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.

Brian Wilson’s Newest Solo Disc

Brian Wilson’s 11th solo album is ” as cheery as [its] punny title suggests, but also deeply moving and life-affirming.”

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Newcomer Courtney Barnett Rocks

The “impressively assured debut album by the 27-year-old Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett grabs you by the lapels and insists you hear what she has to say.”

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Pink Floyd’s Final Notes

Pink Floyd goes out “with more a whisper than a bang for a last album” that is “not quite for fans only and not quite an album.”

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Worthy Kinks Kollection

“Rather than another half-baked rehash, this five-CD, 140-track collection is the authoritative retrospective that the Kinks’ watershed years have long deserved.”

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Van Makes Duets Sing Wonderfully

“Duets is a worthy addition to his estimable catalog, and underscores how Van’s pipes and how he uses them are a true gift from God.”

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Dylan Continues to Reign Supreme

The pop standards album Shadows in the Night, the release of The Basement Tapes Complete & the T-Bone Burnett-helmed New Basement Tapes add new wrinkles to the Dylan legacy.

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