Good in a Room

With only two albums and a handful of singles released before they broke up, the '80s synth pop duo Yazoo - or Yaz if you're outside the United States - are in the "all or nothing" category when it comes to box sets. Save a couple remixes, Mute's 2008 set In Your Room is everything the duo - instrumentalist and former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke along with the as yet unheard of vocalist Alison Moyet - released in its short career, and then some. Disc one of this set features their debut 1982 album, Upstairs at Eric's, while disc two features the follow-up, You and Me Both, from a year later. Both are remastered splendidly - giving the albums more depth and punch in the bass - as are the remixes and B-sides that occupy disc three. The non-album tracks "State Farm" and "The Other Side of Love" both get a proper home on the third disc and sit next to a wealth of desirable extended mixes of club hits like "Situation" and "Don't Go."

With only two albums and a handful of singles released before they broke up, the '80s synth pop duo Yazoo - or Yaz if you're outside the United States - are in the "all or nothing" category when it comes to box sets. Save a couple remixes, Mute's 2008 set In Your Room is everything the duo - instrumentalist and former Depeche Mode member Vince Clarke along with the as yet unheard of vocalist Alison Moyet - released in its short career, and then some. Disc one of this set features their debut 1982 album, Upstairs at Eric's, while disc two features the follow-up, You and Me Both, from a year later. Both are remastered splendidly - giving the albums more depth and punch in the bass - as are the remixes and B-sides that occupy disc three. The non-album tracks "State Farm" and "The Other Side of Love" both get a proper home on the third disc and sit next to a wealth of desirable extended mixes of club hits like "Situation" and "Don't Go."

Thirty-seven years later, we have the iconic songs of Texas-born singer Z.Z. Hill brought to us by Grammy-winning bluesman Mississippi-based Grady Champion on the same Mississippi-based Malaco label. Champion is a producer/singer/songwriter/musician who has won a Grammy, several prestigious Blues Music Awards as well as the 26th International Blues Challenge. Amazingly, he is one of his father’s 28 children, born October 10, 1969 on a farm in Canton, Mississippi. Originally a rapper, he gravitated to the blues, first learning harmonica and releasing his first album, the self-released Goin’ Back Home (1998.) He was quickly signed by Shanachie Records, with whom he released two albums. Champion and Kevin Bowe co-wrote “Trust Yourself” which was included on Etta James’ album Let’s Roll (2003) and winner of a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. The album also won a Blues Music Award as the Soul/Blues Album of 2004. Dreamin’ (2011), was a #1 album on the Sirius XM’s Bluesville chart, as well as earning two BMAs. This is his third release for Malaco, a self-produced effort entirely in tribute to Z.Z. Hill who died 35 years ago April 27, 1984. Champion says, “I’ve been particularly inspired by Z.Z.’s efforts to restore blues music to modern black consciousness.”