format:    16-bit CD/Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD performance:    8 sound:    9 released:    2005 label:    New West Records reviewer:    K L Poore There’s a strain of melancholy that settles over Richard Thompson’s music like a shadow, and he knows it. As he says in the liner notes for Live from Austin TX, “I am communicating with a certain number of people, and if my music is too dark, or in your face, for some … I’m glad.” That may seem like an odd statement coming from someone who makes his living by communicating with as many people as he can reach, but then again most people don’t have the kind of playing, writing and singing skills that will allow them to be selective about their audience. On one of my listens to the LFAT CD, my other half (actually three-quarters, if you consider that she carries most of our household’s ...

format:    16-bit CD performance:    8 sound:    8 released:    2007 label:    Universal reviewer:    Charles & Diane Michelle Andrews Here’s what the Puppini Sisters aren’t: Sisters. Italian. (Well, one of them was born in Bologna, but they’re all really British.) Old hands at this old-style vocalizing. (Ages 18, 22, 22.) Andrews Sisters clones. (Well … that’s the blatant vocal and physical reference and their reason for calling themselves sisters, with nods also to the sisters Boswell, McGuire, Lennon and Roche, but on this debut release only two of the 14 numbers are associated with that hugely popular harmony trio of the ‘30s-‘60s – the Andrews Sisters sold possibly 100 million records, and had 46 in the Top 10, more than Elvis or the Beatles – while the remaining dozen tunes flow from other ‘30s-‘50s influences like the Boswells, the Ink Spots, the Chordettes, Glenn Miller, Irving Berlin, Johnny Mercer and Italian crooner ...

format:    16-bit CD performance:    7.5 sound:    8 released:    2007 label:    Hear Music/MPL reviewer:    Stephen K. Peeples When The Beatles' LOVE collection was released in 2006, the college-age staff at a busy chain bookstore played the album on the in-store sound system nine times, back to back. I heard about this from my son, a store manager in his early 20s who grew up to share his dad’s fondness for the Fabs, their songs, and their studio innovations. Most of my son’s young staff were Beatles fans too, especially the ones working in the music department. When Sir Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full album was released June 5, 2007, my son told me later, the bookstore staff played it only twice. They thought it sucked so badly the first time, they played the 13-song CD again just to be sure. After the second play, they unanimously ordered it ...

format:    16-bit CDs (3), mono performance:    9 sound:    7 released:    2007 label:    Mosaic Select reviewer:    Scott Yanow Johnny Mercer was one of this country’s greatest lyricists. During his productive career he wrote the words to hundreds of songs, many of which became standards, including: “Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive,” “And the Angels Sing,” “Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home,” “Autumn Leaves,” “Blues In the Night,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “Fools Rush In,” “Hooray for Hollywood,” “I Remember You,” “I’m an Old Cowhand,” “In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening,” “Jeepers Creepers,” “Laura,” “Midnight Sun,” “Moon River,” “My Shining Hour,” “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe,” “One for My Baby,” “Satin Doll,” “Skylark,” “Tangerine,” “That Old Black Magic,” “This Time the Dream’s On Me” and “Too Marvelous for Words.” But there was more to Mercer than his poetic ...

format:    16-bit CD performance:    7 sound:    6 released:    2007 label:    Columbia/Legacy reviewer:    Scott Yanow Back in 1979, a super group, a true jazz power trio, was gathered together for a special if brief set in Havana that was part of a legendary all-star jazz concert. The group also recorded a few numbers five days later in the studios, and then dispersed. A total of only 40 minutes of music was documented. The Trio of Doom (an irreverent name given to the group by Jaco Pastorius) consisted of three giants of American music. John McLaughlin, when he rose to prominence in the late 1960s, was the first completely original new voice on the jazz guitar since Charlie Christian nearly three decades before. His ability to play with the sound and power of rock while constructing sophisticated jazz improvisations made him a very influential force. McLaughlin played with drummer ...