The Who - Live At Leeds (Deluxe Edition)
I always considered Live at Leeds to be one of the great injustices in music. When
it was first released in 1970 it came out as a single LP with a paltry 6 tracks. Three
of those tracks were covers and not even Who originals. But the album simply smoked
everything else that had come out to that point and in my view the only other live LP
that even remotely compares is Humble Pie's
Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore.
I call the original Live at Leeds release an injustice because the entire show was
recorded and at the very least we could have been treated to a double LP. Alas, it
was not to be, and we would have to wait until the CD era to get an expanded version
of Live at Leeds, which bumped the tracklist to 14 tunes that included Heaven and Hell,
I Can't Explain, I'm a Boy, and Happy Jack, among others. That was all well and good,
but in 2001 a Deluxe Edition of Live At Leeds was issued on 2 CDs, with the second disc
including the entire live performance of Tommy. This is the definitive version of this
recording and no self-respecting Who fan should be without it.
The Bresnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
This husband and wife duo employ a blend of contrasting styles. On the one hand, their
vocal harmonizing vaguely recalls the Beach Boys. On the other hand, these floating vocal
harmonies are usually anchored by skrunchy sounding guitars. While it may seem an
odd mix of clashing styles it works exceptionally well. Highly recommended to indie pop
fans.
SAMPLESProcol Harum - Broken Barricades
This is the 40th Anniversary remaster from Salvo. I haven't bought them all yet but this
one and Grand Hotel both really sound great. The bad news is that the packaging is really
terrible. The CD comes in a tri-fold mini LP and there is no inner sleeve to protect the disc,
and I had a hard time extracting it without scratching it up or tearing the jacket. But
once is all I'll need since I ripped the CD to FLAC on the storage I use with my Transporter.
Despite the packing issue the Broken Barricades remaster is very much worth buying.
--Jerome
