Category: Reviews – Vinyl
Metal still sounds best on large, round pieces of pressed vinyl. The smell, the artwork – and it gets played through a needle.
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The Chemical Brothers – Surrender (2LP reissue)
Then as now, the conventional wisdom is that Dig Your Own Hole was the biggest of The Chemical Brothers‘ entries into the mainstream but, for this critic’s money, the greatest creative triumph of the group’s storied career is their third full-length, Surrender. With Surrender, the group had the mainstream’s attention and knew it, but rather than…
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The Chemical Brothers – Dig Your Own Hole (2LP reissue)
… And then, with the release of Dig Your Own Hole, The Chemical Brothers became a pop culture phenomenon. Now, it could be contended that the arrival and immediate public embrace of Dig Your Own Hole was the result of several different factors intersecting. After grunge, Brit-Pop overtook both the charts and popular imagination thanks…
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The Chemical Brothers – Exit Planet Dust LP (reissue)
From the outside, The Chemical Brothers have never really appeared to be an act that anyone associates with the concept of “evolutionary development,” but that is really the fault of shortsighted critics who simply assume that the group’s influence and growth is limited because the music first gained life on a series of dance floors.…
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Flaming Lips – Oczy Mlody LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Oczy Mlody LP by The Flaming Lips. It has been pretty evident that The Flaming Lips were in need of a change over the last few releases. The band just wasn’t sure what needed to happen in that capacity and so elected to throw everything at…
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The Wallflowers – Bringing Down The Horse LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Twentieth Anniversary 2LP reissue of Bringing Down The Horse by The Wallflowers It might not have been the single most obvious thing, but those who remember the times during which The Wallflowers released their sophomore album know the world was a very strange place from an…
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Our Lady Peace – Clumsy
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the vinyl reissue of Clumsy by Our Lady Peace. With the knowledge of what Clumsy would ultimately become in the context of Our Lady Peace‘s catalogue already a matter of public record (it was a runaway success; it was certified Diamond – one million copies sold –…
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Agnes Obel – Citizen of Glass LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the Citizen Of Glass LP by Agnes Obel. As one listens to Agnes Obel‘s third album, Citizen Of Glass, it quickly becomes apparent that it’s only a matter of time. The first couple of albums Obel released really only set a scene and made introductions for the…
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Our Lady Peace – Naveed LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the 2016-released vinyl reissue of the Naveed LP by Our Lady Peace Now with the benefit of hindsight, it is genuinely incredible when one considers how many classic bands just seemed to materialize from nowhere on the streets of Toronto in the first half of the 1990s.…
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Great Apes – California Heart LP
A deeper look at the grooves pressed into the California Heart LP by Great Apes. It is often said that the mastering process required to present music on vinyl (instead of CD or mp3) is part of what really changes the overall experience of the format (above and beyond the obvious physical contact made between…
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Maxwell – BLACKsummers’night LP (reissue)
On a superficial level, leaping around an artist’s catalogue can be confusing in a variety of ways. There can be a disconnect in the continuity of the artist’s development and that may mess with the perceptions of their catalogue as a whole. Such a phenomenon is absolutely true of Maxwell‘s songbook. When the singer’s started with…