LATEST ADDITIONS

Audiophiles sure don't have it easy. We put in a hard day sweating to hear those diminishing-return differences, and when we're finally ready to pontificate, no one at the party will obligingly ask us what we think. They've made that mistake before, you see, then spent the next 45 minutes frantically looking around the room for someone to rescue them.

"BRIDGE WILL BE RAISED AT 1:45 PM," said the road sign. I looked at my watch. 1:35. I sighed and let my right foot become even more leaden.

<B>NEKO CASE: <I>Fox Confessor Brings the Flood</I></B><BR>
Anti 86777 (CD). 2006. Neko Case, Darryl Neudorf, prods.; Craig Schumacher, Chris Schultz, engs. AAD. TT: 34:55<BR>
Performance ****&#189;<BR>
Sonics ****

The fourth round of RCA Red Seal Living Stereo hybrid SACD/CDs hit the literal and virtual shelves on February 7. [<I>Kalman Rubinson wrote about the first batch <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicintheround/1104mitr/">here</A>.&mdash;E…;] Remastered from the original two- and three-channel master tapes using the DSD process, these 10 new SACDs present the material exactly as it was recorded, without equalization, filtering, or other tampering.

It's been quieter than usual.

"Cover your ears, there she goes again."

Remember when the writing about music was as great as the music itself? Even when I violently disagreed with Bangs (his review of David Bromberg's first album, for instance), he wrote so hard and hot, I had to respect that it was <I>his</I> opinion and not just the music critics' party line. When he loved something, he conveyed what it was he loved better than just about anybody. (Except perhaps for Ian MacDonald, but that was the subject of a post yesterday.)