REVIEWS

Artist: David Bowie Album: Legacy (2CD) Label: Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Over the last forty years, there have been a multitude of “Best of David Bowie” compilations to his new release racks. To date, this critic counts eleven good, sturdy ones, but the methodology for making them has always been the same: “ensure that the core of around ten classic tracks which appeared on ChangesOneBowie (the first Bowie hits comp) are present, then mix and match a list of singles which flow...

Artist: Metallica Album: Hardwired… To Self-Destruct Label: Blackened/ADA/Warner I must confess that it would be very, very easy to find a bigger fan of Metallica than I am. To be perfectly blunt, I haven’t heard a new album by the band that I’ve liked in twenty-five years – and even that was a reach because I thought the Black Album spent more time plodding than rocking. No, I’ve always been a bigger fan of the earlier, “thrash” side of Metallica...

Artist: Pink Floyd Album: Cre/ation – The Early Years 1967 – 1972 Label: Pink Floyd Records/Columbia/Sony Music As every fan of the band knows, there have been three eras in the history of Pink Floyd: the first, Syd Barrett-fronted psychedelic period, the second (epic) Roger Waters-fronted period (which gave us albums like Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall, Wish You Were Here and Animals) and the final David Gilmour-fronted incarnation which has produced albums like The Division Bell and...

Artist: Mike Watt Album: “Ring Spiel” Tour ’95 Label: Columbia/Legacy/Sony Music Ever walked into a record store and, digging through a vast and vastly disorganized bin of CDs, come across a genuine treasure of the sort that no one ever expects to find? That was the feeling which overtook me when I opened my copy of “Ring Spiel” Tour ’95. Now, I’m familiar with plenty of the back story behind that period of time in Mike Watt’s life; the bassist...

Artist: Lou Barlow Album: Apocalypse Fetish Label: Joyful Noise When Lou Barlow released his full-length solo album late last year, he ensnared the attention of even the longest-running and cynical of his fans. The reason for that was simple: when not playing sideman to J Mascis in Dinosaur Jr., Barlow had always shone brightest in the relative anonymity of putting a band name on his myriad projects (see Sebadoh, Sentridoh, Folk Implosion, et c.), even if there was no actual...

Artist: My Chemical Romance Album: The Black Parade + Living With Ghosts (10th Anniversary 2CD) Label: Reprise/Warner Upon first sight of the tenth anniversary edition of The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance, even the greatest and most fanatical of the band’s fans will find themselves asking, “What the fuck is this?” They’ll be asking not because anything is wrong exactly, just that they won’t be able to immediately recognize what they’re looking at; unlike the original release of The...

Artist: Various Artists Album: Lazarus – Original New York Cast (2CD) Label: Columbia/Sony Music There’s a certain salacious irony about the fact that the final recording to feature David Bowie’s music (including the last song the singer recorded before he died) is a soundtrack which is largely comprised of actors singing his music. In that, it could be said that the original cast recording of Lazarus renders the singer as a soulless commodity or presents the beginnings of presenting him...

Artist: Green Day Album: Revolution Radio Label: Reprise/Warner It will probably sound strange to the legions of fans that Green Day has won in the years since the release of American Idiot (let’s be honest – the band now has some supporters who are too young to remember when Kerplunk! was released), but the first words which will cross the minds of fans who were at least tall enough to get into the Gilman when Dookie blew up as they...

  Artist: Lou Reed Album: The RCA & Arista Album Collection (17CD box set) Label: RCA/Arista/Sony/Legacy Recordings The thing which really set Lou Reed apart from the other stars he was grouped with in the Seventies (including David Bowie, Iggy Pop and so on) is that he never once considered pandering to his audience – he always made them work for their enjoyment of his music. It could be said that making them work was the one consistent thread which...

Artist: Jack White Album: Acoustic Recordings 1998 – 2016 (2CD) (Third Face/Third Man/Columbia/Sony Music) Over the last twenty years (yes yes yes – it’s hard to believe that it’s been so long), Jack White has worn many hats. In that time, he’s been a punk and indie rock-identified pop star, a blues and folky troubadour, an opinionated artist of music and opinionated record label owner, and an innovative composer who has reinvigorated the blues almost single-handedly – causing young audiences...