Annie Racheal Cole

This is Annie Barbazza’s first solo album. She was a young drummer in love with progressive rock when Greg Lake discovered her talent as a singer and wanted her on stage with him for the concert which would later become the posthumous “Live in Piacenza”. Again Lake produced “Moonchild”, the duo with pianist Max Repetti for Manticore Records where she sang many songs formerly sang by Lake with ELP and King Crimson. If these were the beginnings of Annie’s career, now she is a rising star of the international Avant / Prog scene. Her friendship with John Greaves (Henry Cow, National Health …) leads her to collaborate permanently live with the Welsh musician and to collaborate on his latest albums (“Piacenza” for Dark Companion and “Life Size” for Manticore). Another one of her stable collaborations is the one with legendary writer-singer-songwriter Paul Roland with whom Annie regularly performs live as a bassist and singer and in the studio also as a drummer.

October of 2008 already saw a Best of Annie Lennox hit the streets in Europe, and in early 2009 those of us Stateside get the Annie Lennox Collection, which boasts enough hit singles to keep the punters happy, as well as a few keen B-sides to make the late-coming collectors to Lennox's work pick this up as well. While ubiquitous hits such as "Walking on Broken Glass" and "Sing" are included here, it's great that the set's compilers thought to add non-full-length selections such as "Love Song for a Vampire" to this mix. Her stellar covers such as the reading of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and the Freeman-Hughes standard "No More "I Love You's" are in the mix as well, making this a very well-rounded collection.

In the two and a half years following the release of Mainstream, Lloyd Cole signed to Capitol Records in the U.S., split from the Commotions, and moved to New York. For his first solo album, he assembled a team consisting of two New York band veterans – drummer/co-producer Fred Maher and guitarist Robert Quine, both of whom had played in Richard Hell's Voidoids and Lou Reed's backup group – plus bassist Matthew Sweet and Commotions keyboard player Blair Cowan. As a result, Lloyd Cole boasts a tougher, harder sound than the Commotions' records. Cole's vocals, meanwhile, have become more direct and less stylized. Cole's lyrics are also less adorned, and he has lightened up somewhat. Much of Lloyd Cole is musically astringent in a way Cole hasn't managed previously, even if the album is far less ambitious than his first two records.

Medusa is the second solo album by the Scottish singer Annie Lennox, released in March 1995, and consists entirely of cover songs. It entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and peaked in the United States at number 11, spending 60 weeks on the Billboard 200 chart. It has since achieved double platinum status in both the United Kingdom and the United States and sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Although no tour was held to promote this album, Lennox played a one-off concert in Central Park, New York City on 9 September 1995. This was subsequently released on videotape as Annie Lennox in the Park and on DVD as Annie Lennox Live in Central Park. In 1998, BMG International released Medusa/Live in Central Park, which contained two complete albums – Medusa (1995, originally released on Arista) and Live in Central Park (1996, also originally released on Arista) – by Annie Lennox on one compact disc.