Music Reviews

This Week in Blu-rays

Gene Newman checks out the latest in high-definition releases: Orson Welles' Citizen Kane gets a deluxe 70th-anniversary edition, Thor and X-Men: First Class bring big superhero action to the small screen, Hesher tries to teach you a lesson (and just

To say “The Blu Album” is not to suggest that Steven Wilson’s Grace for Drowning (Kscope) is as wildly diverse as the Beatles’ “White Album” — even if Wilson rightly calls his own double-disc set “more experimental and more eclectic” than his previous solo outing, 2009’s Insurgentes, with jazz and classical influen

“This is one case where the record company got it right.”

According to the press release that accompanied my preview copy of this CD, Paul McCartney was "keen to tell a story through the music" of his first-ever ballet score. He ended up telling two: not just a love story but also the tale of "an underwater world whose people are threatened by the humans of Earth."

Most of the music-buying public may disagree, but Coldplay is a tough band to get passionate about, pro or con.

The genius of Pink Floyd's music is intertwined with the genius of the recording of the music. And the innovative studio techniques used by the band and its producers and recording engineers are integral to the music. It's impossible to imagine The Dark Side of the Moon without vital creative touches such as the sound of clanging money or thumping heartbeats. Perhaps no other band has pushed the technical envelope so aggressively, or profited from it so enormously. The catalog of their works is one of innovation - both musically and sonically.