Kasaba 1997

Even for the Mosaic label, this limited-edition 12-CD box set is miraculous. Unlike most of their other efforts, this is not a "complete" set, although each of the 65 sessions covered is complete. A collection of mostly formerly rare sessions made for Capitol during its first 11 years, the music ranges from Dixieland in the Bob Crosby Bobcats manner to some swing-oriented big bands and a touch of bop. The quantity (245 selections) and the high quality are both remarkable. Included are exciting sessions by Paul Whiteman, Eddie Miller, Nappy Lamare, Ray Bauduc, Marvin Ash, Wingy Manone, Johnny Mercer, Scatman Crothers, Deane Kincaide, Armand Hug, Frankie Trumbauer (his last recordings), Pud Brown, Bud Freeman, Zutty Singleton, Bobby Hackett, Sid Catlett, Al Casey, the Capitol Jazzmen, Jack Teagarden, Anita O'Day, Ten Cats and a Mouse, the Benny Carter big band, Jess Stacy, Joe Sullivan, Mel Powell, the exciting and very underrated Cootie Williams Orchestra, Murray McEachern, Rex Stewart, Sonny Greer, Louie Bellson, Carl Kress, Kay Starr, Red Norvo and Stan Hasselgard. A remarkable and highly enjoyable set which contains many previously unreleased recordings.

The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of American Blues Classics is a 2CD compilation highlighting some nice and wholesome blues music. Released by Proper/Retro, it features 40 different songs letting listeners know what the blues is about.

The Greatest Dance Album Ever Made, a Various Artists Compilation. Released in 1997 on Telstar TV.

Disciplined Breakdown is the third studio album by American rock band Collective Soul. Originally released in 1997, this album boasts the singles "Precious Declaration" and "Listen," both of which spent time in the #1 position on the Mainstream Rock chart. This 25th Anniversary expanded edition of the release features newly remastered audio, as well as the entire set from their show at Park West, Chicago in 1997, and two bonus tracks.

Dick Dale was already on the way to a full-scale comeback when Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction turned Dale's 1962 hit "Miserlou" into a major sensation. But there is much more to the King of the Surf Guitar than one hit, as this definitive anthology amply demonstrates. Better Shred Than Dead features instrumentals that show off Dale's dazzling, percussive technique and Middle Eastern and Latin influences ("Let's Go Trippin'," "Hava Nagila," "Miserlou," "Spanish Kiss") as well as some lesser-known vocal numbers. More recent material is also included, such as his 1987 duet with Stevie Ray Vaughan on "Pipeline," plus material culled from the first two albums of his comeback years and various other sources. All hail the king, back on his throne after far too many years. –Daniel Durchholz

The Chemical Brothers release a 25th anniversary reissue of their visionary breakthrough second album. Dig Your Own Hole was recorded and road tested in the underground. On its release on 7th April 1997, the duo’s second album immediately redrew the boundaries of the mainstream. What had been created as a relentless, rapturous soundtrack to basements and backrooms entered the UK album charts at No 1 on the back of two No 1 singles (Setting Sun and Block Rockin’ Beats), and the US Billboard charts at No 14. The first British electronic record to crack the US rock charts, it would go on to sell half a million copies in the States in six months. Dig Your Own Hole always was, and always will be, a total trip.

Albert Lee occupies an odd niche in music – British by birth and upbringing, he spent the mid-'60s as a top R&B guitarist, but in the 1970s became one of the top rockabilly guitarists in the world, and no slouch in country music either. In England he's a been household name, and in Nashville and Los Angeles he's been one of the most in-demand session guitarists there is; but outside of professional music circles in America, he's one of those vaguely recognizable names, and occasionally misidentified with his similar-sounding contemporary, ex-Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee (with whom he did share a berth once, in Jerry Lee Lewis's band on the latter's London Sessions album) – but where Alvin was a hero of Woodstock and a flashy guitarist, in the manner of British blues extroverts Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck, Albert is much more likely to be found playing in the background, behind the Everly Brothers or alongside Eric Clapton.

A Golden Classics Edition Review by William Ruhlmann
In essence, Collectables Records' Gary Puckett & the Union Gap compilation A Golden Classics Edition is a two-fer CD combining the group's first two albums, named after its first two singles, Woman, Woman and Young Girl. But the addition at the end of the disc of the next five singles – "Lady Willpower," "Over You," "Don't Give in to Him," "This Girl Is a Woman Now," and "Let's Give Adam and Eve Another Chance" – makes this a more thorough best-of for the group, at a generous 76-minute running time. Gary Puckett & the Union Gap was very much a singles act; the first six of those seven singles, all of which reached the Top 15 and four of which went gold, are all most people know the band for. The full contents of the first two albums suggest that that is all the group should be known for, too. The albums are clearly afterthoughts thrown together to generate some LP sales tied into the hit singles.

EP is the 1997 EP release by Los Angeles rap group Jurassic 5. Consisting of Mark 7, Akil, Soup, Chali 2na, DJ Nu-Mark, and Cut Chemist, this was their first release two years after their debut single, "Unified Rebelution". When the group were signed by Interscope, their new label reissued the EP but with a few changes, especially in the song "Lesson 6" with the removal of certain samples. The original Pickininny version of "Lesson 6" goes for 6:35 while the Interscope removes a full minute and is edited down to 5:31. The Pickininny version of "Concrete Schoolyard" is 5:23 while the Interscope version removes the end chunk of the song and is slimmed to 4:08. Also, the Pickininny version has 9 songs while the Interscope version completely removes "Blacktop Beat", the instrumental of what was removed from "Concrete Schoolyard."