Music Reviews

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Music Reviews
Intrique — Steven Wilson Presents: Progressive Sounds in UK Alternative Music 1979-89
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 09, 2023  | 
Performances
Sound
Steven Wilson has long been a man with a mission to push musical boundaries and stretch the limits of our listening expectations with his own music. He also has a passion for championing releases from other artists who have been underexposed or overlooked entirely, so is it really any wonder Wilson is behind a new and quite, well, intriguing import-only box set compilation Intrigue — Steven Wilson Presents: Progressive Sounds in UK Alternative Music 1979-89? All told, Intrigue presents 58 tracks spread across 5-plus listening hours on a 4CD set from Edsel Records.
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Music Reviews
INXS: Kick - 30th Anniversary Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 01, 2018  | 
Performance
Sound
INXS were riding high as the calendar got deeper and deeper into 1987. The alt-rocking Australian sextet had truly come into their own following the wider international penetration of 1985’s Listen Like Thieves. They were also burgeoning MTV darlings, mainly thanks to the magnetic presence of poster-boy frontman Michael Hutchence. That said, the band had enough musical acumen to override their video-centric image, best exemplified by the churning, layered groove of Thieves’ big hit, “What You Need,” itself born of the interlocked songwriting axis of lyricist/vocalist Hutchence and keyboardist/guitarist Andrew Farriss.

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Music Reviews
Jack Bruce: Silver Rails
Mike Mettler  |  May 21, 2014  | 
Performance
Sound
When it comes to delivering the low end, Jack Bruce has been the cream of the crop for six decades and counting. His syncopated approach to playing bass helped shift pop music’s bottom-end emphasis away from just laying down root notes and fifths, in turn opening the door to a more adventurous yet melodically inclined style that laid the foundation for the rock explosion of the ’60s. Turns in both Manfred Mann and John Mayall’s band set the table for Bruce to connect with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker and forge Cream, wherein the super Scotsman set the heavy-blues power-trio standard with epic runs and full-band interplay in songs like “I Feel Free,” “Spoonful,” “Politician,” and “Sunshine of Your Love.”
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Music Reviews
Jackson Browne—Running on Empty (Warner Brothers) [DVD-Audio]
Adrienne Maxwell  |  Apr 05, 2006  | 
This DVD-Audio has been a long time coming. Many a planned release date came and went before this one finally hit the shelves back in November, but I assure you that it was worth the wait. The high-resolution, multichannel audio soundtrack allows an already great album to realize its full potential.
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Music Reviews
Jam Transmissions
Andrew Nash  |  Mar 10, 2003  | 
Click here to view this article (PDF)
Music Reviews
James Taylor: The Warner Bros. Albums -1970-1976
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 11, 2019  | 
Performance
Sound
And lo, there was a new breed of musician who had come to town, and they were duly christened singer/songwriters. In the wake of the burgeoning rock era's focus on volume-dealing power trios and instrumentally propelled multi-member ensembles (whether schooled or otherwise), there soon emerged another genre compelled by a more sensitive, more lyric-driven, and more acoustified approach.
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Music Reviews
Jazz Classics get the High Resolution Treatment from Blue Note and HDtracks
Michael Berk  |  Jul 25, 2012  | 

If you're a fan of Blue Note's classic releases of the '50s and '60s - and frankly, what jazz aficionado isn't? - and you're a discerning digitally inclined audiophile, you're in luck! Blue Note/EMI, through our friends at HDtracks, is releasing six classics of the period in glorious 96kHz/24bit and 192kHz/24bit remasters from the original analog masters. 

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Music Reviews
Jazz trio revamps rock and more
Parke Puterbaugh  |  Feb 25, 2009  | 
Do the Math/Heads Up/Concord
Music •• Sound •••½
The Bad Plus have made their first album that's, well, not so good.
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Music Reviews
Jethro Tull: Songs From the Wood: 40th Anniversary Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 04, 2017  | 
Performance
Sound
Extras
These days, when it comes to surround sound mixing, most in-the-know producers and musicians’ respective collective first thought inevitably turns to the maxim, What would Steven Wilson do? Indeed, the man also known as the once and future king of hi-res and 5.1 production has long staked his claim as the No. 1 go-to guy for any artist interested in obtaining a top-shelf mix that takes full advantage of the vaunted six-channel, 96-kilohertz/24-bit (and sometimes higher!) audio spectrum offered via DVD and/or Blu-ray. (And yes, a hi-res download option is on the master main menu as well.)
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Music Reviews
Jethro Tull: ‘The Broadsword and the Beast’ Box Sets
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 21, 2023  | 
Photo by Martyn Goddard

Performances
Sound

40th Anniversary Monster Edition & Vinyl Edition Box Sets

Like many rock bands that initially emerged from the free-flowing nether-reaches of the 1960s, Jethro Tull had a decision to make upon entering the 1980s — namely, stick with their signature sound, or embrace the emerging technology of the new decade? Tull mastermind Ian Anderson chose the latter, initially going all-in on the electronic-tinged aural front with August 1980’s A. While A was certainly an eclectic and challenging jumping-off point, its follow-up, April 1982’s The Broadsword and the Beast, was a much better marriage of classic neo-Tull with the more modernized electro-Tull. Two new 40th anniversary box set offerings for Broadsword — a 5CD/3DVD smorgasbord subtitled the Monster Edition, and a relatively extensive companion 4LP collection — tell the album’s expanded sonic-swashbuckling tale quite well in their respective ways.

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Music Reviews
Joe Ely & Joel Guzman: Live Cactus!
Billy Altman  |  Jul 30, 2008  | 
Rack 'Em
Music •••• Sound ••••

Rather than wondering what's in the water, it's probably more fitting to wonder what's in the wind that m

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Music Reviews
John Cougar Mellencamp: Scarecrow – Super Deluxe Edition Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 13, 2023  | 
Performances
Sound
John Mellencamp was making waves. Unfortunately saddled with the stage name “John Cougar” when he came onto the scene in the late-1970s, once he began climbing the singles and sales charts, he asserted his artistic identity much more forcefully by crediting his hit October 1983 LP Uh-Huh to John Cougar Mellencamp. He did so again on his full-artistic breakthrough album, August 1985’s Scarecrow, before dropping the Cougar moniker entirely when the ’90s rolled around.
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Music Reviews
John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Remixes - Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 04, 2020  | 
Performance
Sound
I always viewed John Winston Ono Lennon as an inveterate seeker—an artist who was forever searching low and high to find both his ballast and his balance. During his time in The Beatles, Lennon was able to connect with listeners on an interpersonal level ("In My Life") while he also remained unafraid to address his own fears and insecurities ("Help!"), was eager to embrace the free-associative nature of the Sixties ("I Am the Walrus"), and was wholly game to confront the depths of his pain ("Julia").
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Music Reviews
Jorma Kaukonen: River of Time
Brett Milano  |  Mar 02, 2009  | 
Red House
Music ••• Sound ••••
Jorma Kaukonen as a grizzled old bluesman doesn't seem too far-fetched.
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Music Reviews
Juice WRLD: The Pre-Party EP in Lossless on Apple Music
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 24, 2024  | 
Sadly lost to us in his prime at only age 21 in 2019, Chicago-bred emo rapper Juice WRLD at least left behind a wealth of unreleased material—and his estate’s latest official offering is a two-track stunner, The Pre-Party EP, now available as a Lossless option on Apple Music and via other digital platforms.
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