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Bon Jovi's four-CD/one-DVD box set of rarities, 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong, inspires two immediate reactions. The first: How in the world did Bon Jovi have four discs' worth of unreleased material in their vaults? The second: Who on earth would want to hear 50 rarities from Bon Jovi? To anybody who's not a devoted fan, the New Jersey group always seemed like a quintessential singles-driven band…

Nightmares On Wax returns with new album Shout Out! To Freedom…, a deeply personal project built from life-affirming realizations brought on by a period of profound change in his life. The result is an exploration of musical and personal freedom, and N.O.W's deepest record to date. Shout Out! To Freedom… is a highly collaborative affair which sees Evelyn combine with a variety of artists, including Shabaka Hutchings, Greentea Peng, Haile Supreme, Pip Millett and more.

Writing on the Wall's only album was theatrical heavy blues-psychedelic-rock that, despite its power and menace, was too obviously derivative of better and more original artists to qualify as a notable work. The organ-guitar blends owe much to the Doors, Procol Harum, and Traffic, though the attitude is somehow more sour and ominous than any of those groups. The vocals are sometimes pretty blatant in their homages to Arthur Brown, particularly when Linnie Paterson climbs to a histrionic scream; Jim Morrison, Gary Brooker, and Stevie Winwood obviously left their imprints on him too. Throw in some of the portentous drama from the narrations to the Elektra astrological concept album The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (particularly on "Aries") as well…

More than Afros and bell-bottoms, the 1970s pushed music and music-lovers onto a new plane. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.