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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Mono 45rpm "Surrealistic Pillow" from Mo-Fi is the One to Have
Michael Fremer  |  Jan 29, 2016
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
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
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 VinylNew Wax WednesdayVinyl Reports
Mrs. Henry Redefine and Reinvigorate the Rock Opera With Their Sprawling, Visionary 180g 3LP Magnum Opus, Keep On Rising
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 22, 2025

Sometimes, we just wanna drop the needle on a good ol’ — or good new, for that matter — rock opera. Clearly, producer/guitarist/maestro-at-arms Daniel Cervantes must have gotten inside our head, for he and his SoCal classic/roots rock band, Mrs. Henry, have recently gone all-in on the concept with a truly sprawling 38-song, six side opus of epic proportions on Blind Owl Records that’s been earnestly dubbed Keep On Rising. Read on to learn more about the all-analog wonders of the 180g 3LP Keep On Rising box set, and delve into AP editor Mike Mettler’s interview with Cervantes about how it all came together. . .

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Neil Young's "Long Lost Masterpiece" Homegrown Released 45 Years Later
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 24, 2020
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
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 RELEASE NEWS
New Rhino Reserves Premium Vinyl Series Launches on January 31, 2025, With Allen Toussaint’s Southern Nights and Eddie Hazel’s Game, Dames And Guitar Thangs AAA 180g LPs
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 10, 2024

Sure to go running through your soul, like the stories told of old: Today (December 10, 2024), Rhino announces the launch of a new audiophile vinyl series that’s been dubbed Rhino Reserves, which purports to offer “legendary albums” on 180g premium-quality black vinyl, as cut from the original analog tapes. Read on to see which two vintage LPs from the 1970s kick off this new series on January 31, 2024, where they’re being pressed and cut, and by whom. . .

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AAA VinylAlbum ReviewsVinyl Reports
New Vinylphyle & DSS 60th Anniversary Reissues of The Beach Boys’ Seminal 1966 Masterpiece Pet Sounds Both Raise the Audiophile Bar in Their Own Respective Ways
Mark Smotroff  |  May 22, 2026

Today, we’re delving into two new versions of The Beach Boys’ seminal May 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds, which has been released in two separate high-grade vinyl editions in celebration of its 60th anniversary: a) Capitol/UMe’s Vinylphyle series 2LP mono/stereo set, and b) Interscope/Capitol’s ultra-premium Definitive Sound Series (DSS) One Step edition. Read Mark Smotroff’s in-depth review of both editions to see how and why they’ve each met our own exacting standards, and how a long-lost 1972 master put one of them over the top. . .

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AAA VinylAlbum ReviewsVinyl Reports
New Vinylphyle Series 180g 1LP All-Analog Reissue of The Velvet Underground & Nico’s Highly Influential 1967 Debut Album Shows the Inherent Beauty of How Distortion and Clarity Can Inevitably Intersect Quite Pleasurably on the Same Record
Mark Smotroff, Mike Mettler  |  Dec 12, 2025

The Velvet Underground & Nico LP released on Verve in March 1967 — featuring hypnotic model-turned-chanteuse Nico along with guitarist/vocalist Lou Reed, violist/bassist John Cale, rhythm guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer/percussionist Mo Tucker — is arguably one of the most influential recordings in rock & roll history. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Republic/UMe’s new all-analog 180g Vinylphyle edition of this important, historical LP is able to corral the beauty inherent in its intersection of delicacy and distortion to a degree worthy of repeat spins. . .

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AAA VinylAlbum Reviews
Nick Culp's "The Culprit's Blues" Goes Back to The Future
Michael Fremer  |  Mar 14, 2017
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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AAA Vinyl
Nina Simone's 1959 Debut "Little Girl Blue" Remains Timeless
Michael Fremer  |  Jun 21, 2016
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
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
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
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 ReviewsVinyl Reports
One-Step DSS AAA Pressing of Chronic Town and Murmur, Two Truly Seminal Early R.E.M. Releases Featured Together in a 180g 2LP Set, Simply Astounds
Mark Smotroff, Mike Mettler  |  Apr 03, 2026

Athens, Georgia’s legendary indie rock band R.E.M.’s back-to-back initial releases on I.R.S. — August 1982’s five-song Chronic Town EP, and April 1983’s full-length album debut Murmur — are now featured together in a Definitive Sound Series (DSS) One-Step 180g 2LP set from Interscope/Capitol. Read Mark Smotroff’s review — and AP editor Mike Mettler’s extensive footnotes — to see if this double release is well worth the DSS investment. . .

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