Music Reviews

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Music Reviews
Déjà vu: 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 27, 2021
Performance
Sound
As acclaimed as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1970 magnum opus Déjà vu is, it somewhat helplessly plays perpetual second fiddle to the sea change garnered by the stacked-harmonic conver- gences in evidence on 1969's Crosby, Stills & Nash, which preceded it by 10 months. Granted, CSN was a breath of fresh vocal-arrangement air and instinctual instrumental accompaniment, but Déjà vu fostered the initial intersection of the volatile four-way street of headstrong artistic personalities with the addition of Neil Young into the fold.
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Music Reviews
Debussy—Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un faune, Nocturnes, La mer, Berceuse hroque—Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Jrvi (Telarc) [SACD/CD]
Mark Fleischmann  |  Jan 11, 2006  |  First Published: Jul 11, 2005
A trembling flute figure drifts into the air and hangs there, sensuously falling and rising. It's one of the most celebrated moments in orchestral music, and the free, blissful, agile development that follows does not disappoint. Nor does Telarc's multichannel recording of this sumptuous work.
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Music Reviews
Deep Purple: Machine Head – Super Deluxe Edition Box
Mike Mettler  |  Jun 07, 2024
Performances
Sound

Machine Head is one of those perfect storm albums. As Deep Purple entered the 1970s, they undertook a creative shift from the psychedelic blues/pop of their late-’60s origins — embodied by hits like 1968’s perpetually catchy “Hush” and their cover of Neil Diamond’s “Kentucky Woman” — to move into full-on rock overdrive with June 1970’s Deep Purple in Rock and July 1971’s Fireball. With that tableau firmly set, Deep Purple ramped it up yet another notch to construct March 1972’s truly seminal Machine Head, which features enduring hardrock staples like “Smoke on the Water” (ahh, that right-of-passage guitar riff), “Highway Star” (their 8-cylinder vehicular love letter), and “Space Truckin’” (“Come on!”) among them.

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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsMusic Reviews
Def Leppard - London To Vegas
David Vaughn  |  May 29, 2020
Picture
Sound
Extras
Def Leppard got its start back in 1977 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England when Rick Savage, Tony Kenning and Pete Willis formed a band called Atomic Mass. Joe Elliott joined the band a short time later and became the lead singer and proposed a new name for the band, "Deaf Leopard," which was ultimately adopted with some modified spelling. Kenning ended up leaving the shortly before their first recording session and was replaced by a fifteen-year-old drummer by the name of Rick Allen.
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Music Reviews
Def Leppard: Hysteria: 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 14, 2018
Performance
Sound
When the phrase “beast mode” entered the vernacular, it was intended mainly as a descriptor for a singularly focused level of energy and drive as exhibited by certain football players. But it just as easily could have been used to describe the laser focus Def Leppard displayed in the face of innumerable odds while recording the 1987 juggernaut known as Hysteria. It may have taken them 34 months of on/off studio time and a hefty price tag of 2 million pounds to get to the finish line, but the ensuing album sold over 25 million copies worldwide and became the defining sonic template for the scores of pop-metal crossover hybrids that followed.
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Music Reviews
Def Leppard: ‘Pyromania’ – Super Deluxe Edition Box
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 20, 2024
Def Leppard was an ’80s anomaly. The band wasn’t exactly part of the decade-opening NWOBHM (a.k.a. New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) scene, nor was it entirely aligned with the androgynous, hair-sprayed looks and vibes of metal-adjacent contemporaries like Mötley Crüe and Poison. Instead, Def Leppard took inspiration from their own ’70s heroes, fusing glam-slam and pub-rock roots with power-pop harmonies and arena-rock guitar riffage. Stir it all together, and you get one of that decade’s biggest albums, January 1983’s Pyromania.
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Music Reviews
Dire Straits—Brothers in Arms 20th Anniversary Edition (Warner Brothers) [DualDisc]
Steve Guttenberg  |  Dec 02, 2005
Brothers in Arms was a monster seller of the 1980s and yielded Dire Straits' MTV anthem, "Money for Nothing." Beyond the pop successes, the band's music was coveted by audiophiles for its sweet sound; back in the day, I wore out countless Brothers in Arms LPs at my job selling high-end audio gear. Reconnecting with the music in this new 20th Anniversary Edition, remastered to DualDisc, was a total pleasure.
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Music Reviews
Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms in Dolby Atmos & 40th Anniversary Edition Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  May 30, 2025

Forty years ago this month in May 1985, the savior of the then-burgeoning compact disc format arrived in the name of Dire Straits’ fifth studio album Brothers in Arms, a career-defining release that became the first CD to ever sell a million copies. Read music editor Mike Mettler’s combo deep-dive review of the just-released BIA 40th Anniversary Edition 5LP and 3CD box sets and companion 1LP and 1BD editions, plus find out just how good BIA sounds in Dolby Atmos. . .

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Music Reviews
Doechii: “Denial Is a River” and “Boiled Peanuts” in Dolby Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 27, 2025

As Black History Month comes to a close, we wanted to put our final BHM aural spotlight on the always dynamic Tampa rapper Doechii. Not only did she perform a mightily charged set in New Orleans the night before Super Bowl LIX just 19 days ago, but on February 2, 2025, Doechii also won the Grammy for Best Rap Album for her powerful 2024 mixtape release, Alligator Bites Never Heal. Even better, all of Bites is available in Dolby Atmos. Read Mike Mettler’s review of a pair Alligator tracks — the self-analytical “Denial Is a River” and the knowingly defiant “Boiled Peanuts” — to find out just how Doechii has taken a serious bite out of the 360-degree apple. . .

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Music Reviews
Duffy: Endlessly
Brett Milano  |  Mar 02, 2011
 
Mercury
Music ••1/2 Sound ••

 

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Music Reviews
Eagles: Hotel California - 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Feb 28, 2018
Performance
Sound
Ah, the ’70s—the literal age of excess, as documented by the “everything, all the time” lifestyle credo personified by pop-music superstars like the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac. And yet, amidst all that glamour, glitz, and high drama also resided some damn fine music, too. Listen closely, and you’ll clue into a good bit of prescient social commentating by artists very much aware of the pitfalls of their experimentations, even while they basked in the afterglow.
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Music Reviews
ELP Reissue Series: Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Tarkus; Pictures at an Exhibition
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 14, 2016
Welcome back, my friends… well, you know the rest. That opening line—made famous in “Karn Evil 9 – 1st Impression, Part 2” from 1973’s Brain Salad Surgery—certainly applies to the re-emergence of the remastered catalog for Emerson, Lake & Palmer, the groundbreaking British progressive trio that defined adventurous recording and outrageous live performance during their 1970s heyday. Actually, ELP vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Greg Lake prefers using the word original instead of progressive to describe the band’s signature sound—and the man does have a point.
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Music Reviews
Elton John: Madman Across the Water - 50th Anniversary Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Jul 27, 2022
Performances
Sound
Elton John could do no wrong as the calendar came to the close of 1971. Madman Across the Water, his third album in that calendar year alone, came out in November, and it was considered to be the best entry in his Trident Studios orchestral trilogy, featuring production by Gus Dudgeon and arrangements by Paul Buckmaster. (The previous two releases in said trilogy were April 1970's self-titled Elton John and October 1970's Tumbleweed Connection.)
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Music Reviews
Eric Clapton: Give Me Strength: The ’ 74/ ’ 75 Recordings
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 19, 2014
Performance
Sound
Eric Clapton was at the crossroads of Personal Hell Avenue and Professional Conundrum Street as the calendar turned to 1974. His crippling heroin addiction derailed the creative momentum he achieved with Derek and the Dominos and Layla in 1970, and it took him a few long, painful years to emerge from the haze and return to chasing down his one true muse with guitar (and not needle) in hand. The jam-packed Give Me Strength: The ’74/’75 Recordings box set charts his sonic recovery.
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Music Reviews
Eric Clapton: The Definitive 24 Nights Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 21, 2023
Performances
Sound
I hesitate using trendy acronyms when writing reviews — but in this case, saying I had a clear-cut case of FOMO when Eric Clapton’s slightly misnamed 24 Nights 2 CD clamshell collection first came out in October 1991 actually might be an understatement. The 15 tracks on that release — five culled from E.C.’s 18-night 1990 Royal Albert Hall residency in London, and the remainder from his 24-night 1991 stretch there — seemed more like a tease. Hence, I resigned myself to being somewhat content at the time. But now, E.C.’s 1990-91 live largesse at “The Hall” has gotten considerably fuller on The Definitive 24 Nights.
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