Album Reviews

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Album Reviews
The Album That Changed Jazz and Rock
Michael Fremer  |  Feb 01, 2009  |  0 comments

You can bet this blistering, groundbreaking jazz-rock fusion album from 1971 spun Jeff Beck’s head around big time, turning him from heavy metalist-rocker (his version of The Yardbirds’ “Shape of the Things to Come” on the Jeff Beck Group’s album Truth is arguably the first “heavy metal” rock arrangement) to the jazz-fusionist he became on Blow By Blow. Others followed too, of course.

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Album Reviews
The Alternative Universe of Wayne Shorter's "Emanon"
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 25, 2019  |  5 comments
Darkness into Light, Evil into Good, Ugliness into Beauty, Ignorance into Knowledge, Confusion into Certainty, deliverance from oppression (and the other way around) and simultaneous alternative realities are familiar transformative comic book and biblical themes (Shorter is a known comic book fan; not sure about his biblical proclivities).

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Album Reviews
The Analog Revolution Leads A New Blues Renaissance
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 01, 2006  |  0 comments

Decide for yourself whether The Lovin’ Spoonful took their name from Mississippi John Hurt’s “Coffee Blues” (not to mention the tune for “Darlin’ Companion”) but fans of Taj Mahal will have no doubts about this gentle soul’s influence on Taj when you hear this earlier take on “Corrina, Corrina” and compare it to Taj’s on The Natch’l Blues (CS9698).

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Album Reviews
The Beach Boys Deliver a Great Twenty Ninth Album
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 23, 2012  |  7 comments
Watching the aged PBS fund raising audience creep ever closer to my demographic has been a thirty year creepy creep. First it was fund raising aimed at the WWII big band consuming generation.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
The Beach Boys: The Final Nine Analogue Productions Reissues
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 09, 2016  |  27 comments
Analogue Productions recently completed one of the major reissue projects in modern vinyl playback history with the release of the final eight Beach Boys albums in both mono and stereo.

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Album Reviews
The Beach Boys: The First Five Analogue Productions Reissues
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 20, 2015  |  68 comments
Only one of them had actually ridden a surfboard. They weren’t hot rodders or drag racers and by the time the group formed in 1961 lead vocalist Mike Love was already 20 years old and arguably more a man than a “boy”. Al Jardine was 19 as was Brian Wilson. Brothers Dennis and Carl were, respectively, 17 and 15, so they qualified as “boys”.

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Album Reviews
The Beach Boys’ Triumphant Sail On Sailor – 1972 180g 5LP+1EP Limited Edition Vinyl Box Set Paints a Beautiful Portrait of a Hungry Band Finding a New Voice, Both in the Studio and Onstage
Mark Smotroff  |  Dec 09, 2022  |  6 comments

Two often overlooked albums by The Beach Boys are the main focus of a fantastic new 180g 5LP+1EP box set, Sail On Sailor – 1972, which features the band’s landmark 1973 album Holland plus 1972’s under-appreciated and much misunderstood Carl And The Passions – “So Tough” to form the heart of this excellent new collection buttressed by a previously unreleased, complete, of-era 1972 live performance from Carnegie Hall. Read Mark Smotroff’s thorough review of this truly special box set-cum-document of an artistically transformative, often powerful, and at times remarkably hard-rocking period for a quintessential Southern California band looking for — and ultimately reaching the summit of — some creatively fruitful new horizons. . .

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Album Reviews
The Beach Boys’ Very Best 180g 6LP Box Set: A Super-Sunny 21st Century Soundtrack for Endless Summers
Mark Smotroff  |  Jul 01, 2022  |  13 comments
Reviewing The Very Best of The Beach Boys: The Sounds of Summer, the massive new 60th Anniversary 180g 6LP Beach Boys box set retrospective from UMe/Capitol/Brother Records, has been a daunting yet fun challenge. That said, having its contents mixed and mastered by the band’s longtime engineer/archivist Mark Linett has enabled a remarkable continuity from track to track — no small task, given the diversity of music and technological differences in recording across a 60-year period.
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Album ReviewsBeatles
The Beatles "1"-- Giles Martin Remixes the Singles
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 26, 2016  |  25 comments
Music re-mixes may not be as complicated or as critical as brain surgery but when it comes to The Beatles, you could make the case.
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Album ReviewsBeatles
The Beatles The Singles Collection Arrives (REVISED 11/19/19)
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 15, 2019  |  26 comments
The Beatles The Singles Collection arrived the other day and it was opened with great anticipation and the embedded YouTube video was quickly produced in a single take before listening to a note. As you'll see when you watch, the packaging is "top shelf" and imaginative and Kevin Howlett's booklet notes are illuminating and useful. Using original artwork from around the world was a nice touch that every Beatles fan with appreciate!

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
The Berlin Philharmonic's Direct-To-Disc Brahms Symphonic Cycle Conducted By Sir Simon Rattle
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 23, 2016  |  21 comments
The just released (November 18, 2016) six LP box set of the four Brahms symphonies recorded direct-to-disc performed by Sir Simon Rattle and The Berlin Philharmonic before a live Philharmonie audience is as meticulously produced and presented as its existence is unlikely.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
The Berlin Philharmonic's Direct-to-Disc Bruckner Symphony #7 Box Set
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 01, 2020  |  34 comments
Last May 11th 2019 guest conductor Bernard Haitink conducted the BPO in his final performance with the orchestra. At the time plans were made to record the performance of Bruckner's 7th symphony "Direct-to-Disc" neither the orchestra nor the conductor knew it would be their last collaboration. Haitink announced his retirement shortly after the concert.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
The Best Ever Kind of Blue?
Michael Fremer  |  May 17, 2021  |  163 comments
Is it possible to now write anything that hasn’t already been written or said about this record? I haven’t any fresh insights to offer that might advance what you probably already know. A good Kind of Blue pressing puts you in the 30th Street studio to hear the performance. Ashley Kahn’s “Kind of Blue” book sets the pre-recording stage, offering both musical and technical details and puts you as much in the control room as in front of the band.

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Album Reviews
The Best Ever "Bringing It All Back Home"?
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 22, 2013  |  22 comments
One side electric, one side acoustic, both sides of this March, 1965 release announced in both words and music Dylan's liberation from his folk music and "spokesperson for a generation" straight jacket and a turn towards more personal expression.
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Album Reviews
The Best Quadrophenia Ever From Classic Records
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 01, 2008  |  0 comments

Pete Townshend’s sprawling second rock opera, issued in the fall of 1973, uses the troubled teenaged character Jimmy to elucidate adolescent coming of age issues generally and those of post WWII English kids (like the four members of The Who) specifically.

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