Once i Was a Beehive

Nine-CD box set featuring expanded editions of the albums recorded for Decca and Deram by the English progressive rock band between 1970 and 1975. Also included are a selection of BBC performances and a live album. Contents: Disc 1: 'If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You' (1970); Disc 2: 'In the Land of Grey and Pink' (1971); Disc 3: 'Waterloo Lily' (1972); Disc 4: 'For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night' (1973); Disc 5: 'Caravan & The New Symphonia: The Complete Concert' (1974); Disc 6: 'Cunning Stunts' (1975); Disc 7: 'Live At the Fairfield Halls, 1974'; Discs 8 and 9: 'The Show of Our Lives: Live At the BBC 1970-1975'.

This is great. A big dollop of proper pop. A slice of singalong hooks, followed by the rest of the cake. The earworms you didn’t know you needed until they wiggled down your eustachian tube and wrapped their little bodies round your cochlea. Your new favourite album.

So Below offers an alternate journey to a lush, fused trip-hop and rock, psychedelic jungle, especially its eleven minute title track, a musical beehive with bass, electronics, and percussion buzzing in every direction. It also demonstrates blues and trance influences, but much differently from Moroccoland.

This expansive box set from Rhino features all nine of the Doobie Brothers' studio albums from their original 1970s Warner Bros. run plus their 1983 Farewell Tour live album. Beginning with their 1971 self-titled debut, when the band was fronted by founding singer/guitarist Tom Johnston, through 1980's Michael McDonald-led One Step Closer, it covers their two major eras as they slowly shifted from boogie rock bar band into the soulful soft rock giants of their later years. Hits like "China Grove," "Black Water," "Takin' It to the Streets," and "What a Fool Believes" are all here as well as their first live album, which mostly features their late-period lineup with the addition of a couple of special Johnston appearances that serve as an end cap to their career. Although the Doobies would reunite again in the late '80s, their original Warner Bros. years remain their best-known period.