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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mobile Fidelity Tells The Truth
Michael Fremer  |  Sep 29, 2021  |  22 comments
The Yardbirds original "Shapes of Things" took the protest song—a surprising departure from the group's blues-based output— as a smartly rendered military march with mild middle eastern undertones. Jeff Beck played on the original but here for his first solo outing he led with a slinky, heavily syncopated version that presaged by a few years Led Zep's heaviest of metal. The song's conclusion, a rhythmic meltdown to a complete stop was something altogether new to rock fans. Needless to say, back in 1968 buyers of this record had minds blown, in part thanks to the great Ken Scott's impeccable engineering skills and of course by much of the world's first exposure to Rod Stewart.

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Mobile Fidelity's One Step "Abraxas": Is Any Record Worth $100?
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 10, 2016  |  85 comments
Before you pay $100 for any record you have to ask yourself if you really like the music, right? Then the question becomes is this version that much better than the one you already have, assuming you already have one.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mono 45rpm "Surrealistic Pillow" from Mo-Fi is the One to Have
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 29, 2016  |  31 comments
Paul Kantner RIP. When is this parade of dead rock icons going to end? Can we at least have a short break?
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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Motown's "Tone Poet" Series—First Three Editions
Michael Fremer  |  Nov 26, 2019  |  8 comments
I'd be surprised if someone at UMe didn't look at the success of Blue Note's "Tone Poet" series and say to themselves "maybe the way to launch a Motown reissue series is to do it with the highest possible quality" because Motown/ UMe's new 5 LP Motown mono series duplicates in every way Blue Note's "Tone Poet" series: Kevin Gray cut from mono master tapes, RTI plated and pressed on 180g vinyl and the records are packaged in Stoughton tip on jackets.

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AAA VinylNews
MPS Reissues '70s Era Jazz Classics AAA
Michael Fremer  |  Aug 11, 2016  |  4 comments
The German MPS label has just released five excellent jazz albums originally released in the early 1970s under the supervision of noted German audio journalist and record producer Dirk Sommer. All have been mastered AAA from the original master tapes by mastering engineer Christoph Stickel, who was responsible for the Oscar Peterson box set Exclusively For My Friends.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Neil Young's "Long Lost Masterpiece" Homegrown Released 45 Years Later
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 24, 2020  |  16 comments
Billed by his label as a “long lost masterpiece by Neil Young”, referred to by fans as “one of Young’s mysterious, great ‘lost albums’” and described by Young himself as “the one that got away”, Homegrown was recorded mostly between late 1974 and early ’75, with one track from late spring ‘74 and another from late summer of that year.

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AAA VinylNews
New Jimi Hendrix Album "Both Sides of the Sky" Just Released (All Analog)
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 10, 2018  |  10 comments
March 9 – Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings have released Jimi Hendrix’s new album Both Sides of the Sky today on CD, digital, and as a numbered 180-gram audiophile vinyl 2 LP set. NPR Music recently declared, “No rock figure before or since could breathe fire like Hendrix does, on his beloved well-known albums and on the assortment that is Both Sides of the Sky.” For the occasion, director John Vondracek has created a music video for “Lover Man,” a single from the album.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Nick Culp's "The Culprit's Blues" Goes Back to The Future
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 14, 2017  |  6 comments
You’ve probably seen or at least heard about Damien Chazelle’s musical “La La Land”, about a musician (Ryan Gosling) whose less than fully expressed mission was to “save jazz”. He brings his turntable and retro-record collection to Los Angeles where he lives in a crummy apartment and makes ends meet by playing in a piano bar.

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Nina Simone's 1959 Debut "Little Girl Blue" Remains Timeless
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 21, 2016  |  14 comments
Seeing the superb documentary “What Happened, Miss Simone” isn’t mandatory but you’ll so much more enjoy this astonishing debut album recorded in 1957 (but not released until 1959) that it’s highly recommended, especially if you have Netflix. You’ll sit transfixed by this exceptional woman’s remarkable and often tragic life story.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Nina Simone’s Enduring Artistry Evident on Two Verve/Acoustic Sounds Series Philips Reissues
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 18, 2020  |  9 comments
As a value proposition the 2016 “The Philips Years” seven LP box set covering all of Nina Simone’s recorded output between 1964 and 1967 can’t be beat. Digitized at 96/24 resolution at Abbey Road using the original master tapes and well-pressed at Record Industry, the seven LPs sound very good. However!

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
On Almost Blue   Elvis Costello Explores His Inner Country Self
Michael Fremer  |  Dec 02, 2015  |  5 comments
No doubt Elvis Costello knew he was no George Jones or Merle Haggard when, in the spring of 1981 he stepped before the microphone in CBS's Studio A in Nashville under the direction of veteran producer Billy Sherill (who passed away this past August), but he wanted to record an album of country covers in Nashville and following the cleansing craziness of the Trust sessions, this probably seemed like the right time.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
One of Bill Evans' Final Live Concerts Gets Double 45 ORG Treatment
Michael Fremer  |  May 03, 2017  |  7 comments
While a great deal of attention rightly gets paid to Bill Evans' legendary Village Vanguard recordings early in his career, this superb set recorded in Paris, France shortly before his passing is equally worthy both musically and sonically.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Oscar Peterson In Your Living Room Via Six LP Box Set
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 30, 2015  |  7 comments
Back in the late 1990s Speakers Corner released the 180 gram LP Oscar Peterson The Lost Tapes (MPS 529-096-1) featuring ten tracks recorded between 1965 and 1968 in the Black Forest villa of MPS Records owner and recording engineer Hans Georg Brunner-Schwer.

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Pianist/Composer/Arranger Michael Weiss’s Long Soul Journey to Vinyl
Michael Fremer  |  Jul 24, 2020  |  8 comments
Suave, swinging and exuberant, Michael Weiss’s self-produced Soul Journey sounds something like a big band playing on a Blue Note Records date, but it’s really a small ensemble making like a big one thanks to Weiss’s deft, harmonically-rich, rhythmically neck-snapping arrangements and free-spirited yet tightly drawn, well-meshed performances by the three man veteran horn section of saxophonist Steve Wilson, trumpet and flugelhorn player Ryan Kisor and trombonist Steve Davis.

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AAA VinylNews
Rhino Hi-Fi Takes 2024 by Analog Storm With a Slate of Six New AAA 180g 1LP Rock and Jazz Releases Through April 5
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 28, 2024  |  3 comments

Rhino High Fidelity (a.k.a. Rhino Hi-Fi) is tackling the first quarter of 2024 head on by serving up a half-dozen new AAA 180g 1LP offerings in their acclaimed series of limited-edition vinyl reissues. Read on to see which six albums — a combination of rock and jazz classics — made the 2024 Q1 AAA Hi-Fi cut. . .

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