C . . Press

The Visitor is the third studio album by the British progressive band Arena, released in 1998. One of prog's great records of the 90's and beyond. With The Visitor Arena became a 'real' band, not just a Clive Nolan (Pendragon) project with ex original Marillion drummer Mick Pointer. Now with their best ever line up that included John Mitchel on guitar, John Jowitt (IQ, Jadis) on bass and vocalist Paul Wrightson they produced one of prog's masterpieces of all time. This concept album about a man facing a near death experience is really thrilling, both musically and lyrically.

Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band which recorded and performed from 1968 to 1972. The band initially consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty; his brother, rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty; bassist Stu Cook; and drummer Doug Clifford. These members had played together since 1959, first as the Blue Velvets and later as the Golliwogs. Their musical style encompassed roots rock, swamp rock, and blues rock. Creedence Clearwater Revival's music is still a staple of U.S. classic rock radio airplay. Twenty-eight million CCR records have been sold in the United States alone. Rolling Stone ranked them 82nd on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

The Brighton Port Authority is yet one more way that Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim, aka Beats International) has found to gather world-class musical weirdos around him and collaborate with them on the creation of funky, hooky, wave-your-hands-in-the-air dance pop. Unlike his other projects, though, this one apparently stretches way back into the 1970s, when many of the rough tracks on this collection were originally recorded. Over the years, Cook and his collaborator Simon Thornton worked with such disparate singers and songwriters as Iggy Pop, Martha Wainwright, David Byrne and Pete York, and though a good amount of this material was clearly added in much more recently (Dizzee Rascal's contribution to "Toe Jam," for example, is clearly not of 1970s vintage, nor does Iggy Pop sound like the young man he would have been back then), there's a sense of anarchic fun to the proceedings that is very much reminiscent of the best music of the '70s and '80s.

Up Against It! is a 1997 album by Todd Rundgren consisting mostly of song demos he wrote and recorded between 1986 and 1989 for the musical theater adaptation of the never-produced screenplay Up Against It. The play was originally written in 1967 by Joe Orton for the Beatles. This album is Rundgren's score to the stage adaptation of playwright Joe Orton's Up Against It, the unfilmed screenplay originally mooted as the third Beatles film (after Hard Day's Night and Help). They declined it, so he reworked it to lessen their presence, successfully sold it to the producer Oscar Lewenstein, and then was violently murdered by boyfriend Kenneth Halliwell in a notorious murder-suicide.

Illinois Speed Press was a guitar-driven rock quintet on this, their first recording. Produced by Chicago's producer and mentor, James William Guercio, this album sounds at times like Chicago Transit Authority without horns. ISP is important in rock history primarily as the band from which co-leader Paul Cotton emerged to replace Jim Messina in Poco, whom he would help guide to commercial success. "Get in the Wind," later recorded by Poco in a completely different form, rocks hard in this version, while Cotton's "P.N.S. (When You Come Around)" hints at the sound of From the Inside era Poco. The bouncy acoustic number "Here Today" is another highlight, standing out amidst the bluesy rock that makes up the bulk of this recording. The liner notes, designed like a newspaper, were written by Firesign Theatre.

The saying that "life begins at 40" is certainly open to debate – especially if you live in a youth-obsessed culture like the United States. But for jazz artists, there can be some truth in that saying; the history of jazz is full of artists who did some of their best work after 40. Joe Pass is a perfect example; Pass turned 40 in 1969, and the '70s were an amazingly productive time for the late guitar icon (who recorded frequently during that decade thanks to Pablo founder Norman Granz). In fact, Pass did so much recording during the '70s that albums of previously unreleased material were still coming out long after his death from cancer in 1994. Virtuoso in New York, for example, is an album of recordings that went unreleased for 29 years; recorded in 1975, these Granz-produced performances didn't see the light of day until 2004.

By the release of their third album, 1975's Dressed to Kill, Kiss were fast becoming America's top rock concert attraction, yet their record sales up to this point did not reflect their ticket sales. Casablanca label head Neil Bogart decided to take matters into his own hands, and produced the new record along with the band. The result is more vibrant sounding than its predecessor, 1974's sludgefest Hotter Than Hell, and the songs have more of an obvious pop edge to them. The best-known song on the album by far is the party anthem "Rock and Roll All Nite," but it was the track "C'Mon and Love Me" that became a regional hit in the Detroit area, giving the band their first taste of radio success.

Double Platinum is a double-album, 20-track collection that gathers all of Kiss' biggest hits ("Rock and Roll All Nite," "Beth," "Detroit Rock City," "Calling Dr. Love," "Love Gun"), but what makes it an essential retrospective and introduction is that it doesn't overlook key album tracks and concert favorites like "Cold Gin," "Deuce," "Black Diamond," and "She." If "Strutter" was represented by the original version, instead of a pointless 1978 remake – which was recorded only to entice collectors into buying an album of music they already owned – Double Platinum would have been a definitive collection, but as it stands, it's simply a very, very good overview.