REVIEWS:

What’s the read on the latest reissue releases and live performances by classic rock artists? What biopics, movies or documentaries are worth seeing in theaters and at home? What books about rock music and the people who make and work with it are worth reading. Our team also takes a fresh look at notable works in our Album Rewind series

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.

Read More

Bob Dylan in Total Command in 2016 Desert Trip Set

The bard let his music do the talking with a career-spanning set – including a tweaked version of “Tangled Up in Blue” – at the eagerly anticipated festival’s opening night.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.”

Read More

Cat Stevens: ‘Teaser And the Firecat’—A Singer-Songwriter Classic

With hit songs like “Moonshadow,” “Peace Train” and “Morning Has Broken,” the singer-songwriter became a star, lighting up pop radio.

Read More

Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris’ ‘All the Roadrunning’: Two Unique Voices

The album took seven years to complete, due to the duo’s hectic schedules.

Read More

A Box Set Collects Much of the Roches’ Best Work: Review

Their self-titled debut album was produced by King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, whose involvement is not as crazy as it might seem, as the trio’s music is more than a bit avant-garde.

Read More

Robert Palmer ‘Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley’—A Tale of 3 Cities

With help from players like Little Feat’s Lowell George and New Orleans’ Meters, the British singer’s solo career got off to a good start.

Read More

When the Rolling Stones Opened Their 2021 Tour, Minus Charlie Watts

The 13-date tour was originally scheduled to take place in 2020. The storyline, however, was the absence of the man who kept the beat for nearly 6 decades.

Read More

Santana ‘Abraxas’: Post-Woodstock Latin Magic

When it came to recording their second album, the band wanted to expend more effort, and make a better-sounding record, than their somewhat rushed debut.

Read More