new release Archive
25 Feb 2013
Album Review: Otis Redding – Lonely & Blue
Released in 1966, Lonely & Blue was perhaps Otis Redding‘s finest collection of songs centering on the heartfelt, pained end of the soul balladeering spectrum. With its trademark packaging design […]
22 Feb 2013
Album Review: Huw Lloyd-Langton – Rare & Unreleased Anthology 1971-2012
You could be forgiven if, upon seeing the cover of Rare & Unreleased Anthology 1971-2012 for the first time, you chuckled and thought it sported a photo of Spinal Tap‘s […]
21 Feb 2013
Album Review: Phil Lee – The Fall & Further Decline of the Mighty King of Love
I nearly passed this one by. The cover turned me off, and as I’ve mentioned before, with so many CDs for potential review, an off-putting cover image can sometimes be […]
19 Feb 2013
Album Review: Tony Bennett – As Time Goes By
In 2005, Concord Music Group brought together all of the music Tony Bennett cut for his own label and issued a sprawling, four-plus-hour box set called The Complete Improv Recordings. […]
11 Feb 2013
Album Review: Unitopia – Covered Mirror Vol. 1: Smooth as Silk
Like any musical genre or subgenre, progressive rock has many varieties within its confines. There’s aggressive, sometimes atonal math-based stuff; there’s brutal prog-metal, there’s retro-prog that tries to recreate the […]
08 Feb 2013
Album Review: Duke Ellington Orchestra – Big Bands Live
Duke Ellington is one of the most important figures in American music, let alone within the jazz idiom. Bandleader, arranger, pianist, composer, popularizer of jazz…Ellington’s influence is incalculable. His vast […]
07 Feb 2013
Book (P)review: Boys Don’t Lie – A History of Shoes
On my desk at the moment is a pre-release Kindle copy of Mary E. Donnelly‘s long awaited book about the Zion, IL powerpop group. Shoes began their recording career in […]
06 Feb 2013
Album Review: The Coal Porters – Find the One
I have a friend who possesses a much wider range of musical interest than my own. Unlike me, she rarely concerns herself with such trifling issues as what genre best […]
01 Feb 2013
A Conversation with Thijs Van Leer of Focus
American audiences know Focus – if they know the Dutch progressive group at all – for their left-field 1971 hit single “Hocus Pocus.” Yeah, the one with the yodeling, whistling, […]
31 Jan 2013
Album Review: Wanda Jackson – The Best of the Classic Capitol Singles
If you want a potted history – albeit one from a provocative perspective, and with its own axe to grind – of Wanda Jackson‘s career, I recommend you put your […]