Recordings
Best Classic Bands offers smart, informed and unbiased assessments of the latest rock album releases and reissues to offer readers guidance on what sounds they might enjoy.
Frank Zappa: Previously Unseen ‘Cheaper Than Cheep’ Reviewed
He and his band, the Mothers of Invention, were riding high in June 1974. After completing a 10th-anniversary tour, they filmed a two-hour concert for an invited audience in their Hollywood, Calif., rehearsal hall.
Read More
‘Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII’ Reappears: Review
Working from the recently discovered original 35mm negatives,’Pink Floyd at Pompeii’ has been restored, frame by frame, and expanded.
Read More
The Bongos Unearth a Sizzling 1985 Live Set: Review
The album reveals gloriously raucous power pop that draws on new wave, psychedelia and British Invasion rock.
Read More
Badfinger’s Lost LP, ‘Head First,’ Delivers Ear Candy: Review
A 50th-anniversary edition sounds great because it employs the recently discovered master tapes, which have been newly mixed and mastered.
Read More
‘Saturnight,’ Cat Stevens Concert Album, Loaded with Hits: Review
If you want a succinct, hits-loaded taste of what he sounded like on stage back then, this well-recorded album will deliver.
Read More
Eric Andersen Shines on ‘Dance of Love and Death’: Review
The singer-songwriter, 82, is at the top of his form on every one of the collection’s 17 tracks, all of which feature his distinctive, intimate vocals and immersive, elegantly constructed music.
Read More
Willie Nelson Does Rodney Crowell on ‘Oh What a Beautiful World’
The 2025 album arrived four days before his 92nd birthday.
Read More
Vicki Peterson & John Cowsill Deliver ‘Long After the Fire’: Review
They serve up a diverse and mostly satisfying program that variously recalls country-rockers and the occasional Fleetwood Mac echo.
Read More
An Anthology from Joe Meek, Britain’s Phil Spector: Review
England’s Cherry Red label has been digging into the vaults and releasing boxed sets in a series called Joe Meek’s Tea Chest Tapes.
Read More
The Move—’Message From the Country’: Before There Was ELO
The final studio album before Roy Wood, Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan morphed into the Electric Light Orchestra has been expanded.
Read More