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
Graham Parker & the Rumour’s ‘Heat Treatment’: When Pub-Rock Met New Wave
When the Village Voice unveiled its 1976 Pazz & Jop Poll winners, an unknown English musician commanded two of the top five entries from the influential poll’s panel of music critics
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Dire Straits’ ‘Making Movies’: Mark Knopfler’s Widescreen Ambitions
The album restored the band’s platinum stature with a more expansive style verging on prog rock while retaining retro accents
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Traveling Wilburys’ Debut: Just Your Basic Dylan-Petty-Harrison-Orbison-Lynne Supergroup
Their unexpected union was a landmark combining an array of distinctive voices into something no individual could create alone.
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1977’s Incendiary ‘Moonflower’ From Santana
After several years without a hit single or album, this top 10 hybrid studio/live LP featured a cover of the Zombies’ “She’s Not There.”
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Paul Simon ‘Still Crazy After All These Years’: A Solo Triumph
His only #1 LP, and an Album of the Year Grammy winner, this 1975 release offered definitive proof that he was not going back to the past.
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Al Stewart and ‘Year of the Cat’: Musical Cinema
He liked the title track, but didn’t consider it suitable as a single, until producer Alan Parsons and the record company convinced him of its destiny.
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When Carlene Carter Created ‘Musical Shapes’ (With Rockpile)
Desperate to find a simpatico partner for her third LP, she turned to her husband, Rockpile bassist Nick Lowe.
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‘John Prine’: A Debut for the Ages for a Songwriter’s Songwriter
The album is a quiet masterpiece, a portrait of a young singer-songwriter already fully formed and crafting songs for the ages.
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The ‘Swinging’ Dire Straits Breakthrough Debut Album
“Sultans of Swing” was immediately distinctive in both sound and story. The album proved the band to be one of the most refreshingly creative of its day.
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Electric Light Orchestra’s ‘Out of the Blue’: The Masterpiece from Munich
It’s full of treasures, a sweeping double-LP that Jeff Lynne dubbed “probably the hardest work I have ever done, but the most satisfying.”
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