Music Reviews: Streaming-Download

As a record, Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music holds up just fine. But as an idea? It may be one of the most beautiful we ever had.The story is a familiar one, as far the American musical mythos is concerned: Back in 1962, at the flashpoint of the civil rights movement, Charles recorded 12 standbys originally by Hank Williams (“You Win Again,” “Hey, Good Lookin’,”) Don Gibson (“I Can’t Stop Loving You”), and other luminaries of the tradition.Six... Read More

On 1973’s Living in the Material World, George Harrison’s capacity for subtlety began to elude him in earnest.Six years earlier, he’d released “Within You Without You” on Sgt. Pepper’s — scolding, to be sure, but above all gorgeous, enveloping, and innovative. (Plus, the snickers at the end made it all land.) On the 1968 B-side “The Inner Light,” he channeled the Tao Te Ching with sweet poignancy. On other key songs I don’t need to name, he deftly threaded eros and... Read More

Ryuichi Sakamoto once again sits down at a Yamaha piano in NHK’s Tokyo studio. Microphones and cameras are set up as normal, just like the other times he’s played here. He performs 20 compositions, alone as usual by now. The result, Opus, was at least the third time this decade that he filmed (and saved) a solo piano performance.Yet these sessions in late 2022 were the composer’s final performances of the repertoire that over nearly five decades built, cemented, and... Read More

Harry Belock blew a huge wad of cash on Everest Records, trying to "surpass" Capitol Records both in recording technology, and in quality of repertory. But, to quote John Maynard Keynes, the market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent. So, here's a priceless moment in time, forever frozen in amber; or rather, frozen on 35mm magnetic film.

So now, let me tell you why High Definition Tape Transfer’s stunning first-release downloads, based upon Jerry Bruck’s experimental session tapes from more than 50 years ago, is a “Must Buy” recommendation if you love the music of Gustav Mahler. (However, the same holds true, even if all you want is to hear your stereo system sounding as though it is worth all the money you have put into it!)

[Note: “Playback on other websites has been disabled by the video owner.” Therefore, to open up this YouTube video in another window, please click HERE.]In 1973, Joni Mitchell wrote the song “A Free Man in Paris,” which, at the time, I found somewhat confusing. The confusion remained until I later learned that Mitchell had written the lyrics from the perspective of her friend David Geffen, the legendary music agent and promoter. So, it was not Joni herself who was... Read More

The Beach Boys returned at the start of a new decade with a surpising burst of stunning creativity. Original release August 31 1970. I love this album. Looking back now I think I know why. It all had to do with timing.

“I’m losing my edge…to the art school Brooklynites in little jackets… and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered 80s.”When a then-32-year-old James Murphy uttered that line on LCD Soundsystem’s 2002 debut single “Losing My Edge,” it was about the millennial hipsters taking over New York City, recycling culture and fashion from a quarter-century before. Unlike their aesthetic predecessors, they didn’t have to work hard to find anything; they were “internet seekers who... Read More

Almost no one asked for 2014’s spotty, blandly produced 'Songs Of Innocence' to be shoved into their iTunes library, and even fewer asked for a nearly three-hour compendium of mostly acoustic rerecordings from the catalog. Of course, U2’s latest project 'Songs Of Surrender,' conceived by The Edge and billed as a companion to Bono’s aforementioned book, is exactly that.

Anyone who predicted this is either a time traveler or is clinically insane (probably both). It’s December 2022, everyone’s “best albums of 2022” lists are out, and Lil B has dropped a jazz album.That’s right: Lil B The Based God, the rapper and motivational speaker who’s perhaps the most detrimentally prolific artist of our time (did anyone actually listen to all eight volumes of his 855 Song Based Freestyle Mixtape?), has made what can loosely be considered a jazz... Read More

Formed near the sunny sands of Rio De Janeiro in 1973, Azymuth is a Brazilian funk-jazz trio though they manage to sound like a much larger group, especially when hosting guest players. The band features Jose Roberto Bertrami (unfortunately, deceased in 2019) on an array of keyboards, Alex Malheiros on bass and Ivan Conti on drums. These three musicians initially connected with one another in a previous band called Group Projeto 3 which later became Grupo Seleção. The... Read More

The mystery of Bladee increases yet again. Never slowing down for anyone, the 28-year-old Swedish artist and Drain Gang leader returns with Spiderr, his second album this year after March’s Ecco2k collaboration, Crest. Bladee (Benjamin Reichwald) is this era’s most prolific and enigmatic cult icon, constantly evolving his aesthetic as legions of terminally online teenagers rush to copy his every move (and horrifically fail). Since his 2018 mixtape Icedancer, Bladee’s... Read More