Word of Honor (2003)

B.B. King was 77 years old when Reflections was released, which perhaps entitled him to reflect back on the song standards the album contained. Despite advancing age, King had already been unusually busy on the recording front for a septuagenarian, turning out the gold-selling duets album Deuces Wild in 1997, Blues on the Bayou in 1998, Let the Good Times Roll: The Music of Louis Jordan in 1999, the double-platinum Riding With the King with Eric Clapton and Makin' Love Is Good for You in 2000, and the seasonal recording A Christmas Celebration of Hope in 2002. For Reflections, he again worked with Simon Climie, who produced Riding With the King, and collaborated with a session band including such notables as Joe Sample, Nathan East, and Doyle Bramhall II.

B.B. King unleashes his inner crooner on this collection of 13 of his sentimental favorites. With a five-piece studio band rather than his usual orchestra, the arrangements stay spare throughout, allowing King to exercise his classic vocal chops. His most heartfelt selection may be "A Mother's Love", a performance that seems to draw on the heartache he still carries from the loss of his own mother when he was a child, nearly 70 years ago.

Drawing from the pioneering work of artists like Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, and Suicide, the dark avant-industrial group Skinny Puppy formed in 1982 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Originally a duo comprised of former Images in Vogue drummer cEvin Key (born Kevin Crompton) and Nivek Ogre (aka Kevin Ogilvie), Skinny Puppy followed their debut cassette, Back and Forth, with the EP Remission, the first of many recordings with producer David "Rave" Ogilvie, in 1984…