Mark Smotroff

When it comes to recordings of the blues, there are different pockets of reissue-related activity that remain of interest to many music enthusiasts these days. Three new recent LP upgrades from three different iconic names span several generations of interest — namely, mid-20th-century icons John Lee Hooker and Memphis Slim along with Furry Lewis, who began recording in 1927. Read Mark Smotroff’s combo Short Cuts review to see if BMG’s new reissue of Hooker’s 1992 Pointblank/Charisma album Boom Boom, along with Craft Recordings’ Bluesville Series reissues of both pianist Memphis Slim’s 1959 Vee-Jay debut At The Gate of Horn and acoustic fingerpicking/slide guitarist Furry Lewis’ 1961 Prestige/Bluesville LP Back on My Feet are all worthy of buying and spinning. . .

It’s been a mere 5 days since Ozzy Osbourne passed away at age 76 on July 22, 2025. On that day, we posted an abbreviated tribute to the man and his music on AP, with the added kicker that we’d be posting more about him a little bit later. After AP editor Mike Mettler conferred with main LP reviewer Mark Smotroff, we decided to take a different approach with our tribute. Read on to see our collective choices of 15 great tracks on wax that best honor the legacy of Ozzy and Black Sabbath. . .

David Bowie’s March 1975 LP release on RCA, Young Americans, was an album that in some ways divided fans and his career, having come out in the aftermath of shedding his Ziggy Stardust persona and not long before the full-flowered emergence of his suave and sophisticated Thin White Duke phase. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see if Parlophone’s new half-speed-mastered 180g 1LP reissue of this transitional and transformational Bowie release gives you good reason to reconsider the music and sound of Young Americans, one of the more underappreciated classics in the mid-’70s Bowie catalog. . .

In the aftermath of The Mothers’ September 1973 hit LP Over-Nite Sensation, Frank Zappa began a process of trying to capture his amazing band on video for a hopeful television program. It took the better part of a year to eventually accomplish the task, as two trial efforts were deemed unusable at the time. Thankfully, modern restoration techniques have helped salvage such historic works in these 21st century tymes (sic), and that second session — now officially titled Cheaper Than Cheep — is being released by Zappa Records/UMe today, June 27, 2025, as a 180g 3LP set. Read Mark Smotroff’s review to see why Cheep is anything but, and is instead another worthwhile addition to the Zappa-on-vinyl canon. . .