Music Disc Reviews

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Music Disc Reviews
Mark Knopfler: Privateering
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 02, 2014  |  1 comments
Performance
Sound
Finally seeing a stateside release after being available internationally for over a year, Privateering, Mark Knopfler’s seventh solo offering (and first double album of all-original material) is a showcase of Americana, as innately authentic as anything produced by any artist born on U.S. soil. Somewhere, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters are all picking, grinning, and haw-haw-hawing their collective approval. (Me, I suspect Knopfler was spiritually born on the Mississippi Delta and then transplanted to the moors of his native Scotland.)
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Music Disc Reviews
Kings of Leon: Mechanical Bull
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 02, 2014  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Pressure: It can get to anyone. Just ask the four members of the Followill clan, a.k.a. Nashville’s first family of deep-roots rock, Kings of Leon. The three brothers (Caleb, Jared, and Nathan) and one cousin (Matthew) comprising KoL were anointed rock saviors when they burst onto the scene with the guitar-driven Southern-fried primal-blues mash of 2003’s Youth & Young Manhood. And their arena-rocking prowess was cemented with the one-two punch of the yearning “Sex on Fire” and the anthemic “Use Somebody” on 2008’s best-selling Only by the Night.
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Music Disc ReviewsReference Tracks
The Band: Live at the Academy of Music 1971
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 24, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Besides knocking the psychedelic movement off of its puffy cloud at the end of the ’60s with the seminal roots-based rustic albums Music From Big Pink (1968) and The Band (1969), The Band was also known for being a supernaturally gifted live act, having honed its stagecraft through many arduous but rewarding years on the road. Highlights from a magical four-night stand at New York’s Academy of Music were set in stone—or rather, on wax and disc—with 1972’s Rock of Ages. The album was a critically acclaimed best seller and a triumph in the eyes of everyone it touched. Well, almost everyone.
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Music Disc Reviews
Nirvana: In Utero Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 05, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
When I saw Nirvana play Roseland Ballroom in New York City in July 1993, it was three months before the release of In Utero, the band’s explosive follow-up to the game-changing Nevermind. The balls-out, frenzied new songs I heard that night foreshadowed In Utero’s raw power. And this 20th anniversary Super Deluxe Edition not only reconfirms the depth of Kurt Cobain’s tragic genius, it also reminds our collective ear that alternative-rock icons could sound great too, despite the somewhat misleading lo-fi tag hung on the grunge movement.
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Music Disc Reviews
Moondance Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 25, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
How do you make a perfect album even more perfect? In the case of Van Morrison’s seminal 1970 neo-rock Caledonian masterpiece Moondance, you compile a 70-track deluxe edition that includes three discs of sessions, outtakes, and alternate mixes, in addition to a separate Blu-ray Audio disc with a long-lost surround sound mix done by one of the album’s original engineers. Yes, as any good Van the Man fan knows, it’s too late to stop now.
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Music Disc Reviews
The Clash
Mike Mettler  |  Nov 21, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
Punk. Rock. Reggae. Hip-hop. Ska. Dub. Soul. Jazz. Rockabilly. No, this isn’t a listing of all the sections in one of the only remaining cool record stores left standing; this is the breadth of the genre-bending legacy of The Clash. And the sonic scope of Sound System is set to prove The Clash may very well be The Only Band That (Still) Matters.
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Music Disc ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 29, 2013: Arcade Fire’s “Reflektor” (or, the trials and tribulations of a rock critic, part 896)
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 29, 2013  |  0 comments
Also: Humble Pie expanded, Jethro Tull remixed in 5.1, and much more. Plus: the return of Dorothy Wiggin. (She used to be a Shagg.)

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Music Disc ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 22, 2013: Woody Guthrie, “American Radical Patriot”
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 22, 2013  |  0 comments
Also: Van Morrison’s Moondance in 5.1 on Blu-ray, Santana’s third album on audiophile vinyl, and ’80s tunes revamped by The Big Bright. Plus, let’s see…oh, yeah, Katy Perry.

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Music Disc Reviews
Two Ways to Digital
Bob Ankosko  |  Oct 22, 2013  |  0 comments
Hands on with Walmart’s Vudu In-Home Disc to Digital Service and Disney’s Digital Copy+

Walmart’s Vudu To Go app (Digital Vudu Revisited), a follow-up to the Disc to Digital service launched last year that lets you unlock digital copies of DVD and Blu-ray movies you buy or purchase digital rights to discs you already own, is now up and running (in beta form as of this writing). Unlike the original service, which required you to bring discs to Walmart (UltraViolet: Building a Movie Library in the Cloud,), the app lets you convert discs from a Mac or Windows-based PC in your home and store them in the cloud so they can be accessed for streaming or downloading on multiple devices.

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Music Disc ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 15, 2013: Something “New” from Paul McCartney
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 15, 2013  |  1 comments
Also reviewed: Pearl Jam. And in revue: many more new releases, as well as classic XTC in 5.1.

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Music Disc Reviews
Tedeschi Trucks Band: Made Up Mind
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 09, 2013  |  0 comments
Performance
Sound
The potent combo of married co-bandleaders guitarist/vocalist Susan Tedeschi and slide-guitar maestro Derek Trucks and nine (or so) of their closest friends hits its stride on group album number three, Made Up Mind. Mind shows how TTB has finally forged the right blend of improv interplay prowess and gutbucket roots rock.
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Music Disc ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 8, 2013: Taking Miley Cyrus Seriously
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 08, 2013  |  0 comments
Whatever you think of Miley Cyrus these days, she does have you thinking. In other words, she got your attention. Which, in the current era of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, and elder shockwoman Britney Spears, is the first order of business, and I do mean “business.”

The thing is, what if she’d gotten our attention another way?

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Music Disc ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 1, 2013: Justin Timberlake Don’t Need No Eye Doctor?
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 01, 2013  |  0 comments
Also reviewed: Joan Jett, Haim, Quasi, and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Plus: the scoop on boxes from Rush and Vladimir Horowitz. And much more.

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Music Disc Reviews
Happy Hi-Rez Valentine's Day from S+V and HDtracks!
Michael Berk  |  Feb 14, 2013  |  0 comments

We all love music and great sound (I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't). And I'm pretty sure both you and your beloved can appreciate a great bargain - so why not put all three together this long post-Valentine's day weekend? Well, we've partnered with our friends over at HDtracks to bring you a sampler of some of their best-sounding high-resolution files.

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Music Disc Reviews
Hello, Mr. Radio
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 25, 2012  |  0 comments

“Jeff has incredible studio I.Q. Ask anyone who makes music: he’s one of the great record producers, period.” So says Tom Petty, and? if anyone should know, it’s him, having worked with Jeff Lynne as a producer on sonic blockbusters like his own Full Moon Fever and the Traveling Wilburys’ Volume? 1.

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