The Police Every Breath You Take The Classics (1995){pocm 1990}

At nine discs and 244 tracks, The Complete Stax-Volt Singles: 1959-1968 is far too exhaustive for casual fans, but that's not who the set is designed for – it's made for the collector. Featuring every A-side the label released during those nine years, as well as several B-sides, the set is a definitive portrait of gritty, deep Southern soul. Many of the genre's major names – Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Booker T. & the MG's, William Bell, Rufus Thomas, the Bar-Kays, Albert King – plus many terrific one-shot wonders are showcased in terrific sound and augmented with an in-depth booklet.

Keyboards and the acoustic piano were the reigning pop-jazz instruments of the fall of 1990, with major releases ranging from veterans like Joe Sample and Bobby Lyle to up-and-comers like Makoto Ozone and Kim Pensyl. Perhaps the most long awaited of these releases was the solo debut of longtime Spyro Gyra keyboardist Tom Schuman. Extremities features SG saxman Jay Beckenstein as player and producer, but happily, Schuman's own playing shows a great deal more adventure and spunk than he is allowed in the band setting. He elegantly blends snazzy synth with sweet acoustic trimmings, playing it safe on a gorgeous cover of Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" while jamming on the fusion showcases and displaying a rich depth of the disturbing yet intriguing "Mood Swing." It took a long time, but Schuman's coming-out party was worth the wait.

The group's first album with Michael McDonald marked a shift to a more mellow and self-consciously soulful sound for the Doobies, not all that different from what happened to Steely Dan – whence McDonald (and Jeff Baxter) had come – between, say, Can't Buy a Thrill and Pretzel Logic. They showed an ability to expand on the lyricism of Patrick Simmons and Baxter's writing on "Wheels of Fortune," while the title track introduced McDonald's white funk sound cold to their output, successfully. Simmons' "8th Avenue Shuffle" vaguely recalled "Black Water," only with an urban theme and a more self-consciously soul sound (with extraordinarily beautiful choruses and a thick, rippling guitar break).