Album Reviews

Michael Fremer | Mar 09, 2013

Why am I reviewing a CD???? The answer(s) are easy. Firstly, this loving tribute to Les Paul featuring longtime trio cohort Lou Pallo and others with whom Les played at Fat Tuesdays and the Iridium is musically fabulous assuming you like the timeless "old school" style.

Album Reviews

Why Can't All CDs Sound Like This?

Michael Fremer | Oct 01, 2005

From the second the stylus hits the…er I mean the laser hits the pits, you'll know this is a stunning sounding live recording of a jazz trio. You'll feel as if you're in the Up Over Jazz Café, where this set was brilliantly recorded by Kato Hideki.

Album Reviews Vinyl Reports

Wider Release of Elton John’s Live From the Rainbow Theatre With Ray Cooper 180g 1LP RSD Offering Highlights a Most Worthwhile, Stripped-Down, Album-Cut-Oriented Performance

Mark Smotroff | Aug 01, 2025

On Record Store Day earlier this year on April 12, 2025, one of those blink-and-you-missed-it releases was the first-time official vinyl pressing of Elton John’s 1977 performance for BBC Radio, Live From the Rainbow Theatre With Ray Cooper — but now, Rocket/Mercury/UMR has deigned to make it available to one and all via a much wider release. Read Mark Smotroff’s review of this fine 180g LP — with an album-cut-oriented tracklist personally selected by Sir Elton himself — to see why Live From the Rainbow Theatre is indeed quite worthy of being on your turntable. . .

Album Reviews

Wilbury Box Puts It All Together

Michael Fremer | Mar 01, 2008

In retrospect it’s easy to understand why these superstars would want to write and perform this codger-esque novelty stuff under assumed names. They must have figured that while writing and singing this lighthearted fare inspired by the music of their formative years was fun, they were hardly washed up artists and had more greatness within waiting to pour forth.

AAA Vinyl Album Reviews

Willie Nelson's Singing "Chops" All There On 1961 Debut

Michael Fremer | Dec 23, 2021

The term “singer/songwriter” hadn’t yet been coined when the “hotter’n a depot stove” 29 year-old songwriter Willie Nelson stepped into the studio to record his debut album for Liberty Records. Back then, you were either a songwriter or a singer, though of course there were a very few who were both. Here, Nelson proves he was one of them

Album Reviews

Willie's Latest Covers Familiar Ground

Michael Fremer | Mar 19, 2005

Does anyone alive sell a song as effortlessly and convincingly as Willie Nelson? Maybe Tony Bennett, and I'm sure there are a few others. Johnny Cash did it with Willie's brand of clarity and economy.

Album Reviews

Willner Produces Faithful Classic

Michael Fremer | Dec 01, 2011

Does an album that didn’t make a Billboard chart blip when first issued in 1987 deserve to be reissued on double 45rpm 180g gram vinyl?

AAA Vinyl Album Reviews Features

Wilson Audiophile Recordings Series Reissues From Analogue Productions

Michael Fremer | Feb 10, 2018

Beginning in the late ‘70s, continuing throughout the 1980s and once in 1994 Wilson Audio Specialties founder Dave Wilson released a series of records that he co-produced with wife Sheryl Lee, many of which he also engineered. They were minimally miked—often a spaced pair of Schoeps was all—and mastered by an all-star lineup of disc cutters including Bruce Leek (who also shared engineering credit on some), Stan Ricker and Doug Sax (Google if any of the names are unfamiliar). The tape machine for all but the very early organ record Recital (Wilson W-278) was an Ultramaster™ by John Curl, a highly modified Studer 1/2" deck running at 30 IPS.

Album Reviews

Wilson Scores, Strings Attached

Michael Fremer | Sep 01, 2006

Much was made of special guest star Diana Krall’s appearance when this superb album was announced, and while her reading of Cheryl Ernst’s lyrics set to a Jimmy Rowles’s composition is poignant and heartfelt, appropriately, it is Wilson who shines both as an arranger, comfortably in the grip of Gil Evans, and as a precise master of the hollow-bodied electric guitar.

Album Reviews

Wilson's Smile Delivers Even Better Vibrations on Vinyl!

Michael Fremer | Feb 01, 2005

LP mastering engineer Don Grossinger brought over two LP editions of Smile last week, test pressings from RTI used for the domestic Rhino release and a set from Pallas in Germany for the European market. Grossinger cut identical lacquers for both.

Album Reviews

Wings’ Smash-Hit 1975 Chart-Topper Venus and Mars Soars Anew With New Half-Speed-Mastered 180g 50th Anniversary Edition LP

Mark Smotroff | Apr 04, 2025

Worth the wait! We’re happy to report that

Venus and Mars — Paul McCartney and Wings’ May 1975 arena-rocking, No. 1-charting, platinum-selling smash-hit album — has just received the official Abbey Road Studios half-speed-mastered deluxe treatment in celebration of its 50th Anniversary this year, having been officially released as a 180g single LP by MPL/Capitol/UMe on March 21, 2025. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why you need to get your copy of Venus and Mars ASAP. . .

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Album Reviews

With "Brass In Pocket" Chrissie Hynde Delivers a Jazz Album Michael Fremer | Jan 20, 2020

It takes a rocker with "brass in pocket" to deliver a jazz album. It takes more than that to produce a great one, which is what Hynde does on Valve Bone Woe, the title of which was her trombonist brother's "beatnik haiku" response to hearing about the passing of Bob Brookmeyer. Hynde here is no jazz pretender.

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Album Reviews

With Crash, Charli XCX Shifts Her Sound & Aesthetic Malachi Lui | May 14, 2022

Last year, British electropop star Charli XCX tweeted, “rip hyperpop.” The tweet shocked many—especially coming from the artist who brought bubblegum bass and hyperpop to broader audiences through projects like 2016’s SOPHIE-produced Vroom Vroom EP or 2020’s quickly recorded quarantine album how i’m feeling now—but Charli has always gone at her own pace, on her own terms. Yet, her new album Crash presents her as merely another generic pop star, supposedly as a performance art piece about selling out that doubles as her last record on Atlantic (and therefore her as-of-now last chance to use those major label resources). Crash is Charli’s Let’s Dance: the album where a pop star fully embraces the mainstream after years of artsier excursions. Unfortunately, the end result lacks personality, trading her strengths for lyrically emptier and sonically blander songs laser-focused on mass appeal.

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Album Reviews

Witmark Demos Michael Fremer | Apr 01, 2011

Bootlegs, outtakes and unreleased material mostly interests completists, scholars and obsessive fans. Usually, the quality and significance declines with each new archival release, but not with Bob Dylan.

AAA Vinyl Album Reviews

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Piano Music

Michael Leser Johnson | Feb 23, 2021

Over the last 40 years, Giulio Cesare Ricci’s Fonè record label has been slowly churning out limited audiophile “one stage” (the same basic process as MoFi’s one-step) records using an all-analog chain. These Pallas-pressed recordings of classical, jazz and various other types of acoustic music are limited to 496 copies each. Why 496 specifically? Because Ricci is fond of the number, that’s all. Fonè is clearly a labor of passion and love for Ricci as he not only runs the label, but serves as his own recording and mastering engineer.

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