Shalamar - Go for It: 8 (A-)

I have this on vinyl. I wish Right Stuff had done a nice reissue of this like they did with Three for Love.

Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Laughter: 8 (A-)

Kadef - Kadef: 8 (A-)

Very possibly an 8.5 (high A-), but limited edition vinyl only so I'm not going to make the distinction.

The Beautiful South: Carry On Up the Charts: The Best of the Beautiful South: 8 (A-)

Mighty Sparrow - Volume One: X (X)

De-shelved this at one point, but rescued it given that both Christgau and Hull give this a 10 (A+), ie, masterpiece. Who am I to go up against those guys?

Various - MTV's Amp: 8 (A-)

New York Dolls: All Dolled Up [video]: notation

I normally don't post about films, but this one is important. Definitely worth seeing, but not worth getting a copy in my view -- it's not exactly something you'd want to watch over and over. And while I haven't seen the extras, they don't seem enticing. They're just 12 more live video clips, either from the film, or from the same performances excerpted therein. I don’t know if there is a separate film called “Lipstick Killers” -- I think it is just the car film show in the feature.

Various - Township Jazz ‘n’ Jive: X (X)

De-shelved at some point. # [multi-artist comp; township jazz]

Various - Closer Than a Kiss: Crooner Classics: 7 (B+)

De-shelved at some point. Another one that shocked me when it placed so high in Christgau's 1990s book when it came out. And you had to buy it to hear it in those days. I remember the disappointment. #multiartistcomp

Graham Haynes - Transition: 7 (B+)

De-shelved at some point. #nujazz

Otis Redding/The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Historic Performances Recorded at the Monterey International Pop Festival: 7.5 (high B+)

Never reissued (in this format) on remastered CD. The Hendrix performance I obviously evaluate separately in its entirety as well. #live/multiartistcomp

Moe Tucker - Moejadkatebarry: 7.5 (high B+)

# [covers (4/5)]

Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose: 8 (A-)

Camper Van Beethoven: placeholder

Several releases of theirs I would like to one day play, but they do not seem available in any form to stream, so I will keep any eye out for them:

Camper Van Beethoven - Camper Van Beethoven Is Dead [misc. articles]

Camper Van Beethoven - New Roman Times

Camper Van Chadbourne - Psychadelidoowop [w/Eugene Chadbourne]

Earth, Wind & Fire - Powerlight: 8 (A-)

Upped from neutral and purchased on mint vinyl after more than four listens. Never reissued on remastered CD.

PinkPantheress - Fancy That [EP]: liked

9 tracks; 20:34; $14.98

Etta James - The Sweetest Peaches: The Chess Years, Part One (1960-1966): notation

Apparently, all but two tracks from this are on The Essential Etta James (taking this on faith from AllMusic). I did verify that all but one track from The Sweetest Peaches: The Chess Years, Part Two (1967-1975) are on The Essential Etta James. I was concerned about this because The New Rolling Stone Album Guide gives the latter 5 stars. I will review that separately at some point.

Bo Diddley - The Definitive Collection: X (X)

As with Howlin' Wolf, this appears to be identical to The Chess 50th Anniversary Collection release entitled His Best. (This does not appear to be the case with Etta James, however.) I don't grade things like this, but obviously, this would be 9 (A) or higher for most critics/people. I don't appreciate it at that level, probably because I'm an immature, unsophisticated dirtbag. So I weasel out by just not grading. I de-shelved his Chess Box in favor of this.

Various - The King's Record Collection, Volume 1: 7 (B+)

# [multi-artist comp; oldies]

Various - Can You Dig It? The ‘70s Soul Experience [Rhino, 2001]: 7 (B+)

6-CD set, for which Rhino has created an official playlist on Spotify. There are 12 songs missing from this playlist as of this writing. Eleven of these songs I found on Spotify and made into a supplemental playlist. The final missing song from this 136-track collection is “Cool Aid” by Paul Humphrey & His Cool Aid Chemists, which is findable on YouTube presently. I listened to all of this four times in its entirety, once a week for four weeks, which is a huge undertaking (over 30 hours of listening time in total). Docked a notch for bloat. They could have made this a quadruple, and it would have been an 8.5 (high A-) or even 9 (A). There are many genre sets that are four discs -- Tougher Than Tough and The Funk Box and The Front Line spring immediately to mind - and rate that highly. #multi-artistcomp

Loretta Lynn - Writes 'Em and Sings 'Em: 8.5 (high A-)

What a beauty.

Loretta Lynn - Country Music Hall of Fame Series: 9 (A)

Louis Armstrong: The Best of Louis Armstrong: The Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings: 10 (A+)

How could anyone resist this single-disc distillation of the legendary 4CD box set, selling for $8 with stellar remastering? A no-brainer. I'm going to go ahead and rate this, even though I am not anywhere near qualified to do so. At the very, very least, one should have this in the collection.

New York Dolls - Live at the Matrix, San Francisco, September 1973

I normally don't post about videos, particularly concert videos, even more so apparent bootleg concert videos. Anyway, this appears to be Bob Gruen's footage? Well worth watching, just to understand and appreciate the Dolls for what they were. The two studio albums don't really capture it. Thunders is particularly mesmerizing in this one. What a loss.

Chuck Berry - The Definitive Collection: X (X)

I will not presume to grade this, but of course I have it and like it. Also of course I realize it probably deserves a 10 (A+), but I can't give it that in good conscience, because it's not the kind of thing I put on over and over just to hear it. I probably don't even really enjoy it at the 9 (A) level. So I am ducking a grade, probably a cowardly move. I also had The Great Twenty-Eight for many years as my only Chuck Berry, but I de-shelved that in favor of this. First of all, Twenty-Eight was a first-generation CD transfer of what was essentially a vinyl-era comp. Second, every song on that is on this, except for "Bye Bye Johnny." I also had The Anthology (aka Gold), which I de-shelved, which means I played it through at least 4 times (probably much more). It's just too much Chuck Berry. Same with The Chess Box, which I have obviously given three listens. There's only so much classic-era Chuck Berry actually out there.