Coach €“ No.10 Australia 2013 P2p

As one of the biggest-selling artists of all time, perhaps it was only a matter of time before Billy Joel was subjected to a romantically themed collection, and so came She's Got a Way: Love Songs, released just in time for Valentine's Day 2013. This 18-track collection reveals an odd truth about Joel: he didn't write all that many love songs. A few of his biggest hits are love songs but only a few: the early song "She's Got a Way," which wasn't a hit until its Songs in the Attic incarnation in the early '80s; "Just the Way You Are," an unabashedly romantic soft rock staple that helped make him a star in the mid-'70s; "This Is the Time," a gently nostalgic song from The Bridge; "The Night Is Still Young," an added cut to 1986's Greatest Hits, Vols. 1 & 2.

Albert King recorded a lot in the early '60s, including some classic sides, but they never quite hit the mark. They never gained a large audience, nor did they really capture the ferocity of his single-string leads. Then he signed with Stax in 1966 and recorded a number of sessions with the house band, Booker T. & the MG's, and everything just clicked. The MG's gave King supple Southern support, providing an excellent contrast to his tightly wound lead guitar, allowing to him to unleash a torrent of blistering guitar runs that were profoundly influential, not just in blues, but in rock & roll (witness Eric Clapton's unabashed copping of King throughout Cream's Disraeli Gears).

A Grave With No Name - Whirlpool (2013) {Stare Records STARE001CD}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 220 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 73 Mb
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© 2013 Stare Records | STARE001CD
Rock / Indie Rock

With this third LP, Alex Shields has graduated from his London bedroom into a full-on studio project. Still, traces remain of his earlier lo-fi introspection, especially in the acoustic dreaminess of ‘Bones’, ‘Streams’, and the Perfume Genius-esque beautiful dysfunction of ‘Balloons’. But elsewhere – notably the syrupy shoegaze of ‘Aurora’ and the slacker-pop of ‘Origami’ – ‘Whirlpool’ steps into the outside world. Guest appearances from Echo Lake’s Linda Jarvis and Ides’ Alanna McArdle bolster that confident atmopshere and, while some songs are forgettable, there are some gems.

Porter Wagoner - The Bottom Of The Bottle (1968) & Confessions Of A Broken Man (1966) (2013) {Omni Recording OMNI-173}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 458 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 187 Mb
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© 1966-68, 2013 RCA Victor / The Omni Recording Corporation | OMNI - 173
Country / Nashville Sound / Country Pop / Traditional Country

Not only does it sport one of the greatest album covers of all time, but 1968’s ‘The Bottom Of The Bottle’ is also one of the very finest of Porter Wagoner’s legendary string of concept LPs. Alcoholic cautionary-tales fashioned from pedal steel, string bass and pure pathos – Porter’s cast of inebriates shuffle from barstool to gutter to grave. ‘Wino’ opens proceedings with surreal back-alley sound-scapes and heart-rending narration, ‘Daddy And The Wine’ charts the downfall of a heart-broken man and ‘One Dime For The Wine’ a rural man’s obliteration in the faceless urban jungle.

Though there are many beautiful singing voices in jazz today, Viktoria Tolstoy is one of a kind. A great melodramatist of jazz who is also bipolar, she makes happiness sound fragile and threatened, and bitterness sweet and enchanting. She has framed and perfected this art on a conceptual level since becoming an ACT artist in 2003, whether concentrating on material from Esbjörn Svensson – whose e.s.t. began to some extent as her accompanying trio – or, most recently, on Herbie Hancock, classical originals, Swedish standards or repertoire from Russia, the home of her ancestors.

The dynamic young French-Canadian conductor records the symphony that has played a central role in his remarkable career.brbrYannick Nezet-Seguin first heard it live in Montreal at the age of eight. It was the work he chose for his debut with both the Orchestre Meetropolitain du Grand Montreeal and the Philadelphia Orchestra.brbrConducting this quintessentially Russian music with the Rotterdam Philharmonic acknowledges his predecessor on the podium, Valery Gergiev, as well as showcasing the depth and refinement of the Dutch orchestras rich textures.brbrYannick Nezet-Seguin admires Tchaikovsky not just as a composer of heart-breaking melodies but also as a master symphonist.

After six years of absence from the studio, Scottish progressive rock singer Fish has returned with a startling level of inspiration in the form of 2013's A Feast of Consequences. Fish's first album since 2007's Thirteenth Star was released after experiencing events that would be nothing less than traumatic for most people - going through both the end of a marriage and a throat cancer scare in a narrow window of time can't be easy, but as we saw on Marillion's Clutching at Straws, Fish's personal struggles often inspire some of his strongest work. A Feast of Consequences once again demonstrates this to be true. The album shows Fish continuing to mature the sound that he has been toying with for most of his solo career. Sophisticated art rock characterized by melodic songwriting, witty lyricism, and influences from folk music is the name of the game on A Feast of Consequences…

Aurra - A Little Love (1981) {2013 Remastered & Expanded Reissue - Big Break Records CDBBR0239}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 500 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 165 Mb
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© 1981, 2013 Verse Music / Big Break Records / Cherry Red Records | CDBBR 0239
R&B / Funk / Post-Disco / Soul

BBR delves deeper into the vaults of Salsoul Records to bring you AURRA – A LITTLE LOVE! AURRA began as a spinoff from the R&B Funk group Slave in 1980 and featured members Curt Jones, Staleana Young, Charles Carter and Budd Hankerson. AURRA recorded three albums for Salsoul during the 80s and tasted chart success with their first offering, Send Your Love when "Are You Single” reached #16 on the R&B charts.