Music Reviews

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Music Reviews
Joe Ely & Joel Guzman: Live Cactus!
Billy Altman  |  Jul 30, 2008
Rack 'Em
Music •••• Sound ••••

Rather than wondering what's in the water, it's probably more fitting to wonder what's in the wind that m

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Music Reviews
John Cougar Mellencamp: Scarecrow – Super Deluxe Edition Box Set
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 13, 2023
Performances
Sound
John Mellencamp was making waves. Unfortunately saddled with the stage name “John Cougar” when he came onto the scene in the late-1970s, once he began climbing the singles and sales charts, he asserted his artistic identity much more forcefully by crediting his hit October 1983 LP Uh-Huh to John Cougar Mellencamp. He did so again on his full-artistic breakthrough album, August 1985’s Scarecrow, before dropping the Cougar moniker entirely when the ’90s rolled around.
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Music Reviews
John Lennon: Gimme Some Truth: The Ultimate Remixes - Deluxe Edition
Mike Mettler  |  Dec 04, 2020
Performance
Sound
I always viewed John Winston Ono Lennon as an inveterate seeker—an artist who was forever searching low and high to find both his ballast and his balance. During his time in The Beatles, Lennon was able to connect with listeners on an interpersonal level ("In My Life") while he also remained unafraid to address his own fears and insecurities ("Help!"), was eager to embrace the free-associative nature of the Sixties ("I Am the Walrus"), and was wholly game to confront the depths of his pain ("Julia").
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Music Reviews
Jorma Kaukonen: River of Time
Brett Milano  |  Mar 02, 2009
Red House
Music ••• Sound ••••
Jorma Kaukonen as a grizzled old bluesman doesn't seem too far-fetched.
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Music Reviews
Juice WRLD: The Pre-Party EP in Lossless on Apple Music
Mike Mettler  |  Sep 24, 2024
Sadly lost to us in his prime at only age 21 in 2019, Chicago-bred emo rapper Juice WRLD at least left behind a wealth of unreleased material—and his estate’s latest official offering is a two-track stunner, The Pre-Party EP, now available as a Lossless option on Apple Music and via other digital platforms.
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Music Reviews
Kanye West: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Billy Altman  |  Feb 28, 2011
 
Roc-A-Fella
Music •••• Sound ••••

 

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Music Reviews
Kathleen Edwards: Asking for Flowers
Rob O'Connor  |  Jul 30, 2008
Zoe/Rounder
Music •••½Sound ••••

For Album No.

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Music Reviews
Kendrick Lamar: “Luther” and “TV Off” in Dolby Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 10, 2025

Kendrick Lamar is a busy man these days. Not only is the West Coast hip-hop superstar headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans and prepping for the Grand National Tour with SZA for 19 stadium dates starting in April 2025, but he also found time to drop a surprise new album, GNX, on November 22, 2024, just six months after his majorly successful May 2024 release, Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers—and it’s all in full-on, glorious Dolby Atmos at that. Read Mike Mettler’s review to find out if the Dolby Atmos mixes of two key GNX tracks, “Luther” and “TV Off,” make the 360-degree grade. . .

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Music Reviews
Kid Rock: Born Free
Jeff Perlah  |  Mar 02, 2011
 
Top Dog/Atlantic
Music •••1/2 Sound ••••

 

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Music Reviews
King Crimson: In the Wake of Poseidon
Parke Puterbaugh  |  Mar 02, 2011
 
Discipline
Music •••½DVD-Audio Mix ••••½Extras ••••

The latest reissues in King Crimson’s 40th Anniversary Series capture the band at difficult junctures in Phase 1 of its quixotic history.

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Music Reviews
King Crimson: Islands
Parke Puterbaugh  |  Mar 03, 2011
 
Discipline
Music •••½DVD-Audio Mix •••••Extras •••••

Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson's multichannel mix of Islands detangles some of their album In the Wake of Poseidon's

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Music Reviews
Kings of Leon: Mechanical Bull
Mike Mettler  |  Jan 02, 2014
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 Reviews
Kraftwerk: Autobahn in Dolby Atmos
Mike Mettler  |  Mar 30, 2025

Has it really been 50 years since electro-pop pioneers Kraftwerk graced us with the sprawling techno-majesty of their fourth album, Autobahn? Mein Gott. Read music editor Mike Mettler’s in-depth review of the all-new Dolby Atmos mix of Autobahn to see if Kraftwerk’s timeless music soars anew in 360 degrees. . .

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Music Reviews
Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II & Led Zeppelin III—Super Deluxe Boxed Sets
Mike Mettler  |  Aug 13, 2014
Performance
Sound
“The best way to listen to Led Zeppelin is off of the analog tapes, but unfortunately, I can’t invite you around to listen to them.” That’s Jimmy Page, answering my question about whether vinyl is still the benchmark for experiencing Led Zeppelin music at a press conference following a listening event he hosted in New York City back in May. But now that Page has personally remastered all nine of Zep’s formidable studio albums in 96-kHz/24-bit, high-resolution digital audio appears to be the ideal format for hearing every detail and nuance put forth from the collective hammer of the gods.
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Music Reviews
Led Zeppelin: Presence, In Through the Out Door & Coda—Super Deluxe Box Sets
Mike Mettler  |  Oct 30, 2015
And as we wind on down the road, we have now officially arrived at the home stretch of Led Zeppelin mastermind Jimmy Page’s master plan of reissuing all nine of the mighty Zep’s studio offerings in Super Deluxe Edition box set form. Not only has the studio wizard’s magic remastering wand gifted us with a plethora of bonus tracks—mainly consisting of fascinating works-in-progress outtakes and alternate mixes, as opposed to troves of unreleased songs—but Page has been adamant about going the full-on 96-kHz/24-bit route in order to “future-proof” the catalog for whatever audiophiliac upgrades are yet to come. (Knowing how audio formats tend to go, however, that song may not remain the same as time marches onward.)
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