane.

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Album Reviews
Green Day’s New 1LP Saviors Delivers Poignant, Thinking Person’s Power-Pop Punk Precision Best Heard on Vinyl, But Is the SQ Up to Our Exacting Standards?
Mark Smotroff  |  Jan 26, 2024  |  2 comments

Right from the opening notes, Green Day’s new Saviors LP sure sounds like it could be the kind of record for today’s generation that balances strong social sentiment with catchy songwriting. But just how good does it actually sound on vinyl? Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Saviors makes the LP SQ grade. . .

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Album Reviews
Greendale's AAA Analog Excellence
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2005  |  1 comments

Neil Young and Crazy Horse is either one of your life's great musical pleasures, or you just can't take the slop. Me? Beginning with Everybody Knows This is Nowhere I have eaten it up. If you haven't liked the combo before, this sprawling, loose-fitting “concept” album isn't likely to pull the trigger for you. Critical reaction was decidedly mixed, but who cares what critics think? Myself included.

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Album Reviews
Grizzly Bear’s Veckatimest Is A Colorful, Cinemascopic Half-Speed Mastered 45rpm Vinyl Me Please Reissue
Mark Smotroff  |  Jun 17, 2022  |  19 comments
I discovered New York’s Grizzly Bear in a most typical way, for me — over the in-store PA system at Amoeba Music here in San Francisco. When their in-store play got to the band’s then-big hit — “Two Weeks,” from their May 2009 album Veckatimest — I realized I had indeed previously heard the song’s distinctive, earworm-inducing, millennial-whoop-flavored signature hook. Soon enough, I started collecting the Grizzly Bear catalog on vinyl. While I’ve enjoyed my 180g Veckatimest reissue, I’ve long suspected there might be more depth tucked away in the recording. Thus, I was excited to learn the good folks at Vinyl Me Please were re-releasing Veckatimest in a half-speed mastered, 45rpm colored vinyl edition.
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Album Reviews
Groovenote proves it once again
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 18, 2003  |  1 comments
You go with what works, and that's what Groovenote has done here. Having scored big with female vocalist Jacintha, the label is hoping to do likewise with the delicious looking, sultry sounding jazz singer Eden Atwood. Again going with what works, Atwood is backed by the pianist/arranger Bill Cunliffe's trio featuring Joe LaBarbera on drums and Derek Oles on bass. The group has become the label's de-facto "house band."
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Album Reviews
Gwenifer Raymond's "You Never Were Much of a Dancer" Is Finger-Picking Good!
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 18, 2018  |  0 comments
In an era where virtuosity is seemingly shunned, here comes 32 year old Welsh-born finger picking, multi-instrumentalist Gwenifer Raymond who, listening to this album, you’d swear must have been born on the Appalachian trail somewhere south of the Mason Dixon line.

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Album Reviews
Half of Air Duo Hits Ground Flying Solo
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2007  |  0 comments

Based on this uneven, less than memorable effort by Jean-Benoit Dunckel (who calls himself Darkel here), the whole is greater than the sum of the parts of the French minimalist electronica duo known as Air. With his partner Nicolas Godin, Mr. Dunckel produces some of the most arresting, three -dimensional, self contained electronic and acoustic soundscapes you’re likely to experience.

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Album Reviews
Hampton Hawes’ Four! Is Another Spirited 180g Entry in Craft Recordings’ Acoustic Sounds Series, Thanks to a QRP-Pressed, All-Analog Master by Bernie Grundman
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 15, 2022  |  12 comments
In some ways, it is curious that Craft Recordings has chosen to reissue Hampton Hawes’ 1958 outing Four! (exclamation point very much included) as the first entry in his Acoustic Sounds series, as Hawes’ earlier quartet sessions with guitarist Jim Hall were apparently highly regarded back in the day. Personally, I’m glad they have reissued this album. For one thing, the all-analog mastering by Bernie Grundman feels very sympathetic to the time period and to the recording. Read on for more...

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Hank Garland's Bid for Solo Stardom Reissued by Speakers Corner
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2015  |  7 comments
This minor musical and major sonic gem features the great vibraphonist Gary Burton, Dave Brubeck Quartet drummer Joe Morello (reference only in case you just arrived from outer space) and veteran bassist Joe Benjamin on a jazz session headed by the great Nashville guitarist Hank Garland.

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Album Reviews
Happy 100 Frank Sinatra! "Ultimate Sinatra" And Today A Free Vintage UBER Ride On Frank
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 12, 2015  |  15 comments
Of course the only "ultimate" Sinatra collection for fans is having a huge collection of his albums on Columbia, Capitol and Reprise—the label he started—plus some of the original 78s from the late '30's up until the era of the long playing record.

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