Richard Gotainer Perles et Bijoux ( re up New Link)

From the return of Dan K. Brown – the bassist on all their classic efforts from Reach the Beach (1983) to Ink (1991) – to its George Underwood cover art (the painter whose work adorned Reach the Beach and Phantoms), Beautiful Friction is a return to form for the Fixx, the synth-pop-but-almost-prog-rock group who made socially aware angst fly up the charts in the '80s with "Red Skies," "One Thing Leads to Another," and "Saved by Zero." This reunion effort is without a surefire hit like those, and at first listen, it is a bit light on hooks, but lead single "Anyone Else" is strong enough to beckon any longtime fan's return, and the skeletal, funky workout called "Girl with No Ceiling" brings to mind the Phantoms era – kinetic in an "Are We Ourselves" style.

From the notes:"It is often said, not without justification, that Toscanini's performances stand out from those of his contemporaries for what might be called their (for the time) 'modern' approach, which is to say that the excesses of Romantic subjective interpretation were, generally speaking, not for him. What distinguished his readings principally is his extraordinary command of structure, realised through the appositeness of his chosen tempi, very rarely varied, and only then to make a definite musical point, almost as a punctuation in the overall schematic plan, allied to orchestral playing of considerable concentration and commitment. Toscanini never needed to indulge in jejune 'point-making' as an interpretative habit - nor did he countenance it in other conductors." written by Robert Matthew-Walker

As good a parody as "Leader of the Laundromat" was, it wasn't the kind of hit upon which a career could be built. That hit was there to be milked, though, so the Detergents quickly got an album into the market, leading off with "Leader of the Laundromat" of course.

Kenny Rogers & the First Edition's Greatest Hits contains all of the group's greatest hits, including "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In)," plus a number of lesser-known singles. Though the group didn't have enough strong material to make the compilation consistently entertaining, this single-disc collection is nevertheless the definitive retrospective of Rogers' early years.

In the wake of his ascension into the pop Top Ten with the ballad "If Ever You're in My Arms Again," Peabo Bryson might have been expected to try to consolidate that success with his follow-up record. And indeed, Take No Prisoners, produced by such crossover veterans as Arif Mardin and Tommy LiPuma and featuring such pop songwriters as Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, and Tom Snow, may have seemed like a try for that.

Chris Isaak - Forever Blue (1995)
APE(Image + cue) + Log & mp3-320 | EAC Rip | Scans > 46 Mb | ~295 or 94 MB | 5% Recovery
Blues Rock/Southern Rock/Pop Rock | Reprise Records | Cat# 9362-45845-2 | 13 tracks

Without identifying who it was, Isaak made his mood clear with Forever Blue by including a farewell letter in the liner notes to the lover who had dumped him. Kicking things off with the snaky, almost guttural "Baby Did a Bad Bad Thing," later made a theme song for Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut, Isaak lives up to the confused, fractured message in that letter, turning Forever Blue into his own exorcism…

Harold C. Schonberg wrote in the New York Times upon his demise: "Musicians can and will argue about Stokowski's artistry, but no one will dispute the fact that he was one of the greatest conductors of all time. He got things from an orchestra that nobody else could equal, and when he got that amazing mixture of colours, that virtuoso projection, even those who objected to what he was doing were bowled over by how he did it."

Diana Ross' Greatest Hits is an album by Diana Ross released in 1976 on the Motown label. In the UK and certain other territories the album was released under the title Greatest Hits 2 since a similar compilation, Greatest Hits, had already been released in 1972. The album consisting of ten of Ross' greatest hits as a solo artist, became her second album in 1976 to hit the Top Five in the UK. In the United States the album peaked at #13 in the pop charts. Most international editions included two additional tracks on Side A; Ross' UK #1 hit "Surrender" and the 1975 non-album single "Sorry Doesn't Always Make It Right" and also the extended single mix of 1973's "Touch Me in The Morning".