Wham! The Final (1986){epic, Sony Inc. 42.8p 149}

The legendary cult heroes' final electric performance, recorded at the O2 Indigo London in December 2018. Celebrating 55 years of the greatest band most people have never heard of, The Final Bow captures The Pretty Things at their rocking and unique best across 3 sets of classic tracks featuring guest appearances from David Gilmour and Van Morrison…

"The Best of Wham! (If You Were There...)" is the second UK-released compilation, released in 1997 to summarize the career of British pop duo Wham!. It peaked at #4 on the UK Albums Chart. The end of the album features a hidden track that was first heard on their debut album, "Fantastic".

With Your Wilderness, Bruce Soord's the Pineapple Thief shift their musical focus away from their exploration of polished rock so evident on 2012's All the Wars and 2014's Magnolia, and back toward contemporary prog. Drummer Dan Osborne, who made his debut with the band on Magnolia, proved short-lived in his role; he has been replaced by Porcupine Tree/King Crimson kit man Gavin Harrison. Soord also enlisted guests including Supertramp's John Helliwell on clarinet, Caravan's string player/arranger Geoffrey Richardson, Godsticks' guitarist Darran Charles, and a four-voice choir. Harrison's addition can't be overstated. His playing extends the reach of their musicality exponentially.
The album title denotes themes of isolation, loneliness, and alienation - not unfamiliar ones in PT's oeuvre. That said, they've never been explored with such a brooding focus as they are here…

Grace Under Pressure was the first Rush album since 1975's Fly by Night to not be produced by Terry Brown, who was replaced by Peter Henderson (Supertramp, Paul McCartney). The change resulted in a slightly more accessible sound than its predecessor, Signals, and marked the beginning of a period where many Rush fans feel that synths and electronics were used too prominently – in effect pushing guitarist Alex Lifeson into the background. The songwriting and lyrics were still strong however, as evidenced by the video/single "Distant Early Warning" (a tale about nuclear war) and the often-overlooked highlight "Kid Gloves," one of the album's few songs to feature Lifeson upfront.