Music Reviews: Vinyl

In 2000, Warning’s prominent acoustic guitars and more nuanced lyrical approach might’ve alienated Green Day's core fanbase, as it sold significantly less than their previous major label LPs and seems comparatively forgotten in the popular memory. Now, however, a lavish 25th anniversary 5LP or 4CD super deluxe box set presents Warning as the excellent power pop record it’s always been.

• Officially Sanctioned Concord Music Group, Inc.
ALL VALVE Heritage pressing cut directly from the original analogue master tapes.
• No equalization, compression or any other processing undertaken during the cutting process.
• Cut in TRUE monaural using 1960's Lyrec SV8 all valve cutting system and Ortofon DS522 mono cutter head.
• Hand-crafted sleeve artwork faithfully recreated using a vintage letterpress procedure.
• Released in strictly limited, individually - numbered edition of 345.

Recorded in 1957 and released in 1959 on Norman Granz's new Verve Record label, this makes a fitting debut for the new Verve Vault series produced by Verve exec Ken Druker. It arrived a while back along with a Antonio Carlos Jobim The Composer of Desafinado Plays and I'm finally getting around to writing about it Two more disparate albums from the Verve catalog I cannot imagine, which is why they made such a good choice to inaugurate the new Verve Vault... Read More

When people think of KISS without context, Gene Simmons, the fire-breathing, blood-spitting demon who convinced shocked parents that the group’s name was an acronym for ‘Knights in Satan’s Service’, first comes to mind. Nonetheless, the group’s biggest hit was sung not by Simmons, but by the group's drummer, Peter Criss. Criss played in numerous Brooklyn area bands before becoming the Catman in the world's hottest band. His jazz-rooted drumming (he was a... Read More

Decca - one of the oldest and most storied of classical labels - joins Deutsche Grammophon in revisiting its fabled back-catalogue to breathe new sonic life into legendary recordings.  With Rainer Maillard and Sidney C. Meyer of Emil Berliner Studios once more flexing their all-analogue, direct-from-the-mastertape-to-lathe mastering and cutting skills, is sonic and musical nirvana once again being visited upon vinyl collectors?

When the audiophile houses started reissuing Blue Note jazz albums on vinyl (Classic Records in the late 1990s, Analogue Productions and Music Matters Jazz 20 years later, a decade after Classic had gone out of business), they focused almost exclusively on the storied label’s mainstream titles from the 1950s and early ‘60s, by the likes of Horace Silver, Hank Mobley, Donald Byrd, Dexter Gordon, early Sonny Rollins and Miles Davis, and, of course, John Coltrane’s sole... Read More

In Pt. I of the 2025 year-end ‘Original Source’ round up, I looked at two recordings a bit off the beaten path in terms of repertoire. Well, now we get to some more well-trodden territory.Today we’re looking at a disc of orchestral war horses from Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini leading the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble for which he was once principal guest conductor. The majority of the LP is taken up by Pictures at an Exhibition, Modest Mussorgsky’s... Read More

Colin Escott writes in the liner notes to this remarkable reissue that Carl Perkins met The Beatles at the wrap party for his first British tour before the fFab Four broke big in America and he accompanied them to the studio the next day where they recorded "Matchbox". Months later they recorded "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby" and "Honey Don't". Over time the group or individuals in the group recorded every song on this... Read More

A deep dive into one of the most original - now classic - records of its era, here receiving a stunning, deluxe vinyl reissue. Plus an interview with the owner of Analogue October Records, Craig Crane, who reveals some of the exciting titles he's going to be releasing in 2026.

Over the last 50 years, enough has been written about Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here that I have nothing to add about the original album other than that it’s easily my favorite Pink Floyd album and was the first vinyl LP I ever bought. It’s carefully textured but not too indulgent and meandering, and the lyrics hit the sweet spot between universality and specificity. Never before or after would the band so perfectly achieve this balance, as the earlier stuff can be... Read More

Grafting lyrics onto instrumental classical music has a rich history of success in the pop world. Most listeners happily hum Elvis and Perry Como tunes like "It's Now Or Never" and "Hot Diggity, Dog Diggity..." not having a clue about from where they originated. "Jazzed up" versions of popular songs are a well worn path down which many jazz arrangers and singers go. Here, jazz singer Tessa Souter does something far more audacious,... Read More

Despite the dozen years between 2002's break-up masterpiece Sea Change and 2014's Morning Phase, the musical gap between the two albums seemed in many ways minimal. Beck seemed to be revisiting his past. On the opener "Morning" he sings "Can we start it all over again?" On "Say Goodbye" he sings "cause these are the words we use to say goodbye". No wonder the album disappointed many fans expecting something new since... Read More

In his somewhat sparse annotation accompanying this four record set, annotator Professor Sean Wilentz wisely doesn't attempt to explain how Robert Zimmerman became Bob Dylan, which was a good call since the more you dig, the more inexplicable it becomes. Even Dylan, when Ed Bradley interviewed him about his autobiographical book "Chronicles, Volume One" for the television news feature show formerly known as "60 Minutes", admitted he... Read More

Circumstances surrounding KISS and Casablanca Records in mid-1975 were dire. The group’s first three albums (KISS, Hotter Than Hell, Dressed to Kill) sold in horrific quantities and didn’t contain a hit single to break the group into the mainstream buying public. Having lost distribution from Warner Brothers, president Neil Bogart resorted to borrowing money from, as described by Gene Simmons, ‘people with vowels at the end of their last name,’ to keep the label... Read More

Dark Tranquillity’s hometown Gothenburg in Sweden is probably best known in the musical world as the birthplace of a particular Metal subgenre: Melodic Death Metal. Often called the “Gothenburg Sound”, it adapted the harshness of old-school Death Metal and combined it with more melodic approaches from 80s Heavy Metal bands.The band itself was founded in 1989 under the name Septic Broiler, which was changed to the current band name in 1990. The Gallery is Dark... Read More

Art Pepper’s music is not typically described as an acquired taste. For many, his melodic cool jazz compositions and brilliant alto sax solos are some of the most easily accessible jazz recordings that emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. Yet, Pepper’s playing is the opposite of smooth jazz. It is emotional heartfelt stuff from the school of hard knocks. One reading of his autobiography “Straight Life” will convince you of that.Born in southern... Read More

When you flip over a new vinyl copy of 25-year-old pianist Caelan Cardello’s 2025 debut album, Chapter One — his first studio release following 2023’s Rufus Reid Presents Caelan Cardello, recorded live at the 40-seat West Side showroom Klavierhaus NYC — you encounter an intriguing caveat.Despite being executive produced by Michael Fremer — audiophile leader and Tracking Angle editor-in-chief — and despite a no-corners-cut production chain that includes Duke Markos as... Read More

The Frank Sinatra juggernaut rolls on. Last up was the In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning Tone Poet reissue, which generated a large buzz and for good reasons explained in Paul Seydor's scholarly review. Before that was IMPEX's Sing and Dance With Frank Sinatra. As with the latter, the glue that binds this Sing, Inc. set together is Sinatra authority Charles L. Granata's annotation. Most remarkable about all of this Sinatra interest is that... Read More

No apologies need to be made for this musically and sonically attractive collection of contemporary Irish guitarists and their music, yet the compilation producer Cian Nugent, who also contributes a tune, felt it necessary and does so in his annotation. "Passing a Dublin tourist trap pub, the sound of a plastic piezo strum can elicit horror in the passerby". "But", he adds "the guitar can also be a tool for dreaming and mystery". And... Read More

Hair and beard turned white and wearing the same sunglasses as on 1993's Joe Harley produced The Old Songs (Audioquest AQ 1017) and otherwise looking remarkably unchanged, tenor saxophonist Bennie Wallace and friends turn in a sensual, moody set, beginning with an unusually slinky, conga line take on the old gospel warhorse "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho".With a pair of Bossa Nova classics—"How Insensitive" and "Desafinado" and... Read More