Hold Me While I

The Story of My LIfe stands out among latter-day Irma Thomas albums not only because she gives a consistently excellent performance, but because the record boasts three new songs from Dan Penn, who wrote some of the greatest soul songs of the '60s. While his new songs ("Hold Me While I Cry," "I Count the Teardrops," "I Won't Cry for You") aren't quite as strong as his best, they are nevertheless wonderful contemporary soul numbers, and they help make the record, the remainder of which is comprised of covers and slightly weaker new numbers, one of Thomas' best latter-day albums.

103rd installment of the hugely popular 'Now That's What I Call Music!' series, featuring 40 UK chart hits from the present day, as well as a small selection of bonus, throwback tracks from 'Now That's What I Call Music! 3', in celebration of 35 years since that volume's release.

Steven Brown - Music For Solo Piano (1984)
Avant-garde | EAC AccurateRip / FLAC / LOG, CUE | 170 MB | Album art | MP3 320kbps / 44100Hz | 42:42 | 69 MB
Steven Brown - Music For Solo Piano (1984)

The Tuxedomoon band was formed in 1977 out of San Francisco, with original members Steven Brown, Blaine Reininger, Peter Principle and Winston Tong establishing a sound and concept that to many listeners was just as much a part of the original Ralph records aesthetic as the much better-known Residents band. Tuxedomoon signed with Ralph and released the albums Half Mute and Desire in 1980 and 1981 respectively, during a period when the label was pumping a fortune into cryptic advertising in the type of mainstream periodicals previously off limits to indie labels. Soon thereafter, Brown and company relocated to Europe in order to focus on purely avant garde concerns, beginning with residencies in Rotterdam and Brussels. The group's subsequent output appeared on a grab-bag of labels, with the ambitious 1982 "Ghost Sonata", described as "an opera without words," remaining an opera withou a release for nearly a decade.

Dr. Ebbetts specializes in releasing digital remasterings from long-deleted and hard-to-obtain vinyl records, particularly issues from the audiophile Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs (MFSL) label. Although the Ebbetts catalogue has many artists, it is most known for Beatles CDs transferred from the best quality MFSL releases, US releases and mono vinyl sources. While lables like Millenium, BEAT, Mirror Spock and Fabulous Sound Labs (FSL) also issue 'needle drops' of Beatles vinyl, Dr. Ebbetts is regarded by many audiophiles as being the highest quality. For those interested in the technical, one source close to the Dr says that Ebbetts says that he uses no noise reduction and that there's no magic formula…just a good ear and patience.