Ordinary Joe

Considering his 45 and counting years doggedly playing blues and blues-rock with a mind-numbing assortment of backing musicians in Savoy Brown, it's unfortunate and unfair that U.K. guitarist Kim Simmonds isn't given more respect in the music world. That is partially due to bad choices and an array of ordinary, sometimes subpar albums that have cropped up on a variety of small or difficult-to-find imprints throughout the decades. Simmonds has trudged on, beaten but undeterred in the understanding that he will likely never regain the theater-headlining status his group achieved in its late-'60s/early-'70s prime.

Philips's collection of major works that have propelled Gavin Bryars to New Music stardom is an effective overview of his music. The longest work is his Cello Concerto, handsomely played by Julian Lloyd Webber with a big, colorful tone and sustained intensity throughout its contemplative half-hour. A comparable mood pervades the bright tintinnabulating textures of the whimsically titled One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing. Similar as well, in their attractive serenity and suppressed sadness, are many of the other works here, prime among them the viola concerto in all but name, The North Shore, a tone painting of the rugged cliffs of northeast England. Adnan Songbook, settings of six poems by Lebanese poet Etel Adnan, are beautifully sung by soprano Valerie Anderson and delicately scored for a small ensemble. Bryars's biggest hits, The Sinking of the Titanic and Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, have inspired him to numerous reworkings and capsuled fragments. They're represented by Titanic Lament, depicting a hymn tune dissolving into gray, watery textures, and two very different four-minute versions of Jesus' Blood, both with Tom Waits.

Richard Jones’s radical new production of Lohengrin was the talk of the 2009 Munich Festival. It was also a triumph for Jonas Kaufmann in the title role — “the finest heldentenor since Jon Vickers” (La Scena Musicale). Die Welt added that they “could not think of any cast more perfectly matched, so youthfully enthralling, in short: so wonderful …”. With striking costumes and designs by Ultz —and directed by Maestro Kent Nagano — it represents a bold new Lohengrin for today’s world.

Green Day - Revolution Radio (2016) {Reprise Records 9362-49200-6}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 338 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 105 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 156 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Reprise Records / Warner | 9362-49200-6
Rock / Punk Rock Revival / Pop Punk / Alternative Rock

Green Day imploded after the December 2012 release of Tre, the final part of a triple-album project. The very unwieldiness of Uno, Dos, and Tre – all released in rapid succession in the autumn of 2012 – suggested that Green Day were perhaps suffering from a lack of focus, but the group wound up taking a forced hiatus once leader Billie Joe Armstrong entered rehab in the middle of the triple-album rollout. Given all this chaos, it's hard not to view 2016's Revolution Radio as a consolidation, a way for the band to shake off all distractions and get back to basics. Discarded alongside the mess and garage rock affectations that marked Uno, Dos, and Tre is any sense of concept at all – a marked departure from their work of the past 15 years.

Green Day imploded after the December 2012 release of Tre, the final part of a triple-album project. The very unwieldiness of Uno, Dos, and Tre – all released in rapid succession in the autumn of 2012 – suggested that Green Day were perhaps suffering from a lack of focus, but the group wound up taking a forced hiatus once leader Billie Joe Armstrong entered rehab in the middle of the triple-album rollout. Given all this chaos, it's hard not to view 2016's Revolution Radio as a consolidation, a way for the band to shake off all distractions and get back to basics. Discarded alongside the mess and garage rock affectations that marked Uno, Dos, and Tre is any sense of concept at all – a marked departure from their work of the past 15 years…