Album Rewinds
Given the test of time and the wisdom of hindsight, how do significant albums from the past sound and play today? Our critics take a second look from a fresh perspective
Steely Dan ‘Can’t Buy a Thrill’: All Systems Go
Their debut is tuneful and literate, and the musicianship can be exuberantly loose or scarily precise, perched midway between jazz, rock, and rhythm and blues.
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Linda Ronstadt’s ‘Heart Like a Wheel’ Breakthrough
After her first four albums, followers of country-rock knew there was something special about her. On her fifth, they found out what it was
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‘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
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Genesis ‘The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway’: Peter Gabriel’s Theatrical Exit
For their 1974 prog opus, Gabriel and the band came up with a complicated and somewhat opaque ‘urban odyssey’ tale set in New York City.
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Carly Simon ‘No Secrets’: Sexy and Smart
When she reached the top of the charts with the smash “You’re So Vain,” she became not only a pop phenomenon, but a gender role model.
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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.
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The Blues Project’s Determined ‘Projections’
Their second album marked them as a formidable and creative force, incorporating elements of other genres ranging from folk to jazz and tossing it all into a psychedelic blender.
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Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s ‘Live Rust’: Not Fading Away
From tender acoustic music to blistering hard rock, Young and the Horse did it all on this late ’70s live album.
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The Ambitious ‘Nilsson Schmilsson’ LP Revisited
Noteworthy for its scope and ambition, the album was justifiably rewarded with worldwide success that took Nilsson to the next level of stardom.
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The Sex Pistols’ Era-Defining ‘Never Mind the Bollocks’
They only released one album but it sparked a musical revolution. We look back at a punk-rock game-changer 4+ decades after its release
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