I always like to make explicit the fact that before I went off not too long ago to fight in the trenches, I was a mathematician by profession. I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living. I mean, it isn't as though I had to do this, you know, I could be making, oh, three thousand dollars* a year just teaching. - from the introduction to "Lobachevsky" on Revisited

Tom Lehrer recorded two studio albums in the fifties and four live albums from 1959 to 1965 (two of which are made up of songs from the two studio albums). He wrote songs for television as well, some for the 1964-65 American version of the satirical "That Was The Week That Was" and some for the 1970's children's series "The Electric Company". If you listened to "The Dr. Demento Show", you know exactly who Tom Lehrer was. Most of his songs are simply Lehrer at the piano playing original comedy songs that show his love of musical theater. The lyrics are extremely clever with an occasionally dark sense of humor. Songs like "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" and "The Masochism Tango" may be obvious, but the macabre "I Hold Your Hand In Mine" sneaks up on you. He also satirized current events, education, the holidays, race relations, American military policy, and so on. He also wrote silliness like "The Elements", which simply rattles off the names of the elements to the tune of "I Am The Very Model Of A Modern Major-General" from The Pirates Of Penzance.

Lehrer's primary career was in academia teaching mathematics (and occasionally musical theater): the recording and performing career was an occasional side job. If you listen to some of the samples below, remind yourself that he was performing these songs in the late fifties and early sixties. For the time, this was extremely edgy stuff. His style may be dated, but the lyrics are still brilliant. If you've never heard his music before, do yourself a favor and at least sample some. The YouTube links below are from a rare televised live performance.

In 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all his songs into the public domain. In 2022, he took it a step further and relinquished the copyrights to his music and put it up for free download on his site, Songs And Lyrics by Tom Lehrer. The site has a warning: "This website will be shut down at some date in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don't wait too long." Looks like the music is gone, but the PDFs of lyrics and sheet music are still there.

NOTE: In case you were curious like I was: $3,000 in 1960 would be about $32,000 in 2025.

Dawes recorded one of Randy Newman's most accessible songs with maybe his most ambiguous lyrics as a one-off benefit single. Is it a love song to L.A.? Is it a veiled shot at the city? It's probably a little of both. Dawes version is very faithful to the original, so it's mainly for folks who want to throw a little money to support a good cause, or folks who like the song but would rather hear a smoother singer.

Good Music To Lift Los Angeles is the better of the two compilations here, so it's a little unfortunate that it was a one-day-only release. Dawes "Without The Words" and The War On Drugs' "Lost In The Dream" are the big highlights here, but a pair of R.E.M.-related songs are close: there's a cool live "Electrolite" from R.E.M. themselves, and Jason Isbell covers "The One I Love". Hope you were aware of this at the time and able to snag a copy.

While Super Bloom: A Benefit For Fire Relief In Los Angeles may be the weaker of the two, there's quite a few good things here. Robyn Hitchcock and his partner Emma Swift both contribute songs. Robyn's full band "The Man In My Head" is classic Hitchcock, and Emma's "The Resurrection Game" is moody and elegant. The War On Drugs are on this benefit as well with a terrific live version of "Arms Like Boulders" and Guided By Voices contribute a 1997 acoustic version of "My Impression Now". And while it may be the weaker of the two, it's still worth a purchase for a good cause.

In 2019, Amy Rigby published Girl To City: A Memoir. It covered her life from when she first moved from greater Pittsburgh to New York City until the recording of her acclaimed solo debut, Diary Of A Mod Housewife. In 2020, Rigby turned the book into a free podcast. Each episode consists of Rigby reading a chapter of the book and adding in snippets of her music to enhance the story.

In 2025, she published the follow-up, Girl To Country: A Memoir. This book picks up where the first left off and documents her move to Nashville where she tries to balance a nascent pop/rock solo career with selling songs for country artists. On December 17th, Rigby kicked off another free podcast for this book as well. Like before, each episode is her reading a chapter with some music added when needed.

I don't want to spoil any surprises in the narrative but let me say that the books (and the podcasts) are much like her songwriting: They're intelligent, honest, introspective, funny, and self-deprecating. Both books are very highly recommended. The podcast is even better - her voice and the music extracts just enhance the story. Definitely check out the podcast, and if you enjoy it, consider buying the books anyway to support her work. They're both trade paperbacks, so they're not pricey. Get them at amyrigby.com.

In 1973, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks recorded their debut album, Buckingham Nicks. In 1974, the album's producer Keith Olsen played a song from the album for Mick Fleetwood. Fleetwood was impressed and invited Lindsey to join Fleetwood Mac. Lindsey would only join if Stevie was invited as well, and the classic seventies lineup of Fleetwood Mac was born.

If you like their era of Fleetwood Mac, you'll like Buckingham Nicks. The songs have a very similar feel to Fleetwood Mac. The sound is built around their voices and Buckingham's distinctive guitar work. There are few surprises along the way: "Stephanie" and "Django" are guitar instrumental that show off Lindsey's finger picking, and "Lola (My Love)" mixes in a little country feel that wasn't a part of their new band's sound. Two of the best songs on the album are ones you've heard before if you're a Fleetwood Mac fan. Nicks' "Crystal" made it onto their Mac debut and Buckingham's "Don't Let Me Down Again" was a perfect fit for Fleetwood Mac's 1980 Live album. The co-write "Frozen Love" closes the album on a long epic that shows off everything the duo did well, mixing quiet and loud sections with their harmonies. It's also reportedly the track that caught Mick Fleetwood's ear, and you can really hear why.

It's baffled me for ages that this album was out of print. When Fleetwood Mac and Rumours were dominating the airwaves, you'd have thought someone would have tried to cash in with a re-release of Buckingham Nicks. It took over fifty years, but the album's finally been officially reissued.

The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was the final Genesis album with Peter Gabriel, and in my opinion the best of his era in the band. It's a sprawling double-album with lyrics telling a surreal story, which isn't fully decipherable from the lyrics (I've never managed to sort it out). Gabriel put an essay in the original to explain it all. Don't sweat the story, the music on the album is magnificent. The catchy title track, the elegant "Fly On A Windshield", and the epic "In The Cage" start the album out a series of high notes. There's also glimpses of the future: "Back In N.Y.C." feels like Gabriel's early solo work and the jaunty "Counting Out Time" would have slotted in nicely on the first post-Gabriel album, Trick Of The Tail. "Lillywhite Lilith" adds in a little heavier rock, and the album ends on a high note with the dramatic "In The Rapids" and frenetic "it." closing out the album in style. And the graceful "The Carpet Crawlers" ended up being the final number on Genesis' farewell tour. Yes, the second half of the album drags in places, but the highlights more than make up for it.

The version of the album in the box is a remaster, not a remix. You won't hear changes in arrangement, but everything sounds terrific. It's certainly an upgrade over my old CD. Not sure how other more recent releases sound, but this version is great.

The tour for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway was a multimedia show with multiple slide shows running behind the band and Gabriel doing multiple costume changes to line up with the story. Unfortunately, the band didn't film any of the shows. The box set includes the concert previously included on the Genesis Archive 1967-75 box set, but now with the two encores ("Watcher Of The Skies", "The Musical Box") included. The album works very well live, even without the visuals. At several points in the show Gabriel explains the narrative but does it with the flair of a good storyteller, so it doesn't distract.

The physical box also includes download codes for some demos from the album, which are a nice inclusion. You get very early takes of the title track, "Fly On A Windshield", "The Chamber Of 32 Doors", and "The Lamia". None of the four appear to have completed lyrics yet because Gabriel is scat singing in some parts of the songs. The last demo is a short extract from "In The Cage" with "strange vocals". It's an interesting snippet, but I would have preferred a full demo of the song. The sound is a little rough, but they're still a very interesting listen.

The box also contains a nice book, and replicas of a poster, the tourbook, and a ticket stub. It's a nice package, and if you're a fan of the album or Gabriel-era Genesis, it's worth picking up.

NERDY NOTES:

• The download information is on the back of the replica ticket. I mention this because I couldn't find it at first.
• The download includes the demos as well as a full FLAC download of the whole box, which is a nice touch. If you use this version, be aware that "The Grand Parade Of Lifeless Packaging" and "Back In N.Y.C." are swapped in the download version. If you don't fix it, the live show jumps from "In The Cage" to "Back In N.Y.C." and then to "The Grand Parade". It's a little jarring.
• The live disc also perpetuates a mistake from older CD versions of The Lamb. Instead of being 2:51 in length, the track "Fly On A Windshield" runs for 4:37 and includes most of "Broadway Melody Of 1974". with the "Broadway Melody" track being just the last 35 seconds. If you're listening to the show as a complete set, it doesn't really matter. All the music is there, it's just that the track break is in the wrong place. My old CD of The Lamb has this problem as well, but the studio set in the box has the correct track break.
• If you'd like some insights into the inspiration for the story, a peek at what scant video there is of the live show, and an analysis of how the track listing evolved, check out the episode of "Rael's Prog Rock Documentaries" about the album (yes, the reviewer took his handle from the main character in The Lamb). The story line shares quite a bit with a 1970 "acid Western" film, El Topo. The film is unrated, but I could see it getting an X based on the clips included in the documentary. That bit is the first three minutes, and viewer discretion is most definitely advised. The documentary is excellent as are the couple of dozen others that he's done.

Trouble In Paradise isn't one of my favorite Randy Newman albums, although it does have "I Love L.A." and the classic "My Life Is Good". "The Blues" with Paul Simon guesting is summery pop that feels like it could have been a hit. The rest of the album is pretty disappointing. "Christmas In Capetown" and "Mikey's" are more of Newman's "unreliable narrator" songs, with the songs sung from the point of view of racist characters. The lyrics don't have the ironic jabs that makes "Rednecks" so clever, so they're just uncomfortable. "Christmas In Capetown" is super catchy, but "Mikey's" is an odd detour into fake synth pop that really doesn't work. Overall, it's one of Newman's weaker albums.

Given the above, why did I want an expanded edition? Well, the new Expanded Edition comes with an album's worth of demos an a bonus live-in-the-studio album that was released with the French version of the album. The demos are just Randy on the piano, and they're clearly not polished yet. You hear some lyric changes, false starts and sudden endings. As on the main album, "I Love L.A." and "My Life Is Good" are the standouts. Unfortunately, as on the main album, the weaker songs aren't much better as demos, exception for "I'm Different". The demos include two that didn't make the album. "Big Fat Country Song" has a country lilt (as you'd expect) and "Rainbow" is a short piece that reminds me a bit of "Marie". Both are interesting to hear, but not essential.

Unlike a lot of Newman's live work, the live album (originally released as Un Samedi En Décembre) has his piano and vocal backed by a string section for songs like "Louisiana 1927", "Love Story (You And Me)" and "Marie". It's a very good live album, but not as good as some of his others.

Ultimately, this is more of a completist's release. It's not where I'd recommend a new listener start, but the live album and the demos are worth it for the hard-core Newman fan.

In 2011, Pink Floyd released an "Immersion Edition" box set of With You Were Here that contained the album, a CD of rarities, two DVDs, a Blu-ray, and a book and other tchotchkes. It's an excellent set, but it's now out of print. For the 50th anniversary of the album, there's a new box set available on LP, CD or Blu-Ray. The Blu-ray doesn't have the lavish packaging of the other two sets, but it's got more audio material.

The album itself comes in stereo, in 5.1 (using the 2011 "Immersion Edition" mix) and a new Atmos mix. The 5.1 mix is terrific, especially the middle three songs ("Welcome To The Machine", "Have A Cigar" and "Wish You Were Here". The special effects that the Floyd were famous for move around the 5.1 field, especially the mechanical effects in "Welcome To The Machine"). The album is a big favorite of mine. In my 2024 Top 100 Albums Of All Time, I ranked it #15 all time, up from #27 in my 2014 list.

The extras come in three groups. "Rarities 1" has the three studio outtakes from the Immersion bonus disc: "Wine Glasses" and the alternate versions of "Have A Cigar" and "Wish You Were Here". All three are excellent. "Have A Cigar" has Roger Waters and David Gilmour trading vocals (instead of Roy Harper singing solo), and "Wish You Were Here" adds evocative violin from jazz legend Stéphane Grappelli. "Rarities 2" is all new. There's a rough instrumental mix of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". It sounds very polished, and noticeably different in the center sections. "Welcome To The Machine" gets two demos under its original title of "The Machine Song" (Roger's demo and a band demo). Both are an interesting listen. Two versions of the title track are included: "Take 1" is a sparser version of the song, and the "Pedal Steel Instrumental Mix" adds a country tinge to the song that didn't work for me. The section wraps with a new stereo mix of an uncut, 25-minute, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond". It's cool to hear it as one song: I wonder if it would have been released this way if the album was recorded in the CD era.

The third bonus is a 1975 live recording originally made by bootlegging legend Mike "The Mic" Millard and given a brand-new cleanup by Steven Wilson. You can tell it wasn't a professional recording, but it's got to be one of the cleanest audience recordings I've ever heard. Steven Wilson's got it sounding great. The show itself has a gutsy setlist. The two opening tracks, "Raving And Drooling" and "You've Got To Be Crazy" run almost half an hour total and were unreleased at the time (they were later reworked into "Sheep" and "Dogs" on Animals). Following that, the band runs through four of the five songs from With You Were Here (skipping only "Welcome To The Machine") and wraps the set with a complete run through The Dark Side Of The Moon. A twenty-minute-plus performance of "Echoes" closes out the show. The performance isn't note-perfect, but there's a fiery energy and some very cool extended sections (especially on "Any Colour You Like") that more than make up for it. The recording shows just how good a live band Pink Floyd was in their original seventies heyday.

The new bonus material in this edition makes it worth picking up even if you already have the Immersion Edition. If you don't, then you definitely want this.

Jesus died for somebody's sins, but not mine - from "In Excelsis Deo"

Patti Smith's landmark debut album gets a relatively simple 50th anniversary release. The album opens with one of rock's greatest opening lines (quoted above) and follows it up with a powerful build-up leading into "Gloria". It's still one of her most famous songs, and deservedly so. The album is more varied than that however with the semi-reggae of "Redondo Beach", the poetry of "Birdland", the pop of "Kimberly" and the dramatic "Break It Up" featuring Tom Verlaine's fiery guitar.

The 50th Anniversary edition adds a bonus disc of demos, alternate takes, unreleased songs, and early versions of two songs Smith would record later: "Distant Fingers" and "We Three" be re-recorded for Radio Ethiopia and Easter. The demos are an interesting listen: the songs are there, but they don't have the power of the final versions that made them classics. The alternate takes are fascinating. In some cases, I don't know if I would have stuck with the album version or used one of these. The unreleased tracks are terrific. "The Hunter Gets Captured By The Game" is a quite faithful cover of a song written by Smokey Robinson and performed by The Marvelettes. I don't think I've ever heard her sing that type of song before, but it really works.

Absolutely worth the upgrade.

Excerpt from an interview with Bruce Springsteen by Andy Greene for the July-August 2025 issue of Rolling Stone:

The movie [Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere] focuses on the making of Nebraska. Fans are fascinated by the idea of a full band Nebraska. It's become this mythical thing.

Well, I can tell you right now, it doesn't exist.

Really?

No, we tried to do a few songs with the band for a few minor electric versions of Nebraska. But that record simply doesn't exist.

[Note: about a month after this interview, I got a text from an unfamiliar number from Freehold, New Jersey: "Hey Andy! Bruce Springsteen here. just wanted to give you a heads-up. I checked our vault and there IS an electric Nebraska record, though it [does] not have the full album of songs. All the best, Bruce."]

Released on the same day as Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere hit theaters, Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition is an in-depth dive into Springsteen's famous "left turn" album. The set includes five discs:

• A set of outtakes from the sessions
• The legendary Electric Nebraska recording
• A new recording of Springsteen performing the album live
• A remastered version of the original
• A Blu-ray video of the live performance

The outtakes are a mix of leftovers from the original bedroom sessions, and a few from a later acoustic session to try to capture the same feel in a professional studio. It has the same energy as the original - any of these songs would have fit comfortably on the album. An interesting pair is the gentle "Child Bride", which ends up being retooled into the high-energy "Working On The Highway". A bug surprise were the previously unknown "On The Prowl" and "Gun In Every Home" from the studio session. "On The Prowl", described by Springsteen as a "psycho-gothic Jerry Lee Lewis tune" is the big highlight.

As Springsteen mentions in the interview, the fabled Electric Nebraska isn't simply an electric version of the released album. It's six songs from the album plus versions of "Downbound Train" and "Born In The U.S.A." Contrary to my expectations, the album is also not Bruce and the full E Street Band behind him. All the songs have Bruce backed by bassist Garry Tallent and drummer Max Weinberg. Roy Bittan, Danny Federici, and Stevie Van Zandt appear on several songs, and surprisingly, Clarence Clemons isn't on these recordings. I'm assuming his sax would have been added later. Owen's First Blasphemy: I like Electric Nebraska better than the original. The feel is still far sparser than both The River and Born In The U.S.A., but the addition of a rhythm section really fills out the songs. The original "Atlantic City" is a haunting classic. The electric version is even better. "Mansion On The Hill" has gospel-tinged organ from Danny Federici that just makes the song. "Downbound Train" was a highlight on Born In The U.S.A., but the Electric Nebraska has an unhinged vocal from Bruce that takes the song in a different direction. Owen's Second Blasphemy: "Born In The U.S.A." is better in this arrangement. It's simply a power-trio version that rocks way harder with a far angrier vocal. The famous version on Born In The U.S.A. has long been misunderstood as a flag-waving, fist-pumping patriotic anthem. I doubt people would have made that mistake about the Electric Nebraska version.

The live performance is simply Bruce on guitar, harmonica, and vocals with Larry Campbell and Charlie Giordano replicating the handful of overdubs on the original. The performance is very true to the original, and Bruce's older voice complements the material beautifully. Owen's Third Blasphemy: I like this performance better than the original as well.

I was quite a bit of a latecomer to Springsteen fandom, finally drawn in by Darkness On The Edge Of Town. I loved that full E Street Band sound, so I didn't expect to like Nebraska, but it really surprised me. The power of the lyrics and the intensity of the performance won me over very quickly. I was really excited about this release, and it didn't disappoint. I still love the original album, but the new live performance and the electric version are even better in my opinion. It doesn't always work out like this, but Nebraska '82: Expanded Edition is a "holy grail" release that absolutely matches the sky-high expectations.

Released just three weeks before Keith Moon's passing, Who Are You was a very different Who album. John Entwistle wrote three of the nine songs instead of his usual one and two of those have Roger Daltrey singing lead (which hadn't happened before). Two songs ("Had Enough" and "Love Is Coming Down") have lush string arrangements, and a third ("905") has synths as the primary instrument. "Love Is Coming Down" was a pure ballad, "Guitar And Pen" had a Gilbert and Sullivan showtune feel, and "Music Must Change" was a jazzy song in 6/8 time that Keith Moon couldn't seem to handle.

Not everything was a left turn. The album opens with a pick scrape as the band roars into a song which Pete Townshend criticizes himself for writing "the same old song". And the classic title track follows "Baba O'Riley" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" in using a pulsing synth track as a background for the band's power, with Roger Daltrey belting out Townshend's lyrics inspired by a drunken evening that included a confused encounter with Sex Pistols Steve Jones and Paul Cook and ended with Pete passed out in a doorway and recognized by a policeman. "Who Are You" is The Who at their complex best.

The new Super Deluxe Edition covers the album, as well as a transitional time in the band's history. You get the rejected first mix that Glyn Johns prepared, outtakes and demos, rehearsals for a live performance for their documentary The Kids Are Alright, rehearsals and a live performance with new drummer Kenney Jones, and a Blu-ray with various surround mixes of the album produced by Steven Wilson.

In general, Who Are You isn't considered one of the band's classic albums. Trouble is, the standard is very high. Who Are You may not measure up to Quadrophenia, Who's Next, Tommy, Live At Leeds, or The Who Sell Out, but it's an adventurous album that would be a career highlight for most other bands. I'm a little biased on this one: Who Are You was my introduction to the band, and it's always hard to top that first album that got you hooked.

There's a lot in this box, so I put together a separate disc-by-disc review page.

In my 2014 Top 100 Albums Of All Time, I wrote:

One Size Fits All is Zappa at his most accessible (although it's still Frank). It doesn't have the social commentary of his early albums and it doesn't have the vulgar humor of his others. What it does have is my favorite overall set of Zappa's songs. It's got rockers like "San Ber'dino", "Andy", and "Florentine Pogen", a very pretty waltz in "Sofa", and a little one-minute silliness with "Evelyn, A Modified Dog". Zappa's giant discography can be daunting for a newcomer, but One Size Fits All is where I'd recommend a newbie start.

Then, in my 2024 Top 100 Albums Of All Time (10th Anniversary Rethink), I wrote:

In the last ten years, I've gained fresh appreciation of many of Frank's older albums, but none of them top One Size Fits All for me. Also remains my pick for a "first Zappa listen" for a newbie.

The 50th Anniversary edition of One Size Fits All is 4 CD set (plus a Blu-ray) that gives an terrific deep dive into this classic. You get a 2012 remaster of the original album which sounds wonderful. The Additional Sizes content (part of CD 1 and all of CD 2) gives one or more alternate versions of each of the songs on the album. There are no new songs in here, "Ralph Stuffs His Shoes" is an early version of "Can't Afford No Shoes", "Bitch, Bitch, Bitch" is an early version of "San Ber'dino", and "Something/Anything" is an early version of "Andy". Some of the rough mixes are simply early takes which are interesting listening, but there are some big surprises here. The rough mix of "Florentine Pogen" is over three minutes longer and the extra run time lets the band really cook. The rough mix of "Can't Afford No Shoes" is much longer amd quite different. And hearing Frank run through a couple of rough takes of "Evelyn, A Modified Dog" is just charming.

The live CDs capture a show from 1974, recorded before the sessions for the album. Only "Inca Roads" and "Florentine Pogen" are in the set, although other One Size Fits All songs would be performed live with other bands. The show is basically a late era show by the Roxy & Elsewhere band, and it's a good one. "Blind Mice Blues" is a previously unheard bluesy jam based around "Three Blind Mice". It's amazing. Additionally, a couple of other One Size Fits All songs from an earlier show appear as a bonus, and I'm not sure I've heard either live before, so that's very cool.

In 2019, Adrian Belew proposed the idea to his former bandmates about doing a tour in 2021 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the 1980s lineup of King Crimson. Bill Bruford and Robert Fripp declined, but Fripp gave his blessing to the idea and even suggested the band name: Beat. Along with original bandmate Tony Levin, Belew drafted Steve Vai on guitar and Tool's Danny Carey on drums. Then COVID hit, followed by previous commitments for the other band members, so it took until 2024 to get the tour rolling. In November of 2024, Beat did a livestreamed concert from Los Angeles, and that recording is the basis for this release.

The tour focused on the three eighties albums, playing 18 of the 24 songs on those albums, and adding in "Red" like the 80's lineup did. The performance is spectacular. Belew and Levin sound and play like they did back then. Danny Carey does a terrific job filling Bruford's role, and somehow Steve Vai manages to pull off Robert Fripp's "relentless" (Vai's description) guitar parts. However, Vai and Carey aren't simply mimicking Fripp and Bruford. Both get multiple opportunities to show off their own styles; however, the feel is absolutely on the money. Beat even works in improvisational sections like Crimson did, extending both "Industry" and "The Sheltering Sky" over the ten-minute mark. If you're a fan of Discipline, Beat, and Three Of A Perfect Pair, do yourself a favor and give this a listen. You will not be disappointed.

The release comes in a couple of configurations. Neon Heat Disease: Live In Los Angeles is a double album with the soundtrack of the livestream concert (with the between-song banter removed). Live is the deluxe set, including Neon Heat Disease on both CD and Blu-ray along with a bonus disc of more live material titled Strange Spaghetti: Live In North America. The Blu-ray also includes about an hour of interviews with the band.

After the conclusion of his "Growing Up Live" tour in 2003, Peter Gabriel and his band performed a few benefit shows plus one for members of his Full Moon Club. The show was recorded in the Big Room at his Real World Studios (hence the title). The 90-minute show is an interesting mix of big numbers like "Shock The Monkey", "In Your Eyes", and a rearranged "Games Without Frontiers" mixed with deep cuts like "The Tower That Ate People" and "Father, Son" and fan favorites like "Secret World", but skips obvious choices like "Sledgehammer", "Big Time", and "Biko". It's an unconventional set, but it's a nice listen.

NOTE: This appears to be a digital-only release.

In 1982, Peter Gabriel hosted the first WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) festival. The concept was to bring in artists from around the world and create a festival where music from around the world could be celebrated equally. Gabriel made two performances at the festival, and Live At WOMAD 1982 captures the first show*. The performance focused on his as-yet unreleased fourth Peter Gabriel album (later titled "Security" in the US), including 7 of its 8 songs, adding only "I Go Swimming" (which appeared later on Plays Live) and the closing "Biko". For the last three songs in the set, Gabriel's band is joined by Ekomé, a Ghanian drum and dance company based in Bristol. The performance is spectacular. It certainly helps that the new songs are some of the strongest of his career, and the roar of the extra drums really make the end of the show a highlight. If you're as fond of the original album as I am (it's #7 in my revised Top 100 Albums Of All Time), then you'll love this.

Oh, and a side note: It's super weird to hear no crowd reaction to Gabriel introducing "Shock The Monkey". That'd change soon.

* Technically, the show is edited slightly. He performed "Shosholoza" (a 1980 B-side) between "The Rhythm Of The Heat" and "Kiss Of Life". Not sure why it was left out. And this also appears to be a digital-only release.

Y'know, ever since we started recording these shows, we were told that the ones that the fans actually really like to have in their possession are the ones with fuckups. So, taking on the full responsibility of being an artist on our shows, we make sure that every performance has some of these golden moments. Here we go again. - Peter Gabriel after "cock-up #2" at the start of "Signal To Noise"

An exclusive re-release for the Peter Gabriel Full Moon Club (it had been released as an "Encore Series" CD in 2007), WOMAD Festival 2007 documents a show for the 25th anniversary of the festival, which was later expanded into his "Warm Up Tour". There was no new album to promote at the time, so Gabriel polled his fan club for suggestions. Lesser played songs like "The Rhythm Of The Heat, "On The Air", "Mother Of Violence" and "Intruder" are mixed with the "must-play" numbers like "Sledgehammer" and "In Your Eyes". Peter and his band also welcome other artists from the festival to add extra voices and a world music touch starting with "Lay Your Hands On Me". And yes, the show does indeed include a couple of false starts, and they're charming. It's an excellent show.

NOTE: This new digital-only release appears to be exclusive to the Peter Gabriel Full Moon Club subscription. You get an outtake or two every month, with the occasional live show mixed in. Cost is only £3 per month (roughly $4 US, depending on the exchange rate each month). Also seems like any new releases show up for the subscribers too.

This year's set has a mix of shows from the last four years with a great selection of songs. Live At The 7th Street Entry 5/1/25 documents a 20th anniversary show for Separation Sunday. Instead of the now-common show where the album is played in order, The Hold Steady opens the set with the final two songs from the album, then plays the rest in reverse order.

Oh, and the sound problems that plagued a couple of the 2024 releases didn't recur on the 2025 releases.

Innes Prime is a collection of live recordings sequenced to feel like a single concert. The album covers lots of Neil's solo material including songs written for Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Rutland Weekend Television, The Innes Book Of Records, and of course The Rutles. A big highlight is a charming medley of music and stories about the early years of The Bonzo Dog Band, and his three signature songs "I'm The Urban Spaceman", "Protest Song" and "How Sweet To Be An Idiot" are included as well. Most of the performances are backed by a band, including the opening eight songs from 1979 featuring Rutles Ollie Halsall and John Halsey. Wonderful. Everything a Neil Innes fan could want in a collection like this.

NOTE: Innes Prime doesn't seem to be available on streaming sites or anywhere other than NeilInnes.com. The album came out in November of 2024, but I only learned about it mid-2025. Additionally, there are no samples from the album on YouTube, so I've pulled some similar stuff.

Johnny Marr has released four studio albums since kicking off his solo career and Look Out Live! is already his second live album. This time around, it's a double-album release and only seven of the twenty-two songs also appear on Adrenalin Baby.

Eight songs from his time with The Smiths are included with two big highlights: A gentle "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" and one of the all-timers by the band, "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before". Marr's become a better singer as his solo career goes on. His vocal style is very different to Morrissey's, but it works. Marr also brings Neil Tennant on to join the band for David Bowie's "Rebel Rebel" and Electronic's "Getting Away With It" (which he recorded with Marr originally).

Of the other songs, Marr pulls three of the new songs from his recent best-of, Spirit Power: The Best Of Johnny Marr along with one or two from the rest. "Easy Money", "Generate! Generate!" and "Hi Hello" steal the show, but the album is solid all the way through. Worth getting even if you have Adrenalin Baby. If you have neither, I'd go with this one.

Pink Floyd's 1972 concert film, Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii, was shot in an ancient Roman amphitheater in Pompeii with just the band and the film crew present. Two songs were filmed later in Paris using the same audience-less feel. The concert is basically a one-hour slice of Pink Floyd's best material at the time. To extend the film's runtime, footage of the band at Abbey Road Studios working on their landmark album The Dark Side Of The Moon was added in. For the new Pink Floyd At Pompeii - MCMLXXII release, the film has been remastered into 4K and its soundtrack remixed by Steven Wilson for a double CD.

The soundtrack CD covers the concert performance with a couple of bonus tracks added. If your familiarity with Pink Floyd covers their hit era from Dark Side to The Wall, you'll be quite surprised by these performances. The songs are long, meandering, largely instrumental pieces, with four over ten minutes in length. Songs like "Echoes" and "Careful With That Axe, Eugene" move from serene, spacey instrumental passages into explosive sections, and the feel is light years away from radio-friendly songs like "Money" or "Wish You Were Here". The remastered sound is wonderful.

The "Director's Cut" version of the film that came out on DVD in 2003 made quite a few changes. The music's all the same, but that version the top and bottom cut off to create a fake widescreen image. In addition, a new framing concept was added to the film. Inspired by the images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the loose concept was that aliens hear the music from Earth and come to listen. As a result, graphics of a rocket launch and a space field with planets replaced the stark title cards that appeared before each song. There are no aliens shown, so it doesn't really add much. Other changes were made as well, including other shots of Pompeii and added footage of Rick Wright singing part of the vocals on "Echoes" in the studio with the audio unchanged.

The remastered version (issued on a Blu-ray separate from the CD release) is back in its original aspect ratio of 4:3 and undoes the various graphic changes that were made. The remastered film looks wonderful on Blu-ray - you can see the improvements, and it's nice to have it back as it originally appeared. The more serene parts of the performance are matched by segments where the camera just pans across the band or its equipment or shows random shots of Pompeii, and this pace fits the music nicely. When the songs crank up in aggressiveness, various video effects are added, and they work nicely with the noisier parts of the set. It's a very distinct feel and really fits the music perfectly. The behind-the-scenes footage is fascinating and gives you a peek into a very different Pink Floyd. All four band members appear to get along just fine for the most part (yes, even David Gilmour and Roger Waters). It's a reminder of a very different time in the band before the runaway success of The Dark Side Of The Moon changed everything.

If you're not familiar with the pre-Dark Side Floyd, check out the YouTube clips to get a taste. Pink Floyd At Pompeii - MCMLXXII is a wonderful update on an early Floyd classic.

A 'pay-what-you-will' release of a fan-recorded show from Amy Rigby's most recent tour. Nicely, this show includes a drummer and her husband Wreckless Eric on bass. The show focused on her latest album, the excellent Hang In There With Me, and includes a couple of book readings and a surprising cover of ABBA's "The Visitors". The sound quality could be a little better, but it's quite listenable and a very enjoyable show. If you enjoyed Hang In There With Me, you should really check this out.

In my home, the America I love, the America I've written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration. - from the introduction to show opener "Land And Hope Of Dreams"

On March 14, 2025, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band launched the UK leg of the Land Of Hopes & Dreams Tour in Manchester. This was Springsteen's first concert since the 2024 election, and Bruce used the platform to call out the current administration for their corruption, abuses, and clear attempts to move the United States towards authoritarianism. As expected, the thin-skinned occupant of the White House shot back in social media. Springsteen simply replied by rush-releasing an EP of songs from the show, including the show opening and the longer introduction to "My City Of Ruins". The commentary is absolutely spot-on, and I'm glad Springsteen made it easy to hear. The musical performances are killer as well. Bruce & The Street Band are powerful as ever. The opening "Land Of Hopes And Dreams" includes a short quote from The Impressions' "People Get Ready", and it's a perfect fit.

Additionally, the full show is available from nugs.net in FLAC, MP3 and physical CD.

Before releasing their third studio album, The Third Mind released a live album. Given the jammy nature of the band, it's a natural step. They mix five songs from their two studio albums along with two new songs: "Doralee" (an original from lead singer Jesse Sykes) and a cover of the Grateful Dead standard "Dark Star". As on their studio albums, the songs stretch out with Dave Alvin and Mark Karan (subbing for David Immerglück) trading guitar fireworks. Picture a heavier Grateful Dead, and you'll get the idea.

Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. The show is about to begin. Before it does, two public announcements: Firstly, out of consideration for your fellow patrons, please turn off your cell phones. And secondly, if you're one of those 'I love Pink Floyd, but I can't stand Roger's politics' people, you might do well to fuck off to the bar right now. - Roger's introduction to the show

As should be clear from the intro, Roger Waters' latest tour steers hard into his more political material but still includes obvious crowd pleasers like "Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2" and "Money". The show opens with the spooky, stripped down "Comfortably Numb" (which he released as studio version on The Lockdown Sessions in 2022). It opens the show with a suitably creepy video to create a spooky mood. "The Powers That Be" and "The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range" (using Waters' updated lyrics) absolutely hit home - they could have been written about today. The show also pulls in some Pink Floyd history. During "Wish You Were Here", the screens showed an account of when Waters and Syd Barrett decided to start a band. The video overlays the story over the performance, but it's not intrusive. The tour debuted two parts of what is apparently a very long song. "The Bar, Part 1" is a protest song that shows the commonality between the treatment of Native Americans and the Vietnam War. "The Bar, Part 2" is a more general reflection on war and the world today. After making his lyrical statements, Waters closes the show out playing the entire second side of The Dark Side Of The Moon. The encore includes the little-played "Two Suns In The Sunset", which fits the political tone of the show perfectly. In an interesting touch, the band leaves the stage while playing "Outside The Wall", with the performance finished backstage (but still shown on the screen).

A surprisingly nice bit of packaging: instead of having to choose between different box sets, the CD, LP, DVD and Blu-ray versions are all separate releases so you can get only the formats you want. It's a refreshing change from having to buy a combination CD/LP box just to get the video. But you definitely want the video. The music is stellar, but you want the visuals to give you the full experience.

As you can see, an encore is impossible. We have drums everywhere… - show emcee Jeff Dexter

In August of 1971, George Harrison hosted "The Concert For Bangladesh" benefit at Madison Square Garden in New York. A month later, a far-less known English benefit concert titled "Goodbye Summer" was held at The Oval Cricket Ground in Kensington, London starring The Who, Rod Stewart and The Faces, Mott The Hoople and more. The show was recorded with the intent of putting out a benefit album like The Concert For Bangladesh, but it never materialized. According to a lengthy blog post from Chris Charlesworth (who was at the show, and later involved with the The Who's 30 Years Of Maximum R&B box set), the tapes were unusable.

Now, thanks to improved audio technology, the show has been cleaned up and released. Live At The Oval 1971 captures a set running a little over an hour with a blistering set of songs from their latest release Who's Next replacing Tommy as the core of the show. After opening with a short jam (titled "So Glad To See Ya" and credited to Roger Daltrey as the songwriter), the band launches into "Summertime Blues" and the show proper kicks off and doesn't let up. The Who's Next material is a huge highlight, as is an intense version of "Baby Don't You Do It" and the 20-minute closing medley of "My Generation", "Naked Eye" and "Magic Bus".

The sound could be a little better (although given that the original tapes were considered "unusable", the sound is amazing). However, the incendiary performance makes it very easy to overlook any issues. This is The Who at the top of their game.

Ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to welcome you to the world's cheapest television special which is being manufactured for your gratification right here in the midst of our Mothers Of Invention rehearsal hall at 5831 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, California. Can you all turn around and look at each other so everybody who is watching this can tell where we are and what the inside of this place really looks like. As you can see, it's cheaper than cheap.

With the success of shows like The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert, Frank Zappa got interested in making a concert TV special of his own. In December of 1973, he videotaped the Mothers two-day, four-show stand at The Roxy in Los Angeles. The audio became the basis for his fan-favorite Roxy & Elsewhere album, but the video was unusable because it was not properly synced to the audio. In June of 1974, Frank took a second stab at the idea, setting up a full band performance in the Mothers' rehearsal space. As with the Roxy recording, the audio and video were not synced, and the project was shelved due to the limitations of the technology at the time. In August of 1974, Frank successfully recorded a TV special with correct audio and video and released it as A Token Of His Extreme. In 2015, the Roxy footage problems were fixed and released as Roxy: The Movie.

Now, in 2025, we finally have the middle special on CD, LP and Blu-ray. If you're assuming it'd be similar to Roxy: The Movie and A Token Of His Extreme, you'd be right. There is a lot of overlap; however, the band lineup has changed a bit (Ralph Humphries and Bruce Fowler are out, Jeff Simmons is in), some arrangements have evolved, and some older Mothers songs from Frank's "10 Years Of The Mothers" tour setlists, like "How Could I Be Such A Fool", "I'm Not Satisfied", "Wowie Zowie" and others. This edition of The Mothers are the height of their powers, and the performance is tremendous. A big surprise in the set was a killer take of "Apostrophe'" with Tom Fowler's bass stealing the show.

The movie itself is a fascinating watch. It's almost all live footage with a brief detour when Frank visits Cal Schenkel and Bruce Bickford to see their work in progress. Some of the footage is a little off - shaky cameras or cameras not pointing at anything in particular - so I'd imagine the original plan was to edit this down into something shorter than two hours. However, the performances are so good that you can easily forgive the occasional wonkiness.

If you're a fan of the Roxy & Elsewhere lineup, this is a must-hear and must-watch.

This is it, this is the big one! - from Zappa's introduction to the Halloween, 1978 show.

From 1975 to 1984, Frank Zappa played seven Halloween residencies in New York. The 1978 run at the Palladium was the peak of the tradition with six shows over four nights, culminating in a nearly four-hour show on Halloween night. In 2002, the Zappa Family Trust released Halloween, 5.1 DVD-Audio disc with 70 minutes of highlights of the run. Now, Halloween 78 captures that entire Halloween performance along with the first show of that year's run, a mere two-hour show from the 27th.

The early show (which appears after the main show in the set), is a mix of old favorites, then-unreleased material, and general chaos. The set opens with the future "hit" single "Dancin' Fool" (which hit #45 on the Billboard chart). Along the way, the "Don't Eat The Yellow Snow" suite, "Muffin Man", "A Pound For A Brown On The Bus", and "Peaches En Regalia" are mixed with seven songs that would eventually be released on Sheik Yerbouti, Joe's Garage, and Tinsel Town Rebellion. And it wouldn't be a Zappa Halloween show without "audience participation". He pulls quite a few people on stage to attempt to dance to "The Black Page #2" and has numerous interactions with the crowd (dubbed "New York's Finest Crazy Persons") along the way. All this would make a fine archive release on its own but it is just a taster for "The Big One".

The Halloween show itself has everything the early show does, but adds more then-unreleased songs, including a ten-minute-plus version of "Watermelon In Easter Hay" which Zappa would consider one of his three signature pieces*, a long jam with guest violinist L. Shankar on "Thirteen", and a nearly 20-minute version of "Packard Goose" with L. Shankar adding more electric violin. More oldies like "The Idiot Bastard Son", "Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance", "Strictly Genteel", and "Sofa No. 2" are in the set list along with more crowd chaos, more guitar solos, and just more of everything. The main show set ends at the three-hour mark with "Packard Goose". After that, Frank announces that they're going to skip the traditional exit and re-entrance and the band launches into the ten-song, fifty-minute encore. Before the last song, Frank then warns the crowd that this is absolutely the last song, before launching into an epic fifteen-minute version of another signature piece*, "Black Napkins" (intercut with "The Deathless Horsie").

The film Baby Snakes documented the 1977 Halloween show and that'll give you the sense of this one. Imagine that show and take everything up a notch (or two or three). Halloween 78 may very well be the best "complete show" live album in Frank's vast discography.

* Zappa's three "signature" pieces were "Watermelon In Easter Hay", "Black Napkins" and "Zoot Allures". The three were compiled on a posthumous release titled Frank Zappa Plays The Music Of Frank Zappa that included the official released version of each along with an earlier live version.

I don't play too many festivals, I don't play too much folk music, and I don't really go outdoors very much.

Warren Zevon certainly didn't know it at the time, but his appearance at the 2002 Edmonton Folk Festival would be his final live performance. It's a simple affair with Zevon on guitar, harmonica and piano along with Matt Cartsonis on guitar, dulcimer, fiddle, and vocals. Zevon and Cartsonis mix the various instruments to give a wide variety of styles. Zevon may not have played too much folk music, but he was clearly good at it. The album includes a few rarities: a performance of "My Dirty Life And Times" (which would become a highlight of his final album, The Wind), a cover of Joni Mitchell's "A Case Of You", and a "real folk song", "Canadee-i-o". Warren wasn't feeling well during the show, so the day after the show, Zevon went back to L.A., found a doctor, and eventually got the cancer diagnosis. Epilogue: Live At The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is a bittersweet reminder of what we lost when Zevon passed away.

Back in 1968, "Alice Cooper" was a band whose lead singer also used Alice Cooper as his stage name. Frank Zappa signed the band to his label and released their first three albums. The third one, 1971's Love It To Death, had "I'm Eighteen" and Alice Cooper's run of chart hits began. In 1975, lead singer Vincent Furnier legally changed his name to match his stage name and started his long solo career.

In 2021, the surviving members of the band guested on Alice's Detroit Stories album and reunion rumors began. The Revenge Of Alice Cooper is first Alice Cooper band album since Muscle Of Love in 1973. Lead guitarist Glen Buxton passed away in 1997, but Michael Bruce, Dennis Dunaway and Neal Smith, and long-time producer Bob Ezrin are all back on board. And in a nice touch, a bit of Buxton's lead guitar was used on "What Happened To You" to get him on the album as well.

If you had told me the album was recorded and shelved in 1974, I'd believe it. The band sounds great, Alice's voice has held up just fine, and the band's sound is intact. The songs are all written by the band and Ezrin, except for a faithful cover of The Yardbirds' "I Ain't Done Wrong", which suits their style surprisingly well. "Black Mamba" opens the album with a creepy intro from Alice, but the album hits its stride on the second song, "Wild Ones", which sounds like an old-school Alice Cooper rocker. The album even throws in a touch of the band's theatrical side, with "What A Syd" mixing in a Cab Calloway vibe. While the album doesn't have a classic like "I'm Eighteen", "School's Out", or "No More Mr. Nice Guy", it's a solid album that doesn't have any weak spots. If you liked the seventies Alice Cooper albums, check this out.

Wayward Path is an album of old-school power pop that mixes originals and covers like The McCoy's "Sorrow", Donovan's "Jennifer Juniper" and Buddy Holly's "Fool's Paradise". At its best, it's got a sixties The Who Sell Out feel (especially on the title track) that sounds amazing. The album overall is a little hit-and-miss, although there's enough good stuff on here to warrant a listen.

Officially a duo of teenage siblings Mathew (guitar & lead vocals) and Issey (bass & backing vocals) Cartlidge, The Molotovs are a mod punk/power-pop trio* whose sound owes a debt to The Jam's early singles. Heck, their storming cover of "Suffragette City" really sounds like a teenage Paul Weller covering Bowie. Normally, something sounding so derivative would be something I'd ignore, but the songs are just too good to skip. "More More More" is a stunner with a poppy, sing-along chorus, and "Today's Gonna Be Our Day" adds a little soul swing into the mix. "Rhythm Of Yourself" proved to be the third winner in a row with sparse verses and another anthemic chorus. The band's debut album is slated for late January 2026, and I'm looking forward to hearing it.

* No, I'm not sure why the drummer doesn't seem to be considered a band member.

Released as a benefit EP to support Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty after the Trump regime cut off funding, Radio Free Europe 2025 contains a new mix of the R.E.M. classic debut single by producer Jacknife Lee along with a 1981 dub mix by original producer Mitch Easter. These two mixes are joined by the original single versions of "Radio Free Europe" and "Sitting Still" (which are both different from the versions on Murmur) and "Wh. Tornado" which was recorded at the same time but unreleased until the band's rarities compilation Dead Letter Office (which also included the "Hib-Tone Version" of "Radio Free Europe").

The Jacknife Lee mix is much sparser, emphasizing Mike Mills bass work and either surfacing or adding a cowbell. It's quite a different feel, and while I don't think it improves on the original, it's a very interesting mix of the song. I'm not as enamored of Mitch Easter's dub mix, but dub mixes in general are not my thing, so I'm not a fair judge of that one. If you're only familiar with "Radio Free Europe" and "Sitting Still" from Murmur, you'll enjoy the original single recordings. They're a little faster and a little rougher, but classic. "Wh. Tornado" is a surprising little blast of surf rock, a genre they didn't revisit until the 2008 B-side "Airliner".

Radio Free Europe 2025 is a nice little EP for a good cause.

50 is a collection of 50 songs that celebrates 50 years of Rush (52 really, but who's counting?). The set isn't really a "greatest hits", it's more of a career overview spanning everything from their rare debut single to their final live performance. At least one song from every studio album is represented and at least one performance from every official live album is included as well. 28 of the 50 tracks are live, although the well-known songs like "Fly By Night", "Closer To The Heart", "The Spirit Of Radio", "Tom Sawyer" and "Subdivisions" are here in studio versions. As with most career-spanning compilations, there are some glaring omissions, but there's nothing here that doesn't deserve to be here. The songs are in chronological order, but because so much of the set is live, you'll have some songs feel way out of order. For instance, "Freewill" and "Jacob's Ladder" were both originally released on 1979's Permanent Waves, but they don't appear on 50 until CD 4 because performances from 2011 and 2015 are used. Yeah, it's a nitpick.

Ten rarities are included*, starting with their rare debut single "Not Fade Away" b/w "You Can't Fight It". Long derided by the band, both songs aren't classic Rush, but they're heck of a lot better than they're given credit for. Two rarities are from the Rock Band video game. The game used alternate versions of "Working Man" and "The Trees" in the game, and both are included here. They're not different arrangements, but you can hear the differences. There are five early live recordings, including an otherwise unreleased cover of Larry Williams' "Bad Boy" and the unreleased original "Garden Road". The final rarity is a heartbreaker. It's the medley of "What You're Doing", "Working Man" and a snippet of "Garden Road" that Rush played to close their final show. After the song ends, you hear Geddy Lee closing out the show and reacting with surprise when Neil Peart decided to buck his long-held tradition of running off the stage immediately after the show and instead joined Geddy and Alex Lifeson for the final bow.

The box comes in a couple of different formats. The super deluxe edition includes 4 CDs, 7 LPs and two large books (one exclusive to this edition). The main book is a set of essays and track credits with some cool images to correspond to quite a few songs on the set. The exclusive book is a graphic novel style documentation of a conversation between Geddy and Alex as they walk through each of their albums and reminisce about each. They don't go into tremendous detail, but it's a charming read, nonetheless.

If you're a casual fan, the single disc The Spirit Of Radio: Greatest Hits 1974-1987 has the big 70's and 80's tracks you've heard on the radio. The three Retrospective collections will let you get much, much deeper into their studio catalog. The single disc Working Men gives a nice live overview of the band as well. But if you want a mix of studio and live, and if the rarities sound intriguing, go for 50. And for the serious Rush fans: You'll love this set.

* Yeah, yeah, I know. Both sides of Rush's debut single have been on YouTube for ages, the "vault edition" of "Working Man" was an iTunes digital single, and "Bad Boy" and "Garden Road" are part of the early show broadcast on WMMS radio that's been frequently bootlegged. But it's cool to have official versions.

In 1998, Bruce Springsteen released Tracks, a 4 CD set with outtakes and B-sides from 1972 to 1998. Tracks II: The Lost Albums is a completely different type of box set. Tracks II contains seven complete, previously unreleased albums. Five of the albums were complete (or nearly complete) releases that Springsteen simply changed his mind about releasing. The other two were assembled for this set. The styles of the albums vary wildly from stark demos to folk, country, keyboard-and-drum-loop pop, Frank Sinatra style standards, some E Street Band-type rock, and even a mariachi band thrown in for good measure.

The box treats each album as its own, discrete release. They all have unique cover art and liner notes. Some have posters, some have inner sleeves around the CDs, etc. They all feel like they could have been (or still could be) released as standalone albums.

For me, four of the albums (LA Garage Sessions '83 [multi-tracked demos], Streets Of Philadelphia Sessions [keys and drum loops], Twilight Hours [standards], Perfect World [rock]) were the big standouts and make the set more than worth it. Faithless [folk soundtrack] and Inyo [folk and mariachi] are a little hit-and-miss, but they both have excellent songs included. Country isn't really my thing, so Somewhere North Of Nashville wasn't likely to be a favorite, but even that album's got a few songs that caught my ear.

With the albums being so diverse, I did a separate disc-by-disc review page for folks who want to get more specifics.

There's a nice little official 15-minute video that has Bruce and his archivist discussing each of the albums. It's linked below.

Following the breakup of Hüsker Dü, Bob Mould recorded two solo albums and then formed a new trio called Sugar in 1992. Sugar combined Hüsker Dü's intensity with power-pop hooks. They recorded two albums and an EP and broke up. 30 years after their breakup, there's suddenly a new Sugar song with a couple of concert dates announced. The song sounds like it could have been an outtake from Copper Blue or File Under: Easy Listening. It's that same ferocious and catchy sound. Hope this is a teaser for a full album.

The Third Mind's third album follows the template of the first two. Long, jammy, guitar-heavy covers of songs written by Elizabeth Cotton, Jesse Colin Young, Richard Farina, and Michael Bloomfield & Nick Gravenities, mixed with one Dave Alvin/Jesse Sykes original. As before, the twin guitars of Dave Alvin and David Immerglück steal the show. "Reno, Nevada" is the only song under five minutes long. It's Dave Alvin's first vocal appearance on a Third Mind album, and this duet with Sykes is the highlight of the album. "Reap What You Sow" may have the best guitar work on the album, but it's a high bar. I described the live album they released earlier in 2025 as a "heavier Grateful Dead", and that description works here as well. As with the other Third Mind albums, if you liked the first two, you'll like this as well.

The Waterboys' latest is easily the most eccentric album of their career. Life, Death And Dennis Hopper is a 25-song concept album about actor, director, photographer and painter Dennis Hopper. The album switches styles like nothing I've heard since The Clash's classic London Calling. You get folk ("Kansas"), lounge jazz ("Hollywood '55"), heavy rock ("Live In The Moment, Baby", "Ten Years Gone", "Frank (Let's F*ck)", "Aftermath"), an easy-listening instrumental ("Brooke / 1712 North Crescent Heights"), sixties pop ("Andy (A Guy Like You)"), a fake movie ad ("Freaks On Wheels"), monologues ("Memories Of Monterey", "Transcendental Peruvian Blues"), experimental collages ("Rock Bottom", "Venice, California"), and a some songs that sound like The Waterboys ("Hopper's On Top", "Michelle (Always Stay)", "I Don't Know How I Made It").

If the style changes weren't enough, Mike Scott has brought along guest vocalists as well. Steve Earle sings lead on "Kansas", Fiona Apple sings lead on "Letter From An Unknown Girlfriend", Dawes' Taylor Goldsmith sings backing vocals on "I Don't Know How We Made It", and Bruce Springsteen adds a spoken word section to "Ten Years Gone".

The album's concept is a clever idea, and the style switches give the feel of changing scenes and locations in a movie. My problem with the album is that quite a few of the different styles just don't suit the band very well. The songs that work are terrific. They just get lost in the mishmash of colliding styles.

In December, a sixteen-track companion album (Rips From The Cutting Room Floor) was released as well. The title is a perfect description of the album. Half of the sixteen songs run under two minutes and feel like they would have been linking material on the album. The shortest, "Dennis In Ameridreams", is an unused fake commercial. "Western Roll Call" is simply Mike Scott reciting the names of the various roles Hopper played in Westerns, set to a funky instrumental. Oddly enough, it kind of works. "The Next Time I Saw Elvis" appears in the album documentary A Wild And Beautiful Ride with Mike Scott on acoustic guitar and vocals. For the album version, Henry Dobson Jr. handles the lead vocals, and it's nowhere near as good. Several songs like the excellent "On The Set Of The Last Movie" and "Crystal Morning, New Mexico" are instrumentals. The only reprise from the main album is the closing cover of "Golf, They Say" with Famous James Halliwell on vocals. The original's better, but this is still pretty good. Overall, Rips From The Cutting Room Floor has same collision of styles as the main album. It's a bit hit-and-miss, so I'd skip it unless you either fall in love with the main album or you're a hardcore Waterboys fan.

In 2004, Paul Weller released his first covers album, Studio 150. That album had a few highlights but was disappointing overall. Now, Weller has released his second covers album, Find El Dorado, and it's a big improvement. On this album, Weller has gone with deep cuts to cover. The only song I'd heard the original on was the 1968 Bee Gees' song "I Started A Joke", and it's one of the big highlights. A cover of Brian Protheroe's "Pinball" fits Weller's style perfectly as does his cover of The Guerilla's "Lawdy Rolla". The album opens and closes with duets. Declan O'Rourke joins Weller for Richie Havens' "Handouts In The Rain" and Robert Plant adds his voice to a bluesy cover of Hamish Imlach's "Clive's Song". The two duets are quite different, but they both work extremely well. For me, the only misstep is the cover of Merle Haggard's "White Line Fever". The country feel and steel guitar just leaves me cold. But I'm not a country fan, so I suppose that's to be expected.

Given my disappointment with Studio 150, I wasn't expecting much for Find El Dorado. I was very pleasantly surprised.

If you're a fascist then get a Tesla / If it's electric, it doesn't matter / If you're a Democrat, then taste your freedom / Get whatever you want and taste your freedom - from "Lets Roll Again"

Neil Young's latest backing band, The Chrome Hearts, includes three members of his Promise Of The Real and long-time collaborator Spooner Oldham. The album opens with a clash of styles. "Family Life" is a celebration of his sons and his wife Darryl Hannah. It's sweet and gentle and in no way prepares you for the next song, "Dark Mirage", an angry, grungy dirge about what sure sounds like an estrangement from his daughter and her children. It's quite a shocking turn. Musically, the song is very cool, but the lyrics make it a very uncomfortable listen.

Most of the album focuses mainly on folky material like "Family Life". "Talkin To The Trees" and "Thankful" are the highlights of this part of the album. Style-wise, it's along the lines of Harvest Moon, but not quite as good. "Lets Roll Again" takes the melody of "This Land Is Your Land", cranks up the volume, and adds clunky lyrics about one of Young's passions: electric cars. Again, not Neil's best work, but it's fun.

So, why am I bothering to review an album I clearly feel pretty "meh" about? Because "big change" is Neil's best song in years. You'd be forgiven for thinking this is a lost Neil Young & Crazy Horse track. It's got a powerful riff, a short but effective Neil guitar solo and a chorus you just want to chant alone with. It's a must-hear.

Don't know why the band name and the title of "big change" are in lower case when the rest isn't. Not sure why "Talkin To The Trees", "Lets Roll Again" and "Movin Ahead" are missing their apostrophes. I'm assuming it's just giving the project a sloppier, looser feel.

Stumbled across this one via an ad on Facebook, and after a cursory listen on Spotify it became a must-purchase. The band is led by singer/songwriter Craig Douglas Miller and Marty Willson-Piper, former guitarist in The Church (remember "Under The Milky Way"?). The result is superb guitar rock with strong vocals and some excellent lead guitar from Willson-Piper. The album includes two covers, and they're both bold choices. The first is a cover of a nineties Rush classic, "Bravado". The band recorded it without drums as a tribute to the late Neil Peart, and it's excellent. The other is a slowed-down version of The Clash classic "Train In Vain". To be honest, it took me a listen or two to get it, but it's a very cool twist on the original. The originals are also excellent. The opener "Vanish" and "Amplify Me" are both shoulda-been hits. Great stuff. Well worth a listen.

Welcome To The Matinee Show (Of The End Of The World) mixes catchy songwriting with a high energy sound that falls somewhere in between classic rock, power pop, punk, and Britpop, with a definite nod to Paul Weller. The album has big hooks and big harmonies and just hooks you from the opening song. The title track, "Sugar Glass" and "Where I'd Rather Be" are the big standouts, but there's not a weak song on here. It would've made my top 10 for 2024 had I heard it in time.

Silver Patron Saints: The Songs Of Jesse Malin is a fund-raising tribute album for Jesse Malin, a New York songwriter who suffered a spinal stroke in 2023. I wasn't familiar with Malin's work, but I'm very impressed by the songs on this tribute. "She Doesn't Love Me Now" is a soulful song that's a perfect fit for Bruce Springsteen, "Death Star" sounds like an unreleased Hold Steady classic, but Low Cut Connie's "When You're Young" may be the best song on here. The handful of hardcore punk covers at the end of the album fit Jesse's early work but doesn't really fit with the mood of the rest of the album. Still, there's a ton here to like.

Arc Of The Sun continues Found The Setting Sun's blend of folky, moody and grungy rock to great effect. "Little Sparrow" is an urgent rocker with a blend of acoustic and electric guitar. "Touchdown" adds some explosive guitar in with nice harmonies. "All Those Lines" starts out nice and relaxed, then adds a dramatic louder section to the end of the song, and "My Faint Resolve" is a mellow, moody song that ends the album on a hypnotic note. Long Branch has a great sound. Check them out.

NOTE: This album was the last cut to get me down to ten. This section is not in order, but you can think of this one as #11 if you like.

Lucy Dacus' first solo album after boygenius' success with the record has a much gentler sound than her previous solo album, Home Video. The sound is dreamy alternative pop with fits beautifully with lyrics centering around Dacus' relationship with her girlfriend and boygenius bandmate Julien Baker. The standout is the lone rocker on the album, "Most Wanted Man" (which also gives Baker a guest vocal), also has the most obvious tribute to their relationship. "Ankles" cleverly jumps from very steamy, intimate lyrics into domestic sentiments about making tea and doing the morning crossword together. It's a very personal album, and a very sweet one.

After their last album, 2020's The Universal Want, Doves cancelled the supporting tour due to bassist/vocalist singer Jimi Goodwin's mental health. I'd assumed that spelled the end of the band. Surprisingly, Doves reunited for a new album with Jimi but are touring without him. Like The Universal Want, the band's sound is still moody, hypnotic indie rock. The biggest change this time around is the lead vocals. Andy and Jez Williams take more of the lead vocals this time around, making some of the album sound more like the Williams' brothers side project Black Rivers. Not bad, mind you, but Goodwin's voice really fits the band's sound better. The album leans more into the lush, mellower side of the band. You won't find rockers like "Pounding" or "Black And White Town" here, but no matter. The album is superb.

If you order from Doves' website, you can get a version with three extra songs, "Cally", "Lean Into The Wind" (the rockiest song on the set), and an alternate version of "Saint Teresa". For the music, it's totally worth it. The packaging is just a cardboard sleeve with a disc, so if you want nicer packaging with lyrics, you'll be disappointed.

Envy Of None's excellent debut felt like an electronic pop album with some guitar added in. For stij(ē)n wāvz, Envy Of None feels more like a band with a more unified sound. Alex Lifeson's guitar feels more central, and the result is a heavier, darker sound that builds on their debut. The heavy "The Story", the urgent "Thrill Of The Chase", and the dreamy "Clouds" are the standouts for me. As before, Maiah Wynne's stellar vocals steal the show. A superb follow-up.

The album title for this one is complicated. The cover art and the CD read "stij(ē)n wāvz", so that's what I've used. Discogs capitalized the title as "Stij(ē)n Wāvz", and I get that. The band's Bandcamp site shows it as "Stygian Waves", but the two streaming sites I've linked to show it as "Stygian Wavz".

Inhaler's third album keeps their indie guitar roots in place, but a little extra emphasis on keyboards gives the album a fuller sound. "Eddie In The Darkness" opens the album on what a more sedate note before the epic chorus cranks up the volume. "X-Ray" is the other big highlight on the album for me. A stark guitar hook leads to a catchy chorus that just pulls you in. Another solid album.

KALEO's fourth album, Mixed Emotions, picks up where the last one left off with the booming "Bloodline" showing off JJ Julius Son's powerful voice. "Rock N Roller" is powerhouse blues rock that reminds me a bit of Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl". "Run No More" mixes in a dramatic slow burn. The album ends on a deceptive mini epic in the band's native Icelandic. "Sofðu Unga Ástin Mín" ("Sleep My Young Love") is a gentle ballad on the surface with an explosive middle section and lyrics that are much darker than you'd expect. Superb.

The Manics' latest opens on a strident note with Nicky Wire reciting trite slogans over a martial beat before the chorus chants "what happened to your critical thinking?". It's a bold opener and sets the tone for a lot of the album. "Dear Stephen", inspired by a "get well soon" postcard from Smiths lead singer Morrissey that Wire received as a young fan, is a plea for him to come back - feeling he's been lost in the various controversial and inflammatory stances he's taken of late. "People Ruin Paintings" is a clever song about how the reputation or deeds of an artist can tarnish the art itself.

The last few Manics albums have featured guest singers. This time around, bassist Nicky Wire seems to be the guest vocalist. Apart from the opener, he also takes lead vocals on "Hiding In Plain Sight" and the closing "OneManMilitia". He can't match James Dean Bradfield's powerful voice, but Wire's vocals add a gritty feel to the album that works quite well. The Manics' recent run of excellent albums continues.

Mould's last album, 2020's Blue Hearts channeled the power and fury of Hüsker Dü into the most aggressive album of his solo career. The songs were good, but the wall-to-wall intensity made it a tough listen. Here We Go Crazy restores the balance of his other solo albums, and it's a big improvement. "Here We Go Crazy" and "Breathing Room" have shades of Mould's classic debut album, Workbook. "When Your Heart Is Broken" is a blast of Sugar's power-pop. "Lost Or Stolen" is just Mould on acoustic guitar and vocals, and it puts a nice little pause in the album. "Your Side" opens with a similarly gentle note but cranks up in the middle for a louder finish. The songs are top notch, and the variety of intensity really benefits the album. It shows off more of Mould's range and it's a terrific return to form.

Boo Boo Time is whatever you want it to be. The fun part of your day, whatever that may be. For us it's pretending we're performing on a musical variety show in 1971. We all get our kicks in different ways. - Bronco Boo, aka E

E (from Eels) and Kate Mattison (from 79.5) have teamed up as Bronco Boo and Katie Boo. With backing from several Eels, Boo Boos' debut Young Love will remind you of Eels' gentler outings with sweet lyrics, Mattison's clear voice, and a seventies soft rock vibe sprinkled in. "That's Not A Thing" opens the album with a playful back-and-forth, but "C'mon Baby" is really the perfect summary of the band's sound. It's a lovely duet just dripping with that seventies sound. Check out the video too: it'll give you the visuals to go with the sound. Young Love seems a little tongue-in-cheek at points, and very sincere at others, but it doesn't really matter. The songs are great, and their voices are a wonderful blend. Check it out.

After releasing a wonderful one-off single "The Answer Is Yes" in 2023, Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová have finally released a new album as The Swell Season, their first in 16 years. You'd never know there was a break. The songs have a similar tone to the songs in "Once". On the soundtrack, Markéta's songs were good, but Glen's songs stole the show. Now the balance has evened. The album opens with Hansard's dramatic "Factory Street Bells", which is one of the best things they've done together. However, Irglová's touching "People We Used To Be" starts out as a delicate ballad and explodes out into a big finish with lyrics about keeping a relationship going after a romance has ended. It's very personal and the emotional centerpiece of the album. "Stuck In Reverse" and "I Leave Everything To You" would slot in perfectly in "Once". However, the album's not just an extension of that style. Hansard's "Great Weight" couples Hansard's powerful voice with a song that nails a Tom Waits Swordfishtrombones-era vibe. It seems out of left field, but it works. Forward doesn't have an all-timer like "Falling Slowly" or "When Your Mind's Made Up", but Forward may be their best album overall.

Size beyond one megameter, ten to the power of six: Ganymede, Callisto, Wolf 359 - from "The Overview"

After a few albums with a stronger electronica bent and a return to his band Porcupine Tree, Steven Wilson has returned to classic prog for The Overview. The album is made up of a 23-minute suite ("Objects Outlive Us") and an 18-minute suite ("The Overview"). Each suite holds up nicely as a whole but also works as shorter pieces (the download and streaming versions include a separate "disc" that breaks the two suites down into 10 sections). The album's lyrics are based around the "overview effect", a reaction many astronauts get when first seeing the Earth from space.

"Objects Outlive Us" starts out at a more personal level. The highlight of the suite is the "Objects: Meanwhile" section with lyrics from XTC songwriter Andy Partridge. The lyrics contrast small moments in everyday lives mixed with gigantic but ignored events in the cosmos. The music changes styles wildly along the way, moving from gentle to poppy to very heavy and back again.

"The Overview" starts with a recitation by Wilson's wife Rotem reading a galactic size and then a few heavenly bodies at that size. Then proceeds to the next size up and more objects backed by an electronic pulse that gives the recitation the feel of a science fiction film. The piece then shifts into a lovely section sung from the point of view of someone facing the effects of time dilation ("Each moment for me is a lifetime for you"). The suite moves back into another recitation section, scaling all the way to a "yottameter", ten to the twenty-fourth power, and objects like the Virgo Super Cluster. The suite ends with a gentle instrumental section that ends the album with a gentle coda.

Don't let the lengths of the suites scare you away. The Overview is a wonderful album, and is worth hearing as recorded, at least on the first listen.

Since releasing their superb Ellipsis in 2016, Biffy Clyro's released a soundtrack album and two studio albums. All three are very good, and they all have highlights, but they all seemed a little lacking in comparison to their best work. Futique is a resounding return to form. Biffy's aggressive side is balanced out nicely by their pop side, giving songs like "A Little Love" and the heartbreaking "Goodbye" that blend anthemic sing-along quality with a satisfyingly heavy sound. The catchy, almost funky "Dearest Amygdala" has Simon Neil singing AM-ig-DAH-lah throughout the song with all three singing uh-MIG-duh-luh at the very end seeming to say "yeah, we know the correct pronunciation, but this worked better". Made me laugh when I first heard it. "Hunting Season", "True Believer", and "Friendshipping" crank up the volume to add a nice mix of power in with the poppier songs.

Futique is Biffy Clyro's best album in almost a decade.

At the wake someone took my arm, said that you could write a song to honour your mum / Said the band could write a song, a song about this / Well whoever the hell you are, I'm sorry, I guess this is it - from "Strange"

The Tubs' second album picks up where their debut left off with Owen Williams' deep voice and bleak lyrics offset by guest vocalist Lan McArdle's pretty harmonies (see also: Ex-Vöid) and the jangly guitars and catchy power-pop songs. The album opens with urgent acoustic guitar and those terrific harmonies. "Freak Mode" picks up the pace even faster. "Chain Reaction" is a blast of punk pop with an opening that reminds me of the Sex Pistols before the song settles in. The album's closer, "Strange", mixes in a sound reminiscent of The Smiths with somber lyrics and chiming guitars. Williams' mother, folk singer Charlotte Grieg took her own life in 2014 (that's her on the cover nursing Williams). However, "Strange" isn't so much about his mother, it's more about how everyone acted around him. It's a very meta take on this type of subject. The band's 2023 debut Dead Meat was impressive; Cotton Crown is just as good.

With production from The War On Drugs' Adam Granduciel, the album's sound will remind you of Granduciel's band's anthemic sound (which itself owes a debt to a certain band from E Street), but Fender's got a more impressive voice. "People Watching" opens the album with an urgent rocker that's a tribute to someone Fender felt was like a second mother. It's catchy and very touching. The album ends with a bookend piece, "Remember My Name", that's both beautiful and heartbreaking. "Rein Me In" is a bittersweet breakup song with barrelhouse piano and clever lyrics like "All my memories of you ring like tinnitus". "Arm's Length" is the other big highlight, modern pop with a catchy little guitar hook. Great stuff.

Led by lead singer Lan McArdle and guitarist Owen Williams (see also: The Tubs), Ex-Vöid's second album mixes lovely harmonies between McArdle and Williams along with incredibly catchy, melodic indie power-pop that occasionally cranks up the volume to near-punk levels in a blend that reminds me of early Teenage Fanclub. The opening track "Swansea" sets the stage with a blast of feedback and follows it with super-hooky guitar and those excellent vocals. "Strange Insinuation" mixes in some acoustic guitar and a killer stop-start chorus. The album ends with a curveball: "Outline" is a gentle acoustic song that leans hard into the band's superb harmonies, then winds up the album with a blazing coda. I'm a sucker for these types of albums, and this one was and irresistible "play-it-to-death" kind of albums. A must-hear.

Sad postscript: Ex-Vöid announced their breakup in October of 2025. I was really hoping to see them live.

So, the next time if you don't mind tuck in a couple twenties / We appreciate the love you send but we could use the money / Got your address from the upper lefthand corner of your letter / Wanted you to know we're doing better - from "Postcards"

For his latest solo album, Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn teamed up with Adam Granduciel from The War On Drugs. Granduciel co-wrote the songs, produced the album, and most of his bandmates appear as the backing band behind Craig. Finn's last album, A Legacy Of Rentals, was the first that matched his work in The Hold Steady. Always Been is even better.

On the early Hold Steady albums, Finn's lyrics had named characters who would appear in different songs. The songs would feel like scenes from a larger, as-yet untold, story. On Always Been, he's gone back to this narrative approach. "Bethany" is sung from the point of view of someone who calls himself The Reverend. The problem is that The Reverend doesn't truly believe, he just liked to be the person who got all the attention. The rest of the album are snapshots from The Reverend's life (along with people around him) following his rather bleak existence through failed relationships, alcohol abuse, and the overdose of a friend. The Reverend does eventually find his belief in the end, and the story ends on a hopeful note as quoted above.

In interviews, Finn has described the album as having an "L.A. sound" (think Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and Randy Newman). Heck, the cover photo is even shot on the same bridge that Newman used for the cover of Little Criminals. There's a laid-back feel to most of the album, but there's also a ton of The War On Drugs sound, and the combination blends extremely well with Finn's vocals. The album doesn't have the same bar-band swagger of Finn's day job, but songs like "Luke & Leanna" are close. "Fletcher's" is another one of Finn's monologue songs, with a long story being told over a moody backing. He's done several of these on his solo albums, and this one's pretty great as well. "Postcards" ends the album on an epic note with a two-and-a-half-minute instrumental coda from the band. Easily Finn's best solo album yet.

Digital copies of the album add a bonus track, "Shamrock". It's a lovely little folky number, but it feels a little out of place after the big finish of "Postcards". Not sure where I'd slot it in. It's certainly worthy of inclusion, but it seems like it'd fit better in the middle somewhere.

If you go to Finn's site, you can also order the companion book Lousy With Ghosts. It's a small paperback with eleven more stories with the same characters. In some cases, the stories in the book end up being stories from the lyrics, just told from the point of view of someone different. If you connect with the album, you'll love the book.