Lucinda Williams-World's Gone Wrong

Music Reviews: Lucinda Williams’s ‘World’s Gone Wrong,’ plus Dave Miller

Lucinda Williams’s nearly half-century recording career has always been characterized by literate lyrics and strong musicianship, but just as importantly, by heartfelt sentiments. It still is, though recent events have ostensibly prompted the singer to change the focus of those sentiments. On early standouts like “Passionate Kisses,” “Something About What Happens When We Talk,” and […]

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Music Reviews: ‘The Complete Trip’ Collects Psychedelia from England’s Orange Bicycle, plus David Huckfelt

The career of England’s Orange Bicycle was as commercially unsuccessful as it was brief. Thanks to a mistranslation of the text on a French EP’s cover, the psychedelic pop sextet has often been said to have had a chart-topping single in that country. In fact, Orange Bicycle had no hits, much less chart-toppers, anywhere on […]

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Fabulous Thunderbirds-Vaughan Years

Music Reviews: Fabulous Thunderbirds, plus Lester Young and Anthologies of Rockabilly and Appalachian Music

Music Reviews: Fabulous Thunderbirds, plus Lester Young and Anthologies of Rockabilly and Appalachian Music The Jimmie Vaughan Story, a limited-edition five-CD set released in 2021, includes performances from every stage of the Austin, Texas–based blues-rock guitarist and singer’s career. If you missed that compendium or want more, however, you can find it in The Jimmie […]

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With a Little Help from My Friends

Music Reviews: An Anthology of Beatles Covers, Ward Hayden Interprets Springsteen, and a Record about Records

Music Reviews: An Anthology of Beatles Covers, Ward Hayden Interprets Springsteen, and a Record about Records Another Box of Beatles Covers Particularly during the years when the Fab Four dominated the charts, countless artists from a wide variety of genres couldn’t resist jumping on the band’s wagon. The new With a Little Help from My […]

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Rolling Stones Black & Blue

Music & Video Reviews: Rolling Stones’ ‘Black and Blue’ Box Set, plus Robert Gordon with Link Wray, and Melissa Carper’s Christmas Album

Music & Video Reviews: Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue Box Set, plus Robert Gordon with Link Wray, and Melissa Carper’s Christmas Album Just a few months shy of a half century after its release, the Rolling Stones’ Black and Blue is back in a “super deluxe” edition that includes four CDs (or five LPs) and […]

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Bangles Watching the Sky

Music Reviews: Boxing Up the Bangles, plus ‘Rock the Plaza’ and Kim Wilson’s ‘Slow Burn’

Music Reviews: Boxing Up the Bangles, plus Rock the Plaza and Kim Wilson’s Slow Burn It’s about time we had a box set from the Bangles, whose well-hooked, harmony-laden tunes provided some of the brightest moments on Top 40 radio in the 1980s. Emerging from the West Coast’s Paisley Underground movement, the group featured four […]

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Dylan box contents

Music Reviews: Bob Dylan’s ‘Through the Open Window: Bootleg Series, Vol. 18,’ plus Dion, ‘The Rock ’n’ Roll Philosopher’

Though Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series began in 1991 and has embraced well over 50 discs, it is only now, with its 18th volume, that it is getting around to the first chapter of its subject’s story. And what a chapter it is. Granted, the period covered by Through the Open Window: The Bootleg Series, Vol. […]

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Beatles Anthology Collection Contents

Music Reviews: The Beatles’ ‘Anthology Collection,’ plus Concert Albums from Warren Zevon and Roland Kirk

How on earth did the Beatles progress from songs like “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” in only a little more than three years? The sparks that ignite artistic growth can be enigmatic, but the Fab Four’s Anthology album series, released in the mid-1990s, did help to flesh […]

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Split Enz CD Packshot

Music Reviews: Split Enz’s ‘ENZyclopedia,’ plus ‘Instrumental Hits of the Rock ’n’ Roll Era’ and Newly Restored Frank Sinatra Concerts

Neil Finn’s Crowded House wasn’t the first New Zealand band to make a mark beyond the southern hemisphere. That distinction goes to the experimental art-rock group Split Enz, which Neil’s older brother, Tim, and fellow songwriter Phil Judd formed in 1972. The group, which experienced numerous personnel and stylistic changes over the years, broke up […]

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Jimi Hendrix Bold as Love Box Contents

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘The Axis: Bold as Love Sessions,’ plus Bobby Charles, Dr. John, and Nina Simone

Music Reviews: Jimi Hendrix’s ‘The Axis: Bold as Love Sessions,’ plus Bobby Charles, Dr. John, and Nina Simone “Well, I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk,” sings Bruce Springsteen in his iconic “Thunder Road.” No knock on Bruce, who plays his instrument masterfully, but if that line applies to anyone, […]

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