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When Craft Records released a high-end reissue of Thelonious Monk’s Brilliant Corners, author Robert Baird contrasted its audiophile fidelity with the flood of inferior, budget public domain pressings—highlighting a clash between accessibility and sonic integrity.
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Rhino’s new High Fidelity reissues wow with all-analog mastering by Kevin Gray and deluxe Optimal pressings. Standouts include Jaco Pastorius’ Word of Mouth, Van Morrison’s His Band and the Street Choir, and Herbie Hancock’s mesmerizing Crossings.
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As the ’60s came to a close, with the dawn of the new decade just on the horizon, many rock bands abandoned references to psychedelics in their music, favouring instead a return to roots, folk, and country.
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MoFi’s 2022 One-Step reissue of Crosby, Stills & Nash transforms a historically uneven recording into a lush, balanced, and far more listenable album, with Krieg Wunderlich’s mastering and RTI’s pressing offering striking sonic gains.
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Mocked for aging in the ’80s, the Rolling Stones now defy time with Hackney Diamonds—a swaggering, star-studded return that proves, decades on, they still swing harder than anyone thought possible.
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With “Aventine,” Agnes Obel crafts hauntingly intimate piano-led compositions of rare precision and emotional depth—each track a self-contained world, rendered in minimalist perfection and captured in audiophile-grade sound.
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Though never chart-toppers, Little Feat’s Sailin’ Shoes and Dixie Chicken—now reissued in deluxe remastered editions—prove that Lowell George’s fearless genre-melding vision still grooves with undiminished charm 50 years on.
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Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.
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Jade Bird sharpens her edge on Different Kinds of Light, weaving rock grit with intimate songwriting, while Greta Van Fleet’s The Battle at Garden’s Gate finds the band maturing into a grander, more cinematic soundscape.
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Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu earns an 8/10 from a loyal fan who praises Bruce Dickinson’s vocals and the fresh sound of “The Writing on the Wall,” but criticizes the album’s dragging length, flat production, and familiar formulas.
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As Blur returns with The Ballad of Darren, Mark Lepage highlights their mature, melancholic sound—and wonders if the album’s strength might provoke the ultimate Britpop revenge: an Oasis reunion just to spite them.
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PS Audio’s Octave Records follows up with The Art of Hi-Fi Volume 02: Soundstage, a DSD 256 showcase designed to test speaker setup and capture the illusion of three-dimensional sound, reports The Sound Advocate.
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Metallica’s 72 Seasons may not reinvent thrash, but it refines it with maturity and muscle. With Greg Fidelman’s production and standout tracks like “Inamorata,” the band delivers their strongest album since Death Magnetic.
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From a dreamy Indiana barn to a mythical French serpent-woman, this trio of jazz-influenced albums—by Janiece Jaffe and Monika Herzig, Christine Jensen, and Cécile McLorin Salvant—showcases the vision and vitality women bring to modern jazz.
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Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.