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’s Aja: A Digestible, Dazzling Listen
Previously a collective yet to realize its most effective means of transforming ideas into finished art, Becker and Fagen coalesced on this 1977 classic
Read More
Warren Zevon’s Exciting ‘Excitable Boy’
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.
Read More
Beginnings: Chicago’s Eclectic Debut Album @50
Chicago’s speedy ascent was fueled by a landmark debut that made an immediate splash with critics and listeners, but it was more than a hit record.
Read More
Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’: A Look Back
Despite tense recording sessions, the band’s followup to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ became a landmark of art-rock on its own right
Read More
John Lennon’s ‘Imagine Ultimate Collection’: Review
The original 10-track 1971 album has been expanded for this release to include…well, more than you could have possibly imagined.
Read More
Rolling Stones Ya-Ya’s Still Unrivaled
The late Lester Bangs had “no doubt that it’s the best rock concert ever put on record.” Decades later, our writer feels that’s still true
Read More
Aerosmith Permanent Vacation: The 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.
Read More
Van Morrison at His Finest Live
The enhanced original ‘It’s Too Late to Stop Now’ and the added three discs and DVD are a treasure trove of live in-concert gems.
Read More
Big Brother’s ‘Cheap Thrills’: Behind R. Crumb’s LP Cover
It would be the only rock album for which the cartoonist would do the art. It continues to serve as a psychedelic timestamp of one crazy summer.
Read More
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.
Read More