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
Vanilla Fudge’s 1967 Debut: Maximum Psychedelia
It was rock music pushed to its limits, with a radical use of soft-loud-soft dynamics and the emotional drama of rhythm and blues and soul.
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Maria Muldaur: Debut Solo Album—Smart, Sassy and Seductive
The 1973 album, which included the top 10 hit “Midnight at the Oasis,” is a potent blend of country, blues, folk and pop, and it still sounds fresh.
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John Mellencamp’s ‘Scarecrow’: The Turning Point
The 1985 album served as an overture for how he would bring his music into the world from that point forward.
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Pat Benatar and ‘Crimes of Passion’: Her Best Shot
She has remained the thing she set out to be, an artist who made her own seat at the table and turned it into a remarkable rock music legacy.
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The Ritchie Blackmore ‘Rainbow’ Debut: Rockin’ Post-Purple
Unhappy with the direction Deep Purple was taking, the guitarist recruited another band and made a debut album that would lead to a long solo career.
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The Black Sabbath Debut LP: Where Metal Began
Every defining characteristic of the British band’s self-titled debut would become a hallmark of the oft-maligned heavy metal genre.
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Talking Heads—‘More Songs About Buildings and Food’: Artful Music
“We don’t fit into anyone else’s category, so we’re going to have to create our own,” said David Byrne about the band’s second album.
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Yes’ ‘Relayer’: Life After Rick Wakeman Began Here
With a new keyboardist, Patrick Moraz, the prog rock titans kept their momentum going in 1974 with their seventh studio album.
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The Band and Their Pioneering ‘Music From Big Pink’: Review
The album offered quiet songs of experience bathed in a rustic glow, with no hints of the futurism and none of the kilowatt drama then prevalent elsewhere in rock.
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Bonnie Raitt Gives It One More Try with ‘Green Light’: Review
Her time at Warner Bros. Records had been exhilarating, frustrating and highly creative, and her legacy there is still well worth exploring.
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