Album Reviews

It was 60 years ago this week that Brian Wilson taught bands to play a different way with the release of The Beach Boys’ masterwork LP Pet Sounds on May 16, 1966. As part of this celebration, the first-time vinyl release of The Beach Boys’ The Pet Sounds Sessions Highlights 2LP set came out a week ago via Capitol/UMe on May 15, 2026. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why the building blocks of one of the most seminal releases in popular music history deserve your undivided vinyl attention. . .

In the wake of the success of Michael, the recent biopic that focuses on Michael Jackson’s extraordinary musical career, we here at AP wanted to recommend his best work on vinyl. Thankfully, Mobile Fidelity has a trio of audiophile-level MJ releases all worthy of our needle-drop attention. Read on to see Mark Smotroff’s review of the MoFi One-Step versions of Off the Wall and Thriller, while AP editor Mike Mettler tackles the Original Master Recording version of Dangerous (and offers his thoughts on the other two MoFi MJ releases in his footnotes). . .

Back on Wednesday, April 22, 2026, we here at AP shared our respective Record Store Day 2026 experiences, along with assessments of some of our purchases that day. In that post, we also mentioned that we would be delving into three more RSD 2026 releases at a later time — and that time is now. Read Mark Smotroff’s review (and AP editor Mike Mettler’s footnotes) to see why the RSD 2026 releases from XTC, Buster Williams, and Brian Wilson are all worthy of your attention — albeit for quite different reasons. . .

Rush’s tenth studio LP on Mercury, April 1984’s Grace Under Pressure, chronicled how the vaunted Canadian trio were able to shift creative gears mid-decade and construct eight technology-driven tracks that confront fear, rue containment, and question conformity. To properly celebrate this important album, UMe/Mercury and Anthem recently released a newly expanded 5LP/1BD Super Deluxe Edition of Grace Under Pressure (a.k.a. GUP40) on March 13, 2026. Read AP editor Mike Mettler’s in-depth box set review that also includes an all-new exclusive interview with longtime Rush production wizard Terry Brown — who remixed the original album and the live material exclusively for this box set — to see why his work may forever change the way you hear this Cold War-era music. . .

The October 1975 live album bearing the compelling title of Bongo Fury that features Frank Zappa and legendary/visionary composer Captain Beefheart holds a special place in both artists’ catalogs as their only official live collaboration recording. A new expanded 180g 2LP set of Bongo Fury — which is officially credited to Zappa / Beefheart / Mothers — was released a week ago by Zappa/UMe on March 20, 2026, and it not only celebrates the 50th Anniversary of this sometimes-overlooked album of joyfully swaggering blues-centric madness but offers incredible new insights into the music and improvements to its overall sound. Read Mark Smotroff’s review (and AP editor Mike Mettler’s extensive footnotes) to see if Bongo Fury 50 will provide the proper hard-core vinyl ecstasy we’re all seeking. . .

UK alt-pop stalwarts Squeeze have never quite followed the rules of disengagement, so when they unearthed a 52-year-old demo tape from 1974 featuring a nightclub-oriented song cycle penned by the band’s then-teenage songwriting duo — Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook — they actually found something worth salvaging. The 13 songs retrieved from the vaults were all given new life, and they now comprise the band’s just-released 16th studio album Trixies. AP editor Mike Mettler reviews one of the color variants, plus he talks with guitarist/vocalist Glenn Tilbrook about why he’s always loved vinyl, the art of sequencing, and how two of Squeeze’s most classic songs came together. . .