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
‘L.A. Woman’: The Doors’ Last Call
Their sixth and final studio LP re-energized the band through a return to their roots in American blues, and served as a tribute to their hometown.
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Frank Zappa & Captain Beefheart’s ‘Bongo Fury’ Expanded: Review
Besides a version of the original LP that was remastered in 2012, the set includes songs that didn’t make the 1975 album.
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‘Desperado’—Eagles’ Sagebrush Country-Rock Opera
With its sophomore effort, the band tethered its polished country-rock to a concept album driven by a Wild West narrative.
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‘Europe ’72’: On the Bus with the Grateful Dead
What’s most important about the live album and the thing that still makes it shine in the GD catalog, are those songs that never got a studio reading after its release.
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‘American Dream’ Recalls When John Mellencamp Was Johnny Cougar: Review
Mellencamp compositions predominate in the anthology, and they suggest where he might be headed. In some of his songs.
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Bob Seger ‘Live Bullet’: Old Time Rock ‘n’ Roll
Although he was a star locally, the Detroit rocker had been struggling for years to break out nationally—until he formed the Silver Bullet Band.
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A Revelatory Edition of Buddy Holly & the Crickets’ Classic LP: Review
The “Chirping” Crickets, their debut, turned out to be the only album they would make together.
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Leonard Cohen: His “Gloomy” ‘Songs of Love and Hate’
His third studio album cemented his reputation as “the grocer of despair.”
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Talking Heads’ Earliest Years Explored in ‘Tentative Decisions’: Review
The performances collected here are somewhat less polished and forceful than the ones on their debut and sophomore LPs.
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Joni Mitchell ‘Ladies of the Canyon’: Painting the Canvas
The album sets out clearly the direction Mitchell would take for the rest of her career, leaving behind the constraints of folk music.
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