Paul M. Vanhoutte Edhf 2002

Gary Numan experienced renewed interest during the late '90s due to a popular remake of "Cars" by electro metallists Fear Factory. As a result, Numan reappeared back from the dead - releasing new albums, launching tours, and winning over new fans. The time was right to issue a brand new Numan compilation (despite the fact that countless career overviews had surfaced throughout the years), as the 29-track double disc Exposure: The Best of Gary Numan 1977-2002 appeared in shops in 2002. Despite what its title would like you to believe, there are quite a few holes here - the majority of the tracks come from Numan's early work. Most Numan fans would agree that his finest work came from this era (circa the late '70s/early '80s)…

Sea Change is the eighth studio album by American alternative rock artist Beck Hansen. Beck has always been known for his ever-changing moods - particularly since they often arrived one after another on one album, sometimes within one song - yet the shift between the neon glitz of Midnite Vultures and the lush, somber Sea Change is startling, and not just because it finds him in full-on singer/songwriter mode, abandoning all of the postmodern pranksterism of its predecessor. What's startling about Sea Change is how it brings everything that's run beneath the surface of Beck's music to the forefront, as if he's unafraid to not just reveal emotions, but to elliptically examine them in this wonderfully melancholy song cycle…

The last of Ace's three compilations devoted to Fulson's Kent product basically combines his late-'60s Now! album with his 1978 Lovemaker album, adding three unissued cuts and a 1972 single. Now! was actually comprised largely of 1967-1968 singles, and it's this material, which takes up the first half of the CD, that holds up best. It's loosey goosey late-'60s blues/soul crossover with a sassy attitude and adroit combinations of stinging blues guitar, strutting vocals, soulful horns, and organ, never heard better than on the opening "I'm a Drifter." Actually the Now! cuts sound better in this grouping than much of his slightly earlier '60s Kent stuff, because they're not as unduly repetitious, though they're filled out with cover versions of familiar tunes like "Funky Broadway," "Let's Go Get Stoned," and "Everyday I Have the Blues"…

Mozart's fourth opera - written when he was only 14 - displays all the hallmarks of the fresh, inventive writing that was to flourish into extraordinary genius in his later works and, with a cast as good as this, The Royal Opera's production takes Mitridate, re di Ponto to the highest levels of operatic achievement. Based on a play by Jean Racine, it is a story of jealous love and political intrigue.

There's something affecting about Lightnin' Hopkins' off-the-cuff approach. Whether he's in the studio or before an audience, he gives the impression of a guitar player and singer who's just doing his own thing. When he breaks out a signature piece like "Mojo Hand," he isn't really trying to impress the listener as much as do what he does best: just play a little blues. Recorded in 1965, Live at Newport captures Hopkins in a loose mood communing with an appreciative audience. The mostly solo electric set apparently didn't cause any controversy (as Dylan's electric set with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band would in 1965). The nice thing about the album is that all the material seems to have come from the same set, giving the listener a taste of what seeing Hopkins at Newport might have been like…