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Donovan's Greatest Hits
: :Greatest Hits is the budget option for those who've concluded that two discs of Donovan is a disc too many and zero is one too few. Troubadour, Sony's 1992 Donovan box set, boasts nearly three times the tracks this 15-song single-disc retrospective offers, but Greatest Hits delivers what it promises: 'Colours' and 'Catch the Wind' from his folkie phase and 'Mellow Yellow,' 'Sunshine Superman,' and 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' from the lad's best-pal-a-flower-ever-had period. Also included are plenty more catchy folk-rock hits cut between 1964 and 1970 as well as four bonus ...
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The Very Best of Cat Stevens
: essential recording:Kicking off A&M's ambitious Cat Stevens reissue program is this 20-song introduction. The set surveys all of Stevens's stages, from the orchestrated late-1960s sides through his early-'70s peak to his more eclectic late-1970s experiments. Following the progression makes for an interesting endeavor as Stevens learns to harness his ambitious ideas with arrangements that don't obscure his rhapsodic messages. Few artists of his generation were more gifted when it came to plucking timeless melodies out of thin air, and his sumptuous voice was always able to movingly convey his bittersweet lyrics. As ...
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Led Zeppelin 1
:Album Description:2005 Japanese standard jewel case pressing of Led Zeppelin's 1969 album. Features the same tracks and mastering as the US edition but includes an OBI and Japanese/English insert. Warner. 2005. :As it turned out, Led Zeppelin's infamous 1969 debut album was indicative of the decade to come--one that, fittingly, this band helped define with its decadently exaggerated, bowdlerized blues-rock. In shrieker Robert Plant, ex-Yardbird Jimmy Page found a vocalist who could match his guitar pyrotechnics, and the band pounded out its music with swaggering ferocity and Richter-scale-worthy volume. Pumping up blues classics ...
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Quadrophenia
:Album Description:Limited 2008 UK double 180gm vinyl pressing of this classic album, released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the long-playing record. This is an exact replica of the original packaging and contains a voucher enabling the purchaser to download MP3 versions of the songs within. Happy Birthday, my dear vinyl LP! Universal. essential recording:An excellent and frequently astonishing album, Quadrophenia is both more ambitious and less accessible than Tommy, the first and most well known rock opera. At its simplest level, Quadrophenia is a coming-of-age story with an awesome soundtrack. ...
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Rock N Roll Jesus
: :Kid Rock maintains a remarkable propensity for wearing his contradictions on his sleeve, and more than anything he's previously released, Rock n Roll Jesus finds fuel in unresolved opposites. Is he a hard-core chauvinist ('Half Your Age') or a would-be gentlemen ('When U Love Someone')? Is he a God-fearing everyman ('Blue Jeans and a Rosary') or a bohemian hero ('So Hott')? These questions are nothing new, even if the album at hand takes them to freshly delirious extremes. Ever since he first began shedding his rap/rock posture to be the next Ted Nugent, ...
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The Stranger
: essential recording:This, pop superstar Joel's breakout LP, came years after he first hit the charts with the novelty-ish 'Piano Man.' In the meantime, the New York-based songwriter released two lackluster and stylistically confused platters that blunted interesting songs with a sound that was neither Elton mellow nor Elton attitude. Produced by Phil Ramone, The Stranger took those who had written Joel off as a one-hit wonder by surprise ('Just the Way You Are' was among the biggest hits of 1977) and it remains a solid introduction to Joel's restless muse at a ...
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Solo Acoustic, Vol. 1
:Album Description:Presenting twelve songs culled from Browne's extensive and critically acclaimed solo acoustic concerts around the world over the past few years, the disc also captures both spirited and humorous exchanges between Jackson and his audiences, making for a truly intimate listening experience. This new comp, produced by Browne and Paul Dieter, is Jackson's first live release since his 1977 multi-platinum 'Running On Empty' album. It also marks the recording debut of a three decades old track, 'The Birds Of St. Marks', not previously released in any form. 'Solo Acoustic' reaches back to ...
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Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
: :While many of their peers were abandoning '70s metal and arena rock to hop the punk/new wave bandwagon, Def Leppard smartly stripped the earlier era's music of its excesses, bolstered it with energetic, pop-savvy hooks and quickly found itself the vanguard of the UK's new metal revival and one of the '80s most spectacularly successful rock acts. The first disc of this 35-track, two-and-a-half hour double-disc retrospective focuses on the familiar hits of their early MTV, platinum-selling prime, though the inclusion of the video edit/remixes of 'Pour Some Sugar On Me' and 'Rocket' ...
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The Very Best of Jackson Browne
:Album Description:Over the past three decades, Jackson Browne has created and voiced many of the most literate and emotionally resonant compositions in popular music—and sold more than 15 million albums, including the seven-times platinum Running On Empty and the #1 Hold Out. This year Browne’s artistry is celebrated with his induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and with this new retrospective from Rhino. Browne’s first-ever double-disc set compiles hits, singles, and choice album cuts from his acclaimed catalog, spotlighting both insightful works of personal introspection and passionately delivered songs of ...
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Katy Lied
:Album Description:Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) paper sleeve pressing. Universal. 2008. essential recording:The last of the truly classic first four Steely Dan albums, the 1975 Katy Lied also sounds like the best. While retaining a solid rock foundation, the music finds Walter Becker and Donald Fagen engaging their jazz influences more successfully than ever; Fagen's piano fills alone are some of the most impressive music laid to tape in the '70s. The songs, too, rate with the team's very best, whether coolly anticipating global ...
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