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
Strawbs’ ‘Bursting at the Seams’: Poetry and Pop
The band’s fifth album showed Dave Cousins and company turning firmly toward more complex material.
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Warren Zevon ‘Excitable Boy’ LP: Werewolves and Lawyers, Oh My
With songs like “Werewolves of London,” “Lawyers, Guns and Money” and the title track, it was not only his greatest work but a singer-songwriter classic.
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Steppenwolf, The Debut Album: Heavy Metal Thunder
If it had given us nothing more than “Born to Be Wild,” it would still be a classic. But there was a lot more to the mostly Canadian band’s first LP.
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‘Dixie Chicken’: Little Feat, Secret Southern Sauce
The group drew on Lowell George’s versatile command of blues, country, folk and R&B for its third—and many feel finest—studio album.
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The Poco Country-Rock Legacy: “Deliverin’,” With a Gallop
With its stellar vocal harmonies and instrumental dexterity, the album established Poco for decades to come and drew a blueprint for country-rock’s future.
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Elton John’s ‘Tumbleweed Connection’: Raising the Stakes
The musical language that would define his work is all present on this early gem that solidified Elton’s writing partnership with Bernie Taupin.
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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.
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Bob Dylan’s ‘Desire’: Story Time
Songs from the best-selling album continued to be heavily featured in the Rolling Thunder Revue live performances.
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Steve Winwood ‘Arc of a Diver’: Leaving the Past Behind
His most successful solo record, it allowed him to stand apart from the earlier work he had spawned with Traffic, Blind Faith and the Spencer Davis Group.
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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.
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