My 2 Years at Oxford

Howard Jones at the BBC is a new five-CD box set that features a wealth of BBC Sessions and live concert broadcasts that focuses on the classic, early part of Jones’ career.

An impressive collection, Granite Years: Best of 1986-1997 contains over two hours of the finest Oysterband has to offer. Frequently, such comprehensive releases are the cause for debate among the most devoted fans. But that is not the scenario surrounding this release. From Step Outside's "Hal-an-Tow" to Wide Blue Yonder's "The Oxford Girl" to Holy Bandits' "Blood Wedding" to Deep Dark Ocean's "Native Son," this release hits all of the key tracks by this legendary British folk-rock band. If there is any drawback, it is that no track from their 1991 release, From Little Rock to Leipzig, was included and a whopping seven tracks from their previous best-of release, Trawler, grace the track list of this two-CD set. It should be clarified that Trawler was a collection of re-recorded favorites that originally appeared on previous albums. That's a minor detail that won't matter to the uninitiated and is easily overlooked by the hardcore fan simply due to the preponderance of superb material found within these 30 tracks.

Joseph and his Brethren, the latest in The King's Consort's mammoth series of recordings of the grand oratorios of Handel, tells the story of Joseph, sold into slavery by his perfidious brothers, winning acceptance at the court of Pharaoh in Egypt by his interpretation of the dreams foretelling seven years of plenty, and seven of famine. His brothers come from drought-ridden Israel to beg for food, and are eventually reunited with Joseph. The work is characteristically full of melodic invention and drama, culminating in the scene between Joseph and his youngest—and innocent—brother Benjamin (here sung by the stunning treble Connor Burrowes) in which Joseph is emotionally overcome and admits his true identity. No wonder the work was so warmly received at its first performance.

`The Early Years 79-81' box set represents the band's first two albums, `On Through The Night' (1980) and `High `N' Dry' (1981), and has been prepared in conjunction with singer Joe Elliott who has acted as executive producer on the set. This set comes with 5-CDs consisting of the original albums remastered, B-sides, rarities and re-mix versions, Radio One sessions, Live from Reading and the first ever appearance of an unreleased and newly mixed show from Oxford in 1980.