Best 16 March 2021

Limited numbered four CD box set reissue of the 1982 second album from the British new wave band. The album featured the UK hit singles "Streetplayer (Mechanik)" and "Love Shadow", as well as the tracks "Whitestuff", "Prodigal Son" and "You Only Left Your Picture", which were featured on the show Miami Vice.

Limited numbered four CD box set reissue of the 1982 second album from the British new wave band. The album featured the UK hit singles "Streetplayer (Mechanik)" and "Love Shadow", as well as the tracks "Whitestuff", "Prodigal Son" and "You Only Left Your Picture", which were featured on the show Miami Vice.

'The Best Is Yet to Come' - Bonnie Tyler's new album title says it all: there is no stopping the '80s icon, Bonnie is better than ever! And if anyone thought catchy pop music could only be made by people in their twenties - oh, they were wrong. Bonnie Tyler delivers 12 brand new studio recordings, filled with the pure joy of '80s pop. From dance anthems to love songs to 'Stronger Than a Man' (a true call for female empowerment) - Bonnie Tyler lives and breathes one of the most fun eras in pop music. Bonnie always was and always will be THE '80s icon, and now she is taking this beloved music to the 21st century.

While not many on this side of the pond have noticed, Lloyd Cole, that smart, blackly humorous and self-deprecating songwriter has been assembling a nice catalog, chock-full of fine recordings. Luckily for us, his association with One Little Indian makes provisions for American releases for those who do understand that Cole is one of the most unique, tender, witty and biting songwriters out there, and he also writes a hell of a love song. Anti Depressant is the great double edge in Cole's catalog. In Cole's thinking, while it's true that an anti-depressant can make you feel better, the simple fact that you need one makes clear the appearance of depression. Many of these songs have that double edge in them.

This live recording of Ariadne auf Naxos in October 2014 took place not only at the site of the opera premiere of the version of the opera that we are best familiar with these days, but it also testifies Christian Thielemann’s first conducting engagement of a scenic performance of a Strauss opera at the opera house on the Ring. The cast includes Soile Isokoski as Ariadne, Johan Botha - in one of his latest performances before his untimely death - as Bachus, Daniela Fally as Zerbinetta, Sophie Koch as the composer, Jochen Schmeckenbecher as the music teacher and Peter Matic as the dancing master. Many attendees of the premiere of Strauss’ first version of Ariadne - which was intended to succeed Moliere’s Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and for this reason was six hours long - felt that they had just been part of a first-rate funeral.