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B'z The Best XXV 1988-1998 is a compilation album by the Japanese hard rock duo B'z. It was released on June 12, 2013, simultaneously with B'z The Best XXV 1999-2012, and it is part of their 25th anniversary celebration. It reached #1 at Oricon charts and Billboard Japan Top Albums…

Z.Z. Hill (1981). The initial step in Hill's amazing rebirth as a contemporary blues star, courtesy of Jackson, Mississippi's Malaco Records and producers Tommy Couch and Wolf Stephenson. The vicious blues outings "Bump and Grind" and "Blue Monday" were the first salvos fired by Hill at the blues market, though much of the set - "Please Don't Make Me (Do Something Bad to You)," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - was solidly in the Southern soul vein.
Bluesmaster (1984). Issued the year he died, Bluesmaster boasted more competent soul-blues hybrids by the man who reenergized the blues idiom with his trademark growl. LaSalle's "You're Ruining My Bad Reputation," "Friday Is My Day" (written by legendary Malaco promo man Dave Clark), and a nice reading of Paul Kelly's slinky "Personally" rate with the standouts.

Down Home is one of the very few classic blues albums of the 1980s. Hill revitalized the genre among African-American listeners with his "Down Home Blues," which earned instant standard status. But the entire album is tremendously consistent, with the percolating R&B workouts "Givin' It Up for Your Love" and "Right Arm for Your Love" contrasting with an intimate "Cheatin' in the Next Room" and the straight-ahead blues "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing" and "When It Rains It Pours."

Keyboardist Tony Z uses the Hammond B-3 organ blues sound and style to paint a new tapestry of music on this disc. The groove on this album is immensely fortified by the formidable presence of Cornell Dupree on guitar, Bernard Purdie on drums and Chuck Rainey on bass as the rhythm section. But instead of aping the tunes and styles of B-3 masters like Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff or Groove Holmes, Tony comes to the plate with a batch of his own songs for this album. With Lenny Pickett emoting soulfully on saxophone and a two-song guest turn from Kim Wilson on harmonica, this session goes into realms previously uncharted by your Hammond B-3 practitioner, retro or otherwise. Highlights include "Voodootize Me Baby," "All Alone," "You Ain't Who You Think You Are" and "Communicate."