2009 Deluxe

After several hit albums in the U.K., Level 42 finally found American success with the 1986 album World Machine and its hit single, "Something About You." When 1987's follow-up release Running in the Family also scored on this side of the Atlantic, it seemed Level 42 was here to stay. But 1988's Staring at the Sun was an artistic catastrophe and a commercial failure, and Level 42 would never again reach the artistic and commercial peak of its two U.S. successes. Guaranteed was a considerably better album than Staring at the Sun – not that the band could do much worse – but it went virtually unnoticed in America.

Black Sabbath's debut album is the birth of heavy metal as we now know it. Compatriots like Blue Cheer, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple were already setting new standards for volume and heaviness in the realms of psychedelia, blues-rock, and prog rock. Yet of these metal pioneers, Sabbath are the only one whose sound today remains instantly recognizable as heavy metal, even after decades of evolution in the genre…

Samantha Karen "Sam" Fox is an English dance-pop singer, actress, and former glamour model. In 1983, at the age of 16, she began her topless modeling career on Page 3 of "The Sun", and went on to become an enormously popular pin-up girl. In 1986 she launched her pop music career with her debut single "Touch Me (I Want Your Body)," which became a Number 1 hit in five countries. She has since sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Greatest Hits is a 2009 compilation album by Samantha Fox. It was conceived and developed by British music producer, Carl M Cox, who approached Sony Music with the idea of releasing a definitive hits collection, having discovered a number of unreleased recordings at Pete Waterman's PWL studios to include with material from Fox's first four albums with Jive Records as well as her more recent recordings from the 1990s and early 2000s.

Midwinter Graces is the 11th studio album by singer-songwriter Tori Amos. Released on November 10, 2009, through Universal Republic Records, it is the first seasonal album by Amos, and is also notable for marking a return for the artist to a more classical, stripped-down, baroque sound with various synths, string-instruments, the harpsichord and Amos' own signature Bosendorfer piano at center stage, once more. The album, like previous releases from Amos, is available in a single form CD or a Deluxe edition which includes 3 bonus tracks, a 20-page photo book, and a DVD containing an interview with the artist.

Is Candy Dulfer a jazz saxophonist with a feel for funk or a funk player with a jazz side to her musical personality? On FUNKED UP, she leans toward the latter. While there is some smooth melodious jazz here, most of this set is geared to paying tribute to old-school funk–Parliament, Funkadelic, James Brown, and the earliest efforts by Kool & the Gang and Rick James. There’s some rapping along with overtones of reggae rhymes and Latin rhythms, but for the most part FUNKED lives up to its title, with Dulfer’s heated sax shining throughout. This special edition of FUNKED UP! also includes a second disc of Candy Dulfer "chill-out" instrumentals.

Few young singer/songwriters have quite so quickly won the sort of acclaim that Idaho-born Josh Ritter gained with his first self-released album, which won rave reviews, earned him slots opening for Bob Dylan, and made him a minor celebrity in Ireland, where he's already headlined several tours. Ritter's second disc (and first nationally released album), Golden Age of Radio, makes it clear that his sudden success is well deserved, and based on genuine talent. Ritter's moody, evocative songs seem to reside in a middle ground between Richard Buckner and Ryan Adams, but without suggesting he's lifted anything from either of those performers.

Following the wake of Picturesque Machstickable Messages From the Status Quo, Spare Parts tries to imitate the psychedelic sound that was so fashionable at the time. The disc is known for being one of the less-fortunate made by the British band, and they have even despised it on some occasions. In fact, 1969 was going to be the most dismal year in the story of Status Quo. Urged by Pye's request to reach the charts at any rate, the songs in the record reflect the band's frustrated attempts to please the company. The result is an irregular album that does not reach the imaginative sound of their earlier songs nor the brightness of their subsequent records.

Madonna's run at the top of the charts lasted so long, longer than almost any other star, it's almost impossible to squeeze all the hits onto one collection…