Posts From Sam Sutherland
When Classic Rockers Rocked the Classics
Classical themes have found their way into rock since the earliest days of the music. We look at some of the best, from ELO to ELP and beyond.
Read More
The Byrds’ ‘Younger Than Yesterday’—An Ambitious Studio Flight
Expanding beyond their trademark jingle-jangle folk-rock, the band created their most diverse, experimental recording to date.
Read More
Elvis Costello & The Attractions ‘Trust’: A Dark Masterwork
The album, Costello’s fifth overall, captures the quartet at a potent but troubled peak, its title a loaded, ironic signifier
Read More
Finding a ‘Pearl’–Janis Joplin’s Last Hurrah
It remains her most fully realized record, fronting the best band she would ever lead on her strongest set of material.
Read More
Elvis Costello ‘Armed Forces’: What’s So Funny?
The band’s third album was a leap forward in songcraft and sonic ambition, a song cycle weaving the personal and political.
Read More
The Band ‘Rock of Ages’: Their Live Pinnacle?
It belongs on any short list of the best live albums ever, while serving as a coda to the group’s groundbreaking influence.
Read More
Bob Marley and the Wailers’ ‘Live!’ Album: Reggae Rocks Babylon
The 1975 London concert provided validation that they had breached the rock market with their potent strain of reggae.
Read More
‘Buffalo Springfield Again’: An Embattled Creation
A volatile mix of talent and dysfunction percolates beneath the surface of the California band’s second and best album, cobbled together amidst rivalries
Read More
Jackson Browne ‘The Pretender’: Dreams and Nightmares
The 1976 album, arriving at a difficult time in his life, projects a more sinister and less forgiving world than Browne’s earlier works.
Read More
‘The Who By Numbers’: Back to Basics
After an eight-year odyssey of releasing concept albums, the original quartet put together a set of unrelated songs that found favor with their fans.
Read More