Roger Rosenblatt Cold Moon

EU-only eight disc (seven CDs+DVD) box set from the former Pink Floydian. Contains all of his solo studio work to date plus his live album In The Flesh. Features: The Pros And Cons Of Hitch-Hiking (1984), Radio Kaos (1987) Amused To Death (1992), In The Flesh (two CDs/2000) and Ca Ira (two CDs/2005). Also includes the live In The Flesh DVD recorded June 27th, 2000 at the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon. Roger Waters was a primary creative force in Pink Floyd from 1965 to 1983.

Based on Paul Theroux's Doctor Slaughter, Half Moon Street is motivated by the moneymaking schemes of the heroine, Ph.D. researcher Laura Slaughter (Sigourney Weaver). Stuck in a low-paying government job in London, Laura decides to increase her bank account by working for what is euphemistically termed an "escort service." It is understood that her duties go above and beyond mere hand-holding, and Laura has no problem with this. Michael Caine enters the scene as Lord Bulbeck, a high-ranking British diplomat with whom Laura forms a "special" bond. Little does she know that she is being set up in a power-grabbing scheme masterminded by oil-rich sheik Karim Hatami (Nadim Sawalha).

Best known for his stint fronting art pop hitmakers Supertramp, Roger Hodgson was born in Portsmouth, England, on March 21, 1950. While growing up in Oxford, Hodgson started playing guitar before he was a teenager, and was soon writing songs while at boarding school…

With songs unleashed from the soul of Roger Daltrey, Under a Raging Moon is a short voyage into the psyche of an aging rock star who has plenty to reveal. Daltrey's bitterness about growing older while gasping for every last breath of a youth gone by gives this album heart and a certain emotional dimension, coming to a head on the title track. His thunderous but passionate ode to his former friend and drummer Keith Moon is a fervent downpour of frustration that can be truly felt inside every line of the song. A spectacular drum solo from Mark Brzezicki is a modest tribute to the late Moon and adds depth indefinitely. A multitude of drummers appear on the album, musically paying their respects, including Cozy Powell, Roger Taylor, and Stewart Copeland. The guitar slashing "Let Me Down Easy," penned by Bryan Adams, is a perfectly formulated rock song intensified through Daltrey's energy. While this song and all of the others act as outlets for his pent up anger, each one is sung, and sometimes screamed, with genuine passion and heart. Even the slower songs, like "The Pride You Hide," display a moving amount of sincerity. Not every song is a treasure, but all contain a intangible character that only Daltrey can muster. –by Mike DeGagne, allmusic.com

If you ever wondered what ambient music is all about, you could do worse than listen to the soundtrack by Brian Eno that accompanied the stunning visuals of NASA's Apollo missions to the moon. Created with an intoxicating mixture of acoustic and electronic, the music makes the now-classic space travel images more magical and memorable, introducing a dreamlike element to scenes of cold reality. "An Ending (Ascent)" is about as close to an actual tune as you'll get, but, as with every track, a shining example of what ambient music reveals about itself–slowly and carefully. – Paul Clark