Recommended Audiophile Albums & Hi-Fi Reviews

Headphonesty
Jul 8

Steely Dan

Countdown to Ecstasy

Vinyl

Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy gets the UHQR treatment from Analogue Productions with Bernie Grundman mastering and Clarity Vinyl pressing, but waveform analysis by one reviewer found a used 1980 Canadian pressing leading by roughly 1.5 dB on crest factor, suggesting the older cut preserves more natural transient headroom. — read more…

Resident Advisor
Jul 8

Kelela

new avatar

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Kelela pivots from ambient R&B and live jazz into shoegaze-inflected territory on new avatar, layering tangled guitar overdrive and gated drums beneath vocals that shift between tenderness and sneering force. Collaborations with A. K. Paul, PinkPantheress, and Fousheé move from computer blues and UK garage clicks to glittering slow jams, with Cocteau Twins-scale reverb and consonants deployed like a guitar pick on a string. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
Jul 7

Iceland Symphony Orchestra / Eva Ollikainen

Pärt: Complete Symphonies

SACD

Eva Ollikainen and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra trace Arvo Pärt's creative arc across all four symphonies, from the serial rigors of the early canons through the Tchaikovsky quotation that cracks the Second Symphony open, to the Fourth's sustained, Cantus-like pulse. Recorded for Chandos in their CHSA hybrid SACD series, the performances draw out the quiet chant inflections of the Third and the political weight of the Los Angeles Symphony with careful orchestral balance. — read more…

The Absolute Sound
Jul 7

Dayna Stephens

Monk'D

Dayna Stephens switches from saxophone to gut-string double bass for Monk'D, a quartet session recorded in one afternoon at Rudy Van Gelder Studios on the piano Thelonious Monk once played. Ethan Iverson, Stephen Riley on a vintage Buescher 400 tenor, and drummer Eric McPherson work through lesser-known Monk compositions with cool, unhurried interplay and clear separation between instruments. — read more…

MOJO
Jul 7

Jack White

Frozen Charlotte

Jack White narrows his focus on Frozen Charlotte, channeling late-'60s and early-'70s heavy blues rock through a quartet lineup of White, Bobby Emmett on overdriven Hammond, Patrick Keeler on drums mixed in mono, and bassist Dominic Davis. The guitar tones range from fizzy fuzz to lacerating tremolo to harmonic distortion with a hint of mono synth oscillator, while the riffs rather than vocal hooks carry the album's weight. — read more…

Stereophile
Jul 6

Joe Jackson

Hope and Fury

Vinyl

Joe Jackson's Hope and Fury is described as biting and playful, with self-referential nods to his earlier work, including a glockenspiel intro on "Fabulous People" that echoes "Steppin' Out." The review also compares Intervention Records' 180gm and 150gm pressings of Night and Day, both mastered by Kevin Gray from original masters, with the 180gm edging ahead on details like bongo presence in "Breaking Us in Two." — read more…

ecoustics
Jul 6

Jeff Buckley

Grace

DSP

Steven Wilson's new surround mixes of Jeff Buckley's Grace arrive on Blu-ray with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby Atmos, and a 96/24 LPCM stereo version alongside a single bonus track. The 5.1 mix preserves the echo-bathed vocal treatment and stage atmosphere of Andy Wallace's original stereo, while the Atmos rendering pushes Matt Johnson's drum kit into the height channels at the cost of exposing Buckley's voice and softening some signature guitar riffs. — read more…

ecoustics
Jul 6

Joey Quiñones

Inna Soul Steady Situation

Vinyl

Joey Quiñones steps out from Thee Sinseers with a solo debut blending rocksteady reggae and vintage soul, produced, mixed, and largely performed by Quiñones himself in the band's converted-dentist-office studio. The creamsicle orange vinyl, mastered by Doug Krebs at Well Made Music, is well centered, quiet, and warm sounding. — read more…

ecoustics
Jul 5

Grateful Dead

Workingman's Dead

Vinyl

The Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead returns as a numbered, limited Rhino High Fidelity pressing cut by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Optimal in Germany. The sound hews close to a clean 1970 original, running slightly brighter but faithful to the album's country-rock character. — read more…

Classics Today
Jul 5

Herbert Blomstedt / Bamberg Symphony Orchestra

Mahler: Symphony No. 9

CD

Herbert Blomstedt leads the Bamberg Symphony through Mahler's Ninth with structural clarity and careful balance, yielding a finale of rare stillness and a second movement where the accelerating waltz statements land with uncommon precision. The two-disc Accentus set earns high marks for sonics, though the Rondo: Burleske lacks the vicious edge the music calls for. — read more…

The Absolute Sound
Jul 4

Bahamas

My Second Last Album

Bahamas recorded My Second Last Album as a two-person operation with co-producer Joshua Van Tassel in his home studio, following the Nashville-made Bootcut. The sonics are cleaner than the setup might suggest, with relaxed, easily deciphered vocals and carefully layered instrumentation that foregrounds his guitar playing. — read more…

ecoustics
Jul 4

Guided by Voices

Crawlspace of the Pantheon

Vinyl

Guided by Voices continue their prolific run with Crawlspace of the Pantheon, a self-released full studio effort that threads Mellotron strings, tight harmonies, and Doug Gillard guitar solos through compact songs recalling The Who and The Psychedelic Furs. The production strikes a balance between the band's lo-fi basement origins and the glossier sound of their late 1990s commercial peak. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jul 3

Grateful Dead

July 3, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium, San Francisco, CA

Vinyl

The Grateful Dead's July 3, 1966 Fillmore Auditorium set, originally recorded by Owsley "Bear" Stanley and buried inside the massive 80CD 30 Trips Around the Sun box, reaches vinyl for the first time as a limited-edition 3LP set on Rhino. The audio was restored by Plangent Processes, and the five-sided pressing captures a raw, unsigned band playing for Bill Graham's Independence Ball. — read more…

Twittering Machines
Jul 3

Lee "Scratch" Perry & Mouse on Mars

Spatial, No Problem.

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Lee "Scratch" Perry's final collaboration pairs his unmistakable voice with Mouse on Mars' electronic production, recorded over three days at Paraverse Studio in Berlin in 2019. Eight tracks blend dub, electronics, and Perry's larger-than-life persona into something that feels more celebration than elegy. — read more…

MOJO
Jul 2

Madonna

Confessions II

Vinyl

Madonna reunites with Stuart Price and Warner Brothers for a sequel to Confessions On A Dance Floor, threading post-disco builds and spoken-word passages through twelve tracks that draw equally on rave euphoria and late-career reflection. The Sabrina Carpenter duet Bring Your Love samples Inner City's Good Life, while Fragile channels the icy tone of her late-nineties work with William Orbit. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
Jun 30

Malin Byström

German Opera Scenes and Arias

CD

Malin Byström pairs burnished power with plangent lyricism across arias and scenes by Strauss, Beethoven, Weber, and Korngold, accompanied by Thomas Søndergård and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. The balance between soloist and orchestra is admirable throughout, with one notable exception in the final scene from Capriccio, where the orchestra threatens to overwhelm her. — read more…

Hi-Fi+
Jun 30

Bugge Wesseltoft

Am Are

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Bugge Wesseltoft's Am Are draws on a rotating cast of collaborators across ten tracks that range from spare, deeply felt solo piano to Rhodes-driven Zawinul-inflected funk and acoustic trio workouts with Arild Andersen and Gard Nilssen. The recording shifts tonal character from piece to piece, moving between spacious, reverb-rich mixes and drier, more abrasive textures that suit the album's undercurrent of protest and reflection. — read more…

Classics Today
Jun 29

Fazil Say

Oiseaux Tristes

CD

Fazil Say's second Warner Classics disc of French repertoire pairs Ravel's Miroirs with Debussy's Suite bergamasque and five Couperin pieces, earning high marks for both artistry and sound. Say's transparent voicing in the Ravel and his unabashedly pianistic approach to Couperin mark this as a distinctly personal take on well-traveled material. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jun 27

Smashing Pumpkins

Gish

Vinyl

Smashing Pumpkins' 1991 debut Gish returns as a 35th anniversary 180g LP reissue via Martha's Music/Virgin/Capitol/UMe, described as a clean, well-made pressing that does justice to the band's early collision of heavy guitars and dynamic range. A color variant on pink-and-purple splatter vinyl was also issued through indie shops. — read more…

Twittering Machines
Jun 26

Bill Orcutt & Mabe Fratti

Almost Waking

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Bill Orcutt and Mabe Fratti built Almost Waking across the distance between San Francisco and Mexico City, with Fratti layering cello and vocals over Orcutt's improvised guitar solos, aided by her Titanic collaborator Gibrán Andrade. The result is eight compact tracks where Fratti's melodic instincts temper Orcutt's aggressive, pentatonic-inflected playing into something unexpectedly cohesive. — read more…

Resident Advisor
Jun 26

Batu & Donato Dozzy

Exhale

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Batu and Donato Dozzy meet on Exhale for eight tracks of deep, hypnotic minimal techno that strips their respective signatures down to elemental shapes. The production runs from warm, blossoming synthesis on Emergence to barren, Robert Hood-adjacent minimalism on Swarm, with the title track threading sub bass hits and tightly coiled arpeggios beneath a syncopated groove that eventually breaks into a Bristol-inflected stepper. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
Jun 26

Billy Hart, Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner, Ben Street

Just

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Billy Hart leads a quartet with Ethan Iverson, Mark Turner, and Ben Street through a set of all-original compositions on this ECM release, recorded at Sound on Sound in New York and available in 96kHz/24-bit. The balance across all four players is notably even, with Hart's drumming mixed in service of the ensemble rather than spotlit. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
Jun 26

Quatuor Ébène / Belcea Quartet

Mendelssohn, Enescu: Octets

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Quatuor Ébène and the Belcea Quartet join forces for Mendelssohn's and Enescu's octets, recorded in the warm, wood-panelled acoustic of Schloss Elmau and available in 96kHz/24-bit resolution. The slightly recessed perspective captures the full force of eight players without losing inner detail, with the Mendelssohn's scherzo dancing with particular agility. — read more…

Hi-Fi News
Jun 26

Tedeschi Trucks Band

Future Soul

Vinyl

Tedeschi Trucks Band's Future Soul draws on Southern rock, New Orleans funk, and acoustic blues balladry across a 12-piece lineup featuring horns, backing singers, and the interplay of Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi's guitars. Hi-Fi News rates the sound quality at 90%. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 25

Miles Davis Quintet / John Coltrane

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet / Coltrane

Vinyl

Craft Recordings' Original Jazz Classics series marks the centennials of Miles Davis and John Coltrane with AAA vinyl reissues of two foundational Prestige dates, both cut from original tapes at Cohearent Audio and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at RTI. Cookin' captures Davis' First Great Quintet during the storied 1956 Van Gelder sessions, while Coltrane documents Trane's 1957 debut as a leader, with Red Garland and Mal Waldron splitting piano duties across two distinct halves. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jun 25

The Doobie Brothers

Stampede

Vinyl

Mobile Fidelity's numbered 180g 45rpm 2LP edition of The Doobie Brothers' Stampede follows their ongoing Original Master Recording series treatment of the band's Warner Bros. catalog. The signal path runs from the original 1/4" 15ips Dolby A analog master through DSD 256 to analog console to lathe, with pressing at Fidelity Record Pressing in Oxnard, California. — read more…

MOJO
Jun 25

Beth Orton

The Ground Above

Vinyl

Beth Orton follows Weather Alive with another self-produced record exploring ECM-inflected jazz folk, backed by Tom Skinner, Tom Herbert, Adrian Utley, and Paul Butler's horn and string arrangements. Her voice has aged into something vaporous and cracked, riding hypnotic downtempo grooves and laidback Motown-touched beats across eight unhurried tracks. — read more…

Audiophilia
Jun 22

Zubin Mehta / Los Angeles Philharmonic

Arcana / Intégrales / Ionisation

Vinyl

Decca's Pure Analogue series returns to the original quarter-inch master tapes for Mehta's 1971 Royce Hall recording of Varèse, mastered by Rainer Maillard at Emil Berliner Studios and cut by Sidney C. Meyer. The reviewer compares the new 180-gram Pallas pressing against the original Harry Fisher-mastered UK Decca, the 1973 Orphic Egg edition, and a Japanese Stereo Laboratory pressing that omits Intégrales and spreads Arcana across two sides. — read more…

Twittering Machines
Jun 22

Bob Dylan

World Gone Wrong

CD

Bob Dylan alone with acoustic guitar and harmonica in his home studio, covering classic American folk and blues songs with a rawness and ease that suggests years of living inside the material. The 1993 recording captures his voice and playing with striking immediacy, and the original LP never saw a US release, making the 2016 Music On Vinyl remaster one of the more accessible ways to hear it on wax. — read more…

Stereophile
Jun 22

Paul McCartney

The Boys of Dungeon Lane

Vinyl

Paul McCartney's 18th solo album finds him playing every instrument across 14 tracks of subdued, nostalgic pop, produced with Andrew Watt and gently compressed rather than flattened. The vocal duet with Ringo Starr on Home to Us stands as the most fully realized track, while some of Watt's mix choices, particularly forward drums and buzzy guitars, roughen the edges. — read more…

Classics Today
Jun 21

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Vasily Petrenko

Symphony No. 1; Cockaigne Overture

CD

Vasily Petrenko leads the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in Elgar's First Symphony and the Cockaigne Overture on Onyx, delivering clean ensemble work and a well-engineered recording rated 9 for sound, but the performances run light on the passionate intensity that defines Elgar at his best. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jun 20

Miles Davis

Miles 56: The Prestige Recordings

Vinyl

Craft Recordings continues its chronological Prestige box set series with Miles Davis' 1956 sessions, collecting the first great quintet recordings that became Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin' across four 180g LPs. The lineup of Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, and Philly Joe Jones needs no introduction, and the set positions itself as both an entry point and a sonic upgrade over previous pressings. — read more…

Stereophile
Jun 18

Avalon Emerson

Written into Changes

CD

Avalon Emerson channels her Berlin deejay instincts into a synth-pop songwriting framework on Written into Changes, produced by Bullion and Rostam Batmanglij. The arrangements layer soft, inviting synths against grittier textures, with an emotional undercurrent running beneath the bright surfaces. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 18

Eddie Kirkland

It's the Blues Man!

Vinyl

Eddie Kirkland's 1962 Bluesville session, engineered by Rudy Van Gelder with King Curtis's band, gets a proper AAA reissue from Craft Recordings on 180g vinyl pressed at Quality Record Pressings. The recording is lean, gritty, and compact rather than polished, with Kirkland's voice sitting naturally inside the room and the rhythm section carrying real weight on the new pressing. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 18

Marvin Gaye

Let's Get It On

Vinyl

Marvin Gaye's 1973 Let's Get It On receives a limited-edition AAA One Step pressing from the Definitive Sound Series, mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman from the original analog master tapes. The 180g edition, pressed on Neotech VR900-D2 vinyl at RTI, is limited to 3,000 numbered copies. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 18

Albert King

I'll Play the Blues for You

Vinyl

Albert King's 1972 Stax session with the Bar-Kays and Memphis Horns gets an AAA reissue on 180-gram vinyl from Craft's Bluesville series, mastered by Matthew Lutthans from the original analog tapes. The pressing is clean and quiet with a direct, bass-heavy presentation; King's voice sits inside the band rather than overpowering it, and the guitar has bite without turning hard or glassy. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 18

Tank and the Bangas

The Last Balloon

Vinyl

Tank and the Bangas close out their balloon trilogy with The Last Balloon, a genre-blurring New Orleans album that moves between hip hop, new wave power pop, soul grooves, and jazz fusion. The production values are noted as excellent, and the vinyl and a limited honeycomb LP pressing are both available alongside CD. — read more…

ecoustics
Jun 18

Don Williams

Epilogue: The Cellar Tapes

Vinyl

Twelve previously unheard Don Williams recordings, tracked between 1979 and 1984 and restored by Craft Recordings from original multi-track tapes found in the Williams family cellar. The vinyl pressing is quiet and well centered, with Williams' original vocals intact and rebuilt instrumental parts kept in proper proportion: steel guitar, bass, drums, strings, piano, organ, and acoustic textures surrounding that familiar baritone without crowding it. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jun 18

Bob Marley & The Wailers

Roots, Rock, Reggae: Live at the Hammersmith Odeon

Vinyl

Bob Marley & The Wailers' June 1976 four-night Hammersmith Odeon residency finally gets an official release as an 18-track double album, newly mixed from the original multitracks and pressed on 180g vinyl through Tuff Gong/Island/UMe. — read more…

Fidelity Magazine
Jun 17

Lang Lang

Piano Book 2

CD

Lang Lang's second Piano Book for Deutsche Grammophon assembles familiar miniatures by Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Liszt into a sequence designed as an accessible entry point to the repertoire. The performances favor lightness and emotional directness over interpretive depth, with Mendelssohn's Spring Song and Liszt's Consolation No. 2 kept notably understated. — read more…

MOJO
Jun 17

Graham Coxon

Castle Park

Vinyl

Graham Coxon's Castle Park collects songs shelved during the 2012 A&E sessions, blending spiky Merseybeat pop with vibraphone-laced melancholy and flamenco detours. The material ranges from callow romance to darker, more introspective corners, with tracks like Dripping Soul and Isn't It Funny pulling away from the jangle into something stranger. — read more…

BBC Music Magazine
Jun 16

Isidore String Quartet

Adorations

CD

The Isidore String Quartet pairs Haydn's Op. 20 No. 2 and Mendelssohn's Op. 44 No. 3 with Barber's Adagio in its original quartet form and Florence Price's organ piece Adoration arranged warmly for strings. One small balance issue aside, where the viola swamps the violin melody in the Haydn slow movement, the playing is finely judged throughout. — read more…

Mono & Stereo
Jun 16

Maria Wylma

Alles Gute

Vinyl

Maria Wylma's debut for the Swiss rundum.music label pairs German-language vocals and piano with a spare trio, recorded live without overdubs at Klanghaus Toggenburg. The all-analogue signal path ran through Schertler mixers to a two-track Nagra recorder, with no post-editing before the lacquer cut. — read more…

Twittering Machines
Jun 15

Movietone

The Blossom Filled Streets

Download

Movietone's third album, The Blossom Filled Streets, released in 2000 on Domino/Drag City, drifts through 40 minutes of genre-fluid, folk-rooted music where clarinet and viola drones open into shifting arrangements that never quite leave the shore. — read more…

Positive Feedback
Jun 15

Rare Earth

Get Ready

Vinyl

Rare Earth's debut for Motown built an entire album side around the 21-minute version of the title track, a Detroit quintet blending soul, blues, and psychedelic rock with Peter Rivera's vocals and one of the grittiest snare tones committed to vinyl. Robert Pincus compares garage-sale pressings against a 96K/24-bit transfer and finds the original LP a stubborn sonic puzzle, clean enough on a high-resolution file but never quite demo-quality. — read more…

MOJO
Jun 15

Cream

Wheels Of Fire

CD

Cream's 1968 double album gets a five-CD Super Deluxe remaster on Polydor, pairing fresh remasters of the studio and live discs with previously unissued Fillmore and Winterland performances from March 1968. The studio half showcases Felix Pappalardi's inventive production, including panned overdubs on Politician and his own viola and cello doubling, while the live material captures the trio at full stretch in Bill Graham's San Francisco venues. — read more…

Stereophile
Jun 14

Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar!

Vinyl

Intervention Records reconstructs Johnny Cash's debut LP, Sun Records' very first 12-inch release, from first-generation mono masters located in the Iron Mountain vaults. Kevin Gray cut 45rpm lacquers from freshly compiled two-track tapes, and the result centers Cash's slap-back-echo voice in a firmly planted mono image that sounds nothing like a 1957 budget pressing. — read more…

Analog Planet
Jun 13

Marvin Gaye

I Want You

Vinyl

Marvin Gaye's sultry 1976 song-cycle I Want You receives a 50th anniversary Vinylphyle 180g pressing from Tamla/UMe, paired with a companion 2LP set of alternate takes, remixes, and outtakes making their vinyl debut. — read more…

Fidelity Magazine
Jun 10

Trentemøller

The Last Resort

Trentemøller's 2006 debut on Poker Flat occupies a rare corridor between minimal techno, dark wave, and cinematic ambient, built on deliberately grainy vintage synthesizer textures and deep, patient bass spaces. The production retains a club-born roughness and analog materiality that sets it apart from polished electronic records of any era. — read more…

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