Often it's a cry for attention or money when a veteran jazz artist releases a Christmas album or one of Beatles covers. Brad Mehldau's latest, an album of the latter with Bowie's meloncholic "Life on Mars" serving as a sort of denouement (or encore, as this is a live album recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris), is neither of those. Mehldau, 52, has been covering rock music without apology almost from the beginning of his recording career. His... Read More

A videographer visited recently to produce this 4K room tour showing my current audio system, including some new products under review, and some records and accessories.There's a similar room tour video shot years ago that's gotten 848,000 views. That sounds encouraging and most comments are positive but I think some people viewed it for the same reason they watch plane crash videos. Some of the comments express a variety of emotions including outrage at the... Read More

Fast on the approach to 70, where do we find Robyn Hitchcock these days? For a start…lyrically opening his parlour door to “The Shuffle Man” – the spirit of disorder inhabits the kickoff track to his latest album. “He's sort of the cheeky face of Destiny really,” Hitchcock explained over the line from London. “Certainly in times like 2020.”Which is when the ethos of Shufflemania – his 22nd long player, partially came together. The turmoil of lockdown, as it turns... Read More

It has become customary for many film music old-schoolers like myself to lament the current propensity for the “Zimmerization” of movie scores: ie., the devolving of a film’s soundtrack into endless drum-circles and synthesized loops, harmonic stasis, motivic repetition, all of which have become the hallmarks of Hans Zimmer’s work of the last 20 years or so.Obviously this is a vast over-simplification, and not entirely fair to Zimmer himself, but his protégés and... Read More

This year's RSD offerings are many, varied and of great interest whatever your musical tastes. The lead image shows the Craft offerings that includes the first American mono reissue of "Chet" by Chet Baker, Jonathan Richman's country record "Jonathan Goes Country" from 1990, Travis's "The Invisible Band Live", and others. Here are some great ones. At the bottom is a link to the Record Store Day listing of all titles. From... Read More

Last November's Capital Audio Fest coverage appears here more than two months late. Very sorry about that. Fortunately, this kind of coverage doesn't date—at least not in two months—so please enjoy. Part 2 will soon post. The show was well supported by manufacturers, retailers and the usual dreamers and hobbyists as well as by a large group of used record dealers. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. What started out as a small, kind of intimate annual... Read More

Timerette is an automatic stylus timer that works even if you forget to start it, because when the platter starts to spin. Timerette starts counting.