Chorus & Mandolins The Most Beautiful Serenades (2cd, 2012)

40 Most Beautiful Arias is a two volume series of some of opera's greatest classics. This was released in 2008 by Warner Classics & Jazz.

Considering his last genuine hit was way back in 1997, Michael Bolton's back catalog has been the subject of a surprisingly high number of compilations. If you're wondering what 2012 collection Gems: The Very Best Of can offer what the other 20-odd flooding the market haven't already, the answer is not a lot. Indeed, apart from the substitution of "That's What Love Is All About" for his take on Bill Withers' "Lean on Me," its 17 tracks are exactly the same as his hugely successful Greatest Hits 1985-1995 (albeit in a different order). It therefore means that the 11 studio albums he's recorded since are entirely ignored, but with only one of his 17 U.S. Top 40 hits ("Go the Distance") charting outside that time frame,

The Voices: The Romantic Classical Songs is a 2CD compilation of classical and opera artists performing songs from the pop music realms. This was released by Universal Music Thailand.

AVID Jazz here presents four classic Jimmy Raney albums plus including original LP liner notes on a finely re-mastered and low priced double CD. A much travelled jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1927, the son of a prominent newspaperman. Starting his musical career in 1944 with the Jerry Wald band, Jimmy would spend time with among others Max Miller and Lou Levy, toured with Woody Herman, worked with Al Haig, Buddy De Franco and Artie Shaw and in 1950 joined up with the Stan Getz Quintet to produce a unique sounding combo sound during their two years together. By 1953 he was on the move again this time hooking up with Red Norvo.

The Best Of Blues is a 2012 compilation of what is claimed to be some of the best blues songs to be recorded in the history of recorded technology but are they truly the best? You make the choice.

Uncovered! 45 Tracks is a 2CD Beatles bootleg released in 2012 on His Master's Choice, a label related to Trademark Of Quality (TMOQ/TMQ). The songs are a mixture of different mixes and alternate mixes, along with a few "outfakes" that sound quite good.

This two-disc set is a live retrospective featuring 29 mostly (though not entirely) acoustic renditions of Kinks classics and obscurities, and possesses a poignancy and generosity of spirit that raises it several notches above standard Unplugged-style fare. The band's gracefully low-key reinterpretations of relative obscurities like "Picture Book," "Days," "Do You Remember Walter," and "Death of A Clown" are enough to blow a decade and a half's worth of arena-rock dust off the band's reputation. The group's updating of their early punk anthem "I'm Not Like Everybody Else" carries new levels of resonance that the band could scarcely have dreamed of in 1964. The two new studio recordings are a bit slight, but they sport an unfussed sweetness that's hard to argue with.

Alastair Sooke takes an in-depth look at the art of the Roman Empire.