Eve And The Merman (1965)

On 2018’s Chris, French singer-songwriter Héloïse Adelaïde Letissier embodied a masculine alter ego to cover a variety of subjects. With this five-track follow-up EP, Letissier leaves the Chris persona behind and gets a little more personal. On “Je disparais dans tes bras” [“I disappear in your arms”], she rejects a lover’s mixed messages over a kinetic beat—doubling down on 2019’s dance-floor sizzler with Charli XCX “Gone.” “People, I’ve been sad” and “Nada” are more measured and thoughtful, with Letissier opening up about painful childhood memories and heartbreak with vulnerability. She sings, “Voglio fare l'amore con questa canzone” [“I want to make love with this song”] in Italian on the bubbly, synth-driven title track featuring Caroline Polachek, exuding a playfulness that is hard to resist.

This release collects two of Toots & the Maytals' finest releases of the mid-'70s: Funky Kingston, generally viewed as their finest album, and its follow-up, In the Dark. This is some of the finest music of the rocksteady era, and with improved sound over the individual album releases, a great place to start for Toots & the Maytals or the rocksteady movement in general.

Layla stands as one of a handful of pillars of classic rock. The short-lived ensemble that was the Dominos provided an outlet for Eric Clapton to vent his then unrequited (and secret) passion for the wife of his best friend, George Harrison. Romantic anguish inspired Clapton to write and collect an embroiling and interconnected song cycle. Meanwhile, latecomer Duane Allman prodded Clapton to tear it up on guitar, so as not to be overwhelmed by his even more talented foil. Of course, Clapton eventually won the hand of his lady love. And then he divorced her. Sometimes real life messes up a good plot line. ~ Steve Stolder

Nick Cave is a singular figure in contemporary rock music; he first emerged as punk rock was making its presence known in Australia, but though he's never surrendered his status as a provocateur and a musical outlaw, he quickly abandoned the simplicity of punk for something grander and more literate, though no less punishing in its outlook…

Gerry & the Pacemakers are fated to eternal comparisons to the Beatles, their onetime Merseybeat rivals who rapidly eclipsed the quartet in popularity and accomplishment, leaving them as something of a pop culture punchline. In the wake of the Beatles, it was hard to look back at Gerry Marsden and his irrepressibly cheerful music and think it was in the same league as the Fab Four, or any of the British Invasion groups that followed. That may be true, but Gerry & the Pacemakers shouldn't be judged against such R&B-schooled rockers as the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks but rather against the stiff, starched rock & roll of pre-Beatles Britain. Compared to this prim, proper pop, the skiffle beats and bouncy melodies of Gerry & the Pacemakers seem fresh, almost serving as a bridge between formative English rock and the bright blast of the Beatles…