Breaking Away

Released in 1981, Breakin' Away is not only a great follow-up to This Time, it all but perfected the effort. With an amazing batch of songs, producer/artist chemistry, and top-level players, Breakin' Away became the standard bearer of the L.A. pop and R&B sound. "Closer to Your Love" comes off as a tougher, more confident version of the songs from the previous album. However, in short order, Breakin' Away assumes its own identity with brilliant results. Everything works so well here that the hit, the pleasing "We're in This Love Together," comes off as the weak link. "Easy," with its gorgeous and subtle Latin flourishes, has Jarreau's purposeful delivery coming off oddly poignant in its joy and beauty. The bittersweet "My Old Friend" has him giving a charming and understated reading with gorgeous synth signatures that speak volumes.

In following up 2018’s Ember, post-grunge stars Breaking Benjamin decided to switch it up for their seventh studio album. Instead of writing a set of completely new tunes, they’ve recorded acoustic versions of some of their most popular songs, added string orchestration, and invited special guests to perform on half of them. As such, Aurora features guest shots from Flyleaf’s Lacey Sturm, Underoath’s Spencer Chamberlain, Red’s Michael Barnes, and former Three Days Grace singer Adam Gontier. For good measure, they included one brand-new track, “Far Away,” featuring Scooter Ward of Cold. “I felt it was a good time for us to do this,” Breaking Benjamin founder and leading light Ben Burnley tells Apple Music. “All the songs are completely reimagined. Lacey was the first one I asked, and then it snowballed from there. I wish every song could have a guest, but the schedule didn’t allow.”

Four CD set celebrating the 35th anniversary of Jaki Graham's albums 'Heaven Knows' and 'Breaking Away' (released in 1985/86). This is the first widely available reissue of the 'Heaven Knows' album since 1986. Featuring the most comprehensive collection of Jaki's EMI albums plus loads of related bonus tracks including 12" mixes, remixes of the singles and B-sides from the period. 'Heaven Knows' contains two UK Top 20 singles; 'Could It Be I'm Falling In Love', a duet with David Grant that peaked at #5 and 'Round And Around' that reached #9.