Friday , March 29 2024

Michael Jones

Music Review: Fela Kuti – ‘Box Set 3’ (Curated by Brian Eno)

After countless listens, I feel as if I both know Fela Kuti more than I ever knew any other African artist before, and also how little I appreciated the struggles and injustices that take place across the world in other people’s hometowns or communities. It takes a strong light to shine down on some of the darkest days in the shadow. Thank god Fela Kuti burned as bright as he did for our awareness.

Read More »

Music Review: Holly Bowling – ‘Better Left Unsung’ (Solo Piano Tribute to the Grateful Dead)

On the surface, you might think that limiting the songs of a band that thrived on the interplay between various parts – most importantly the lead and rhythm guitars of Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir – wouldn't work, but you’d be mistaken. There is power and subtlety in these reinterpretations that I think Garcia would have admired, as his own personal tastes seemed to range to the more subdued and authentic soul of acoustic performances.

Read More »

Music Review: Frank Zappa – ‘ZAPPAtite: Frank Zappa’s Tastiest Tracks’

From the sonic exuberance of “Dancin’ Fool” and “Tell Me You Love Me” to the funky dissonance of “You Are What You Is” and “Joe’s Garage” to the bathroom-humor excellence of “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” and “Titties and Beer,” this album will give you just as much of a “taste” for Frank Zappa’s music as his son’s "Zappa Plays Zappa" did for me some eight years ago.

Read More »

Music Review: My Chemical Romance – ‘The Black Parade / Living With Ghosts’ [10th Anniversary Edition]

If you’re not a fan of the band but want to experience one of the more potent albums to come from the wave of bands labeled as “emo” during the last decade, then you should definitely consider this landmark release from My Chemical Romance.

Read More »

Music Review: Chicago – ‘Chicago Quadio Box (9-Disc Blu-ray Audio)’

For a less musically talented band, being able to reconceive the sounds within the songs physically and rhythmically could have turned this kind of release been a box set of cheap sonic “tricks” designed to fool the listener into thinking the extra money it costs to buy the “enhanced” version of an album was well worth it. For Chicago? It allowed them to see just what was possible with the sound.

Read More »

Music Review: Dio – ‘A Decade of Dio: 1983-1993’

For weeks I’ve been listening to the new 'A Decade of Dio: 1983-1993' box set from Rhino Entertainment and regretting time lost. As opposed to the usual “greatest hits” collection approach to a box set with interspersed unreleased alternate takes, 'Decade' is simply the first six albums from Ronnie James Dio’s solo career, remastered and repackaged with some amazing new artwork from longtime Dio cover artist, Marc Sasso.

Read More »

Music Review: Charlie Parker – ‘Unheard Bird: The Unissued Takes’

With material taken from the end of the 1940s all the way up through 1952, 'Unheard Bird' finds Charlie Parker fitting his sound into such variations as fronting a big band, leading a quintet, floating effortlessly above a Latin jazz orchestra and playing alongside such jazz luminaries as Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Buddy Rich, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Read More »

Music Review: The Chris Robinson Brotherhood – ‘Any Way You Love, We Know How You Feel’

'Any Way You Love, We Know How You Feel' is a dream of an album. Continuing much of the spacey jam-rock of the band’s previous three albums, it also breaks rank from those other releases and manages to forge along in a new and seemingly less restrained path.

Read More »