Power metal veterans Metal Church got a real boost with Mike Howe re-joining the legendary power metal band from the west coast. "XI" was a fantastic studio album that was followed by mind-blowing live shows, presenting a band that's celebrating metal with each note played…
Released on New Year’s Day 2017, DREAM TOGETHER found immediate praise from WFMU’s Liz Berg as “just a great album for winter” and USC filmmaker and author Alexandra Dennis-Renner writing on the day of its release “in light of a new year, I encourage everybody to snap up a copy of Bipolar Explorer's new album, "Dream Together", that dropped with the ball today. Every song on "Dream Together" is a reminder that the end of one thing is not necessarily the beginning of something new–not a hard reset–but the continuation of what was through the lens of what could be. What will be. And proof that there is always love, hope, and strength in that journey. There's something here for you and you are loved.”
The Knack attempted to update the Beatles sound for the new wave era on their debut – a good idea that was well executed, but critics cried "foul" when millions sold after Capitol's pre-release hype (it went gold in 13 days and eventually sold five million copies, making it one of the most successful debuts in history)…
Paul Weller will release his 13th studio album, A Kind Revolution, in May and there’s some great formats at various price points… The album is a prompt follow-up to 2015’s Saturns Pattern and features contributions from the likes of PP Arnold, Boy George and Robert Wyatt.
Tomas Luis de Victoria and Josquin Desprez were not contemporaries, they lived and worked in different countries, and perhaps shared little in terms of abstract compositional style. Yet throughout Europe, generations of musicians recognized them as kindred spirits, and tablature versions of their masses and motets circulated amongst lutenists. For John Potter, this is “the secret life of the music – in historical terms its real life.” In this characteristically creative project Potter - joined by Trio Mediaeval singer Anna Maria Friman and three outstanding vihuela players - explores “what happens to music after it is composed.”