Shoot Me #14, April 2014

One of the most revered and oft-overlooked bands to emerge from the fertile '70s English hard rock scene, shape-shifting space metal veterans UFO have issued their fair share of compilations, but this ten-piece box set from Rhino leaves little to the imagination. The Complete Studio Albums 1974-1986 includes the records Phenomenon (1974), Force It (1975), No Heavy Petting (1976), Lights Out (1977), Obsession (1978), No Place to Run (1980), The Wild, the Willing and the Innocent (1981), Mechanix (1982), Making Contact (1983), and Misdemeanor (1985) in their entireties.

It was designed to be a blockbuster and it was. Prior to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John had hits – his second album, Elton John, went Top Ten in the U.S. and U.K., and he had smash singles in "Crocodile Rock" and "Daniel" – but this 1973 album was a statement of purpose spilling over two LPs, which was all the better to showcase every element of John's spangled personality…

Despite leaving Iron Maiden for a spell in the '90s, Bruce Dickinson's solo efforts were not that dramatically different than his albums with Maiden. In fact, quite a few tracks could have fit on such albums as Fear of the Dark with no problem. Thus, it shouldn't come as a surprise that two live sets from Dickinson's '90s solo era sound as if he's fronting Iron Maiden. In 2005, these concert sets, 1995's Alive in Studio A/Alive at the Marquee and 1999's Scream for Me Brazil, were compiled together as a three-disc set, Alive…