Spins
Spins: Colin Hay • Going Somewhere – 20th Anniversary Reissue
Colin Hay Going Somewhere (Compass) The collapse of Men at Work was the end of stadium-level stardom for Colin Hay, but it left an open door. Hay stepped through that door and persevered through hard times to rebuild his brand as a respected guitarist, master storyteller, and unparalleled songsmith. True, Hay’s career as a New […]
Spins • Tom Petty: ‘Finding Wildflowers”
Tom Petty Finding Wildflowers (Warner Records) Wildflowers & All the Rest was 2020’s premier rock and roll reissue project, celebrating Tom Petty’s justly canonized 1994 solo gem Wildflowers with a range of revealing packages. A 7-LP Deluxe version did brisk business, but the 9-LP Super Deluxe collection took a leap in price that exceeded many fans’ […]
Spins • Rob Zombie: “Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy”
Rob Zombie Lunar Injection Kool-Aid Eclipse Conspiracy (Nuclear Blast) For the past three decades, Rob Zombie has been music’s master of macabre. He’s built his career on disco metal groove songs about witches, monsters, and sexy mamas. He excels in disco sleaze groove metal horror-inspired songs to shake your ass to. And that’s exactly […]
Spins: Paul McCartney • McCartney III
Paul McCartney III (Capitol) III is compelling and worthwhile, even if that’s more because of what the album represents as an artifact of its time and Paul McCartney’s artistic resilience than it is for the songs themselves. The album was built upon the back of its most fully-realized song, a lovely chestnut from the vault […]
Spins: Taylor Swift • evermore
Taylor Swift evermore (Taylor Swift) Despite the roller-coaster year that was 2020, it seems that nothing can stop Taylor Swift from doing what she does best. Swift dropped her surprising second no-skip album of the year in early December, somehow managing to display her own genius yet again. Continuing the contemporary alternative writing of her […]
Spins: U2 – “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” • Super Deluxe Vinyl Box Set
U2 All That You Can’t Leave Behind Super Deluxe vinyl box set (Island/Interscope/UMe) During the year 2000, U2 was a band on a mission. After the perceived disappointment of 1997’s experimental and techno-friendly Pop (an album that went “merely” platinum in the United States), the Irish quartet were determined to reclaim their signature sound–and with […]
Spins: Bobby Bare • Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus
Bobby Bare Bobby Bare Sings Shel Silverstein Plus (Bear Family) Country music superstar Bobby Bare’s career spans more than six staggering decades, with an extensive catalog peppered with hits from the heyday of American radio from the late ’50s to the mid-’80s. Bare’s 1958 #2 single “The All American Boy” (errantly credited to Bill Parsons) […]
Spins: Paul McCartney • McCartney 50th Anniversary Half Speed Master
Paul McCartney McCartney 50th Anniversary Half-Speed Master (UMe/MPL/Capitol) Paul McCartney’s debut solo album McCartney followed releases by all three of his Beatles bandmates and arrived a month before the band’s 1970 swan-song release Let it Be. This 50thanniversary reissue made its own debut with September’s Record Store Day Drop and now remains available in a […]
Spins: Credence Clearwater Revival • Cosmos Factory
Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmo’s Factory (Craft) In a brief career littered with highlights, most fans point to CCR’s fifth album as its best. Cosmo’s Factoryarrived in July 1970 with a feel-good country-folk single “Lookin’ Out My Back Door.” The LP produced six top-ten hits and spent nine weeks atop the Billboard albums chart, toppling chart rivals […]
Spins: The Rolling Stones • Steel Wheels Live: Atlantic City
The Rolling Stones Steel Wheels Live: Atlantic City, New Jersey (Eagle Vision) The Rolling Stones hit the road in 1989 like they had something to prove. It was the British juggernaut’s first North American run in eight years, and the band was keen to make a good showing for the solid work heard on their […]
Spins: Tom Petty • Wildflowers & All The Rest Deluxe Edition – Reviewed
Tom Petty Wildflowers & All the Rest Deluxe Edition (Warner Bros.) After seven gold and platinum-selling albums with the Heartbreakers, Tom Petty released his first solo album in 1989.Chart favorites including “Free Falling” and “I Won’t Back Down” helped the Jeff Lynne-produced Full Moon Fevereclipse even the success of 1979’s Damn the Torpedoes. When Into the […]
Spins: Depeche Mode • Live Spirits Soundtrack
Rock Hall of Fame inductees Depeche Mode remain a touring force 40 years into their career. No stranger to selling out massive stadiums around the world, the band embarked on their longest trek yet with the Global Spirit Tour. To commemorate the outing, the final date in Berlin was filmed for the 2019 documentary Spirits […]
Spins: Taylor Swift – Folklore
Taylor SwiftFolklore(Taylor Swift) Taylor Swift surprised fans with her eighth studio album in late July, and as expected – many fans and this writer think it’s her best. Swift heavily strays away from her history of pop radio hits with her first alternative album, collaborating with Jack Antonoff, who has worked closely with the singer […]
Spins: Michael McDermott • What in the World…
Michael McDermott What in the World… (Pauper Sky) Chicago’s Americana and folk-rock hero Michael McDermott’s 15th solo album finds his songwriting sharp and full of fire. The high-spirited title track of What in the World… is a thundering folk-rock anthem for the election year that unleashes a torrential flood of words a la Bob Dylan’s […]
Spins: Bob Dylan • Rough and Rowdy Ways
Bob Dylan Rough and Rowdy Ways (Columbia) In 2012, Bob Dylan released his 35th studio album Tempest. The collection was loaded with potent songs like “Pay in Blood,” “Scarlet Town,” and “Early Roman Kings” that served Dylan well during stops on his Never Ending Tour. The album earned stellar marks from musicologists, but despite a […]
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