"easy voice recorder" - The Second Disc (2025)

This year's Beatles catalogue title will showcase the albums that introduced American audiences to the sound of the Fab Four.1964 U.S. Albums in Mono will include new vinyl remasters of six albums distributed by Capitol Records within the first year of the British band's arrival in New York City. Uniquely drawn from the first four Beatles albums in the U.K. and other single and EP material, these albums will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl and housed in faithful reproductions of their original

"Sorry - only one group like this to a generation," renowned engineer-producer Phil Ramone wrote on the back cover of The Free Design's 1968 sophomore album You Could Be Born Again. After over 50 years, The Free Design are still a singular group, difficult to pigeonhole. Their gentle, even childlike style has frequently landed them in the sunshine pop genre, but that match was never quite right: not only were they from New York, but their sound lacked the brightness and even brashness that

Over six years at Warner Bros. Records, James Taylor laid the groundwork for a career that is now in its sixth decade. The Massachusetts native's records were key exponents of the early Laurel Canyon sound, not to mention the entire confessional "singer-songwriter" movement that today is synonymous with the 1970s. The six albums he released at Warner Bros. were collected over the summer in one essential CD or vinyl LP box set, The Warner Bros. Albums 1970-1976, that's perfect for the impending

I. Playing for Keeps"You don't have to face the music...you don't have to face the crowd...Just go back where you came from," sings a world-weary Elvis Presley on "It's Easy for You," the closing track of his 1977 album Moody Blue. "If you ever tire of the good life, call me in a year or two...I've got no choice, I'll forgive you, 'cause it's easy for you." Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical recrimination not only dated back to the superstar artist's final studio session - at home

On August 31, 1939, Frank Sinatra stepped into a New York recording studio as vocalist of Harry James' orchestra for a two-song session. The second song recorded, Arthur Altman and Jack Lawrence's "All or Nothing at All," captured a philosophy that the 23-year old "boy singer" would hold closely. "All or nothing at all/Half a love never appealed to me," he asserted. "If it's love there is no in-between..." Indeed, Frank Sinatra's life was one of triumphant highs and shattering lows - no

“Black people don’t do new wave. She’s supposed to be doing soul,” Ava Cherry recollected of radio’s reaction to her 1982 Capitol Records single “Love to Be Touched.” Yet not only did Cherry – the former model, stalwart background vocalist and onetime muse to David Bowie - do new wave, but she did it with fervor and flair. With production from Bob Esty (Donna Summer’s “Last Dance,” Barbra Streisand’s “The Main Event”), Cherry’s sophomore solo album Streetcar Named Desire, produced by Bob

Light in the Attic has a taste of Honey for you – Honey Ltd., that is.The latest release in the label’s Lee Hazlewood Archive Series, The Complete LHI Recordings brings together the complete LHI Records output (1968-1969) of the girl group produced by Hazlewood and Mike Post, and arranged by Ian Fairbairn-Smith and Jack Nitzsche. The 13-track anthology is available now.Laura Polkinghorne, Marsha Jo Temmer and sisters Joan and Alexandra Silwin first raised their voices in song at Detroit’s

Welcome to today's special review of David Bowie's twenty-fourth studio album and first in ten years, The Next Day. As you likely know, The Second Disc rarely reviews newly-recorded albums, but the return of this iconic artist to the recording studio simply couldn't be ignored.In 1980's "Ashes to Ashes," David Bowie famously revealed "Major Tom's a junkie, strung out in heavens high, hitting an all-time low." This continuation of the story begun in 1969's "Space Oddity" was as definitive a

Ring-a-ding ding! It can be used as an adjective or an interjection. But when Frank Sinatra chose the expression to title his very first album for his very own label, it was simply an ecstatic expression of pure joy. Sinatra was no longer tethered to Capitol Records, the label at which he'd made history with a series of "concept" albums. He had the freedomto make some new history, his way,when he launchedReprise.And Ring-a-Ding Ding!, now reissued and remastered for its 50th anniversary

Whether you thought he was the smartest of The Beatles, the best writer, the most politically astute, the one with the most interesting solo career - or if you disagree with any of those statements - I daresay I cannot allow you to disagree with this one: it is not fair that John Lennon is not still alive today.Regardless of your take on his input into the Fab Four (or their eventual demise), Lennon was very much an intelligent, caring, smart musician, who spent much of his career using those

In the penultimate installment of our weeklong series on the new Apple Records remasters, we listen to the label's three most soulful singers: Jackie Lomax, Doris Troy and Billy Preston, and along the way, encounter George Harrison, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and a number of their most famous friends!In yesterday’s installment, we looked at the less commercial side of Apple Records. Today, we turn the spotlight on four records that positively smoke, by three soulful troubadours.The funky

What has it been, two weeks since The Second Disc promised a continuation of our Back Tracks series regarding the Apple Records discography? Regardless of the gap, it's time to continue our look back. Part 1 covered all the previous reissues of the records that are to be reissued in October. Part 2 will cover all the Apple releases that involve The Beatles; by this, we mean anything that had a Beatle involved by name.* (For the sake of clarity, we're not including anything actually by The