John Mellencamp has been in need of a thorough, career-spanning compilation for a while, and Island/UTV's 2004 release Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits finally fills that gap. His previous hits collection, 1997's The Best That I Could Do, was too short, since he had more hits than could fit on a brief 14-track disc. Words & Music doesn't have the problem of brevity. Spanning 37 songs over two discs, this has nearly all of his charting hits. Radio hits like "Justice and Independence '85" and "Rooty Toot Toot" may be absent, but they're not missed, since all the big hits are here, including "Pink Houses," "Lonely Ol' Night," "Paper in Fire," "Authority Song," "Crumblin' Down," "Small Town," "Hurts So Good," and "Jack & Diane," among many others (including two solid new songs).
For all of his many attributes, one thing Frank Zappa most certainly was not is commercial. Presumably, the title of this collection is ironic. Strictly Commercial: The Best of Frank Zappa is a compilation not of the composer's hits – he only broke the Top 40 on one occasion, with "Valley Girl" – but rather, a collection of his best-known material, from "Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" to "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace." Zappa's albums often function as individual works, but this disc offers an intelligent selection of songs, serving as an introduction to the maverick musician.
Memento Mori (stylised as "Memento | Mori" on the album cover) is the fifteenth studio album by Depeche Mode, released on 24 March 2023, through Columbia and Mute. The album was produced by James Ford and Marta Salogni. It was preceded by the single "Ghosts Again" and the track "My Cosmos Is Mine" (released on streaming platforms), and is the first Depeche Mode studio album to be released after the death of co-founder and keyboardist Andy Fletcher on 26 May 2022. The album is promoted by the Memento Mori World Tour.
Fandango! is the fourth album by the American blues rock band ZZ Top, released in 1975. Half the tracks are selections from live shows, the rest are new songs from the studio. Fandango, from which the album gets its name, is a type of dance similar to flamenco. In the late 1980s a digitally remixed version of the recording was released on CD and the original 1975 mix version was discontinued. The remix version created controversy among fans because it significantly changed the sound of the instruments, especially drums. The remix version was used on all early CD copies and was the only version available for over 20 years. A remastered and expanded edition of the album was released on February 28, 2006, containing three bonus live tracks. The 2006 edition is the first CD version to use Terry Manning's original 1975 mix.
Creedence Clearwater Revisited is an American rock band formed in 1995 by bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug "Cosmo" Clifford, former members of Creedence Clearwater Revival, to play live versions of that band's music. With original members, Stu Clifford And Doug Cook, Creedence has been touring non-stop during the past decades playing their hits all over the world. This wonderfully recorded concert captures the band at it's classic best.
Bigelf are sort of the white version of Lenny Kravitz. They're astoundingly accurate rock revivalists in terms of songwriting, instrumentation, and recording techniques. They also cobble together styles that in their heyday would never have co-existed: Hendrix-ish blues, Beatlesque pop, Floydian psychedelia. Unlike Kravitz, however, Bigelf are much more sonically daring. They specialize in blowing up basic germs of ideas into Technicolor fantasies light years away from their origins. "Superstar," for example, begins with terse, standard-issue AC/DC chords, then flowers into bright pop changes and lush vocal harmonies.