Cracks 2009

This was one of my favorite albums in it's time. I never understood why it was never more popular than it was. I found out that this debut album came out at the same time many established bands released albums, and it fell throught the cracks. I looked for this in cd for about 4 years,and was more than happy to get it again. One of the great 3 man bands in my opinion, it rocks. Paul

Review by Paul Lang – Amazon

BBC - Wild Boys: The Story of Duran Duran (2009)
HDTV | 1024x576 | .MKV/AVC @ 1514 Kbps | 48mn 33s | Audio: English AAC 132 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English | 583 MiB
Genre: Documentary

Duran Duran came out of Birmingham and conquered the world during the 1980s. Originally a New Romantic band in full make-up and cossack pants, they rapidly became bedroom pin-ups for a generation of teenage girls. Led by Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes and John Taylor, Duran Duran dominated the British and American charts in the mid 1980s with classic singles such as Rio, Save a Prayer and Wild Boys. Pioneers of the MTV-style promo video - from the X-rated Girls on Film to Raiders of the Lost Ark spoof Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran were the 80s equivalent of the Beatles in America and outsold Spandau Ballet and Wham! in their pomp. 60 million records later, Le Bon and Rhodes are seen touring America with their Pop Trash project from the early 2000s. The documentary reflects on the heady heights of Duran Duran's career, the cracks in their make-up plus the effects of sex, drugs and fame on ordinary boys from working class backgrounds. Apart from the key Durannies - Le Bon, Rhodes and John Taylor - the programme also features celebrity interviews with Debbie Harry, Yasmin Le Bon, Duran Duran managers Paul and Michael Berrow, Claudia Schiffer, Nile Rodgers and Lou Reed.

Duran Duran - The Singles 81-85 (2009) [3CD] {EMI Records}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.37 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 443 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 111 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 EMI Records | 5099968431723
Pop / New Wave / New Romantic / Synth Pop

This triple box features all 13 singles released during their first four years including seven inch single mixes, extended mixes and b-sides. Features the hits 'Rio', 'Hungry Like The Wolf', 'The Wild Boys', 'Girls On Film', 'Save A Prayer', 'Is There Something I Should Know', 'The Reflex' and many more. Even if you already own 'Decade' or 'Greatest' this compilation is still worth getting, since it contains so many great remixed/extended versions of classic Duran tracks. I particularly like the 'night versions' (shouldn't that be 'nite versions'?) of the 'Duran Duran' and 'Rio' singles, which I much prefer to the 'dance mixes' of the later singles (I'm sure I read somewhere that in the early days, the band would actually re-record the extended versions of their singles from scratch).

Ike & Tina Turner - The Archive Series Volumes 1 - 6 (2009) {6CD Set Yellow Label-SPV Digitally remastered}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.04 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 804 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 186 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2009 Yellow Label / SPV GmbH
R&B / Funk / Soul / Rock'n Roll

SPV launched their series of archival Ike & Tina Turner collections with this double-disc set, which curiously enough is the least interesting installment in the program so far. The Archive Series, Vols. 1 & 2: Hits and Classics is devoted to songs already familiar to casual listeners, but the only real-deal Ike & Tina hits included on this set are "It's Gonna Work Out Fine," "Nutbush City Limits," "Proud Mary," and "River Deep, Mountain High" (the latter two each appearing twice), while nearly everything else is a cover of a tune associated with another artist.

Pianist, educator, improviser, and composer Ran Blake has made 39 albums since 1961. He has recorded in many settings from solo to big band, and like any true jazz musician worth his salt, he has embraced the entire historical lineage of the music from New Orleans through bebop to the avant-garde and beyond, creating a very personal signature in his playing and in his recordings. Blake has recorded for over a dozen labels in his long career, and his most recent tenure with New York's tiny Tompkins Square imprint - better known for its recordings of acoustic guitarists and obscure folk and country musicians - has yielded astonishing results, as evidenced by 2006's All That Is Tied. Driftwoods is his second offering for the label, and stands both in sharp contrast to the previous offering and as a logical extension of it…

October of 2008 already saw a Best of Annie Lennox hit the streets in Europe, and in early 2009 those of us Stateside get the Annie Lennox Collection, which boasts enough hit singles to keep the punters happy, as well as a few keen B-sides to make the late-coming collectors to Lennox's work pick this up as well. While ubiquitous hits such as "Walking on Broken Glass" and "Sing" are included here, it's great that the set's compilers thought to add non-full-length selections such as "Love Song for a Vampire" to this mix. Her stellar covers such as the reading of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and the Freeman-Hughes standard "No More "I Love You's" are in the mix as well, making this a very well-rounded collection.