Bob Dylan has a habit of showing up with guns blazing just when you think he’s starting to fade. In 1974, for instance, he followed a period that included relative disappointments like Self Portrait and Planet Waves with the stunning Blood on the Tracks. And a series of uneven albums in the 1980s and early 1990s preceded the arrival of...
One benefit of reviewing records is that the job exposes you to artists you otherwise might never have encountered. Many of them are forgettable, but occasionally you stumble upon a soloist or group whose work is as stunning as it is obscure. That’s the case with Jeb Loy Nichols, an American-born and -raised singer/songwriter who has...
The new Lionsgate horror release Room 9 opens with an elaborate, multi-format introduction. Flashing between seemingly random, bizarre imagery, the image frantically switches between all manner of film/video stock—it’s as if writer-director Thomas Walton had deliberately set out to out-do Oliver Stone at his Natural Born Killers extreme. The following story—muddled and unfocused—unfortunately doesn’t match...
To coincide with the release of the all-new Space Jam: A New Legacy, starring LeBron James, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has dusted off the original 1996 megahit Space Jam. They’ve spruced it up with an outstanding new 4K UltraHD edition that looks great, even if it exposes the limitations of the era’s live-action/animation combo. The...
An Anniversary Edition of the Dead’s Second Live Album Like the Beatles’ so-called White Album, the Grateful Dead’s eponymous second concert LP (following 1969’s well-named Live/Dead) has come to be known by a description of its cover art: Skull & Roses. The record, which appeared in October 1971, contains performances from March and April of that year...
Arriving right around the mid-point of Paul McCartney’s third completely DIY album, McCartney III, is an extended song called “Deep Deep Feeling.” An elemental drumbeat kicks it off, followed by McCartney’s otherwise unaccompanied vocal. He’s singing about the duality of love and devotion (“The deep, deep pain of feeling”). Slowly other elements are layered in....
Steel Wheels Live, the latest in a series of CD/video concert releases from the Rolling Stones, is better and more wide-ranging than its title would suggest: the moniker evokes a recording that simply delivers stage versions of the named album’s tracks. In fact, though, this set features only five of Steel Wheels’ 12 numbers (“Can’t Be Seen,”...
The newly-issued Flaming Pie: Archive Collection makes it a baker’s dozen entries for the slow-but-steady series. Since 2010, McCartney has taken his time curating the Collection. Universally acknowledged solo career high points like Band on the Run (1973) and RAM (1971) sit right next to extravagant re-packaging of far less-loved albums like Wild Life (1971)...
Hate for Sale is just the fourth album to be credited to the Pretenders in this century, but that’s misleading: Pretender-in-chief Chrissie Hynde has also released a couple of CDs under her own name in recent years as well as a collaborative project with Welsh singer JP Jones, and it’s often difficult to see why some albums bear...
John McCutcheon, Cabin Fever: Songs from the Quarantine. If you have fond memories of the days when variously funny and poignant topical songs from artists like Tom Paxton and Phil Ochs occupied the limelight, you’ll probably appreciate this digital-only release from John McCutcheon. The veteran singer/songwriter—who sounds a bit like fellow folkie Richard Shindell—recorded the album in three...