Silver Lake, California. Hipster suburb of East LA, preferred haunt of artists and bohemians, and fertile ground for a burgeoning independent scene: gentle souls bringing folk, soft rock, chamber pop and psychedelia together to create meticulously crafted yet beautifully balmy music that captures the ache of the human condition in universally relatable terms. But just what decade are we in? Because the mid-2020s in this happening ’hood are sounding a lot like the early 1970s.
As Sylvie, musician and producer Ben Schwab collapses the years which separate Jackson Browne, Beck, Elliott Smith and onetime bandmate Sam Burton, living up to the easy listening cosmic country vibe of the Matthews Southern Comfort song from which he took his outfit’s name.
Category: soft rock
‘It’s Me’ is a delicious slice of Seventies AM radio – a sunlit melody with a tad of wistfulness – that opens the 21st album of serial Ivor Novello winner, Gilbert O’Sullivan.
Andy Wright returns as producer, extending a partnership that yielded Driven (2022) and Songbook (2024).
Recorded at London’s Eastcote Studios with O’Sullivan’s trusted ensemble, the album’s 13 songs were captured in just five days, each introduced at the piano and worked into shape over a few rehearsals before the tape rolled. Lead single ‘Growing Old Disgracefully’ is stellar orchestral pop, which landed wonderfully during Gilbert’s stellar recent 3Arena performance.
The O’Sullivan songbook boasts many…
In celebration of his 80th birthday, Sun Records and Jimmy Webb deliver a collection of previously unrecorded songs and demos that were hiding in his piano bench for decades, Yours for the Taking: The Found Songs of Jimmy Webb. Some of these songs were intended for specific artists who passed on them; others remained in the songwriter’s personal archive. Fred Mollin, his longtime producer, safeguarded many of these compositions and worked with Webb to revisit the original material and develop new recordings. There are 11 newly produced performances and a pair of original demos of songs that appear here. The tracks were cut in Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles. Webb’s piano-based compositions provided the foundation for new performances…
Hootie & the Blowfish mark the 30th anniversary of their multi-platinum sophomore album, Fairweather Johnson, with a digital deluxe edition via Rhino/Atlantic Records. The release includes the band’s MTV Unplugged concert.
Released in 1996, multi-platinum Fairweather Johnson was Hootie & the Blowfish’s second studio album. The album, which followed Cracked Rear View, the best-selling debut album in U.S. history and one of the top 10 best-selling albums of all time, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and featured fan favorites including “Old Man & Me,” “Tucker’s Town” and “Sad Caper.”
The digital deluxe edition expands the album with rare archival material. A centerpiece of the release is the band’s April 19, 1996…
It appears that much of Three Dog Night’s catalogue has quietly moved to Primary Wave Music; now comes a new physical release on CD and vinyl of the band’s fifth album, 1971’s Harmony. It features two top ten hits: Paul Williams’ “An Old Fashioned Love Song” and Hoyt Axton’s “Never Been to Spain.” Harmony has been remastered for this release.
The release of Harmony in the fall of 1971 gave Three Dog Night their seventh gold record in less than three years, yielding two Top Ten singles with Paul William’s “Old Fashioned Love Song” (number four) and Hoyt Axton’s “Never Been to Spain” (number five). In addition, William’s “Family of Man” would just fail to crack the top of the charts, rising as high as number 12 by March of 1972.
In recent years, Gerry Beckley, co-founder of the group America, known for his Top 40 hit compositions “I Need You,” “Sister Golden Hair,” and “Daisy Jane,” has stopped touring with the group in order to focus his time on family and friends on two continents, and on his solo career.
…Produced by Beckley with frequent collaborator and lyricist Jeff Larson, his new solo album Merciful finds the America co-founder looking at where he’s been and where he is now, with ‘All the Wounded Cowboys’ serving as the album’s focus track. Recorded largely in Beckley’s home studios in Sydney, Australia and Venice, California, the 13-song collection brings together new songs, material rediscovered in his archives and a few unexpected turns. Beckley plays virtually all…
…Recorded between 1988 and 1989 in a small 8-track home studio in Amman, Jordan, Pieces of a Dream captures a side of the Arab music scene rarely documented: a group of musicians deeply inspired by jazz, soul, yacht rock and city pop, creating music that sounds closer to late-night LA or London than what most would associate with Jordan at the time.
Nechazz was formed by Palestinian-Jordanian musician Basim Said & Khaldoon Nasser and Iraqi singer and guitarist Kassim Sabounchi. While the trio became locally known for their live shows at the iconic Amman club Rumours, the music they wrote and recorded together was never officially released and remained unheard even among friends and family of the band.
As unlikely as it sounds, Carly Simon’s first paid gig was singing jingles for her uncle’s company: one of the pre-eminent singer-songwriters of a generation not short on pre-eminent singer-songwriters cutting her teeth on adverts for cold cream, household mops and local banks. Fast forward a few years and she’s winning her first Grammy for Best New Artist with a debut single, “That’s The Way I’ve Always Heard It Should Be”, which dared to question the preferred currency of popular music: love and romance. Jac Holzman, initially her sole cheerleader at Elektra Records, was vindicated: Simon staked her place in the slipstream, but not the shadow, of Carole King and Joni Mitchell, her seductive alto honey-dripping lyrical scepticism, wit, rapture and realism…
Donald Fagen’s Kamakiriad would be notable if only for the fact the album marks a full-on reunion of the two principal Steely Dan staples more than a decade after they splintered. For all the creative sparks and thrilling musicianship that result from the long-awaited regrouping of Fagen and Walter Becker, the 1993 record remains significant for many other reasons — from the hopeful narrative to the sharp playing, adventurous arrangements, and crisp production. More than 30 years later, those facets coalesce like never before on this reference-quality reissue.
Sourced from the original masters, mastered by engineer Rob LoVerde, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD presents the Grammy-nominated Kamakiriad with expansive…
The third batch of 50th anniversary releases arrives in June, with Brother Where You Bound and Free As A Bird. In keeping with the previous releases in the series, both are 180g pressings and have been half-speed mastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.
During the tour for 1982’s Famous Last Words co-frontman Roger Hodgson decided to quit the band, leaving Rick Davies as the band’s sole songwriter. The following album, 1985’s Brother Where You Bound, was the group’s proggiest album in over a decade – see the pulsing ‘Better Days’ and the 16-minute title track, which features cameos from guitarists David Gilmour and Scott Gorham. Two years later, Free As A Bird marked another change of direction, with a shift towards…
Warner’s 1988 Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits compilation, which was released at the time to capitalise on the success of Tango in the Night, is being reissued as a deluxe edition.
…In addition to the plethora of smash hits like “Rhiannon,” “Go Your Own Way,” “Dreams,” “Don’t Stop,” “Tusk,” “Gypsy,” “Little Lies” and “Everywhere” – as well as the then-new tracks “As Long As You Follow” and “No Questions Asked” – the set now includes a bonus disc of 10 songs from the same era/line-up; three were on certain CD pressings of the original set, and the rest include “Landslide,” “The Chain” and the sole chronological outlier, the live version of “Silver Springs” from 1997 live album The Dance.
In just over a decade between 1975 and 1987,…
Ramshackle Swedish folk, medieval jam sessions, home-spun hymns recorded straight to tape, and albums named after revolutionary communist bands: The world of Gustaf Dicksson’s musical project Blod may seem unbearably esoteric. But a little context helps; Dicksson is a spiritual descendant of Swedish Progg movement of the 1960s and ’70s — not to be confused with prog rock, it was a left-wing, anti-commercial music movement that encompassed a wide range of styles, from psych-rock bands to nationally beloved singer-songwriters. Blod is indebted to the mossier, more experimental ends of the movement, including bands like Träd, Gräs & Stenar. This is the anti-capitalist, DIY heritage which Discreet Music — the record store and label…
Sunflower is the debut album of German/British artist Paul Holland. It features a number of very enjoyable characteristics, from West Coast soft rock to out-and-out folk, via some quite interesting world music. Above all, it has a very relaxed and personal feel to it, making it the perfect sound for relaxing in the sunshine.
It opens with a rocky number, ‘Clouds of Haze’, which jogs along very nicely indeed, with a live feel about it. The track explores the on/off nature of some relationships and certainly encourages the listener to explore the rest of the album, which tends to mellow out as it goes along.
It’s followed by a slower, jazzier track, ‘Feels Right’, which undoubtedly highlights his ability as an astute, talented songwriter.
Featuring 67 tracks, the release brings together early demos, songwriting diaries, rough mixes and vocal rehearsals from the album’s recording sessions, offering a complete behind-the-scenes look at Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons’ creative process during the album’s recording sessions.
Pyramid (Sessions) is an extraordinary, deep-dive sonic excavation into one of progressive rock’s most atmospheric concept albums. While the original 1978 release was a pristine masterpiece of production, the Sessions material strips away the final gloss to reveal the raw, brilliant architectural bones of the music. It features fascinating studio outtakes, early rough mixes, instrumental backing tracks, and Eric Woolfson’s intimate songwriting diaries recorded on solo piano.
After finding fame with the Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, expatriate Englishman turned West Coast rock icon Graham Nash made an auspicious solo debut on this 1971 disc. It’s an exemplary singer-songwriter effort, striking a vital balance between graceful introspection and political fervor — and while it’s deeply personal, it still carries the harmonies, heart and politics that made CSN(Y) so essential.
With assistance from the likes of David Crosby, Jerry Garcia, and Dave Mason, highlights include the sensitive internal explorations “I Used to Be a King” and “Man in the Mirror” and the impassioned protest anthems “Chicago” and “Military Madness.” If Déjà Vu was a wild canyon party with four competing egos, Songs for Beginners…
Looking back on her career in the early 90s, Stevie Nicks described the first track of Rock a Little as “the most exciting song that I had ever heard.” This coming from a superstar who was already closely affiliated with several bajillion-selling Fleetwood Mac albums – to say nothing of her own benchmark solo debut. Her remarks attest to the enthusiasm and effort she invested in her third record, a 1985 work that quickly furthered Nicks’ profile and cemented itself as a piece of 80s pop lore.
Mastered at MoFi’s California studio, strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, and housed in mini-LP-style gatefold packaging, Mobile Fidelity’s hybrid SACD presents Rock a Little in audiophile sound for its 40th anniversary. Helmed by a cadre of producers and engineers, and recorded…
The Eagles’ 1975 studio album, One of These Nights, was a milestone album for the band, earning them their first GRAMMY® Award and becoming the first of four consecutive #1 albums. One Of These Nights (Deluxe Edition) featuring a new mix of the original album, an unreleased, 16-song 1975 concert at Anaheim Stadium.
Produced by Don Henley, the CD and vinyl editions include a new mix of the album by Rob Jacobs. Originally produced by Bill Szymczyk and recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami and the Record Plant in Los Angeles, One Of These Nights achieved quadruple Platinum certification and the single “Lyin’ Eyes” won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
The unreleased live recording captures…
Stevie Nicks had much to prove when she stepped out on her own for the first time and crafted Bella Donna. Despite attaining superstar success with Fleetwood Mac, the singer often took a back seat to the band’s other members — and, due to the group’s approach, faced limitations in getting her songs on an album. Along with Nicks’ status as a significant artistic force in her own right, that all changed with the timeless Bella Donna.
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered-edition hybrid SACD of the 1981 benchmark plays with superb transparency, dynamics, and detail. Benefitting from extraordinary clarity, openness, and separation, it captures what went down in the studio with tremendous realism…