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
‘Smiley Smile’: The Beach Boys Album That Wasn’t Supposed to Be
Their followup to ‘Pet Sounds’ was a quick replacement for an abandoned masterpiece-to-be. Some fans didn’t love it, but in time its reputation has grown.
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Good ‘Sports’: How Huey Lewis and the News Hit a Home Run
‘Sports’ remains one of Huey Lewis and the News’ most memorable efforts, and confirmation that they were decidedly in the game.
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‘Late for the Sky’—The Jackson Browne Confessional Masterpiece
Browne achieved a poetic force with the eight songs comprising the album, their lyrics demanding a closer listen.
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Styx ‘Paradise Theatre’: Where Prog Met Pure Pop
The album was the band’s greatest success but with the members no longer on the same page, it was also the beginning of the end.
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Cheap Trick ‘In Color’: The LP That Put Them on the Map
Cheap Trick broke musical and lyrical boundaries, even defying the look of a rock band with a couple of rock stars and a couple of nerds.
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Mott the Hoople ‘All the Young Dudes’ Generates Some Hoopla
The album, with its Bowie-written title track, emphasized the band’s bravado, and helped lay the foundation for the ’70s glam movement.
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R.E.M.’s ‘Document’: Not the End of the World, But the End of an Era
The Georgia band’s fifth studio album was the mark of a group spreading its wings, but also leaving something behind.
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Aerosmith ‘Permanent Vacation’: A Rejuvenation
They’d lost their way as the ’80s lumbered along. Then, the Boston rockers remembered just who Aerosmith was. We take a look back at their classic comeback
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The Byrds’ ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’: Cornerstone of Country-Rock
Their most consequential stylistic stroke since their pioneering folk-rock debut three years earlier, it ushered in country-rock and Americana
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Warren Zevon’s Recovery Through ‘Sentimental Hygiene’
The 1987 album signaled more than a bid for a career reset. Now sober and focused, and with help from R.E.M., he was clearly back on track.
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