Tuesday , July 28 2026

Pop

Music Reviews: Anthologies from the Pale Fountains and the Kinks, plus the Feelies and Kissing Other Ppl

The Pale Fountains – The Complete Virgin Years

Perhaps the Pale Fountains will finally garner some notice following the appearance of a new four-CD box set devoted to Michael Head's critically acclaimed band, which formed in Liverpool in 1980 and split up in 1987.

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Music Reviews: Counting Crows’ ‘Butter Miracle, The Complete Sweets!’ plus Freedy Johnston and Mike Henderson

Counting Crows

Adam Duritz is still singing about loneliness, dislocation, alienation, and the pitfalls of stardom, but he remains an intense, attention-grabbing vocalist, and these nine tracks are up to the high standards that the group established early in its career.

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Music Reviews: A Live Buck Owens Compendium, plus Tami Neilson, Maria Muldaur, Jeffrey Foskett, and a Rockabilly Anthology

buck owens in concert

“Buck took the shuffle beat and he took the lyrics and the style of honky-tonk, and he added the spunk, the vitality of rock and roll to his sound.”

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Book & Music Reviews: A Biography of Joe Meek, England’s Counterpart to Phil Spector; plus Bobby Lee Trammell, the Rain Parade, and Brian Wilson

Joe Meek

As Darryl W. Bullock writes in 'Love and Fury: The Life, Death and Legacy of Joe Meek,' the producer was a “pioneer, genius, maniac, naif…all of those things…and more.”

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Music Reviews: An Anthology Collects Hits from 1960, plus San Francisco Salsa, and CDs from Lance Cowan and Antonio Andrade

20th Anniversary Billboard

1960 is not exactly considered a peak year for popular music, and there's no shortage of drivel in this collection, but there are also dozens of great songs from the likes of Roy Orbison, Sam Cooke, and Ray Charles.

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Music Reviews: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts, plus Bluegrass from Merle Travis, Mac Wiseman & Joe Maphis

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concerts

We can argue about the wisdom behind the decisions to induct—or not induct—various artists into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. What seems undebatable is whether its annual induction ceremonies have been musically memorable.

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