Live
Noah’s Barks pages relating to music albums recorded in a live setting.
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Stan Getz – João Gilberto – “Getz/Gilberto #2: Recorded Live at Carnegie Hall”
As of writing, Getz / Gilberto is currently my favorite jazz album, and it has met consistent critical acclaim from just about any person or publication over the years since its release, but Getz/Gilberto #2 somehow seemed to fly under everyone’s radar, including my own until now. There’s a fair reason for that. A few of the… (read more)
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Comus – “East of Sweden: Live at the Melloboat Festival 2008”
Er, how to critique this? The performances just sound so… impassioned. The opposite of what Comus should be. They are almost the exact same as their studio counterparts, just in worse quality. “Diana” is just too abrasive here and not very listenable. There’s a little bit of improvising in the middle of the songs but… (read more)
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Big Black – “Sound of Impact”
There’s actually two versions of the Sound of Impact live album. Though the second one—which is the album rereleased a year later—is barely documented anywhere, it seems. The rerelease is the same album except Steve Albini‘s banter is separated into their own tracks, making it 18 tracks instead of the original 15. Also, all the… (read more)
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Florence + The Machine – “MTV Unplugged”
Florence + The Machine seems like a perfect act for the MTV Unplugged series, considering the band often utilizes a variety of string instruments in their songs. But somehow, every song on this album ends up being less interesting than the lusher studio versions. The act is essentially selling only the voice here; the backing… (read more)
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Alice in Chains – “MTV Unplugged”
“Unplugged” albums are kind of a catch-22. It seems most often that their best tracks are ones that work naturally in an acoustic setting, and that’s usually because they’re similar to their original recordings in the first place. In that case, why redo an already mellow, stripped-back song? On the other hand, if you try… (read more)