DICK CLARK MOCKS CRYOGENICS

¶ Some critics have a weird prejudice against box sets. I know because my NPR producer, Virginia Prescott, invited Robert Christgau onto a year-end box set roundup discussion, and he declined saying he "doesn't cover boxes." His readers "don't have the bucks it takes to keep up with them," or some such, and he flatly refused to talk about it. This seems a fairly UN-nuanced opinion from one of our best critics: aren't there good box sets and bad box sets? Sure, it's a boon to labels that raid their shelves and produce expensive packages without the usual studio production costs, and sure, it's way over the top, past its peak and out of control (do we really need that Kansas box?). But those are different complaints. The ups can and often do meet the burden of price: think of that first Stax box, the Nuggets compilations, the first Doo-Wop set, or Legacy's new Count Basie collection. It would almost be enough to renew your faith in liner notes if they'd just stop hiring the same old David Fricke to write his soft-core histories. (Ah envy.) Johnny Cash's UNEARTHED is gonna make a lot of top ten lists this year, so where does that fit in with Christgau's overly broad denunciation?

¶ Jon Pareles has me re-listening to the SECOND HALF of ELEPHANT. Caught White in COLD MOUNTAIN, and he does fine, look forward to that soundtrack (it's another T Bone Burnett extravaganza, right?) You need ELEPHANT whether it makes my list or not, bubbas. And check out this FAB garage compilation White assembled a couple years back: THE SYMPATHETIC SOUND OF DETROIT.

¶ THEN, Sony sent along some titles from their new Masterworks Heritage Expanded Edition series, including:

Barber ADAGIO FOR STRINGS/VIOLIN CONCERTO/Schuman IN PRAISE OF SHAHN…, Bernstein/Stern
Bach GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, Gould (1955)
Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev CELLO SONATAS, Ax/Ma
Mozart, Schubert SONATAS, FANTASIA (4-hand), Perahia, Lupu

We listened to these during holiday dinners, they all feature warm and detailed remastered sound and bonus tracks on recordings that didn't need any padding. See also Horowitz's Scarlatti, Serkin's Beethoven, and others. Props to Sony.

¶ And finally: the FEVER cover art just came in. Nekked BOOT-Ay.