Sweet Cut Above The Rest

After recording Level Headed, an album that mostly forsaked their hard rock leanings for pure pop, longtime lead vocalist Brian Connolly left Sweet for good. The rest of the group decided to press on as a trio, combining their pop/rock sound with a variety of other musical styles in a bid to gain a more progressive image. The result was Cut Above the Rest, a bizarre combination of the hard-rocking pop that dominated classic Sweet singles with progressive flights of fancy in a 10cc/Electric Light Orchestra vein, plus a dash of lounge lizard-ish soft rock balladry thrown in to cover all the pop/rock bases. There's no way an album that tries do so many things at once could succeed at all of them, but Cut Above the Rest is a surprisingly listenable affair…

4CD set includes the following albums: Level Headed (1978) Cut Above The Rest (1979) Waters Edge (1980) Identity Crisis (1982) plus some bonus tracks.

Recollections of Britain's arch-glam gods generally inspire two theories of their producers, Mike Chapman and his partner, Nicky Chinn. Either they knew just what they were doing and calculated accordingly, or blindly hit pay dirt, following toothless early singles like "Funny Funny" (none of which grace this disc). By this reckoning, Sweet was a '70s-era pinup band or a closeted hard rock quartet who only got their due after breaking the Chapman/Chinn combination…

Rootsy DC rockers Moonshine Society released their new disc Sweet Thing in late July, through Distrokid and I don’t think it has gotten enough attention. This tight 10-song collection is some of the most remarkably heartfelt roots-rocking I’ve heard this year. The core members of this band, all products of the Berklee School of Music, clearly have the chops to handle this elemental music with confidence and occasionally take it to some powerful and emotional places.

Celebrate the 250th anniversary of Handel's death with this impressive box set. 30-CD box set of the composer's most celebrated works–including the Royal Fireworks and Water Music, The Messiah, concerti grossi and much more! Featuring conductors Sir Neville Marriner, Christopher Hogwood, Trevor Pinnock, Mark Minkowski and others. Performances by the Gabrielli Players, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, English Baroque Soloists and others.

Semele was first presented in London in 1744; it was billed as an oratorio for murky reasons, but indeed it is operatic. I believe that this is the third recording of the work: John Eliot Gardiner’s (on Erato) is severely cut, and although much of the singing is good, it can’t compare with John Nelson’s complete, gorgeous performance (on DG) played on modern instruments. This latter is a lithe, brilliant show with Kathleen Battle in her greatest recording as the vain, self-destructive Semele and Marilyn Horne and Samuel Ramey close to magnificent, with tenor John Aler an elegant if slightly underpowered Jupiter.