The Romantics

Ruby & the Romantics have been poorly served by best-of collections, which are too brief and skimpy. This two-CD, 42-song set goes too far in the other direction, and not everything on here is exciting or worthy of multiple listens by any means. Still, too much is better than too little, and this does thoroughly cover the prime era of the original lineup at Kapp from 1963-1967. On the plus side, this convincingly demonstrates that there was more depth and quality than is commonly acknowledged to a group that is often remembered only for one song ("Our Day Will Come") or regarded as a lightweight pop-soul group.

After the creative and commercial misfire of their third album, Strictly Personal, Detroit's the Romantics took a step in the right direction with their next effort, 1983's In Heat. While the hard rock production of Strictly Personal was pure overkill, In Heat was the band's leanest effort to date, and though producer Pete Solly doesn't reprise the neo-Shel Talmy sound he brought to their debut, he puts the focus here on the group's strengths — straightforward pop/rock tunes with a big beat, big hooks, sharp harmonies and plenty of energy. It also helped that Mike Skill returned to the band for this LP as bassist, bringing a knack for a good tune with him, and Coz Canler learned to rein in his guitar style, giving the performances on this disc a tighter and more compact sound that fits the material just right.

In Heat is the fourth album by the American band the Romantics. It was released in 1983 on Nemperor Records. It was the Romantics' most commercially successful album, and featured the Romantics's biggest hit single: "Talking in Your Sleep", peaking at #3, and a second top 40 hit, "One in a Million", charted #37.

From popular revolt to the obsession with the self, even to modern nationalism, Simon Schama explores the enduring and powerful legacy the romantics have left on our modern world.

This is a 2-for-1 compact disc of the first two albums by The Romantics. This was released by the American Beat label in 2008 and are the full length versions of each album.

Franz Liszt drove a wedge between music fans open to innovative ideas and more traditional listeners. As the creator of the symphonic poem genre and programme music, he initiated a veritable trend of thought towards a new poetics. Inversely, partisans of Brahms felt that Liszt ran counter to the very essence of abstract music. On this digital only release, pianist Jan Michiels relives from the inside this "war of the Romantics" between progressives and conservatives through refined, intelligent readings of works by Liszt, Brahms and Schumann. But the pianist also offers a reconciliation from Schönberg, in its transcription for solo piano, combining the "traditional" on the motif with a form based on Liszt’s strokes of inspiration.