Album

Album


  • Bob Dylan dead and done? The Bootleg Series Vol. 16, 1980โ€“1985

    Bob Dylanโ€™s 1980s spiritual detour shocked fans with gospel-only sets and preaching. By 1983โ€™s Infidels, he returned to secular music, backed by stellar musicians, showcasing renewed creativity despite mixed critical reception and early digital recording controversies.

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  • A Tribute to the First Lady of Love, Donna Summer (1948-2012), Queen of Disco, Pt 1

    Donna Summer revolutionized disco with Moroder and Bellotte, blending sensual Eurodisco and electronic beats. Hits like โ€œLove To Love You Babyโ€ and โ€œI Feel Loveโ€ shaped dance music and sparked electronic genres.

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  • Booker T. & The M.G.โ€™s: a Tribute to the Beatles

    Discovering Booker T. & the M.G.โ€™s McLemore Avenue as a Beatles-ignorant 12-year-old, Wayne E. Goins recalls how the soul-streaked tribute became a personal classicโ€”long before he realized it echoed Abbey Road note for note.

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  • Diving into Disco, Part 3 โ€” The Motown years

    From jump blues and Ray Charlesโ€™s boundary-breaking โ€œWhatโ€™d I Sayโ€ to the polished hits of Motown and gritty grooves of Stax, this sweeping history traces soul musicโ€™s riseโ€”and discoโ€™s rootsโ€”in a racially and musically transformative America.

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  • A family affair: great new jazz by Pat Metheny Groupโ€™s Lyle Mays and Aubrey Johnson

    Lyle Mays, the introspective sonic architect of the Pat Metheny Group, gets a fitting farewell in Eberhardโ€”a sweeping, posthumous masterwork co-produced with his niece, Aubrey Johnson, whose voice helps carry Maysโ€™s final vision home.

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  • The Best of Record Store Day: Bill Evans, Behind the Dikes

    One of the leading music business stories of the 21st century is the continued discovery, sonic restoration, and release of previously unknown recordingsโ€”either from the studio or the stage. As the constant advance in digital technology has reclaimed live tapes once thought to be sonically inferior, and refreshed forgotten or leftover studio recordings, record labels,…

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  • A stone-cold classic: Carole Kingโ€™s Tapestry

    For Wayne E. Goins, Carole Kingโ€™s Tapestry isn’t just an albumโ€”itโ€™s a life marker, from teenage homework sessions on a beloved console to rediscovering its soul-stirring power decades later on a high-end setup.

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  • Why vinyl is better than digital (and it has nothing to do with the sound)

    Though a digital listener, Jonson Lee argues vinyl’s tactile rituals, emotional resonance, and enforced focus offer a deeper musical intimacyโ€”likening analog to a meaningful kiss, and streaming to a noisy crowd ruining the moment.

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  • T.H.E Show 2021

    Dragged along to T.H.E. Show by chance, Jonson Lee’s wife โ€” a professional pianist โ€” helped crown Heavenly Soundworks’ active speakers as the eventโ€™s best, praising their astonishing clarity and bass, all powered by just a $500 streamer.

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  • Honey, weโ€™re building a basement studio!

    With our trip canceled due to the pandemic, what to do at home with the money we saved?ย  Build a basement studio, of course! We have two rooms that were storage spaces, recently emptied, because we had time to clean them!ย  We also made a playroom for the little one. He got the big room,…

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  • Will you commit to being artist-friendly?

    More than 30 years ago, the tabling of the Brundtland report introduced the concept of sustainable development, of which there are three pillars: economic, social, and environmental. This begat fair trade, at the time considered avant-garde, which instituted a set of policies that spanned the world and forever altered the standards we use to buy…

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  • Measurements can suck

    Recalling his journey from AM radio to Julian Hirsch-era Stereo Review, Tom Gibbs charts how flashy gear and measurements gave way to the deeper truth: great sound comes from system synergy, not specs alone.

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  • Can music actually save a life?

    We all know about musicโ€™s power to change a life, but can it literally save one, to make the difference between life and death? According to a Nashville FOX 17 report, thatโ€™s exactly what Johnny Cashโ€™s grandson, Thomas Gabriel, says music was for him โ€” a determining factor in keeping him alive. After spending eight…

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