Tracks The Very Best Of
- You Could Have Told Me
- I Can Do It
- Baby I Know
- Julia
- Foe Dee Oh Doe
- I'm Just Dreaming
- Juke Box Jive
- Movin'
- The Sha Na Na Song
- Sugar Baby Love
- Little Darling
- My Buddy Holly Days
- You're The Reason Why
- Put A Back Beat To That Music
- Judy Run Run
- Kid Runaway
- Dancing In The Rain
- Under One Roof
- Lola
- Tonight
- Beggar Man
Release date: 1998-01-26
Run time: 70 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.13
Review The Very Best Of / The Rubettes:
Tracks Stage Fright: Remastered
- Time To Kill
- Daniel And The Sacred Harp
- Just Another Whistle Stop
- Rumour
- Time To Kill
- Radio Commercial
- Sleeping
- Shape I'm In
- Strawberry Wine
- WS Walcott Medicine Show
- Stage Fright
- Daniel And The Sacred Harp
- All La Glory
- WS Walcott Medicine Show
Release date: 2000-09-11
RRP: £4.99
Price: £2.95
Review Stage Fright: Remastered / Band:The Band's third studio album is also their third-best studio album, and that isn't bad. It's not as synchronous as Music From Big Pink or as overpowering as The Band, but that's part of its appeal. The quintet's first two albums were such towering achievements that the group came to lean on its songs, turning the lion's share of them into concert staples. Stage Fright is littered with lesser-known Robbie Robertson compositions possessing more modest charms than the overplayed likes of "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". The title track is uncommonly hard-eyed and modern; Richard Manual's vocal, like most of his turns at the mike, is sparkling. (Manual also shines on the reflective "Sleeping" and the up-tempo "Just Another Whistle Stop"). "All La Glory" is a gorgeous lullaby, while "Time To Kill" sounds like the Band doing Creedence Clearwater Revival. This isn't the place to discover this great North American band, but it's definitely a stop worth taking before your exploration is completed. -Steven Stolder The Band's third studio album is also their third-best studio album, and that isn't bad. It's not as synchronous as Music from Big Pink or as overpowering as The Band, but that's part of its appeal. [+]The quintet's first two albums were such towering achievements that the group come to lean on their songs, turning the lion's share of them into concert staples. Stage Fright is littered with lesser-known Robbie Robertson compositions possessing more modest charms than the overplayed likes of "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down. " The title track is uncommonly hard-eyed and modern; Richard Manual's vocal, like most of his turns at the mic, is sparkling. (Manual also shines on the reflective "Sleeping" and the uptempo "Just Another Whistle Stop"). "All La Glory" is a gorgeous lullaby, while "Time to Kill" sounds like the Band doing Creedence Clearwater Revival. This isn't the place to discover this great North American band, but it's definitely a stop worth taking before your exploration is completed. -Steven Stolder.
Tracks Meet Glen Campbell
- Walls
- Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)
- Sing
- Sadly Beautiful
- Grow Old With Me
- Angel Dream
- These Days
- All I Want is You
- Times Like These
- Jesus
Release date: 2008-08-25
Price: £8.26
Review Meet Glen Campbell / Glen Campbell:The concept behind Meet Glen Campbell is so obvious it's a surprise that no one had thought of doing it before. Once Brian Wilson's touring replacement in the Beach Boys, then a megastar with his country inflected orchestral pop productions in the late sixties and early seventies, Glen Campbell has seen it all. Now in his seventies, his star has faded since his collaborations with young songwriter Jimmy Webb ruled the charts, but he remains a fine singer and a deft guitarist still. Taking ten recent songs by the likes of Tom Petty, Travis, Foo Fighters and even Green Day, and dressing them up in the expansive arrangements he's still remembered for effectively makes them his own property. Who knew that Travis's once torpid "Sing" needed only some Campbell magic to revive it? Green Day's "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" is a perfect choice, its country roots always unconcealed, while the genesis of U2's "All I Want Is You" in the Stooges "No Fun" is made obvious even as Campbell's heartfelt version challenges Bono for sincerity. The closer, a stately version of John Lennon's posthumously released "Grow Old With Me", will be soundtracking wedding ceremonies for decades to come. Unlikely though it sounds, Meet Glen Campbell has to be count amongst the year's most successful comebacks. -Steve Jelbert.
Tracks Don't Look Back: Remastered
- It's Easy
- Man I'll Never Be
- Don't Look Back
- Party
- Journey
- Used To Bad News
- Feelin' Satisfied
- Don't Be Afraid
Release date: 2008-03-24
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.57
Review Don't Look Back: Remastered / Boston:
Publisher: Mostly Autumn
Release date: 2008-06-16
RRP: £13.99
Price: £7.99
Review Glass Shadows / Mostly Autumn:
Tracks This Is Christmas
- O' Come All Ye Faithful
- With A Christmas Heart
- This Is Christmas
- I Listen To The Bells - Vandross, Luther & Darlene Love
- Please Come Home For Christmas
- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
- Every Year Every Christmas
- My Favorite Things
- Kiss For Christmas
- Mistletoe Jam (Everybody Kiss Somebody)
Release date: 2008-10-13
RRP: £6.99
Price: £3.19
Review This Is Christmas / Luther Vandross:
Tracks The Very Best Of The Stone Roses
- This Is The One
- Made Of Stone
- Begging You
- Waterfall
- I Wanna Be Adored
- What The World Is Waiting For
- Fools Gold
- Ten Storey Love Song
- I Am The Resurrection
- Elephant Stone
- Love Spreads
- One love
- She Bangs The Drums
- Breaking Into Heaven
- Sally Cinnamon
Release date: 2002-11-04
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.98
Review The Very Best Of The Stone Roses / Stone Roses:
Tracks The Crow
- Color Me Once
- Time Baby 2
- Burn
- It Can't Rain All The Time
- Snakedriver
- Slip Slide Melting
- Badge
- After The Flesh
- Dead Souls
- Big Empty
- Golgotha Tenement Blues
- Milktoast
- Ghost Rider
- Darkness
Release date: 1994-03-28
RRP: £15.99
Price: £9.72
Review The Crow / Various Artists:
Tracks The Best of Blondie
- Heart Of Glass
- Atomic
- Denis
- Picture This
- Tide Is High
- Dreaming
- Sunday Girl
- Union City Blue
- I'm Always Touched By Your Presence Dear
- Rapture
- Call Me
- Hanging On The Telephone
- In The Flesh
- Rip Her To Shreds
Release date: 1990-07-01
RRP: £4.99
Price: £2.98
Review The Best of Blondie / Blondie:While Best Of may not be inclusive enough for the avid collector because it focuses more on Blondie's new wave dance hits than on their punk beginnings, songs like "Heart of Glass," "Dreaming," "The Tide Is High," and "Call Me" display the diverse musical styles this band embraced. It's a new wave album, a reggae album, a dance album, a punk album, and a rap album. Rock-solid songwriting and Debbie Harry's sultry vocals hold the CD together despite the stylistic reaches of the tracks. -Beth Bessmer.
Tracks Saturday Night Fever Ost
- Night Fever
- Fifth Of Beethoven
- Stayin' Alive
- Disco Inferno
- Night On Disco Mountain
- K Jee
- Open Sesame
- MFSB
- Salsation
- Boogie Shoes
- More Than A Woman
- You Should Be Dancing
- Manhattan Skyline
- How Deep Is Your Love
- If I Can't Have You
- Calypso Breakdown
- Jive Talkin'
Release date: 1996-02-01
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.80
Review Saturday Night Fever Ost / Original Soundtrack:Survivors of the disco boom of the late 1970s are of course bemused at the ease with which the patina of cultural significance has appeared on the music (and even the clothes) of the period. In any event, whether you can't resist tapping your feet to those four-on-the-floor Bee Gees tunes or whether you're curious about what is, after all, the precursor of hip hop, there's still no better way of enjoying this stuff than through this era-defining recording. Interestingly, there's more social comment here than the happy tunes might suggest, such as in the lyrics of "Staying Alive" which are entirely reminiscent of the theme of the movie They Shoot Horses, Don't They? in their depiction of dance as a desperate escape from social deprivation. Well, up to a point. Then there's "Night Fever" and "Disco Inferno" and all the other white-suits-and-sequins standards which epitomised the movement. What's notable-and perhaps surprising-are the strong melodic and lyrical identities the songs all have, which resulted in a string of hit singles. If you were there, you'll want this music. If you weren't, you'll still want it. It explains a lot. -Roger Thomas.
Tracks Sand and Water
- Fair Enough
- Beyond The Blue
- Say Goodnight
- Sand And Water
- Seven Shades Of Blue
- Colour Of Roses
- Happy Girl
- No One Knows But You
- Heads Up For The Wrecking Ball
- All The Time In The World
Release date: 1997-12-01
RRP: £9.99
Price: £4.74
Review Sand and Water / Beth Nielsen Chapman:
Tracks Badmotorfinger
- Holy Water
- Slaves & Bulldozers
- Rusty Cage
- Face Pollution
- Searching With My Good Eye Closed
- New Damage
- Drawing Flies
- Jesus Christ Pose
- Somewhere
- Outshined
- Room A Thousand Years Wide
- Mind Riot
Release date: 2000-12-15
Run time: 58 min.
RRP: £8.99
Price: £3.95
Review Badmotorfinger / Soundgarden:
Tracks Crush
- Just Older
- She's A Mystery
- Captain Crash & The Beauty Queen From Mars
- Two Story Town
- Say It Isn't So
- It's My Life
- It's My Life
- Mystery Train
- Say It Isn't So
- Thank You For Loving Me
- I Could Make A Living Loving You
- It's My Life
- Save The World
- One Wild Night
- I Got The Girl
- Say It Isn't So
- Next 100 Years
Release date: 2000-09-04
Run time: 78 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £5.90
Review Crush / Bon Jovi:The growling, choppy guitar sample that opens the first track here, "It's My Life", is a virtual declaration of intent for the first Bon Jovi album in five years, a statement that they're updating the sound without abandoning the traditional virtues that made them one of the biggest bands on the planet. So make way for a hi-tech parade of smooth-but-gutsy rock anthems, almost any one of which will gladden the heart of every AOR radio programmer in the land. Unless the world has changed irredeemably, cuts such as the mid-paced heartbreak chugger "Say It Isn't So" are destined to become Bon Jovi standards, while an outbreak of scarf-waving and lighter-flicking is certain to accompany any live performance of the big weepy, "Thank You For Loving Me". Arguably, everything on Crush is done by the numbers, but with consummate pros like Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora at the helm, these are the kind of numbers you have to take seriously, because by the second time they kick into the chorus of any song it's damn near impossible not to sing along. -Johnny Black.
Tracks Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches
- Donovan
- God's Cop
- Dennis And Lois
- Holiday
- Grandbag's Funeral
- Step On
- Kinky Afro
- Harmony
- Bob's Yer Uncle
Release date: 1999-10-04
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.79
Review Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches / Happy Mondays:
Tracks The Reason
- Lucky
- Just One
- The Reason
- Out Of Control
- Unaffected
- Never Saw It Coming
- What Happened To Us?
- Out Of Control
- Never There
- Disappear
- Escape
- From The Heart
- Let It Out
- Same Direction
Release date: 2004-04-08
Run time: 48 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £6.99
Review The Reason / Hoobastank:The Reason, the second album from clean-cut Californian mall-rockers Hoobastank, is a massive improvement on the band's eponymous 2002 debut. It's a thoughtful and passionate alt-rock set that consigns many of the band's more obvious influences to the dustbin and proves that even rock's most transparent copyists deserve a second chance to make a first impression. Frontman Doug Robb has shaken off his rather Brandon Boyd-esque vocal affectations and now sounds very much like his own man, riding bruising rockers such as "Just One" and "Let It Out" with a flexible emotional range and sharp ear for a scream-along chorus. The band, meanwhile, have grown into an altogether different beast, guitarist Dan Estrin coaxing his fretboard from deft, nostalgia-pricked melodicism to complex metal riffing with evident skill, and the powerhouse rhythm section of bassist Markku Lappalainen and drummer Chris Hesse firing off virtuostic dynamic flourishes right through to the last climactic lap of the closing "Disappear". It's true, Hoobastank's rather bland, cookie-cutter image probably won't do them any favours in today's cooler-than-thou alternative marketplace, but you overlook this album at your peril. -Louis Pattison.
Tracks The Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody
- Go Ahead And Cry
- Hung On You
- Little Latin Lupe Lu
- He
- The White Cliffs Of Dover
- See That Girl
- Unchained Melody
- On This Side Of Goodbye
- Ebb Tide
- (You're My) Soul And Inspiration
- You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'
- Just Once In My Life
Release date: 1999-09-06
Run time: 38 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.48
Review The Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody / Righteous Brothers:
Tracks Shangri-La
- 5:15 am
- Postcards From Paraguay
- Boom, Like That
- The Trawlerman's Song
- Sucker Row
- Stand Up Guy
- Donegan's Gone
- All That Matters
- Everybody Pays
- Song For Sonny Liston
- Don't Crash The Ambulance
- Whoop De Doo
- Our Shangri-La
- Back To Tupelo
Release date: 2004-09-27
Run time: 66 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £6.31
Review Shangri-La / Mark Knopfler:Shangri-La sees the sweatband-loving Knopfler team up once again with producer Chuck Ainlay for a sturdy celebration of Americana through country and the blues with a dash of easy listening thrown in. The overall sound is laid back with only the electric blues of "Song for Sonny Listen" providing a bit of a crunch. For the most part Knopfler sounds heavily influenced by troubadour JJ Cale and none more so than on "Boom, Like That", a groove driven country honk with soft, lazy vocals. Renowned for not taking things too seriously, many of the lyrics are comical in their narrative such as "I stuck a couple of air-craft carriers up his ass" on the mariachi backed "Don't Crash the Ambulance", a tongue in cheek song set around the Mexican border. His style may have softened since the Dire Straits days but this can only be a good thing whe none recalls the bloated synths of their latter years. Shangri-La is Knopfler living his cowboy dream which seems to be what keeps his spirit for good music as fresh as it ever was. -Steve Beefmark.
Tracks Take Off Your Pants And Jacket
- Give Me One Good Reason
- Stay Together For The Kids
- Story Of A Lonely Guy
- Anthem Part Two
- Happy Holidays, You Bastard
- Roller Coaster
- Man Overboard
- Reckless Abandon
- Every Time I Look For You
- Shut Up
- Online Songs
- Time To Break Up
- The Rock Show
- Please Take Me Home
- First Date
Release date: 2001-07-23
Run time: 45 min.
RRP: £8.99
Price: £4.01
Review Take Off Your Pants And Jacket / blink-182:By their fifth album, most bands have grown up, but not American brat-punks Blink 182. Take Off Your Pants And Jacket is more of the same three-minute bursts of immaturity and deliberate stupidity that made their previous album, Enema of the State, an international hit. It's just that now the band too often cross the line from adolescent angst to annoying whingeing. The album opener "Anthem Part Two" is an us-versus-them call to arms against the "adults" of the world-"Kids are victims in this story/Drown the youth with useless warnings"-which seems to overlook the fact that by now, Blink 182 are probably closer in age to their A&R man than their average fan; "Happy Holidays You Bastard" and "F**k A Dog" resort to cheap mom-and-dad jokes and obvious shock tactics. Even the more sentimental moments are ruined by clumsy and overly simplistic lyrics ("Stay Together for the Kids", a tale about divorce from the child's perspective, whines, "I see them every day/We get along so why can't they?"). It's not all bad news, though: first single "Rock Show", "Reckless Abandon" and "Give Me One Good Reason" are as catchy as anything they've ever done, while "Story of a Lonely Guy" and "Roller Coaster" hint at what this trio are capable of as songwriters when they put their minds to it. -Robert Burrow.
Tracks Life on the Murder Scene: Live/Parental Advisory/+2dvd
- You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
- Honey This Mirror Isn't Big Enough For The Two Of Us
- Bury Me In Black
- Helena
- You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
- Helena
- Ghost Of You
- Give 'Em Hell Kid
- Our Lady Of Sorrows
- Desert Song
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Vampires Will Never Hurt You
- Cemetery Drive
- You Know What They Do To Guys Like Us In Prison
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Helena
- Video Diary
- Headfirst For Halos
- Headfirst For Halos
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Thank You For The Venom
- Give 'Em Hell Kid
- Helena
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Cemetery Drive
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Ghost Of You
- Ghost Of You
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Thank You For The Venom
- I Never Told You What I Do For A Living
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
- Helena
- Ghost Of You
- Ghost Of You
- Helena
- I'm Not Okay (I Promise)
Release date: 2006-03-20
RRP: £21.99
Price: £9.50
Review Life on the Murder Scene: Live/Parental Advisory/+2dvd / My Chemical Romance:
Tracks #1 Record/Radio City
- She's a Mover
- What's Going Ahn
- O My Soul
- When My Baby's Beside Me
- Give Me Another Chance
- India Song
- My Life Is Right
- Back of a Car
- Feel
- St 100/6
- In the Street
- Way Out West
- Life Is White
- Morpha Too
- Try Again
- Don't Lie to Me
- Daisy Glaze
- Watch the Sunrise
- Mod Lang
- I'm in Love With a Girl
- You Get What You Deserve
- Thirteen
- Ballad of el Goodo
- September Gurls
Release date: 2006-04-03
RRP: £5.99
Price: £3.73
Review #1 Record/Radio City / Big Star:A two-for-one combo of the first two Big Star albums (they only recorded three). Heard side by side, #1 Record and Radio City only add further testament to Big Star's seminal greatness. On the first album, Chris Bell and Alex Chilton share songwriting credit, though each brings a remarkably different sensibility to the band: Bell creates pure pop nuggets ("Feel") while Chilton swaggers with reckless melancholy ("Ballad Of El Goodo", "Thirteen"). After Bell's departure, Chilton took control of the helm for Radio City, and what a ride it is. While not abandoning Bell's penchant for pop, Radio City careens wildly through some of the most exhilarating music ever created, from the rave-up opener, "O My Soul", to the pure pop masterpiece "September Girls" to the whimsical ditty "I'm In Love With A Girl". It's too bad that Big Star didn't create more albums, but thank god they made the ones they did. -Tod Nelson.
| Browse Adult Contemporary:
Models & Brands:
The Very Best Of, Stage Fright: Remastered, Meet Glen Campbell, Don't Look Back: Remastered, Glass Shadows, This Is Christmas, The Very Best Of The Stone Roses, The Crow, The Best of Blondie, Saturday Night Fever Ost, Sand and Water, Badmotorfinger, Crush, Pills 'N' Thrills And Bellyaches, The Reason, The Very Best Of The Righteous Brothers - Unchained Melody, Shangri-La, Take Off Your Pants And Jacket, Life on the Murder Scene: Live/Parental Advisory/+2dvd, #1 Record/Radio City |
