Reviews of Attainable Hi-Fi & Home-Theater Equipment
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Blue Note Records B003327702
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
It’s tempting to assume jazz organist Dr. Lonnie Smith’s return to Blue Note Records in 2016 with Evolution meant he was enjoying a late-career rebirth. In fact, Smith has recorded steadily and consistently since the mid-1960s, when he was a member of guitarist George Benson’s group. His credits include 29 albums as leader and countless other appearances on recordings by other musicians, including saxophonist Lou Donaldson, a fellow Blue Note alum.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
BFM Jazz 621 834 676 2
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Drummer Steve Gadd has played on so many records, in so many genres of music, that his discography seems to run on forever. To say he’s been in demand over the years is an understatement. He’s also led his own bands; one of these, Steve Gadd Band, is composed largely of musicians who, like him, were members of James Taylor’s touring group. That lineup’s fourth release, Steve Gadd Band (2018), won a Grammy for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Sony Music/Legacy Recordings 19439839452
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Willie Nelson’s 2018 tribute to Frank Sinatra, My Way, showed his affection for the singer’s work, but on the 11 songs Nelson chose to cover he avoided simply retracing the Chairman of the Board’s footsteps. “Summer Wind” had its own relaxed charm, “It Was a Very Good Year” showed a different shade of melancholy from Sinatra’s, and “My Way” was a summing-up that avoided the swagger that marred Sinatra’s own take on the song (it’s one of the few Sinatra numbers I’ve never liked).
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Omnivore Recordings OV-408
Format: 16-bit/44.1kHz FLAC download
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Matthew Sweet has carried the power-pop banner high ever since his breakthrough third album, Girlfriend (1991), making tuneful, guitar-driven records that sometimes show as much appreciation for bands like Hüsker Dü as they do the glories of AM rock radio. Some of his albums, such as 100% Fun (1995) and Blue Sky on Mars (1997), contain their share of loud, overdriven guitars, but others, like In Reverse (1999), make overt references to the lush ’60s pop production styles of the Beach Boys and the Beatles.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Arts & Crafts Productions AC195CD
Format: 2 CDs
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Gord Downie’s solo album Introduce Yerself was released in October 2017, just ten days after the death of the iconic frontman and creative genius of The Tragically Hip. I assumed we had heard his final album, but Downie’s brothers later revealed that additional recordings were being prepared for release, and now we have Away Is Mine. Downie and Skydiggers guitarist Josh Finlayson, who had played on several of Downie’s previous solo recordings, cowrote the music for Away Is Mine and Downie wrote the lyrics.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Capitol Records B003285202
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Paul McCartney says his new album, McCartney III, was “made in rockdown.” He likes the sentiment so much he uses the pun twice in the booklet that accompanies the CD. Too cute, perhaps, and less clever than he thinks, but part of McCartney’s appeal is that he occasionally lapses into silliness. He recorded this disc, the third album in his long career featuring him alone on all vocals and instruments, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and it leans more toward the rustic charm of McCartney (1970) than the more heavily produced McCartney II (1980).
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Mercury Nashville Records B0032689-02
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
The title of Chris Stapleton’s new disc, Starting Over, suggests a new musical direction, but the 14 tracks on the album stay close to the singer’s roots in country, rock, and soul. His three previous discs established Stapleton’s commitment to his musical heritage, and Starting Over reaffirms his ability to handle a variety of genres easily and naturally.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Easy Eye Sound/Dead Oceans DOC220
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Aaron Frazer was the drummer and co-vocalist for the soul-revival band Durand Jones & The Indications before going out on his own last year. Dan Auerbach, the guitarist from the Black Keys, heard Frazer’s falsetto on “Is It Any Wonder?,” a track from the Indications’ first album, and got in touch with him about recording a solo album. Auerbach brought Frazer to his Easy Eye Sound Studio in Nashville and assembled a batch of country and soul musicians to help him record his debut.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Concord Records CRE01393
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Elvis Costello’s 31st studio album, Hey Clockface, comprises 14 tracks that the songwriter recorded in three cities: Helsinki, Paris, and New York. He used different sets of musicians in Paris and New York, and played all the instruments on the three songs recorded in Helsinki. The album takes in the many styles he’s embraced over his career, from new wave rock to sophisticated pop, jazz, and other, more experimental genres, but he pulls the disparate elements together into a pleasing and cohesive whole.
- Details
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Featured Releases
Tompkins Square TSQ 5692
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Born and raised in Salt Lake City, singer-songwriter Sam Burton taught himself guitar and played in local bands before relocating to Los Angeles and joining fellow singer-songwriter Jess Williamson’s touring band. He’s clearly kept his ears open to a lot of folk, country, and other pop music styles, and put it to good use when he started writing and recording his own songs. He released some well-received homemade cassettes, gaining a following for his music and a record deal with San Francisco label Tompkins Square. There he met producer Jarvis Taveniere, who is also a member of Woods, a Brooklyn-based folk rock band. Taveniere and Burton co-produced I Can Go With You, Burton’s debut album.
- Bruce Springsteen: "Letter to You"
- Christine and the Queens: "La Vita Nuova"
- Joan Osborne: "Trouble and Strife"
- The Psychedelic Furs: "Made of Rain"
- Bill Frisell: "Valentine"
- Pretenders: "Hate for Sale"
- Joe Jackson: "Body and Soul"
- GoGo Penguin: "GoGo Penguin"
- Bob Dylan: "Rough and Rowdy Ways"
- John Scofield: "Swallow Tales"
- EOB: "Earth"
- Other Lives: "For Their Love"
- Fiona Apple: "Fetch the Bolt Cutters"
- Nap Eyes: "Snapshot of a Beginner"
- Roger Eno and Brian Eno: "Mixing Colours"
- James Taylor: "American Standard"
- Avishai Cohen: "Big Vicious"
- The Grip Weeds: "Giant on the Beach: Anniversary Edition (Remixed and Expanded)"
- En Attendant Ana: "Juillet"
- Beck: "Hyperspace"
- Leonard Cohen: "Thanks for the Dance"
- Gene Clark: "No Other"
- The Who: "Who"
- GoGo Penguin: "Ocean in a Drop: Music for Film"
- James Brown: "Live at Home with His Bad Self"
- Wilco: "Ode to Joy"
- Brittany Howard: "Jaime"
- Enrico Rava and Joe Lovano: "Roma"
- The Flaming Lips: "King’s Mouth: Music and Songs"
- Elephant9: "Psychedelic Backfire I"
- Various Artists: "Woodstock -- Back to the Garden: 50th Anniversary Experience"
- Philip Bailey: "Love Will Find a Way"
- Santana: "Africa Speaks"
- Bruce Springsteen: "Western Stars"
- The Waterboys: "Where the Action Is"
- John Paul White: "The Hurting Kind"
- Norah Jones: "Begin Again"
- Dominic Miller: "Absinthe"
- Luther Dickinson and Sisters of the Strawberry Moon: "Solstice"
- Joe Jackson: "Fool"
- Guided by Voices: "Zeppelin Over China"
- Bob Mould: "Sunshine Rock"
- Andrew Cyrille: "Lebroba"
- The Good, the Bad & the Queen: "Merrie Land"
- Marianne Faithfull: "Negative Capability"
- The 1975: "A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships"
- Neneh Cherry: "Broken Politics"
- Elvis Costello: "Look Now" (Deluxe Edition)
- Mark Knopfler: "Down the Road Wherever"
- Paul Simon: "In the Blue Light"
- Christine and the Queens: "Chris"
- Mike Marshall & Caterina Lichtenberg: "Third Journey"
- Death Cab for Cutie: "Thank You for Today"
- Tord Gustavsen Trio: "The Other Side"
- The Jayhawks: "Back Roads and Abandoned Motels"
- Charles Lloyd & the Marvels + Lucinda Williams: "Vanished Gardens"
- David Bowie: "Welcome to the Blackout (Live London '78)"
- Ry Cooder: "The Prodigal Son"
- Grant Green: "Funk in France: From Paris to Antibes (1969-1970)" and "Slick! Live at Oil Can Harry's"
- Venetian Snares & Daniel Lanois: "Venetian Snares x Daniel Lanois"
- The Who: "Live at the Fillmore East 1968"
- Belle and Sebastian: "How to Solve Our Human Problems"
- The Breeders: "All Nerve"
- MGMT: "Little Dark Age"
- Grant-Lee Phillips: "Widdershins"
- The James Hunter Six: "Whatever It Takes"
- Dr. Lonnie Smith: "All in My Mind"
- Bob Dylan: "The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979-1981"
- Chris Stapleton: "From a Room: Volume 2"
- Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds: "Who Built the Moon?"
- The Rolling Stones: "On Air"
- Gord Downie: "Introduce Yerself"
- Django Bates' Belovèd: The Study of Touch
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor: "Luciferian Towers"
- Beck: "Colors"
- Gary Peacock: "Tangents"
- Steve Winwood: "Greatest Hits Live"
- Alphonse Mouzon: "In Search of a Dream"
- Arcade Fire: "Everything Now"
- Paul Weller: "A Kind Revolution"
- Chuck Berry: "Chuck"
- Frank Sinatra: "The Frank Sinatra Collection -- The Timex Shows Vols. 1 and 2"
- Bill Frisell and Thomas Morgan: "Small Town"
- Procol Harum: "Novum"
- Ray Davies: "Americana"
- Aimee Mann: "Mental Illness"
- Bob Dylan: "Triplicate"
- Son Volt: "Notes of Blue"
- Cloud Nothings: "Life Without Sound"
- Max Richter: "Three Worlds: Music from Woolf Works"
- Japandroids: "Near to the Wild Heart of Life"
- Flaming Lips: "Oczy Mlody"
- Bonnie Raitt: "Dig in Deep"
- The Monty Alexander Trio: "Montreux Alexander: The Monty Alexander Trio LIVE! at the Montreux Festival"
- Harvey Mandel: "Snake Pit"
- Big Audio Dynamite: "This Is Big Audio Dynamite"
- Pretenders: "Alone"
- Jimi Hendrix: "Machine Gun: The Fillmore East First Show 12/31/1969"
- Wilco: "Schmilco"
- Daniel Lanois/Rocco DeLuca: "Goodbye to Language"
- Amos Lee: "Spirit"
- Peter Erskine Trio: "As It Was"
- Jeff Beck: "Loud Hailer"
- The Posies: "Solid States"
- Shawn Colvin and Steve Earle: "Colvin & Earle: Deluxe Edition"
- The Tragically Hip: "Man Machine Poem"
- Eric Clapton: "I Still Do"
- My Morning Jacket: "It Still Moves (Deluxe Reissue)"
- Musiq Soulchild: "Life on Earth"
- Santana: "IV"
- Jeff Buckley: "You and I"
- Peter Frampton: "Acoustic Classics"
- Dr. Lonnie Smith: "Evolution"
- The I Don't Cares: "Wild Stab"
- Elvis Costello: "Detour: Live at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, featuring Larkin Poe"
- Taste: "What's Going On: Live at the Isle of Wight"
- Tom Jones: "Long Lost Suitcase"
- Bobby Hutcherson: "Happenings"
- Them: "The Complete Them 1964-1967"
- The Robert Cray Band: "4 Nights of 40 Years Live"
- Blue Rodeo: "Live at Massey Hall"
- Joe Jackson: "Fast Forward"
- David Gilmour: "Rattle That Lock"
- Gene Ammons: "Boss Tenor"
- Wilco: "Star Wars"
- Cannonball Adderley: "Somethin' Else"
- Tame Impala: "Currents"
- Leon Bridges: "Coming Home"
- Rickie Lee Jones: "The Other Side of Desire"
- James Taylor: "Before This World"
- My Morning Jacket: "The Waterfall"
- Canned Heat with John Lee Hooker: "Carnegie Hall 1971"
- Dizzy Gillespie: "Live at Ronnie Scott's, Volume 1"
- Mark Knopfler: "Tracker"
- Van Morrison: "Duets: Re-working the Catalogue"
- Justin Kauflin: "Dedication"
- Bob Dylan: "Shadows in the Night"
- Steve Gadd Band: "70 Strong"
- King Crimson: "Live at the Orpheum: Los Angeles 2014"
- Various Artists: "The Blues & Salvation"
- Smashing Pumpkins: "Monuments to an Elegy"
- Jeff Beck: "Live in Tokyo"
- Eric Johnson and Mike Stern: "Eclectic"
- Eric Clapton: "Planes, Trains and Eric"
- Leonard Cohen: "Popular Problems"
- Adam Cohen: "We Go Home"
- Chick Corea Trio: "Trilogy"
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: "Hypnotic Eye"
- Sheryl Bailey: "A Meeting of Minds"
- ZZ Top: "Live at Montreux 2013"
- Chrissie Hynde: "Stockholm"
- "Common Ground: Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin Play and Sing the Songs of Big Bill Broonzy"
- The Rippingtons: "Fountain of Youth"
- Alice Cooper: "Super Duper Alice Cooper"
- The Black Keys: "Turn Blue"
- The Robert Cray Band: "In My Soul"
- Gord Downie and the Sadies: "Gord Downie, the Sadies, and the Conquering Sun"
- Neil Finn: "Dizzy Heights"
- The Hold Steady: "Teeth Dreams"
- Neneh Cherry: "Blank Project"
- Beck: "Morning Phase"
- The Sadies: "Internal Sounds"
- Rickie Lee Jones: "Rickie Lee Jones"
- Judy Wexler: "What I See"
- Archie Shepp and Attica Blues Orchestra Live: "I Hear the Sound"
- Billie Joe + Norah: "Foreverly"
- Nick Lowe: "Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family"
- Elvis Costello and the Roots: "Wise Up Ghost and Other Songs"
- Allen Toussaint: "Songbook"
- Moby: "Innocents"
- Bob Dylan: "Another Self Portrait (1969-1971) -- The Bootleg Series Vol.10"
- Joe Barbieri: "Chet Lives!"
- Steve Gadd Band: "Gadditude"
- Smith Westerns: "Soft Will"
- Kanye West: "Yeezus"
- Vampire Weekend: "Modern Vampires of the City"
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Specter at the Feast"
- Daft Punk: "Random Access Memories"
- Elias Haslanger: "Church on Monday"
- Michael Feinstein: "Change of Heart: The Songs of André Previn"
- David Bowie: "The Next Day"
- Hiromi/The Trio Project: "Move"
- Atoms for Peace: "Amok"
- Patricia Barber: "Smash"
- Yo La Tengo: "Fade"
- Orchestre National de Jazz: "Piazzolla!"
- Lifehouse: "Almería"
- War Poets: "Dulce et Decorum Est"
- Luka Bloom: "This New Morning"
- Poncho Sanchez and His Latin Jazz Band: "Live in Hollywood"
- David Chesky: "Dr. Chesky’s Sensational Fantastic and Simply Amazing Binaural Sound Show!"
- Father's Children: "Father's Children"
- The xx: "Coexist"
- The Gaddabouts: "Look Out Now!"
- Easy Star All-Stars: "Easy Star’s Thrillah"
- Return to Forever IV: "The Mothership Returns"
- Mike Stern: "All Over the Place"
- Sam Cooke: "The Best of Sam Cooke"
- Esperanza Spalding: "Radio Music Society"
- Ahmad Jamal: "Blue Moon: The New York Session"
- Leonard Cohen: "Old Ideas"
- Pink Floyd: "Wish You Were Here"
- Jeff Campbell: "Stop and Go"
- Miles Davis: "Miles! Live at Montreux: The Definitive Miles Davis at Montreux DVD Collection 1973-1991"
- Ray Charles: "Live in France 1961"
- Coldplay: "Mylo Xyloto"
- The Hollies: "Look Through Any Window 1963-1975"
- Doug Munro and La Pompe Attack: "A Very Gypsy Christmas"
- Chris Bauer: "In a Yuletide Groove: Harmonica Jazz for the Holidays"
- Paul Motian: "The Windmills of Your Mind"
- Three to Close 2011
- Josh Nelson: "Discoveries"
- Patricia Barber: "Café Blue"
- Mindy Canter: "Fluteus Maximus"
- Steve Cropper: "Dedicated"
- Andrea Wolper: "Parallel Lives"
- The Left Banke: "Walk Away Renée/Pretty Ballerina"
- Cooler Days
- Peter Erskine, Bob Mintzer, Darek Oles, and Alan Pasqua: "Standards 2 -- Movie Music"
- Zach Williams and the Reformation: "A Southern Offering"
- The Mike Eldred Trio: "61 and 49"
- Aimée Allen: "Winters & Mays"
- Maeve Gilchrist: "Song of Delight"
- Spectacle: Elvis Costello with . . . (Season 2)
- Summer Sounds
- Hiromi: "Voice"
- Ben Waters: "Boogie 4 Stu -- A Tribute to Ian Stewart"
- Nat "King" Cole: "After Midnight"
- Paul Simon: "So Beautiful or So What"
- Eliane Elias: "Light My Fire"
- Esperanza Spalding: "Chamber Music Society"
- Something New
- Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band: "That’s How We Roll"
- “Stan Kenton: Artistry in Rhythm”
- David LaFleur: "Them Bones . . ."
- Gregg Allman: "Low Country Blues"
- Manhattan School of Music Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra: "Tito Puente Masterworks Live!!!"
- The Underground
- Jeff Beck: "Rock’n’Roll Party Honoring Les Paul"
- Jovino Santos Neto: "Veja O Som"
- The O’Farrill Brothers: "Giant Peach"
- Michael William Gilbert: "I Can See From Here"
- Selmer Saxharmonic: "Flying Saxophone Circus"
- Andy Farber and His Orchestra: "This Could Be the Start of Something Big"
- Eli Degibri: "Israeli Song"
- Jazz Shortlist
- Joey DeFrancesco, Robi Botos, Vito Rezza, and Phil Dwyer: "One Take, Volume Four"
- Treasa Levasseur: "Low Fidelity"
- Spin: "Believe"
- Michael McDonald: "This Christmas -- Live in Chicago"
- Berlin Voices: "About Christmas"
- Mike Mainieri / Marnix Busstra Quartet: "Trinary Motion / Live in Europe"
- Latin Flavor
- Marcos Amorim Trio: "Portraits"
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: “Classic Albums: Damn the Torpedoes”
- David Bixler & Arturo O’Farrill: “The Auction Project”
- Miles Davis: “Someday My Prince Will Come”
- Frank Sinatra: “Sinatra at the Sands”
- John Mellencamp: "No Better Than This"
- Sons and Brothers
- Otis Taylor: "Clovis People, Vol 3"
- Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere: "Midnight Flyer"
- New Latin Quarter Presents: "The Jazz and Blues Collection, Volume 1"
- The Grip Weeds: "Strange Change Machine"
- Lawrence Lebo: "Don’t Call Her Larry, Volume 3: American Roots"
- The Rolling Stones: "Exile on Main Street: Deluxe Edition"
- The Nomad's Song
- Ray Charles: "Genius + Soul = Jazz (Expanded Edition)"
- Sebastian Sternal Trio: "Paris"
- Frank Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim: "Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings"
- William Orbit: "My Oracle Lives Uptown"
- Catherine Russell: "Inside This Heart of Mine"
- Dusty Springfield, Small Faces, Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers: "British Invasion"
- Freedy Johnston: "Rain on the City"
- "The Hot Spot" (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
- David Olney: "Dutchman’s Curve"
- Jason and the Scorchers: "Halcyon Times"
- The Music Will Find You
- Lin McPhillips: "My Shining Hour"
