Vinyl Release

Steve Sutherland | Apr 30, 2025 | First Published: Apr 01, 2025

There’s pop and rock brilliance to be found in this 1970 album from the New York four-piece – even if it tore them apart. Steve Sutherland hears the 180g reissue

Vinyl Release

John Cale Fear

Steve Sutherland | Apr 17, 2025 | First Published: Mar 01, 2025

The Velvet Underground founder’s fourth solo LP is the perfect distillation of his genre-crossing genius, says Steve Sutherland, as he faces up to the 180g reissue

Vinyl Release

Julian Cope Saint Julian

Steve Sutherland | Mar 12, 2025 | First Published: Jan 01, 2025

The marriage of Island Records and the prolific songsmith got off to a flying start with this fresh-faced pop/rock classic. Steve Sutherland kicks back with the 180g LP

Vinyl Release

The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night

Steve Sutherland | Mar 09, 2025 | First Published: Feb 01, 2025

The Fab Four reached a new level of musical ambition – and fame – when their third album topped the charts. Sixty years on, Steve Sutherland hears the 180g reissue

Vinyl Release

Vinyl Release Sade Diamond Life

Steve Sutherland | Mar 03, 2025 | First Published: Dec 01, 2024

This genre-straddling, smash-hit debut LP from the British band laid down a template for others to follow. Smooth operator Steve Sutherland hears the 180g reissue

About a year ago the writer, editor and founder of Rolling Stone magazine Jann Wenner was unceremoniously booted off the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Foundation board of directors. His misdemeanour? In an interview with the New York Times about his new book The Masters, featuring conversations he’d conducted with artists such as John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, etc, he claimed that he’d decided not to include any women or black artists because, ‘none of them were articulate enough on this intellectual level’.

Vinyl Release

Jackson Browne For Everyman

Steve Sutherland | Oct 31, 2024

Jackson Browne For Everyman Featuring David Crosby, Glenn Frey, Joni Mitchell and more, Browne's second LP is a flagwaver for the 1970s Cali dream. Steve Sutherland hears the 180g reissue

Lana knows what I'm on about. In the song 'Brooklyn Baby' from her brilliant 2014 LP Ultraviolence, Ms Del Rey complains, 'They think I don't understand the freedom land of the '70s'. She was born, you see, in 1985 and Lana - known to her mum and dad as Elizabeth Grant - is deemed by those who should know better to be too young to appreciate the '70s aesthetic.

Vinyl Release

Linda Perhacs Parallelograms

Steve Sutherland | Oct 25, 2024

This 1970 folk-psych album disappeared without trace for three decades. Steve Sutherland sings its praises and salutes its rediscovery as he hears the latest 180g reissue

Awhile back, I entered a vintage store on the outskirts of Indio, California, and happened to spy a vinyl copy of Parallelograms by Linda Perhacs. I lifted it gently down from the shelf. It was a first pressing. On Kapp. Gold-dust! And home it came with me.

Vinyl Release

The Rolling Stones Satanic Majesties

Steve Sutherland | Sep 11, 2024

Often seen as an attempt to ape The Beatles’ mystical magic, this 1967 oddity, now reissued on 180g, is The Stones at their most ragged, says Steve Sutherland

Following on from last month’s Vinyl Release about brilliant records that nobody else likes but you, I bet I’m not the only one who has an album that, although you’ve played it on and off down the years, even the decades, you can’t decide whether it’s any good or not. On one occasion it may sound great. Significant even, a landmark piece. Other times it just sounds... well, rubbish.

Vinyl Release

Jellyfish Spilt Milk

Steve Sutherland | Aug 31, 2024

The San Francisco power pop band chased perfection on their second album – and broke up a little over a year later. Steve Sutherland checks out the 180g reissue

It’s a crime, that’s what it is! An absolute outrage! Chances are you feel the same way as I do about a favourite album that no one else in the world seems to give a fig for. I’m not talking about the one that reminds you of your first date or some other sentimental attachment. I’m referring to the LP that was released into an uncaring world and inexplicably ignored when, by every measure you employ to judge a record’s artistic worth, it should have been embraced, applauded, lauded and been top of the charts for weeks on end.

Vinyl Release

Kate Bush The Sensual World

Steve Sutherland | Jul 28, 2024

This 1989 classic, now remastered on 180g vinyl, riffed on computer technology and James Joyce’s Ulysses on its way to No 2 in the charts. Steve Sutherland listens in.

It’s October 1989 and we’re chatting with Kate Bush on the occasion of the release of her sixth LP, The Sensual World. This is an album that not only sounds utterly sumptuous but, looking back on it now, appears to predict the spiritual and social upheaval we’re entering today with the growth of artificial intelligence.

Vinyl Release

Black Grape: It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah

Steve Sutherland | May 07, 2024

Ex-Happy Mondays stars Shaun Ryder and Bez returned to the top of the UK charts with this rockin', rollin' and rappin' LP. Steve Sutherland applauds its return on 180g

Pinch yourself. You're not dreaming, although it might get a bit Alice In Wonderland a little later on. We are dining al fresco on a terrace overlooking vineyards near Nice in the South of France. At the head of the table is our host, Michael Hutchence, who we have popped over from London to interview.

Vinyl Release

Fatboy Slim: You've Come A Long Way, Baby

Steve Sutherland | Apr 05, 2024

Blending genres and fusing samples, this 1998 album – now remastered on 180g – cemented Norman Cook's status as the king of Big Beat, says Steve Sutherland

It may well have something to do with the wretched state of the world right now but have you noticed how the 1990s are back in vogue? Celebrated by those who lived through it as a halcyon decade on a par with the legendary 1960s, the '90s are being glowingly reassessed as a time of growth and hope when world politics had not gone totally crazy, we weren't all existing on the breadline, the arts were actually appreciated as something inspirational and worthwhile, and anything seemed within the range of possibility for just about everyone.

Vinyl Release

Frank Zappa: Over-Nite Sensation

Steve Sutherland | Mar 15, 2024

Rock tempos and mind-melting guitar solos rub shoulders with down-and-dirty lyrics on a 50-year-old album now remastered on 180g vinyl, says Steve Sutherland

There are a number of reasons why musicians take umbrage with their work being hosted on streaming platforms. Some bridle against the scant renumeration forthcoming. Others have taken a moral stance, unwilling to be considered bedfellows with artists or podcasters who they deem to be politically undesirable. And then there are those who consider the very nature of streaming itself to be artistically damaging.

Vinyl Release

Joni Mitchell: Ladies Of The Canyon

Steve Sutherland | Feb 06, 2024

Now reissued on 180g vinyl, Joni Mitchell's third album found the singer-songwriter perfecting her confessional – and highly influential – style, says Steve Sutherland

It's complicated. There's a song on Blue, Joni Mitchell's fourth LP, which is not the album we're here to celebrate. The track's called 'A Case Of You' and compares the giddiness of getting drunk with being in love. But that's not the type of case I have in mind. The case I'm thinking about is the one associated with a courtroom when the prosecution and defence argue over someone's guilt. In other words, the case of Joni Mitchell.

Vinyl Release

Sly And The Family Stone: Anthology

Steve Sutherland | Jan 03, 2024

This album showcases the rule-breaking, genre-busting band in their prime, says Steve Sutherland, as he soaks up the sounds of its 20 songs, reissued on 180g vinyl

My friends and I, we were suit-and-tie guys...' This is Darryl L Lewis speaking. Don't worry, it's unlikely you'll have heard of Darryl. He's one of the people that musician and record producer Questlove invited into the edit suite when assembling the footage for Summer Of Soul, the film he created in 2021 documenting the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which took place on six Sundays between June the 29th and August the 24th at Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) in Harlem, NYC.

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