By now, people know what to expect from a Giles Martin–overseen, 50th-anniversary edition of a Beatles album: a thorough audio refurbishing of the record in question (based on the original master tapes and utilizing the latest studio technology) and lots of incomplete or alternate takes intended to allow outsiders (i.e., practically everyone) to feel like flies on the walls while John, Paul, George, and Ringo go about making the making of pop-music history sound easy.

Turn Off the News, Build a Garden

Lukas Nelson & Promise of the Real

The differences resulting from the “in the world” emphases of the “Social Gospel” and the “but not of the world” emphases of the other kind (the “Private Gospel”? the “Great-Commission Gospel”?) have long exacerbated frictions between liberal-leaning and conservative-leaning Christians.

Live From Newport Jazz

James Carter Organ Trio

During a Tonight Show monologue in the run up to the 2004 presidential election, Jay Leno told a joke based on one of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s saltier hot-mic gaffes. The punchline? “When asked for his opinion, former President Bill Clinton said, ‘I love it when girls talk dirty!’”  

Something similar is afoot regarding reactions to the new album by Lana Del Rey. 

Last Punk Standing … And Other Hits! 

Wild Billy Childish & CTMF

The ... and Other Hits! part of the title is a joke, of course. None of these 14 songs will ever rule the stream-o-sphere. They’re too raw, too unself-conscious, too alive. The sonics begin and end in mid-to-late-’60s proto-punk. The lyrics sound most whimsical when they’re not. And although you may not care who’ll be the last punk standing yourself, Childish is sure that “when no one’s left / to give you a whiff / of the stolen riff / of Mark E. Smith,” you will.

You’ve realized for some time now that most exorbitantly priced 50th-anniversary box sets embody more of a good thing than anyone but a zealot needs—and that few artists’ catalogs have been exploited to this end more than Elvis Presley’s.