Lyrics: Around The World

Shakatak's 40th Anniversary 3xCD and DVD set featuring: CD 1 - First 20 years retrospective; CD 2 - Favourite 21st Century tracks chosen by each band member + 4 brand new songs; CD3 - It's all Live -+ Bill Sharpe demos DVD of classic 1980's promo videos.

The fifth studio album from Welsh quintet Super Furry Animals was their most commercially successful to date. A musically eclectic record, incorporating pop, prog, punk, jungle, electronica, techno and death metal, the album was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize in 2001 and named as Mojo's best album in the same year. Their major label debut album peaked at #3 on the UK album chart on release, supported by singles '(Running) Rings Around The World', 'It's Not The End of the World' and 'Juxtapozed With You'. Paul McCartney and John Cale make cameo appearances on the album too.

Culled from various live recordings Junior Wells made in his final year or so, Live Around the World: The Best Of is not a "best-of." Instead, it intends to present the legendary Chicago bluesman in a late-career renaissance - or, as Donald E. Wilcock says in his affectionate liner notes, "This album is not the last gasps of a dying legend." To a certain extent that's true, because Wells does not sound tired, weary, or disengaged. He turns in spirited, energetic performances throughout and his harp playing remains a marvel, never following expected routes, always melodic and invigorating. That doesn't mean the album itself is invigorating, something that is a worthy bookend to Hoodoo Man Blues, since it suffers from the problem that plagues so many contemporary blues albums - clean, precise production with perfectly separated instruments, plus the band's tendency to veer into funk vamps instead of dirty grooves…

A lost new wave classic given the definitive reissue treatment. The (Hypothetical) Prophets were a collaboration between French electronic pioneer Bernard Szajner and British musician Karel Beer, recording something of a Soviet-themed concept album under the pseudonyms Joseph Weil and Norman D.Landing.

Assembled from various shows from various tours from around the world, 2016's Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World is billed as ZZ Top's first "full-length live album" – a matter of dispute considering how Eagle Rock released three CD/DVD/Blu-ray combo sets between 2008 and 2014. There is no visual component to Live: Greatest Hits from Around the World, which may be how it skates around the first live album distinction – if there's no video, this is a pure album – but the record mines a similar musical vein, collecting highlights from latter-day ZZ Top tours. During the 2000s and 2010s, ZZ Top released an excellent studio album called La Futura, but that's ignored here in favor for all the songs that are classic rock staples.

Following an album of originals (The Lucky Ones) and the holiday LP Evergreen, both released in 2021, Pentatonix turn out another dedicated Christmas set, Holidays Around the World, their sixth career seasonal album. Despite its name, it's loaded with traditional carols and English-language classics spanning "Jingle Bells" and "Last Christmas," however, its diverse list of guest performers include Congolese gospel singer Grace Lokwa ("Love Came on Christmas [Joy to the World x Kumama Papa])," Lebanese singer/actress Hiba Tawaji ("Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"), Filipino crossover star Lea Salonga ("Christmas in Our Hearts"), and J-pop duo Hikakin & Seikin, among others. Fellow American Meghan Trainor kicks things off with the cheerful "Kid on Christmas," one of the album's three original songs. The other new songs, the wistful "Star on Top" and power ballad "Prayers for This World," are performed by the a cappella group alone.

This is one of the best Christmas compilations for the classical music lover I know of, and far ahead of similar CDs from RCA Living Stereo, Nimbus, and Decca/London. Tracing over some 90 years of recorded sound, some of the highlights include: A nice, if somewhat saccherine, performance of "White Christmas" by, believe it or not, Nelson Eddy.