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.

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Christopher Cross: An Expanded Edition of His Blockbuster Debut—Review

The album earned Cross Grammys for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Best New Artist and Song of the Year.

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Review: ‘Rough and Rowdy Ways’ LP Delivered Classic Dylan

It seemed reasonable to suspect that we’d seen the last of his greatest albums. Well, here was a superb collection to prove you wrong

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‘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.

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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.

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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.

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‘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.

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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.

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Willie Nelson Does Rodney Crowell on ‘Oh What a Beautiful World’

The 2025 album arrived four days before his 92nd birthday.

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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.

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