in Rock Dcc

Paul McCartney retreated from the spotlight of the Beatles by recording his first solo album at his home studio, performing nearly all of the instruments himself. Appropriately, McCartney has an endearingly ragged, homemade quality that makes even its filler – and there is quite a bit of filler – rather ingratiating…

Neither the dippy, rustic Wild Life nor the slick AOR flourishes of Red Rose Speedway earned Paul McCartney much respect, so he made the self-consciously ambitious Band on the Run to rebuke his critics. On the surface, Band on the Run appears to be constructed as a song cycle in the vein of Abbey Road, but subsequent listens reveal that the only similarities the two albums share are simply superficial…

After the breakthrough success and worldwide respect that Queensrÿche gained from their conceptual masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime, it was a fair assumption that they couldn't possibly outdo or perhaps even match themselves. Empire, released just two years after that watermark, reveals that Queensrÿche reinvented themselves (though certainly not for the last time). While many fans were clamoring for a conceptual sequel, the band offers a song-oriented approach that is more art rock and less metal (though Empire does rock hard in places)…

After his death, Frank Sinatra's children decided they wanted to stem the tide of bootlegged live material that was flooding the market by putting out legitimate versions of the same material. The bad news is how expensive these legitimate releases are. The good news is that they are easy to find, are beautifully remastered, and feature extensive liner notes that give you inside information on the shows themselves. This disc offers up an entire show from 1957, and along with a yet to be legitimately released live date with Quincy Jones' big band, it stands up as the best Sinatra date of the 1950s. Sinatra is in excellent (if uneven) voice and obviously having as good of a time as the audience and the musicians. Highlights include amazing versions of "The Lady Is a Tramp," "I Get a Kick Out of You," and "I Won't Dance," which are even more jazz-fueled than the studio recordings, and a sumptuous reading of "My Funny Valentine"…

Even though Master of Puppets didn't take as gigantic a leap forward as Ride the Lightning, it was the band's greatest achievement, hailed as a masterpiece by critics far outside heavy metal's core audience. It was also a substantial hit, reaching the Top 30 and selling three million copies despite absolutely nonexistent airplay…