Discovering the Blues is rawer than most records in Ford's catalog, but any serious fan will find it a necessary addition to their collection.
On their fourth live album since their inception in the early '70s, Rush's three-CD Different Stages: Live is similar in approach and feel to their first in-concert release, 1976's All the World's a Stage. Instead of overdubbing and cleaning up the performances as they did on their last two live albums (1981's Exit…Stage Left and 1988's A Show of Hands), the tracks are left raw and rocking…
On their fourth live album since their inception in the early '70s, Rush's three-CD Different Stages: Live is similar in approach and feel to their first in-concert release, 1976's All the World's a Stage…
Italy's Måneskin make their bid for global pop domination with their third album, 2023's pulse-pounding Rush! While they sound like a sleazy garage rock band from New York circa the early aughts, they are best known for winning the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 for Italy with the song "Zitti e buoni." Prior to that, they teed up their breakthrough Eurovision run with a second-place finish on Italy's X Factor in 2017. All of which is to say that, while they can really and truly rock (devil horns and all), Måneskin aren't afraid to play in the tasteless, campy machinery of the modern pop landscape. In fact, on Rush! they explicitly frame themselves within a sleazy, globe-trotting world of decadent partying, sexy models, and raw overindulgence – all delivered with a kohl-eyed wink and a firm tongue in cheek.
The '70s may forever be remembered as the decade of the "live album," where many rock artists (Kiss, Peter Frampton, Cheap Trick, etc.) used the format for their commercial breakthrough. While Rush's All the World's a Stage is not as renowned as the aforementioned bands' live albums, it is still one of the better in-concert rock releases of the decade, and helped solidify the trio's stature as one of rock's fastest rising stars…
Rush was planning on releasing a live album after the Permanent Waves tour, but manager Cliff Burnstein convinced the group that they were peaking musically, and should go straight back into the recording studio – resulting in their finest album, 1981's Moving Pictures. So after the tour wound down, their postponed live album was finally assembled and released as Exit…Stage Left the same year…
The opening chords of "Finding My Way" signal the beginning of a song, album, and career that would have a permanent place in rock history. The debut album from the Canadian progressive metal outfit features drummer John Rutsey who, although a talented drummer, would quit after this album to be replaced by Neal Peart. Peart contributed to the band's songwriting progression and use of time changes.
Bobby Rush was a journeyman blues singer, most famous for the novelty hit "Chicken Heads." On this album, however, he took his decades of his experience and his close study of Howlin' Wolf and made an urban blues album for his times, incorporating touches of Philadelphia soul, street-corner harmonies, and the rhythms of the pulpit. He tackled modern injustice ("Evil Is") alongside Seventies sexual mores ("I Can't Find My Keys"); Rush Hour was the first album in a sequence of ever-stranger "folk-funk" explorations. What We Said Then: "Rush Hour is so weird that it's a wonder George Clinton didn't think of it first. . .What emerges is outrageous and stunning. . .In a time when most black pop music sounds machine crafted, this record is more than an anomaly. Rush Hour is a tribute to resilience–a sign that the lessons Howlin' Wolf and his peers learned and taught have been neither lost nor forgotten. You're going to need something like this to get you through the Eighties".