Paul Lehman The Transfiguration of Politics

In the early '70s, Paul Kossoff was a much-heralded young guitarist from a much-heralded young rock band called Free. In a short period of time, Kossoff and his cohorts punched out some classic rock. A brief solo career followed for the inspired axeman, but his untimely death in 1976 from a drug-related heart attack put an end to the potential that his peers and fans were looking forward to seeing fully realized. All one can do is celebrate and enjoy what this stylistically unique and utterly precocious musician left behind, and this 17-track disc, which culls Kossoff's best work from both his days with Free and as a solo performer, is an excellent way to do just that. A player who made his name with unusual phrasings, brazen fills, and an intuitive use of sustained notes – and rarely going for fretboard-smoking speed – Kossoff had a prototypical signature sound. His ability to do the work of two guitarists – Free, for the most part, was a barebones guitar/bass/drums/singer outfit – was one of his greatest strengths and, despite a good deal of studio dubbing, you can hear it in places on this album. The best cuts are definitely the eight Free tracks, which include the raunchy "The Hunter," the good-time rock-blues of "Ride on a Pony," the dramatic "Fire and Water" and "Mr. Big," and the band's all-time classic, "All Right Now".

Mozart's fourth opera - written when he was only 14 - displays all the hallmarks of the fresh, inventive writing that was to flourish into extraordinary genius in his later works and, with a cast as good as this, The Royal Opera's production takes Mitridate, re di Ponto to the highest levels of operatic achievement. Based on a play by Jean Racine, it is a story of jealous love and political intrigue.

Sounding like an American Donovan, Paul Parrish burst onto the scene in 1968 with this ambitiously produced gem of a record filled with psychedelic strings, flutes, tympani, and sunshine dipped effects. Wide-eyed rainbow-coloured imagery abounds!
Replete with flute, strings, and slight psychedelic effects, the album gets by on the strength of Parrish's songs, especially tracks like "English Sparrows," "Suzanne," and "Flowers in the Park." Each track is ripe with rainbow-colored imagery and the requisite amount of forest/meadow scenarios. Even the covers of the Beatles' "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and the Holland-Dozier-Holland classic "I Can't Help Myself" fail to disappoint, and instead help put the album further into a detached yet pleasant, love-struck, and extremely wide-eyed version of psychedelic sunshine pop…

Paul Goodwin’s A Christmas Collection (his debut disc with the Academy of Ancient Music) offers an anthology of Schütz’s shorter dialogues and motets by way of an alternative to the composer’s own Christmas Oratorio. Anyone who has ever endured that drily austere work will be pleasantly surprised by the rich textures and vocal expressivity of much of the music here, and by the dramatic wit, say, of the little Annunciation scene, ‘Sei gegrüsset Maria’, for male alto Angel and soprano Mary, in which the mother-to-be can’t help interrupting her heavenly visitor, first in sheer amazement, then in her eagerness to confirm her unblemished virgin state.

Thomas Arne, (who wrote “Rule Britannia”) is underplayed. Practically everything I’ve heard by him is of interest on multiple levels, either as an original voice utilizing the harmonic and melodic materials of the English baroque style, or as an innovator, at least to my ears, conjuring novel expressions within those materials, or simply as a good tunesmith.

In 1984, Paul Young scored a couple of medium-sized U.S. hits with "Come Back and Stay" and "Love of the Common People" from his album No Parlez. In 1985, however, with his stellar album The Secret of Association, the British singer gained his highest level of commercial success with several hit singles, most notably his chart-topping cover of Daryl Hall's "Every Time You Go Away," which was miles better than the original. Featuring lush orchestration and Young's signature, soulful vocals, this album remains the singer's best, and one of the better albums of the 1980s. Other notable tracks include his wicked take on "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down," the gorgeous "Everything Must Change" (which almost sounds like a country song), and the popular album tracks "Soldier's Things" and "Tomb of Memories."