Mike Mettler

Paula Cole didn’t want to wait any longer to take full control of her career — so the acclaimed, heart-on-her-sleeve singer/songwriter started her own 675 Records label a little over a decade ago, and she hasn’t looked back since. The latest fruit of Cole’s vinyl-centric labors is a new 2LP studio set, Lo, her 11th solo album, which was released on 675 on March 1. Produced by Cole herself, Lo teems with the caliber of songwriting depth and arrangement breadth she’s long been known for as an artist. In a recent Zoom interview with AP editor Mike Mettler, Cole discussed why listening to vinyl is a “full body” experience, why Lo had no choice but to be spread across three LP sides, and why she feels passionate about reclaiming the rights to re-release her first three albums on her own label.. . .

There are seminal jazz albums — and then there is John Coltrane’s January 1965 Impulse! masterpiece, A Love Supreme. Numerous Supreme LP upgrades have been issued over the years — including the most recent and most excellent 11/11 UHQR edition from Analogue Productions — and now VMP enters the picture with their upcoming 180g 8LP mostly AAA limited edition box set that’s been earmarked for a late summer release. Read on to see all that this historic Supreme vinyl box set entails. . .

Whenever the calendar turns, almost inevitably, new Steve Hackett music is on the horizon — and thus we have before us the British guitar maestro’s 30th solo album, The Circus and the Nightwhale, which is being released tomorrow, February 16, 2024, as a 180g 1LP set via InsideOut Music. In a recent Zoom interview across the Pond with AP editor Mike Mettler, Hackett discussed the genesis (pun intended) of Nightwhale music, the importance of deploying volume dynamics whenever possible, and why Genesis was in no way going to compromise the depth and the integrity of the song arrangements they came up with for the initial vinyl release of their groundbreaking 1972 LP, Foxtrot. . .