Ain't It Time We Said Goodbye: The Rolling Stones on The Road to Exile

A vintage and influential vocal group formed in the 1950s, the Four Freshmen's harmonic-drenched vocal style would set the stage for the Beach Boys and many others in the decades that followed, and to hear the quartet in full flight backed by jazz horns and arrangements is indeed something special, particularly since the Freshmen stack their vocals like a horn chart anyway. It makes for fun stuff, and it's heartbreakingly gorgeous more often than not. Highlights here include the breezy opening track, "Laura," the stone cold classic "Graduation Day," and the closer, "Goodnight Sweetheart." These guys must have eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner with the angels, because angels are what they sound like.

The most obscure album in the Hollies' entire catalog, Out on the Road marked the second half of the "Mikael Rickfors Era," that two-year period in which the Swedish-born singer provided the group's lead vocals. The album was originally released only in Germany. This is a slicker, smoother, and harder-rocking version of the Hollies than most casual fans, familiar with their hits of the early '70s ("Long Dark Road," "The Air That I Breathe") might expect. Rickfors is firing on all cylinders as a singer, his vocals every bit as expressive if not as compellingly memorable as those of the man he was (temporarily, as it turned out) replacing, Allan Clarke. But the equally dominant personality on a lot of the material here is guitarist Tony Hicks, whose instrumental prowess is all over this record (and not just on guitar, but banjo, among other stringed devices) along with a lot of solid songwriting on his part (in tandem with Kenny Lynch) and backing vocals.