Bargain 2015

Since Sarah Cracknell was busy being the voice of Saint Etienne, it's hard to blame her too much for taking almost two decades to deliver her second solo album. After giving Red Kite a spin though, it's good enough that it's easy to wish that she had done it sooner. Unlike her 1997 album Lipslide, this time out Cracknell takes a giant step away from the patented Saint Etienne sound, surrounding her whisper-soft vocals with chamber pop, country-rock, and folk trappings (i.e., lots of guitars) while capturing the same sepia-toned nostalgic melancholy so much of their work has…

The Who Hits 50! is a compilation of singles by the English rock band The Who, released in 2014 by Polydor Records. The two-disc set contains every single released by the band in the United Kingdom, with the exceptions of: "A Legal Matter" and "La-La-La-Lies" from 1966; and "Long Live Rock" and the remake of "I'm One" from 1979. At the same time it also contains every single by the band released in the United States throughout their career, with the exceptions of: "The Real Me" from 1974; the reissue of "Substitute" from 1976; and "Long Live Rock" from 1979.

This is the latest and, they tell us, the last of EMI’s Simon Rattle Edition, gathering together the conductor’s complete forays into certain composers and repertoire. As with any such project the sets hitherto released have contained both treasures and duds. Even though not everything here is perfect, this set sends the series out on a high with his complete Vienna recording of the Beethoven symphonies.