It Aint't Easy

For a brief moment at the start of the '90s, everyone seemed to be doing the retro-rock thing, and while most bands were digging back to the late '60s for inspiration, the Four Horsemen's ambitions went no further than the late '70s – more specifically AC/DC. There's not a single original riff on all of their first full album, Nobody Said It Was Easy, mind you, but the band's raunchy guitars and gritty delivery make up for this in spades. And had he not been arrested seemingly every six months for one misdemeanor or another, outlaw frontman Frank Starr may have even challenged Axl Rose for his "king of the bad boys" crown. Starr's whiskey and broken glass vocal style literally ignites the album's best moments, including the title track, "Can't Stop Rockin'," and the incredible "Rockin' Is Ma' Business." And while "Hot Head lifts its main riff directly from AC/DC's "Rock'n'Roll Damnation," the slightly more original "Tired Wings" actually received some MTV rotation thanks to its mellower Southern rock vibe and slide guitars.

Easy Living marks the return of veteran composer and trumpeter Enrico Rava to the roster of Manfred Eicher's ECM label after a 17-year break. Rava is regarded by many as the father of modern Italian jazz, and on Easy Living it's easy to see why. Rava's consummate, innovative lyricism and subtle yet profound harmonic inquiry lie at the heart of the Italian music in all of its manifestations, from post- and neo-bop to free and avant-garde articulations. Recorded at home in Udine with the same band he's been gigging with for the past four years, Easy Living is a relaxed, low-key affair that is nonetheless fully engaged and deceptive in its pastoral appearance.