Park Avenue Summer

Unlike other labels subjected to exhaustive multi-disc retrospectives like this whopping ten-disc Revolutions in Sound: Warner Bros. Records – The First Fifty Years, Warner Brothers never embodied a scene or sound: they've always embodied what a major label should be – a dominant force that chronicles and dictates the sound of the mainstream. Coming out at the tail-end of 2008, when the influence of major labels is on a slow steady decline, Revolutions in Sound can be seen as a portrait of a time that's beginning to recede into the past: a time when there was such a thing as mass entertainment, when the pop audience all shared a common bond of hit records they either loved or rallied against. Perhaps the greatest things about this monumental box set is that it captures that colossus while also illustrating that for a while, majors did take risks. Of course, Warner was the riskiest of all the majors, never held back by an anti-rock & roll sourpuss like Mitch Miller, who struggled to keep CBS out of the tumult of the '60s (this with no less than Bob Dylan as the label's flagship rock artist). Instead, Warner embraced the underground, recording some of the strangest to shake out of the '60s, and that adventure fits a label that turned to rock & roll to help establish themselves as a real player at the turn of the '60s.

Midnight Shelter is the beautifully raw and intimate new album from US vocalist Sachal Vasandani, featuring French/New York-based pianist Romain Collin.

"The Complete Reprise Studio Recordings" contains 20 discs with in total 452 songs, and that means every Sinatra recording on the Reprise label from 1960 to 1988 in chronological order. It features more than 24 hours of music, and is available in both a standard edition, and limited edition in a leather box. This set was nominated for a 1997 Grammy Award for Best Historical Album and Best Recording Package – Boxed.
In 1961, Sinatra inaugurated his own label, claiming the artistic freedom he longed for in the fifties. He then proceeded to do it his way, and this 20-disc set is the painstakingly detailed account of that artistic journey……….

In the aftermath of punk rock, and inspired by the glamour of the likes of David Bowie, young elites in England’s major cities threw off the shackles of grey, damp and dreary turn-of-the-80s Britain and sought something more refined and cultured than punk’s primal howl. Armed with wardrobes full of colourful and outrageous second-hand clothes, cheap make-up, extensive record collections, their own extroverted imaginations and an urge to dance (not pogo), a collection of DJs, dancers and junkshop fashionistas would frequent clubs such as The Wag in London, Pips in Manchester and The Rum Runner in Birmingham. The resulting scene would famously go on to spawn countless 80s pop scene faces and trigger what became the New Romantic movement.

'The Whole Love' is the latest step in the ongoing evolution of Wilco, which Tweedy founded in 1994 after the dissolution of his previous group, alt-country standard-bearers Uncle Tupelo. From its raucous roots-rock origins, Wilco over the years has expanded its sound to encompass classic pop and genre-spanning experimentalism. Wilco also teamed with English singer Billy Bragg in the late '90s at the invitation of Woody Guthrie's daughter, who invited them to collaborate on setting to music some of the folk icon's previously unrecorded lyrics, resulting in a pair of highly regarded Mermaid Avenue albums.

The two classic albums reissued on this CD are from 1975 and 1976. While they didn't exactly set the world on fire, they DID leave the listener with no doubt as to just how talented the musicians that made up MFSB were and that they could tackle everything from Disco to Funk to Soul to MOR-Pop with grace, class and musical virtuosity. It's definitely great to have these classics on CDs as these albums capture the magic of the Philadelphia Soul sound at a time when it had truly reached its apex. Enjoy!

Essentially an updated version of 2013's Collection: 1973-2012, Best of Springsteen spans a wider timeframe, from 1973's "Growin' Up" to 2020's "Letter to You." The set plucks selections from Springsteen's plethora of early to mid-career U.S. Top Ten hits such as "Hungry Heart," "Dancing in the Dark," "Born in the U.S.A.," and "Streets of Philadelphia" – while featuring later period material from albums such as 2007's Magic and 2019's Western Stars.