AMG - "Disco took the majority of its stylistic cues from the silky, sophisticated Philly soul sound of the early '70s, so it makes perfect sense that the Trammps — a product of the City of Brotherly Love as well — would make the transition from one to the other with characteristic smoothness. A highlight of the generation-defining Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, their 1977 smash, "Disco Inferno," remains one of the most instantly familiar records of its time, thanks as much to its unforgettable "Burn, baby, burn!" chorus as its scintillating rhythm, sweeping strings, and Jimmy Ellis' booming, incendiary lead vocal. It's a quintessential record because no other single celebrates the very essence of the disco era quite so exuberantly, capturing the spirit of the moment in all its over-the-top glory."

Even the worst dancer and disco hater will HAVE to move, April 25, 2002

"Put on the tune "Disco Inferno" and try not to move and it will be nearly impossible. I am not a big dancer at all and I have a really hard time not letting loose and getting down to this. Some may think its cheesy and it may be but this is some fun stuff and for an out of shape thirty-something, it is even excellent exercise and a whole lot of fun."

"When we last left the ever-confounding saga that is Bob Dylan's now-superhuman recording career, he'd reunited with producer Daniel Lanois, with whom he cut 1997's Time Out of Mind, his most coherent and appealing collection in nearly a decade. Now the still-reigning prince of musical contrariety and potent wordplay is back with his most focused, well-played collection since 1989's Oh Mercy, another Lanois production. One listen to the fade-in of the opener "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum" and it's clear that all Dylan's roadwork has shaped him and his band (including guitarist Charlie Sexton) into a mighty musical weapon. And while his craggy howl continues to resonate, it's the songs here that astonish. A sturdy midtempo melody makes "Mississippi" the equal of the best numbers on Time, which it was actually written for. He convincingly puts over the R&B swing (yes, swing) number "Summer Days." "Honest with Me" ("I'm not sorry for nuthin' I've done / I'm glad I fight, I only wished we'd won") is a driving rocker that packs a genuine punch. And the light, lounge-like "Bye and Bye" and the southland ramble "Floater (Too Much to Ask)" show extraordinary confidence. He's labeled these songs "blues-based," but in typical Dylan fashion what would promise to be the most overtly blues number here--"High Water (for Charlie Patton)"--sounds like a banjo-based gunfighter ballad. But then that's this artist's gift: confounding expectations. --Robert Baird"

Pop/Rock

One of the few recommended Simply Vinyl reissues, good news as the original is as rare as can be, being pressed in the 1990s.

"Although they didn't include my favorite, "Lying Eyes," there's enough good stuff on the Eagles' reunion CD to make me feel 20 years younger with the first few notes of "Desperado" or "Life in the Fast Lane." Time has thickened Glenn Frey's and Don Henley's voices slightly and slowed the tempos on some cuts, but "Hotel California" ' new concert opening and closing work much better than the original studio version. Henley's voice sounds better for not being buried in studio reverb, and is enhanced here by added dynamic range, subterranean drums, bass slam that doesn't quit, superb air and soundstaging, and pinpoint placement of the acoustic guitar and keyboards. Best is the moment of recognition when the crowd finally realizes which song is being played and goes wild. Play this cut on the biggest, baddest audio system you can afford." - Larry Greehill, Stereophile

"Brazilian jazz took the world by storm in the wake of the phenomenal film Black Orpheus, winner at the 1959 Cannes film festival. In the 1960s these recordings were in heavy rotation on the turntables of jazzheads on every side of the Iron Curtain, and for good reasons"

Jazz Samba was recorded in audio verite by Ed Green at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, DC in February 1962. Getz/Gilberto is a studio recording from the following year by Phil Ramone, who wisely abandoned his "wall of sound" technique for a warm, intimate acoustic. R2D4 fans: You read this feature to build a respectable music library. These recordings are must-haves! Free of irony and self-conscious posturing, this is the theme music of a period that was in many ways far hipper than anything since. Japanese purist-audiophile LP pressings were available in the mid-'80s; an LP of Jazz Samba is available on DCC Compact Classics LPZ-2011. Play through tubes for greater authenticity. (Getz/Gilberto, XVII-12, XVIII-2, 3; Jazz Samba, XVIII-3, XIX-3)

Review by Richard S. Ginell - AMG
"Here's some more bossa nova from Stan Getz when the bloom was still on the first Brazilian boom. This time, however, on his third such album, Getz relies mostly upon native Brazilians for his backing. Thus, the soft-focused grooves are considerably more attuned to what was actually coming out of Brazil at the time. Two bona fide giants, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá (who gets co-billing), provide the guitars and all of the material, and Maria Toledo contributes an occasional throaty vocal. Getz injects more high-wailing passages into his intuitive affinity for the groove, even going for some fast bop on "Un Abraco No Getz," and Bonfá takes adept care of the guitar solos against Jobim's rock-steady rhythm. Clearly Jobim's songwriting contributions — "So Danco Samba," "How Insensitive," and "O Morro Nao Tem Vez" — would have the longest shelf life, and though the album didn't sell as well as its two predecessors, it certainly helped break these tunes into the permanent jazz repertoire. Avid bossa nova fans will certainly treasure this album for the lesser-known Bonfá tunes."

Hips & Makers

Kristin Hersh's debut album. 

Amazon.com Essential Recording:

"In 1994, Kristin Hersh took a sabbatical from her beloved and beleaguered Throwing Muses to record her first solo album, Hips and Makers. Mostly acoustic, entirely personal, Hips' songs touch the core of Hersh's daily life, specifically as it involves her husband and family, topics she rarely explored with her band. Produced by ex-Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, Hips and Makers infuses the singer/songwriter tradition with a jolt of complexity and authority. Hersh still favors the taut, stream of consciousness lyrics she whittled down to the bone with the Muses, but she never veers into confessional "dear diary" territory, although she does allow peeks into a world where clotheslines, bee stings, and the occasional ghost aren't unusual. Musically more measured and clearly quieter than any Muses disc, Hips showcases Hersh's fluttery voice atop powerful acoustic guitar with flourishes from cello and piano. "Your Ghost," the album's moody and dazzling opener, features backup vocals by R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and sets the tone for the album: like a family, it's happy on the surface, intriguing when explored." --Shawn Stewart

Indie

Hopes And Fears

"It's perhaps inevitable that Keane's debut album, Hopes and Fears, will draw numerous comparisons to Coldplay. Like them, Keane were discovered by indie label Fierce Panda, who released a single ("Everybody's Changing"). And, like Coldplay, Keane also do a fine trade in catchy and heartfelt indie-pop, all bruised verses and soaring choruses. But though their sound is sure to please fans of Coldplay and Travis, the reality is that Keane manage to sound that little bit more delicate.

This could be down to the band's relatively unusual make-up: rather than guitars, the trio use a piano.

... Hopes and Fears is still a remarkable and surprisingly mature debut album from a young band with a bright future." -Robert Burrow

Jazz vocals,

pop/jazz

Singer/pianist Diana Krall breaks new ground interpreting modern standards by Tom Waits, Mose Allison, and Joni Mitchell, as well as compositions by her and her new husband, Elvis Costello. Krall's piano-jazz cred comes through loudly and clearly on her Count Basie-styled version of the Bonnie Raitt staple "Love Me Like a Man" (written by folk-bluesman Chris Smither). But it's the collaborations with her spouse that unearth untapped emotional nuances of her velvet voice; many are reminiscent of Bill Evans's moody, impressionistic pieces. The title track, "Narrow Daylight," "Abandoned Masquerade," and "I’m Coming Through" all deal with love and loss. "Departure Bay," a picturesque ode to her hometown of Nanaimo, B.C., proves that this is the start of something big, and that two heads--and hearts--are better than one. --Eugene Holley, Jr.

"While the jazz fascists (read: purists) may be screaming "sellout" because Diana Krall decided to record something other than standards this time out, the rest of us can enjoy the considerable fruit of her labors. The Girl in the Other Room is, without question, a jazz record in the same manner her other outings are. The fact that it isn't made up of musty and dusty "classics" may irk the narrow-minded and reactionary, but it doesn't change the fact that this bold recording is a jazz record made with care, creativity, and a wonderfully intimate aesthetic fueling its 12 songs. ..." Read more at AMG

One of the great soul/r&b/funk albums, legendary.  Includes superb renditions of "People get Ready" and "We've Only Just Begun", and the infectious "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to Go", also featured in the movie "Dead Presidents".

"Late 2002 album from Swedish legendary death/thrash metal band featuring drummer Peter Stjarnvind, also in Entombed. Black Lodge label." -  amazon.com

"One of the first bands to combine high-speed death metal riffing in the style of Rigor Mortis with the simple melodicity of Sodom or other experimental minimalist black metal bands, resulting in a style of fast metal that could deliver what modern black metal wanted: bewildering chaos."

"NECRODEATH was formed back in 1985 by Claudio (guitars), Peso (drums) along with Ingo (vocals) and Paolo (bass). After being influenced by bands like SLAYER, KREATOR, HELLHAMMER, VOIVOD and BATHORY they released a 4-track demo titled "The Shining Pentagram" which gained them an incredible following throughout the underground. Tons of tributes in majors magazines, fanzines and other underground rags followed the release of their first two legendary albums "Into The macabre" (1987) and "Fragments Of insanity" (1989). "

"NECRODEATH are definitely back in y2k with a full length fuckin' album "Mater Of All Evil" and are now killin' again with the new album "Black As Pitch" out on 24th September 2001. In 2002 they released a home video "From Hate To Scorn" and after a short break they were back in the studio and in September 2003 the last album "Ton(e)s Of Hate" is in the stores to kick your ass!"

Rock / Grunge

Nevermind

Stereophile R2D4 - Corey Greenberg

"My earlier review said all you need to know about why this trio of ugly mofos from Seattle is the first thing I feed a hi-fi rig when I want to hear what it can really do. Hardcore flannel-shirts have disowned Nirvana cuz they made it big and got a radio hit with "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and JA thinks they're too derivative, but I don't give a damn; Kurt Cobain's talkin' 'bout my generation better than anyone else in music today. And the sound (especially the LP, but the CD kicks ass too) is so good that most "in" audiophile speakers fall flat on their faces with it; try Nevermind on some Maggies or Quad ESL-63s and tell me I'm wrong." (XV-6)

Gothic Metal

Our favorite song on the album is "Loretta Young Silks", a very fine song accentuated by Kelli Dayton's sultry and soulful vocals.

Amazon.com - Steffan Chirazi