Album Reviews

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Album ReviewsVinyl Reports
Led Zeppelin’s 1975 Monolith Physical Graffiti Excels in New 180g 3LP 50th Anniversary Edition, as Does Its Companion Live LP That Houses Four Previously Unreleased Cuts
Mark Smotroff, Mike Mettler  |  Sep 12, 2025

The ongoing impact and popularity of Led Zeppelin’s February 1975 epic 2LP set Physical Graffiti is undeniable. In celebration of that album’s 50th anniversary, the mighty Zep have deemed today, September 12, 2025, as the day to reissue a deluxe remastered 3LP edition of that all-important core album in addition to a separate, companion four-song Live EP, the latter of which houses a quartet of songs that have never been released officially on vinyl until now. Read Mark Smotroff and Mike Mettler’s combo review of both the Physical Graffiti 3LP and Live EP releases to see why they belong in your Zep-centric vinyl collection ASAP. . .

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Album Reviews
Lee Morgan Leads Jazz Supergroup
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2008

Let the Blue Note reissue riot continue! Fans of the cool, bluesy, gospely Blue Note sound can’t help but feel blessed at the output, whether from Classic in mono or from Analogue Productions and Music Matters in stereo.

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Album Reviews
Legendary Beach Boys Album Finally Released
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2012

First of all the back cover photo doesn't include Brian Wilson! What's that all about?

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Album Reviews
Legendary Early World-Pacific Gil Album Now Available!
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2007

The arranger Gil Evans was on a roll when this cool, yet raucous big band set of standards was recorded in New York City back in 1958. The California native and big band veteran had already arranged Miles Davis’ Miles Ahead and the cool and deep Porgy and Bess. Featured soloist Cannonball Adderley’s Blue Note classic Somethin’ Else had also hit big by then (okay, it was really a Miles Davis album, but Cannonball’s playing heated up Miles’s cool show).

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Album Reviews
Legendary Guitar Great Peter Green Feted By All-Star Cast
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2005

Sad but true: a generation of white Americans first came to know the blues—a black American art form—by hearing it played second-hand thanks to the dedication of die-hard British blues enthusiasts like Long John Baldry, John Mayall, Eric Clapton, and of course, Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green. The list goes on.

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Album Reviews
Legendary Power Pop Classic Issued on CD For the First Time!
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2010

In the early �70�s, with the second great rock era in its death throws, the rock intelligensia hungered for something, anything that might reinvigorate the softening musical firmament.

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Album Reviews
Legendary Stones Concert Gets Box Set Respect
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 01, 2010

Was this the greatest rock and roll concert recording ever as some suggest? Is it deserving of deluxe box set status? The producers of this ultra-sumptuous box obviously thought so!

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Album Reviews
Let's Impeach The President!
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2006

Subtlety was not in Neil Young’s game plan when he sat down to write the tunes here, probably in a burst of creative energy born of frustration with the war in Iraq and other Bush administration activities over the past few years. Young’s moved quite a ways since his romance with the Reagan administration.

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Album ReviewsFeatures
Let’s Spin! Celebrating National Vinyl Record Day With a Few of My Favorite Current LPs (and a Cool New 45)
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 12, 2024

The official National Calendar says today, August 12, is National Vinyl Record Day, so I cued up a few of my favorite new vinyl offerings — including the latest 2LP studio set from a longtime favorite, a 4LP box set with an album I’ve been waiting decades to get on vinyl, and a brand-new-to-2024 throwback 45 — to celebrate the theme of the day. Read on to see what they are, and feel free to chime in about your own favorite LPs you were spinning on your own turntable on this most hallowed of days. . .

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Album Reviews
Libertines 2002 Debut Gets To Returning Tracking Angle Writer McGill
Michael McGill  |  Sep 01, 2005

The Libertines, on their debut album Up the Bracket album (issued in the UK, October, 2002, and March, 2003 in America), deliver well-written punk-pop in a ragged-but-right style that teases with echoes of The Clash, The New York Dolls and Pavement. Avoiding the polar pitfalls of Green Day's predictability and Modest Mouse's endless demands on the listener's patience, they thread the skinny needle of superb garage rock, coming out the other side grinning, sweaty, and deserving of your buying them a Guinness.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Lifeline Quartet's Music of the Underground Railroad
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 17, 2020
There’s no better time than now to release a live performance of Civil War era “lifeline” spirituals dedicated to Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave herself, who is best known as an “Underground Railroad” organizer personally responsible for smuggling to freedom hundreds of slaves, first to the North and then after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 that allowed the recapture of freed slaves in non-slave states, to Canada.

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Album Reviews
Linda Ronstadt Live in Hollywood
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 16, 2019
The boomer generation is firmly out of cultural control and rock is pretty much dead—not in terms of interest but in the same way big band music is dead—though back in 1980 when this Linda Ronstadt concert was produced and recorded for an HBO special, boomer power peaked.

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Album Reviews
Linda Thompson turns on the lights
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 19, 2003

Maybe you've heard this story before: after Richard and Linda Thompson's legendary 1982 Roxy performance in support of their Shoot Out the Lights album, Linda collapsed backstage and was spirited off to Malibu by Linda Ronstadt. Thompson's marriage was breaking up before the tour and singing songs about a breakup, which Richard insisted at the time were not autobiographical, was just too much for her. It was easily one of the most memorable live musical experiences I've had-especially since I went with my ex-girlfriend who'd broken up with me a few months earlier.Maybe you've heard this story before: after Richard and Linda Thompson's legendary 1982 Roxy performance in support of their Shoot Out the Lights album, Linda collapsed backstage and was spirited off to Malibu by Linda Ronstadt. Thompson's marriage was breaking up before the tour and singing songs about a breakup, which Richard insisted at the time were not autobiographical, was just too much for her. It was easily one of the most memorable live musical experiences I've had-especially since I went with my ex-girlfriend who'd broken up with me a few months earlier. That allowed me to double the intensity of the pain emanating from the stage.

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Album Reviews
Link Wray's Swan Singles From Sundazed
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2004

Mining America's musical blue highways is Sundazed's specialty. This collection of Wray's Swan singles, “A” and “B” is a perfect example of what the label does best. Best known for his classic hit, the trend-setting, iconic “Rumble,” the guitar twanger had a long, if not quite as successful recording career afterwards, specializing in rock'n'surf tinged, raunchy instrumentals. When he did sing, it was Elvis all the way-and a good Elvis it was, augmented by some hard-edged falsetto screaming.

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Album Reviews
LiPuma Production and Al Schmitt Recording Get Deserved Analog Treatment
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2009

Krall’s cool, detached yet available look on the front and back covers of this popular 2002 release let you know from whence the emotions flow here. She sells these standards intimately yet barely rising above a warm smolder, leaving you to crack the code.

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