Thursday , July 16 2026

Blues

Music Reviews: Bob Dylan’s ‘Through the Open Window: Bootleg Series, Vol. 18,’ plus Dion, ‘The Rock ’n’ Roll Philosopher’

Bob Dylan Through the Open Window box set cover detail

Like the rest of the Bootleg anthologies, this one isn’t intended to be anything like a best-of collection. Instead, it aims to dig beneath the surface and hold a magnifying glass to Dylan’s creative process.

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Music Reviews: ‘Jac Holzman Presents Dylan’s Circle’ and Frank Zappa’s Expanded ‘One Size Fits All,’ plus Dallas Burrow, Rags Rosenberg, and the Far West

Dylan's Circle

There’s not a bad track on the album, which isn’t surprising given how consistently Holzman’s fabled label [Elektra] issued superlative music in its heyday.

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Music Reviews: ‘Joe Meek: A Curious Mind,’ plus a David Bowie Tribute, and Albums from Rory Block, Irving Flores, and Johnnie Johnson

joe-meek-curious-mind

Joe Meek offered his share of teen-oriented pop, but he also had a penchant for strange novelty songs, odd sound effects, and numbers that dealt with the occult, outer space, and life on other planets.

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Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’ plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson

Counting Crows

Adam Duritz is still singing about loneliness, dislocation, alienation, and the pitfalls of stardom, but he remains an intense, attention-grabbing vocalist, and these nine tracks are up to the high standards that the group established early in its career.

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Music & Film Reviews: Frank Zappa’s ‘Cheaper Than Cheep,’ plus Janis Ian, Christian Parker, Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed, and Big Love Car Wash

frank-zappa-cheaper-than-cheep-cover

The 23-song program mines some of Zappa’s most noteworthy material. He reaches all the way back to 'Freak Out,' the Mothers’ sterling 1966 debut...

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Music & Film Reviews: ‘Pink Floyd at Pompeii MCMLXXII’ (2025 Editions), plus Julee Cruise and Emma Wilson

Pink Floyd at Pompeii album cover detail

The visuals, which are as unusual as the music, contribute to the sense that you’ve entered some sort of LSD dreamworld.

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Music Reviews: Nighthawk, Smoking Popes, the Seldom Scene, Maria Manousaki, Grey DeLisle, and Johnny Rawls

Nighthawk--Street Dog

Nighthawk (Parker Hawkins) is clearly brimming over with musical ideas, most of them excellent. And somehow, his seemingly disparate material all fits comfortably on one CD.

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Music Reviews: Elliott Murphy’s ‘Infinity,’ plus the Move, R&B Hits from 1955, Iron City Houserockers, and Chatham Rabbits

Infinity-Elliott Murphy

It's Murphy's 52nd album, so it’s not surprising that ruminations on aging, mortality, and years gone by permeate this engaging CD.

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