Taipei 101: The Tallest of The Tall

The Kinks came into their own as album artists - and Ray Davies fully matured as a songwriter - with The Kink Kontroversy, which bridged their raw early British Invasion sound with more sophisticated lyrics and thoughtful production. There are still powerful ravers like the hit "Til the End of the Day" (utilizing yet another "You Really Got Me"-type riff) and the abrasive, Dave Davies-sung cover of "Milk Cow Blues," but tracks like the calypso pastiche "I'm on an Island," where Ray sings of isolation with a forlorn yet merry bite, were far more indicative of their future direction. Other great songs on this underrated album include the uneasy nostalgia of "Where Have All the Good Times Gone?," the plaintive, almost fatalistic ballads "Ring the Bells" and "The World Keeps Going Round," and the Dave Davies-sung declaration of independence "I Am Free."

The Trip were but one of many Italian bands combining rock, classical, jazz, pop and folk to produce what is now known as the Italian rock renaissance. They are another three man classical rock band in the realm of the Nice and Le Orme. All four of their albums are completely different and bear the stamp of another international group or movement. "Caronte" was considered their best album by psych collectors. On their third, "Atlantide", The Trip looks squarely at Emerson, Lake & Palmer for inspiration. The both are recommended to ELP or Le Orme fans.

This one-off collaboration between the Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie & the Banshees' Steven Severin resulted in an eccentric, and at times incompatible, mix of psychedelic sounds wrapped around alternative '80s pop. Writers Smith and Severin's more eccentric tendencies are as likely to evoke pictures of a carnival as a funereal march, but the backbone rests largely on tightly constructed tunes with occasional forays into the experimental. Jeanette Landray sings the majority of the tracks, while Smith takes the lead twice amongst a smattering of instrumentals. Standout tracks include the Middle Eastern-twinged "Orgy" and the more conventional "Mouth to Mouth." Smith's distinctive warbling on the first-class "Perfect Murder" takes the album directly into Cure territory, as do the instrumentals which could equally find a home on Seventeen Seconds…

The name of the group might be immodest, but the combination of pianist Hank Jones, bassist Buster Williams and drummer Tony Williams lives up to its billing. Originally cut for the Japanese East Wind label and last available domestically as an Inner City LP, this swinging but unsurprising session features boppish interpretations of six jazz standards including "Love for Sale," "Secret Love," and "Autumn Leaves."

Sony's 2016 Legacy edition of Everybody's in Show-Biz turns the 1972 double-LP into a double-CD set by mining the March 1972 Carnegie Hall recordings that provided the album with its live second disc. Thirteen of the 17 songs on the second CD come from these live tapes, the exceptions being the unreleased completed outtake "History" – a slightly dreamy, wry look back at the past that feels like a gateway to Preservation – the backing track to "Sophisticated Lady," and alternate mixes of "Supersonic Rocket Ship" and "Unreal Reality." These are nice footnotes, but the story lies in the live tracks, which offer more of the same from the original record.