AAA Vinyl

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Michael Fremer  |  Mar 30, 2015
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.

Mark Smotroff, Mike Mettler  |  Mar 20, 2026

A new audiophile-worthy, restored 180g 2LP reissue of Peter Frampton’s breakthrough mega-hit double-live January 1976 Frampton Comes Alive! album seems more than appropriate, especially in order to celebrate this landmark live set’s 50th anniversary. To that end, the new Frampton Comes Alive! Vinylphyle edition that was released as part of UMe’s thus far outstanding Vinylphyle series on January 22, 2026, is on our review slate today. Read Mark Smotroff’s review review (and AP editor Mike Mettler’s footnotes) to see why this AAA Vinylphyle edition of Alive! adds new life to an already stellar live double album. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 24, 2020
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.

Mark Smotroff  |  May 04, 2024

Part 2 of our RSD 2024 Short Cuts roundup focuses on a pair of Holy Grail releases for reviewer Mark Smotroff — Gandalf’s self-titled 1969 debut and Parliament’s own 1970 debut, Osmium, the latter of which is now expanded into a 2LP Deluxe Edition. Read on to see if either or both of these RSD offerings are worthwhile additions to your own collection. . .

Mike Mettler  |  Feb 28, 2024

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. . .

Mark Smotroff  |  Nov 22, 2025

Fans of The Monkees will be pleased to learn that a new release from Rhino’s esteemed High Fidelity reissue series shows how they took significant steps to deliver a significant update of the band’s November 1967 smash hit album Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why the new 180g 1LP Hi-Fi edition of Pisces trounces all previous editions. . .

Mike Mettler  |  Aug 02, 2024

Have mercy! Rhino High Fidelity (a.k.a. Rhino Hi-Fi) does it again with today’s special box set release — namely, ZZ Top’s From The Top: 1971-1976, a limited-edition vinyl reissue collection containing the first five LPs from that little ol’ band from Texas — ZZ Top’s First Album (1971), Rio Grande Mud (1972), Tres Hombres (1973), Fandango! (1975), and Tejas (1976). Read on to learn about the source materials, the SRP, and where you can get From the Top exclusively. . .

Mike Mettler  |  Jan 10, 2025

The listening glory is all ours with the latest pair of top-shelf releases from Rhino’s High Fidelity (Hi-Fi) series. Television’s potent April 1978 sophomore effort Adventure and Faces’ March 1973 swan song Ooh La La both get the patented AAA Hi-Fi 180g 1LP treatment and are being released today, January 10, 2025. Read Mike Mettler’s combo review to see why you need both of these fine Hi-Fi LP reissues ASAP. . .

Mike Mettler, Mark Smotroff, Ken Micallef  |  Dec 22, 2023

That’s right folks, don’t touch that dial — it’s another tag-team album review, just in time for that last-minute holiday push. This time around, AP editor Mike Mettler, along with ace reviewers Mark Smotroff and Ken Micallef, are combining forces to proffer a three-man review of the new 50th anniversary 180g AAA 2LP 45rpm edition of Frank Zappa’s top-shelf September 1973 release, Over-Nite Sensation, an album all three of us regard with great affinity. We also review the limited-edition 3LP version of ONS too, which contains an extra LP of bonus tracks. Read on to see how this Zappa-loving triumvirate of Mike, Mark, and Ken get reety-awrighty with their analysis of a stone-cold classic LP in its new 45rpm incarnation. . .

Michael Fremer  |  Jul 19, 2021
Run Out Groove Records Announce today the upcoming release of More of The Monkees (Deluxe Edition) cut by Kevin Gray and Andrew Sandoval from the original analog tapes, complete with gatefold "tip on" jacket, expanded to a double LP with the addition of "debut vinyl" rarities.

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 04, 2017
Pianist Jamie Saft's trio recorded a well-received, sonically superb 2014 album called New Standard. If you need a group or individual backgrounder, please hit that hyperlink.

Michael Fremer  |  Oct 18, 2016
Best known to American Miles Davis fans as side one of the twelve inch Columbia Records LP release Jazz Track (CL1268), Ascenseur pour l’échafaud (“Elevator to the Scaffold”), the jazz soundtrack to the Louis Malle film was originally released in France in 1958 on the Fontana label as a 10” LP.

Michael Fremer  |  Nov 12, 2015
The golden gatefold cover art of Samantha Crain's Under Branch & Thorn & Tree makes clear that this is not a collection of "good times" tunes, but one is still left unprepared for the relentlessly bleak stories of betrayal, despair and desolation Crain delivers in an often pain-wracked voice that's somehow wrapped in a soothing, mesmerizing balm.

Mark Smotroff  |  Jan 03, 2025

Our first Short Cuts combo-review entry of 2025 covers six recent blues reissues — five from the Bluesville Series from Craft Recordings, plus one archival release issued on RSD 2024 by Deep Digs/Elemental Music. Read Mark Smotroff’s Short Cuts combo review to see how many of these fine 180g LP offerings from Albert King, Jimmy Reed, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Skip James, Blind Gary Davis, and B.B. King belong in your collection. . .

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