Album Reviews

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Album ReviewsShort Cuts
Short Cuts, Vol. 30, Deep Funk ’n’ Soul Edition: Rare 1970s Classics From The Meters and Baby Huey Return Via Rhino Reserve 180g 1LP Series
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 11, 2025

Two iconic pillars of fantastic, fast ’n furious funkified artistry are the focus for today’s deep funk ‘n’ soul edition of our ongoing Short Cuts review series: 1) Fire on the Bayou, the Allan Toussaint-produced, Reprise-released July 1975 sixth LP from New Orleans legends The Meters, and 2) The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, the lone LP from James “Baby Huey” Ramey, an album that went on to become an influential, and heavily sampled, release for the hip-hop generation. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo Short Cuts review to see how Rhino Reserve has brought these two classic LPs new life on 180g vinyl. . .

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Album ReviewsShort CutsVinyl Reports
Short Cuts, Vol. 31, Vintage Blues Upgrade Edition: A Trio of Mighty Fine Reissue LPs From John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, and Furry Lewis
Mark Smotroff  |  Aug 15, 2025

When it comes to recordings of the blues, there are different pockets of reissue-related activity that remain of interest to many music enthusiasts these days. Three new recent LP upgrades from three different iconic names span several generations of interest — namely, mid-20th-century icons John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim along with Furry Lewis, who began recording in 1927. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo Short Cuts review to see if BMG’s new reissue of Hooker’s 1992 Pointblank/Charisma album Boom Boom, along with Craft Recordings’ Bluesville Series reissues of both pianist Memphis Slim’s 1959 Vee-Jay debut At The Gate of Horn and acoustic fingerpicking/slide guitarist Furry Lewis’ 1961 Prestige/Bluesville LP Back on My Feet are all worthy of buying and spinning. . .

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Album ReviewsShort CutsVinyl Reports
Short Cuts, Vol. 32, 1960s Psychedelic Vinyl Edition: Upgraded Reissues of Hard-to-Find LPs From Love, Tim Buckley, and Billy Nicholls
Mark Smotroff  |  Sep 05, 2025

It is time again to relax and float downstream to the psychedelic 1960s with a fine trio of rarity reissues from three top-flight boundary-pushing sonic warriors: Love (The Elektra Singles), Tim Buckley (Happy Sad), and Billy Nicholls (Would You Believe). Read Mark Smotroff’s combo Short Cuts review of all three of these upgraded LPs to see which ones you should get now to feed your analog head in the way you should. . .

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Album ReviewsShort CutsVinyl Reports
Short Cuts, Vol. 33: A Somewhat Related Tale of Two Rhino Hi Fi Series 180g LPs, Starring Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 Self-Titled Band Reboot and Sex Pistols’ All-Time 1977 Punk Classic, Never Mind the Bollocks
Mark Smotroff  |  Oct 03, 2025

Two albums recently reissued as part of Rhino’s esteemed High Fidelity Series could not be further apart stylistically, sonically, and emotionally — but in some ways, these two releases are inevitably connected in time and space. In this special Short Cuts combo review, Mark Smotroff explores the value of picking up the Hi Fi Series versions of these platinum-selling hits from Fleetwood Mac and Sex Pistols, and draws some interesting parallels in the process. . .

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Album ReviewsFeatures
Should You Sample DJ Format's Devil's Workshop and DJ Shadow's Endtroducing?
Mark Dawes  |  Oct 24, 2021
DJ Format (aka Matt Ford) is a hiphop DJ and producer from Brighton, England. DJ Shadow (aka Josh Davis) is a hiphop DJ and producer from Sacramento, California. Brighton and Sacramento; not the first urban centers you think of in relation to groundbreaking hiphop production. Format and Shadow, however, are at either end of a 25 year continuum of atmospheric instrumental beats. DJ Shadow’s 1996 debut Endtroducing….. which got a half-speed remastered 25th anniversary edition last month, was composed completely from samples, a methodology shared with DJ Format’s latest LP from 2021 Devil’s Workshop.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Sibelius Piano Trio Performs "The Korppoo Trio"
Michael Leser Johnson  |  Mar 20, 2022
Grammy award winning Yarlung Records out of Los Angeles California has been releasing classical music albums on CD, LP, and R2R tape since as far back as 2006, but they had somehow managed to escape my radar. Better late than never, as they possess all the ingredients necessary to delight readers of this website; including a dedication to minimalist analog recording techniques, and the curation of the finest up-and-coming classical talent working today. This label is run by people (primarily producer and engineer Bob Attiyeh) who care deeply about classical music, and are connected to first rate performers, particularly those who orbit the many concert halls of the greater Los Angeles area. In addition to running a record label, Yarlung also has an associated nonprofit called Yarlung Artists which focuses on getting promising new artists started on their touring career.

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Album Reviews
Simon and Halee Reunited Again Make Musical and Sonic Magic
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 13, 2016
Reunited with his old friend, producer and engineer Roy Halee, Paul Simon delivers an imaginative and vital record—his most fully realized since Graceland., though its musical complexity and mood more closely resemble Rhythm of the Saints”

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Album Reviews
Sinatra Re-records Hits Set List For His Own Label
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 01, 2011

When Frank left Capitol to start his own Reprise label, his old label made a push to reap the old catalogue's financial benefits. Frank fought back by recording in April of 1963 this album of big Capitol hits with arrangements by Nelson Riddle. Sinatra knew the tunes well, laying them all down live with orchestra in two days.

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Album Reviews
Sinatra Swings Because He Can
Michael Fremer  |  Apr 21, 2013
Frank Sinatra recorded this album for Capitol in the summer of 1960—the same year he left the label and with a few hundred thousand dollars of his own money started Reprise Records. You can be sure plans for the new label were well underway during the production of this thirty three minutes and change long album.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Singaporean Black Funk Surprise
Michael Fremer  |  Oct 08, 2014
31 year old Singapore-based vocalist Vanessa Fernandez is well known at home as a former member of hip-hop group Urban Xchange, known later as Parking Lot Pimp. That was more than a decade ago. More recently she's been the disc jockey "Vandetta" or "Miss Vandetta" on Mediacorp Radio's 987FM.

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Album Reviews
Slick Producer Wants to Meet Stoner: Make Beautiful Music?
Michael Fremer  |  May 01, 2008

Say what you will about the slick, commercial Nashville sound that’s evolved from the fine “countrypolitan” one developed by Chet Atkins and crew at RCA Studio B back in the ‘60’s, at least they still have great studios, skilled engineers and teams of tasty lick players in Music City, all of which are on display here.

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Album Reviews
Small Club Miles Davis Engagement Makes For Engaging Vinyl Reissue
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 08, 2012
Friday and Saturday Nights in Person at The Blackhawk, San Francisco,everyone's second favorite small club live engagement (the first being Bill Evans at The Village Vanguard) finally gets the AAA 180g vinyl treatment with this double LP set from IMPEX. I wonder why it took so long for a reissue label to do this one?

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Album Reviews
Smart, Commercial, Tuneful Rock
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 01, 2003

Three of the most important elements in successful pop music making (I don’t mean the Britany variety), in my opinion, are tunes, craft and originality. Paloalto has two out of three, and that’s more than enough to push this pleasing disc into the spotlight. The missing element is the most difficult one to discover, create of whatever it is, and that’s originality. Paloalto follow partially in the footsteps of the British band Travis—and to a far lesser degree, Coldplay—and that’s all there is to it. Given that this sensitive, introspective genre is often called “shoe-gazing music,” in what else but footsteps would you expect them to follow?

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Smetana's "Má Vlast" Direct-to-Disc Produces A Sonic and Musical Spectacular
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 17, 2020
“I have to admit that this (D2D) recording technique was completely unknown to me before. When I ultimately realized what it entailed, I had mixed feelings at first.” So admitted Jakub Hrusa, the Bamberg Symphony’s 39 year old Czech-born conductor, who joined the orchestra in 2016. Based on the stunning musical and sonic results it was well worth whatever trepidation resulted from the decision to proceed with the recording of Czech-born Bedrich Smetana, which took place July 2th/26th, 2019 in Bamberg, Germany’s Joseph-Keilberth-Saal concert hall. (please forgive the lack of proper accents over the names).

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Album Reviews
Smith-Burrell Combo Equals Tasty Licks
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 01, 2008

Listening to a straightforward, blues/gospel-drenched comping session like this reminds you that jazz has lost its soul today and aims mostly for the head. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s good to get back to the essential, visceral nature of the genre. This set, recorded in New York at an unidentified studio or studios on three days during the summer of 1963, let’s you know why.

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