Make Volume 69

Rod Stewart has been mining the Great American Songbook for the better part of a decade, so it would only make sense that he would get a little bit better as time goes by. And, by some stroke of fate, Fly Me to the Moon – the fifth installment in this never-ending series and first since 2005, as Rod spent the back half of the 2000s taking songbook detours into rock and soul – is Stewart’s best album in the entire serie…

Rod Stewart has been mining the Great American Songbook for the better part of a decade, so it would only make sense that he would get a little bit better as time goes by. And, by some stroke of fate, Fly Me to the Moon – the fifth installment in this never-ending series and first since 2005, as Rod spent the back half of the 2000s taking songbook detours into rock and soul – is Stewart’s best album in the entire series…

Although volume four of RPM's Dream Babes series of 1960s British girl group sides gets further into obscure flops than its predecessors, there's barely any drop in the quality, which remains good, though hardly great. And as with most of the rest of the songs on this series, the production's better than the singers or the material. That's not to say there aren't some pretty good cuts on this 22-song anthology, some of them explicitly derivative of the American girl group sound (like the Chantelles' cracking "I Want That Boy," a cover of an obscure U.S. single by Sadina), others taking a pop-soul approach, others mixing in some British beat music.

On his stellar debut LP for Mute, NIN keyboardist and formidable solo artist, Alessandro Cortini taps into a poignantly melodic yet ascetic vein of his prized, gauzy style. 'Volume Massimo,' combines his fondness for melody with the rigour of experimental practice that follows on from 2017's universally acclaimed album ‘Avanti. 8 tracks of deftly arranged synthesizers saturated with sonic artefacts and luscious pop sensibilities.

This is the second of four volumes of the complete recorded output of Def Leppard available as a 7-CD box set. The box features the albums Adrenalize, RetroActive, Slang, Euphoria (never before on vinyl) and Rarities Vol. 2 and 3, both specially compiled by Joe Elliott…

This is a good CD to introduce someone to Chicago or to let them know who it was who sang songs like "25 or 6 to 4" or "Saturday in the Park" (perhaps 2 of their most recognisable songs). This collection features exclusively the original (and the best) lineup of Peter Cetera…