An anthology boxset that compiles all five volumes of the Stereolab Switched On series: 94 non-album tracks and sought after deep cuts by the groop. Includes the original Switched On compilation LP released in 1992, 1995's Refried Ectoplasm [Switched On Volume 2], 1998’s Aluminum Tunes [Switched On Volume 3], 2021’s Electrically Possessed [Switched On Volume 4], and 2022’s Pulse Of The Early Brain [Switched On Volume 5]. All the tracks have been remastered from the original tapes in recent years, personally overseen by Tim Gane of the band at Calyx in Berlin.
“This time, I am not only an absolute musician, but also a poet”, wrote Dvořák regarding the Poetic Tone Pictures, Op. 85, his most extended cycle of lyric character pieces for piano. Concluded in April.
Pure… America collects 68 original hits featuring Boston ("More Than a Feeling"), Boz Scaggs ("Lido Shuffle”), REO Speedwagon ("Keep on Loving You”), America ("Ventura Highway”), Steve Perry ("Oh Sherrie”), and Cheap Trick ("I Want You to Want Me”). Tracks by Blue Öyster Cult, Cyndi Lauper, Poco, and Kenny Loggins are also included on this four-disc compilation.
HENRY PURCELL'S chamber opera, "Dido and Aeneas," is plentifully represented on disk, but Nicholas McGegan's new recording, with the Philharmonia Baroque and the Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is the freshest and most compelling since Andrew Parrott's magnificent account of 1981 (on Chandos). Mr. McGegan's soloists – Lorraine Hunt as Dido, Lisa Saffer as Belinda and Michael Dean as Aeneas – work wonders with the concise characterizations provided by Purcell and his librettist, Nahum Tate.
One of two paired box sets chronicling the entirety of Kate Bush's recorded work as of 2018, Remastered, Vol. 2 features upgrades of the three albums since 2005: Aerial, Director's Cut, and 50 Words for Snow. In addition to these records, Remastered, Vol. 2 contains four CDs of non-album tracks, featuring a disc of 12" mixes, two discs of B-sides (labeled "The Other Side"), and a disc of covers (called "In Others' Words"). For the diehards, having these rarities on a proper album is reason enough to acquire Remastered, Vol. 2, and they do elevate a box that doesn't have as many classics as the first box: the 2005 comeback Aerial is teamed with an album where she revisits her past and the lush orchestral 50 Words for Snow. Like its cousin, Remastered, Vol. 2 boasts clean, detailed remasters that feel fuller than their predecessors. That's appropriate for music as sumptuous and transporting as this; the improved fidelity has the effect of making the music seem more vivid, not less.