Recommended Audiophile Albums & Hi-Fi Reviews

BBC Music Magazine
May 19

Evangelina Mascardi

Beyond Vivaldi

CD

Evangelina Mascardi pairs Vivaldi's familiar RV 93 with four rarities for Baroque lute and ensemble, two of them premiere recordings, on a disc where Arcana's engineering manages the delicate balance between the lute's intimate timbre and the fuller orchestral textures of Estrovagante under Riccardo Doni. Kohaut's E major Concerto, full of chromatic turns and yearning suspensions, emerges as the program's quiet revelation. — read more…

Mono & Stereo
May 19

Jazz at the Pawnshop

Late Night

Vinyl

Previously unreleased recordings from the final set of the famous Jazz at the Pawnshop sessions, discovered in a vault decades later and mastered by René Laflamme at 2XHD. This Deluxe edition arrives as a double 45 rpm pressing cut from the late-night, after-hours material where the ensemble played loose and unhurried. — read more…

Classics Today
May 19

Alexandra Pajak

Sounds of COVID-19

CD

Alexandra Pajak's Sounds of COVID-19 translates the virus's genetic code into a 44-minute suite for string quartet, clarinet, and piano, with each of the twelve proteins mapped to pitch sequences derived from DNA nucleotides. The engineering earns high marks, and the solo piano movement Protein 6, performed by Choo Choo Hu, stands out for its vibrantly rolling chords, though the string quartet writing often recalls the静 simplicity of 1970s British experimentalists like Howard Skempton and Harold Budd. — read more…

Classics Today
May 19

Gil Shaham

Dvořák and Coleridge-Taylor Violin Concertos

CD

Gil Shaham pairs Coleridge-Taylor's 1911 Violin Concerto with Dvořák's on a Canary Classics disc recorded at the Sandler Center in Virginia Beach, a reverberant hall that places the orchestra at some distance while occasionally oversizing Shaham's violin in louder passages. Eric Jacobsen and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra push unusually swift tempos in the Dvořák, lending the finale the character of a Slavonic dance. — read more…

HiFi PiG
May 18

Rafał Jackiewicz Quartet

Sea Poetry

The Rafał Jackiewicz Quartet's Sea Poetry was recorded entirely in analogue at Custom34 Studio in Gdańsk, with Piotr Łukaszewski engineering, and mixed and mastered without leaving the analogue domain. The quartet, led by Jackiewicz on alto sax alongside piano, double bass, and drums, favors open space and silence over density, with the all-tape signal path preserving a natural warmth and sense of room. — read more…

MOJO
May 18

Paul McCartney

The Boys Of Dungeon Lane

Paul McCartney's The Boys Of Dungeon Lane draws on pre-fame Liverpool memories and late-life romance across fourteen tracks, his voice showing age but working in service of songs that lean on the melodic instincts and guitar-riff sensibility that defined his Wings era. — read more…

Classics Today
May 17

Rikke Sandberg

Stolen Moments

CD

Rikke Sandberg's Stolen Moments pairs Brahms character pieces and Hungarian Dances with the left-hand-only Bach/Brahms Chaconne, recorded in clear, well-balanced sound on Danacord. The interpretations run idiosyncratic, with slow-motion Intermezzi and bombastic Hungarian Dances that diverge sharply from the Goode and Katchen benchmarks. — read more…

Classics Today
May 17

Dina Ugorskaja

Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor Op. 15; Three Intermezzi Op. 117

SACD

Dina Ugorskaja pairs Brahms' D minor concerto with the Op. 117 Intermezzi on this MDG SACD, recorded with the Brandenburger Symphoniker under Peter Gülke. The engineering places the piano squarely inside the orchestral image at a distance that softens instrumental detail, though the Intermezzi emerge as darkly brooding and linearly compelling in a way the concerto's outer movements, taken at unusually slow tempos, do not always sustain. — read more…

Classics Today
May 17

Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

Brahms: Symphony No. 3 / Dvořák: Symphony No. 8

SACD

Jakub Hrůša leads the Bamberg Symphony in a lyrical Brahms Third paired with Dvořák's Eighth, the former drawing out buried woodwind details in warm, well-balanced Tudor engineering that favors body over top-end air. The Dvořák loses momentum in its finale, though the first three movements are persuasive enough to make the letdown sting. — read more…

Classics Today
May 17

Daniel Barenboim / Staatskapelle Berlin

Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 1-4

CD

Barenboim's second pass at the Brahms symphonies, recorded live with the Staatskapelle Berlin for Deutsche Grammophon, trades the polished sheen of his earlier Chicago cycle for a craggier, more harmonically rich orchestral sound captured with exceptional spaciousness and detail. The Third Symphony opens promisingly and the First builds genuine momentum in its finale, but sluggish tempos elsewhere drain the scherzos and slow movements of their necessary drive. — read more…

MOJO
May 14

Kevin Morby

Little Wide Open

Kevin Morby's eighth album pairs him with Aaron Dessner, who produces lush, full-band arrangements while serving as multi-instrumentalist foil across 13 tracks. Justin Vernon and Lucinda Williams each contribute vocals, and the eight-minute title track stretches into Morby's most expansive writing to date. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
May 12

Orchestre National de France / Cristian Mǎcelaru

Barraine: Symphonies Nos 1 & 2, Song-Koï, Les Tziganes

CD

Cristian Mǎcelaru and the Orchestre National de France make a forceful case for Elsa Barraine's orchestral music on this Warner release, pairing two fierce, politically charged symphonies with the river-journey variations of Le Fleuve rouge and the colorful closing Les Tziganes. The Second Symphony, subtitled 'Voïna,' channels the angular conviction of a composer who joined the French Resistance three years after writing it. — read more…

Audiophilia
May 10

The Beach Boys

Pet Sounds

Vinyl

The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds returns in a Definitive Sound Series One-Step pressing, reviewed here primarily in mono, which Brian Wilson himself has long considered the definitive presentation. The reviewer traces how the Wrecking Crew's precision, Wilson's layered orchestration, and Tony Asher's introspective lyrics coalesce across tracks like Don't Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder), where a single vocal floats above quietly sustained organ and weightless strings. — read more…

Classics Today
May 10

Magdalena Kožená

Monteverdi

CD

Magdalena Kožená joins Andrea Marcon and La Cetra Barockorchester for a liberally interpreted Monteverdi program on Archiv, blending operatic excerpts with madrigals and brief instrumental pieces by Uccellini, Merula, and Marini. The recording is clear and forward in its presentation, though the dramatic license in pacing occasionally tips from expressive into overwrought, particularly in the drawn-out Lamento della ninfa and the final Poppea duet. — read more…

Analog Planet
May 9

Michael Jackson

Off the Wall

Vinyl

Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g pressing of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall arrives alongside companion editions of Thriller and Dangerous, all sourced from original master recordings. The review covers Off the Wall and Thriller as One-Step pressings, with Dangerous presented as a 2LP Original Master Recording edition. — read more…

Twittering Machines
May 8

Aldous Harding

Train on the Island

Download

Aldous Harding's fifth album on 4AD, Train on the Island, is a shape-shifting ten-track set that resists settling into any single persona or vocal character. A duet with H. Hawkline on Venus in the Zinnia is among the few moments where she shares the frame. — read more…

Positive Feedback
May 7

Ólafur Arnalds

Sunrise Session III

Download

Ólafur Arnalds recorded this four-track EP live at his Icelandic home on the 2024 winter solstice, pairing his closely miked piano with string quartet and layered vocals from Sandrayati and Salóme Katrín. The intimate capture favors texture over resonance, with breathy, self-overdubbed vocals and quiet dynamics throughout. — read more…

Analog Planet
May 7

Peter Frampton

Carry the Light

Vinyl

Peter Frampton's first album of all-new rock material in 16 years, Carry the Light was co-produced with his son Julian Frampton and veteran engineer Chuck Ainlay, arriving on 180g yellow vinyl via UMe. — read more…

MOJO
May 7

The Lemon Twigs

Look For Your Mind!

Brian and Michael D'Addario's fifth Lemon Twigs album brings their live four-piece into a tiny Brooklyn studio for the first time, threading Byrds-indebted jangle, Beach Boys vocal warmth, and Big Star garage energy through songs about work, love, and post-Trump idealism. The record draws on a decade of the brothers' evolving classicist pop craft, with references ranging from Herman's Hermits to Todd Rundgren. — read more…

pt.AUDIO
May 6

Brooklyn Rider

The Four Elements

Vinyl

Brooklyn Rider's 20th anniversary project The Four Elements arrives as a four-LP box set pairing commissioned contemporary works with pieces by Shostakovich and Dutilleux, performed by Colin Jacobsen, Johnny Gandelsman, Nickolas Cord, and Michael Nickolas. The pressings are reported as flat and nearly silent, housed in a sturdy box with a full-sized booklet. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
May 5

The Sixteen

Lead, Kindly Light

CD

The Sixteen under Harry Christophers pair Spanish Renaissance motets by Morales and the lesser-known Vivanco with contemporary commissions by MacMillan and Briggs, all shaped around the writings of Newman. The Coro recording keeps Vivanco's nine-part Caritas Pater est lucid and buoyant, each strand clearly etched. — read more…

MOJO
May 5

Aldous Harding

Train On The Island

Aldous Harding's fifth album for 4AD pairs her shape-shifting vocals with John Parish's production and a restless ensemble of pedal steel, modular electronics, and smoked-glass piano. The songs shift between prog-pop meltdowns and submerged Fleetwood Mac drift, with Mali Llywelyn's harp threading through one track like a hand-whittled Unfinished Sympathy. — read more…

Classics Today
May 3

Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg

Orchestral Works of Xenakis, Vol. 1

CD

The first volume in a projected complete survey of Xenakis's orchestral music, conducted by Arturo Tamayo with the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg. The recording leans noticeably toward the high end, particularly in Ais, where Spyros Sakkas pushes into his upper register against a ferocious orchestral backdrop. — read more…

Classics Today
May 3

Iannis Xenakis

Oresteia

CD

Xenakis drew on Greek drama and percussion-driven ritual to build Oresteia, a cantata that sits closer to Stravinsky and Varèse than most of his orchestral work. Spiros Sakkas and Sylvio Gualda anchor a well-recorded performance on Naïve-Montaigne, though the packaging omits the sung texts entirely. — read more…

ecoustics
May 2

Nektar

Down To Earth

CD

Esoteric Recordings collects Nektar's 1974 circus-themed prog album across a 4CD clamshell box with a fresh remaster, alternate mixes, live studio sessions, and an unreleased 1975 concert from Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. The remaster opens up noticeably compared to the 2013 expanded CD, with less compression and fuller low end, while the archival live tape holds up well for a 50-year-old source never intended for commercial release. — read more…

Positive Feedback
May 2

Jimmy Smith

Organ Grinder Swing

Vinyl

Jimmy Smith's trio date with Kenny Burrell and Grady Tate gets the Acoustic Sounds Series treatment on 180-gram vinyl, mastered by Matthew Lutthans from the original analog tapes. The reissue opens up a dead-silent noise floor beneath the swirling warmth of Smith's Hammond B-3, with Burrell's guitar cleanly placed in the right channel and Tate's drums anchoring the left. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
May 2

Jon Balke

Skrifum

Download

Jon Balke pairs solo piano improvisation with the Spektrafon, a custom real-time DSP instrument he co-developed, blending harmonic extensions and bell-like overtones into his playing on this ECM release. The 96kHz/24-bit download carries a fine noise floor and wide dynamic range, though a handful of tracks peak close enough to 0dB to nudge the limits of some converters. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
May 2

Gregory Groover Jr.

Old Knew

CD

Gregory Groover Jr. reunites with vibraphone star Joel Ross for his second Criss Cross session, produced again by Walter Smith III, with pianist Paul Cornish joining Harish Raghavan and Kendrick Scott. The studio sound is soft and warmly cushioned, framing virtuosic ensemble lines that move with deceptive ease. — read more…

Analog Planet
May 2

The Jimi Hendrix Experience

Axis: Bold As Love

Vinyl

Analogue Productions' 200g 2LP 45rpm UHQR edition of The Jimi Hendrix Experience's Axis: Bold As Love draws from Bernie Grundman's remastering of the original analog master tapes, pressed on hand-selected Clarity Vinyl at QRP in both stereo and mono configurations. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
May 1

Tchaikovsky

Symphony No.6, 'Pathétique'

Peter Quantrill surveys the vast recorded catalog of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No.6, 'Pathétique', weighing interpretive choices from Mravinsky's restrained DG recording to Jurowski's devastating 2019 Royal Festival Hall performance, with a detour through Norrington's period-inflected approach on Hänssler Classic. — read more…

Positive Feedback
May 1

The Butterfield Blues Band

East West

Vinyl

MoFi's mono LP of The Butterfield Blues Band's East West draws from the mix Paul Rothchild and Ron Malo considered the definitive version, recorded live in the main Chess Studios room in Chicago with no isolation booths, ribbon mics, custom tube preamps, and an Ampex 4-track at 15 ips. The 1966 album fused Chicago electric blues with jazz improvisation and Indian raga structures, with Mike Bloomfield's modal guitar explorations on the 13-minute title track predating similar experiments from the San Francisco psychedelic scene. — read more…

ecoustics
May 1

Jimmy Scott

Falling In Love Is Wonderful

Vinyl

Jimmy Scott's rare 1963 album for Ray Charles' Tangerine Records gets a 2026 vinyl reissue remastered by Paul Blakemore from 192 kHz/24-bit flat transfers of the original analog reels, with lacquers cut by Jeff Powell and pressed on orange vinyl at IRP. The lush, intimate production places Scott's singular voice in cocktail-hour orchestral arrangements that recall the easy listening elegance of Bennett and Sinatra, though the reviewer gives a slight edge to the 2024 VMP pressing for warmth and surface quiet. — read more…

Secrets of HT
Apr 30

Bill Evans Trio

On a Friday Evening

Vinyl

A previously unknown 1975 live recording of the Bill Evans Trio, captured at Oil Can Harry's in Vancouver by engineer Reice Hamel and lost for nearly half a century, surfaces on a Craft Recordings 2LP gatefold. Plangent Processes' tape-stability restoration and Paul Blackmore's low-compression mastering yield unusually stable piano pitch, articulate Eddie Gomez bass lines, and detailed cymbal work from Eliot Zigmund across nine tunes from this short-lived, transitional trio lineup. — read more…

Fidelity Magazine
Apr 29

Iron Butterfly

Metamorphosis

Iron Butterfly's post-Brann lineup brought in twin guitarists Mike Pinera and Larry Reinhardt, shifting the band toward earthy blues on Metamorphosis. The 14-minute suite Butterfly Bleu threads together a monster opening riff, soulful vocals, psychedelic organ, and an unusual talk box experiment before dissolving into a hypnotic organ outro. — read more…

ecoustics
Apr 29

Miles Davis

Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings

Craft Recordings assembles Miles Davis's 1956 Prestige sessions, spanning Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin', into a new box set with audio transferred from original analog tapes, restored by Plangent Processes, remastered by Paul Blakemore, and cut by Kevin Gray on 180-gram vinyl. — read more…

ecoustics
Apr 29

Allen Toussaint

Songbook

Vinyl

Allen Toussaint's Songbook, captured solo at the piano during intimate 2009 New York residency shows, arrives on vinyl for the first time via Craft Recordings with 20 previously unreleased performances. The expanded 2LP edition pairs the original Grammy-nominated program with additional live and interview material across hi-res digital and 2CD formats. — read more…

MOJO
Apr 29

Tori Amos

In Times Of Dragons

Tori Amos's 18th album is a concept record threading mythology, patron saints, and political parable through her Bösendorfer-anchored template, with her voice noticeably deepened and darkened by time. Tracks range from the pounding, claustrophobic Tempest to the brief, spartan Ode To Minnesota, with daughter Tash joining her on Stronger Together. — read more…

MOJO
Apr 29

Kneecap

Fenian

Vinyl

Kneecap's second album Fenian, produced by Dan Carey for Heavenly Recordings, trades the wild-night-out energy of their debut for something darker and more layered, with bilingual Irish/English raps riding Portishead-like percussion, jagged grime synths, and urgent techno pulses. The closer, Irish Goodbye, pairs Kae Tempest with a skittering groove and melancholic piano that marks the trio's most reflective moment yet. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
Apr 28

Ksenija Sidorova

Prophecy

CD

Ksenija Sidorova joins Paavo Järvi and the Estonian Festival Orchestra for three Baltic works that treat the accordion not as a novelty but as an organic voice within the orchestra. The centerpiece, Erkki-Sven Tüür's single-span concerto from 2007, weaves Sidorova's instrument so deeply into the ensemble that it surfaces almost without announcement. — read more…

MOJO
Apr 28

The Black Keys

Peaches!

The Black Keys return to raw, room-sound blues on Peaches!, a fast-and-loose covers collection tracked at Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound studio with the kind of unvarnished urgency that defined the duo's earliest work. — read more…

Classics Today
Apr 26

Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo

Rachmaninov: Complete Works for Piano Duo

CD

The Genova & Dimitrov Piano Duo surveys every Rachmaninov two-piano and four-hand composition on this CPO release, from the early tone poem The Rock to the Symphonic Dances. Careful balances and lithe phrasing distinguish much of the set, though the Suite No. 2 proves a weak link. — read more…

Classics Today
Apr 26

Robin Ticciati / Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin

Rachmaninov: Symphony No. 2

CD

Robin Ticciati leads the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in a patient, detail-rich account of Rachmaninov's Second Symphony on Linn, with spacious engineering that serves the conductor's emphasis on counterpoint and orchestral color over sheer momentum. — read more…

Classics Today
Apr 26

Boris Giltburg

Rachmaninov: Preludes (complete)

CD

Boris Giltburg's complete Rachmaninov Preludes on Naxos pairs obvious technical facility with a diffuse Wyastone Estate acoustic that softens edges. The Op. 32 set finds surer footing than a frequently unconvincing Op. 23. — read more…

Classics Today
Apr 26

Yevgeny Sudbin

Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3

SACD

Yevgeny Sudbin pairs Rachmaninov's Second and Third Concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo, captured in BIS's characteristically well-balanced SACD engineering. An elegant, lyrical reading that favors fluency and musical intelligence over raw power. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
Apr 21

Pascal Rogé, Lidy Blijdorp, Elena Font

Poulenc: Sonatas

CD

Pascal Rogé, Lidy Blijdorp, and Elena Font navigate Poulenc's volatile shifts between brittleness and tenderness across the Cello Sonata, Sonata for Two Pianos, and earlier four-hand works, recorded on Onyx with a keen ear for the composer's light and shadow. — read more…

Stereophile
Apr 21

Pink Floyd

Wish You Were Here 50

Vinyl

Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here 50 Super Deluxe box collects four LPs, two CDs, and a Blu-ray packed with the 2016 Guthrie remix, outtakes, the 1976 Quad mix, the original stereo, a new Atmos mix, and Steven Wilson's painstaking composite remaster of Mike Millard's legendary 1975 bootleg recorded on a Nakamichi 550 with AKG 451E condensers. — read more…

MOJO
Apr 21

Ringo Starr

Long Long Road

Vinyl

Ringo Starr reunites with T Bone Burnett for a second round of country-inflected songwriting on Long Long Road, joined by Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, and St. Vincent across ten tracks that sit comfortably alongside the warmth of its predecessor. — read more…

Dagogo
Apr 20

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Tarmo Peltokoski

The Ring – An Orchestral Adventure

CD

The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Tarmo Peltokoski delivers Henk de Vlieger's hour-long orchestral distillation of Wagner's Ring Cycle in a 2026 Deutsche Grammophon recording that foregrounds dynamic control, tonal opulence, and precisely captured spatial detail across the full ensemble. — read more…

Positive Feedback
Apr 20

Linda Ronstadt

Prisoner in Disguise

Vinyl

Mobile Fidelity's 45 RPM, 180g 2LP reissue of Linda Ronstadt's Prisoner in Disguise draws from a DSD256 transfer of the original analog master, with mastering by Krieg Wunderlich and pressing at Fidelity Record Pressing. The country-rock hybrid Ronstadt cut at the Sound Factory in 1975 with producer Peter Asher and engineer Val Garay gains noticeably wider dynamics and less congested strings in this edition. — read more…

MOJO
Apr 20

Foo Fighters

Your Favorite Toy

Foo Fighters' twelfth album, Your Favorite Toy, finds Dave Grohl steering back toward modular riffage and stacked harmonies while slipping in unexpected turns, from post-hardcore tension to Neil Young-indebted pensiveness. — read more…

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