Ken Richardson

Music 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
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 ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 22, 2013: Woody Guthrie, “American Radical Patriot”
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 22, 2013
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 ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 15, 2013: Something “New” from Paul McCartney
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 15, 2013
Also reviewed: Pearl Jam. And in revue: many more new releases, as well as classic XTC in 5.1.

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Music ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 8, 2013: Taking Miley Cyrus Seriously
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 08, 2013
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 ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, October 1, 2013: Justin Timberlake Don’t Need No Eye Doctor?
Ken Richardson  |  Oct 01, 2013
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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Blu-ray Movie ReviewsThis Week
This Week in Music, September 24, 2013: Elton? Don’t Shun Him, He’s Still a Piano Player.
Ken Richardson  |  Sep 24, 2013
Also reviewed: Kings of Leon, Sting, and Icona Pop. Plus: a thematic list of all the other prominent new releases and reissues, including The Complete Waitresses and a big box of Nirvana’s In Utero.

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This Week
This Week in Music, September 17, 2013: Costello wants to play with the Roots
Ken Richardson  |  Sep 16, 2013
Also reviewed: Richard X. Heyman, Potty Mouth. Plus: boxes of the Band and the Grateful Dead.
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This Week
This Week in Music, September 10, 2013: The country side of Sheryl Crow
Ken Richardson  |  Sep 10, 2013  |  Published: Sep 17, 2013
This Week in Music, September 10, 2013: The country side of Sheryl Crow
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This Week
This Week in Music, September 3, 2013: Nine Inch Nails, with fewer teeth
Ken Richardson  |  Sep 03, 2013

Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks

New release (Columbia; tour dates)
Photo of Trent Reznor by Baldur Bragson

Trent Reznor already came back haunted in March with the release of Welcome oblivion by How to destroy angels. That side project with Atticus Ross and (Reznor’s wife) Mariqueen Maandig took post-industrial/ambient music and made it sound fresh. By contrast, Hesitation Marks, Reznor’s first album in five years under the Nine Inch Nails moniker, seems beset by run-of-the-mill electronica. Ross and another veteran collaborator, Alan Moulder, return as co-producers with Reznor, but together they’re often just busy little techno-bees buzzing around Reznor’s generally average material.

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This Week
This Week in Music, August 27, 2013: Bob Dylan’s “Self Portrait,” naked
Ken Richardson  |  Aug 27, 2013

Bob Dylan: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 —
Another Self Portrait (1969–1971)

Archival release (Columbia)
Photos by John Cohen

Music publicity is kinda like medical ethics, in these four words: “First, do no harm.” Which makes Columbia’s campaign for the latest Bob Dylan official-bootleg extravaganza all the more remarkable. Self Portrait, you see, was almost universally derided by critics when it appeared in 1970. You might think Columbia would want to avoid that negative history in the press release for The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10 — Another Self Portrait (1969–1971). Instead, the headline brandishes these four words:

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