January 2026
The first time I heard of Steven Wilson was when I received a copy of Porcupine Tree’s seventh album, In Absentia, for review in 2003. Wilson was the group’s leader, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He also produced the band’s albums and has served in that role for other musicians as well.
December 2025
Riverside Records / Craft Recordings—CR00727
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
The great jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery enjoyed commercial success in the last few years of his life after he signed with Verve Records in 1964, and gained even more popularity when he moved to A&M Records in 1967, a year before he died. Creed Taylor was his producer in those years and often matched him with various orchestral ensembles, from big bands to strings.
December 2025
Last month, SoundStage! Xperience posted part one of my list of LPs that I think are worth hearing. The records on my list aren’t as popular as others that get heavy airplay or show up in articles in classic rock mags, and they didn’t necessarily sell many copies. But I like them and think they deserve more notice than they often receive. Here are my remaining recommendations, to round out my list to ten.
November 2025
Savoy Records / Craft Recordings—CR00867
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Saxophonist Hank Mobley recorded so extensively as a bandleader for Blue Note Records that it’s easy to think he defined the label, or that it defined him. Considering that he also appeared as a sideman on many other Blue Note recordings, those are fair assumptions. However, he did record for other labels, especially at the beginning of his career. Two albums appeared on Prestige Records in 1957, and two on Savoy Records: one in 1956, and one in 1957.
November 2025
In September, I wrote a piece about ten LPs that would make a good start toward building a record collection. Those albums are all well-known and highly regarded, and I chose them because they deserve to be in any good record collection.
October 2025
Most people, I imagine, have looked skyward and wondered about our solar system and beyond. For soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom, what’s out there has been a lifelong source of fascination and musical inspiration. The 70-year-old Boston native has not just been pondering the planets and stars; she has also been drawing inspiration from them to fuel her art. Bloom’s passion for the celestial has been recognized and rewarded: she took part in NASA’s art program and even had an asteroid named after her.
October 2025
The second week in June was a tough one for anyone who grew up in the late 1960s. Two great musicians and troubled souls, Brian Wilson and Sly Stone, died within days of each other at age 82. Both were Californians, although Sly was born in Texas. His family moved to the Bay Area soon after he was born. Brian was born in southern California and spent his life there.
September 2025
Blue Note Records BST 84223, 602455845917
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
A remarkable number of titles in the catalog of Blue Note Records were released well after their recording dates. In some cases, the delay was only a few years, but in others, the tapes sat in the vault for much longer. Saxophonist Jackie McLean recorded Jacknife in September 1965, but the album first appeared on vinyl in 1975. That release included a second LP of tunes recorded at another previously unreleased session from April 1966.
September 2025
My publisher here at the SoundStage! Network, Doug Schneider, has given me free rein for the nearly 24 years I’ve written for him. Brave man. A few weeks back he sent me an idea for a column: “Ten Great Albums to Start Your Record Collection With.” I responded, “By genre?” To be honest, I was hoping to get three columns out of the idea—one for rock, one for jazz, and one for soul/R&B.
August 2025
Jem Records—PSL-1044
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
I’ve reviewed a few Grip Weeds albums over the years, beginning with the 2007 release House of Vibes Revisited, a remixed and expanded version of the band’s 1994 debut album. It was the first time I’d heard them, and I’ve been a fan ever since. The Grip Weeds make melodic rock’n’roll in the tradition of the great bands of the 1960s, but they cast a wide net stylistically. They’re such strong songwriters and musicians that their albums carry on in the tradition of the bands that inspired them while standing firmly on their own.
August 2025
By the time Leonard Cohen recorded his debut album in 1967, he was already a well-established poet and novelist. His first poetry collection, Let Us Compare Mythologies, appeared in 1956, and would be followed over the next ten years by three more poetry books and two novels. He would run into the Beat poets during his travels in the 1950s and befriend some of them, but Cohen was never really a part of any literary movement.
July 2025
Drag City DC-915CD
Format: CD
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
Songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ty Segall has released one album per year since his eponymous debut in 2008. He’s also a member of the bands Fuzz, GØGGS, and the C.I.A., and has appeared on their records. Segall has a strong experimental streak and has explored numerous styles and approaches to recording. Love Rudiments is a percussion album, “Hello, Hi” is largely composed of acoustic-guitar tunes, and Freedom’s Goblin embraces all manner of rock genres and sounds.
July 2025
Last month’s print edition of The Atlantic included a noteworthy article by Spencer Kornhaber, a staff writer for the magazine. The piece, entitled “Is This the Worst-Ever Era of American Pop Culture?,” also appeared on the magazine’s website. Kornhaber’s article included conversations he’d had with several critics about the state of contemporary culture. He took a lengthy look at the visual arts and made a few quick references to film and television, but the bulk of the article was about pop music.
June 2025
Columbia Records—19802876231
Format: LP
Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment
When Pink Floyd performed at the ancient amphitheater in Pompeii in October 1971, they were getting ready to release their sixth album, Meddle, which would appear in shops a month later. The performance took place in front of a film crew, with no one else in attendance. Filmmaker Adrian Maben had several ideas for a movie that would feature Pink Floyd’s music, but a visit to Pompeii gave him the idea of filming the band there.
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