Филипп Киркоров Вчера, Сегодня, Завтра И... (2001)

After being away from the scene for many years, German progressive rock band Kraan have returned with this fantastic live album, covering many of the classic tracks that were fan favorites back in the 70's. The perennial line-up of Hellmut Hattler on bass/vocals, Peter Wolbrandt on guitars/vocals, Ingo Bischoff on keyboards, and Jan Pride on drums are all here, and display all the tight interplay and rhythmic ferocity that they were famous for decades ago.

Listeners with even a passing familiarity with Norah Jones' fine official debut, Come Away With Me, will be captivated by First Sessions; for an artist making her earliest attempts at studio recording, Jones is remarkably assured and mature on these six cuts, revealing a unique sound and sensibility fully formed long before she signed to Blue Note. The opening "Don't Know Why" is the litmus test: the version here is nearly identical to the rendition on Come Away With Me, its impressive marriage of cocktail jazz and coffeehouse folk already solidified. Likewise, Jones' alluring readings of "Come Away With Me," "Turn Me On," and "Lonestar" anticipate the more robust versions captured on the LP. First Sessions is also worth seeking out because it contains a pair of songs yet to surface anywhere else – the Jesse Harris original "Something Is Calling You" and more intriguingly, a cover of jazz legend Horace Silver's "Peace."

American listeners tend to remember Shocking Blue as the one-hit wonder behind the chart-topper "Venus," a melting pot of rock rhythms, country guitar licks, organ riffs, and Mariska Veres' heavily accented vocals. Sounding something like a cross between "96 Tears" and "Sugar, Sugar," "Venus" was not entirely representative of the group's first album, At Home. Like their fellow countrymen Golden Earring, Shocking Blue purveyed a mild strain of psychedelic rock, but leaned more toward country and folk music than bubblegum. Guitarist and principal songwriter Robby Van Leeuwen was already preoccupied with Americana at this early stage, from "Harley Davidson" and "California Here I Come" to a surprising rendition of the folk song "Boll Weevil" that sets the traditional lyrics to music reminiscent of the Easybeats' "Good Times."

Sandra Hall's 1995 debut, Showin' Off, combined ribald roadhouse boogies and sultry, sophisticated soul blues in more or less equal measure. Since then the Atlanta-based singer has upset that balance, throwing herself with gusto into the role of big, bad, red-hot hoochie mama–but as she proves on the forthcoming Miss Red Riding Hood, she can still call up admirable emotional and artistic depth. The album's more nuanced fare includes a gospel-influenced ballad, "Travelin' the Blues," on which her voice ascends from a heartbroken near whisper to a full-bodied wail brimming with fear and hope.

This three-CD set is very attractive in some obvious ways – listing for barely $11.00 and containing 75 songs, it's the most generously programmed Andrews Sisters compilation that one can buy, even outstripping the Readers' Digest collection from the '90s…

Glass Hammer is a Symphonic Progressive Rock band from the United States. They formed in 1992 when multi-instrumentalists Steve Babb and Fred Schendel began to write and record Journey of the Dunadan, a concept album based on the story of Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. To their surprise, the album sold several thousand units via the Internet, The QVC Shop-At-Home Network and phone orders, leaving Babb and Schendel convinced that the band was a project worth continuing.
Musically, they lean towards 70's driven symphonic rock, with strong keyboard orientation; specifically Hammond organs in the tradition of ELP. They have a superb melodic flow to the music they make, encapsulating real power and dynamics without ever becoming overpowering…

Derek William Dick (aka Fish) was the dramatic lead vocalist for prog rock band Marillion until beginning a solo career in 1988. Marillion was initially formed as an instrumental band in 1979 by guitarist Steve Rothery, drummer Mick Pointer, bassist Doug Irvine, and keyboard player Brian Jelliman. Irvine began singing in 1980 on the group's first demos, but a year later Marillion invited Fish to join as vocalist, and he assumed the frontman position beginning with their 1983 debut album, Script for a Jester's Tear. His strong Peter Gabriel-inspired vocals enforced critics' accusations that Marillion owed more than just a heavy debt to Genesis, but six more albums followed. Musical difficulties between Fish and the band caused him to leave after 1988's Thieving Magpie (La Gazza Ladra). He was replaced by Steve Hogarth, a vocalist quite similar in sound and style to Fish himself…

After 1999s rock-based album Tuonela, it was unclear what direction Amorphis would take with future releases. Instead of radically changing musical styles, like they had done in the past, the band seemed to have found steady ground in which they felt comfortable. Am Universum preserves the moody atmosphere of Tuonela, but explores wider dynamics, and an overall more varying sound.