Perry 1987

Out of all Aerosmith's live albums released over the years (Live Bootleg, Classics Live! Vol. 2, etc.), 1986's Classics Live! is the least effective. The main reason it doesn't meet the high standards of their other in-concert releases is simple – the band had little input in deciding the song selections and performances – plus, it was released by their then-former label, Columbia, to cash in on the newly re-formed band's reunion tour…

As zany as ever, Lee Perry here serves notice that he's also as capable as ever – even in the '90s -
- of putting out quality material. A second collaboration with On-U Sound producer Adrian Sherwood,
this largely unheralded set easily outshines 1987's overrated Time Boom X the Devil Dead, …..

Jethro Tull - Crest Of A Knave (1987)
EAC AccurateRip | FLAC, IMG+CUE, LOG | 276,5 MB | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps | 102,2 MB | Complete Scans (300 dpi) | 34,7 MB
Prog Rock | Label: Chrysalis | Catalog Number: CDP32 1590-2 | Time: 48:46 | RAR | RS.com

Ian Anderson and company seemed to make a conscious effort to update Jethro Tull's sound on this record. And, to the amazement (and distress) of many, it was voted the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Performance. Truth is, it isn't a bad album, with an opening track that qualifies as hard rock and pretty much shouts its credentials out in Martin Barre's screaming lead guitar line, present throughout. "Jump Start" and "Raising Steam" also rock hard, and no one can complain of too much on this record being soft, apart from the acoustic "The Waking Edge," along with "Budapest" and "Said She Was a Dancer," Anderson's two aging rock-star's-eye-view accounts of meeting women from around the world. The antiwar song "Mountain Men" is classic Tull-styled electric folk, all screaming electric guitars at a pretty high volume by its end. Overall, this is a fairly successful album and arguably their best since 1978, even if it does seem a little insignificant in relation to, say, Thick As a Brick. By this time Tull was effectively a core trio of Anderson, Barre, and bassist Dave Pegg, augmented by whatever musicians (drummers Gerry Conway and Doane Perry, Fairport Convention keyboard player Martin Allcock, and violinist Ric Sanders) that they needed to fill out their sound. The result is a very lean-sounding group and a record probably as deserving of a Grammy as any other album of its year — in the cosmic scheme, it sort of made up for Tull's not winning one for Thick As a Brick or Aqualung, or for Dave Pegg's former band Fairport Convention never winning. AMG

In the autumn of 2005 Hyperion released their complete Schubert song edition, some 18 years after they started recording. The composition of these songs spanned the same number of years. Between Lebenstraum … gesang in c”, a fragment dating from 1810 when he was thirteen and Der Taubenpost written a few weeks before his death late in 1828, Schubert set over 700 texts, mostly solo songs but also part songs and for ensemble. Almost all were with piano accompaniment. Everything that has survived is included

With its two sides split between Perry and Gerrard's vocal efforts, Within the Realm of a Dying Sun serves as both a display for the ever more ambitious band and a chance for the two to individually demonstrate their awesome talents. Beginning with the portentous "Anywhere Out of the World," a piece that takes the deep atmospherics of "Enigma of the Absolute" to a higher level with mysterious, chiming bells, simple but effective keyboard bass and a sense of vast space, the album finds Dead Can Dance on a steady roll. Once again a range of assistant musicians provide even more elegance and power to the band's work, with a chamber string quartet plus various performers on horns, woodwind, and percussion. Impressive though the remainder of the first side is, Gerrard's showcase on the second half is even more enveloping and arguably more successful. The martial combination of drums and horns that start "Dawn of the Iconoclast" call to mind everything from Wagner to Laibach, but Gerrard's unearthly alto, at its most compelling here, elevates it even higher.

By the time 1988's Gringo rolled around, Journey had all but called it a day (until their reunion a decade or so later) and Gregg Rolie was going in a decidedly different direction than his tenure in either Journey or Santana. As "The Hands of Time" immediately makes evident, Rolie was shooting for the top of the pop charts, falling somewhere between Daryl Hall's "Dreamtime" and Don Johnson's "Heartbeat" on the musical landscape…

Seemingly an improvement over his previous solo effort, the average consumer obviously did not think so. Though the album contained what is probably his best solo recording Let’s Work, it did not translate into a chart hit [failing to reach the top-30], something the album was just barely able to do itself. The album’s opener Throwaway, appearing to be just that, became his lowest charting single ever. Fans will however be comforted by Mick’s easily recognizable voice and occasional flashes of past glories. He opted to work with the Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart for the album that would be followed by a small far-east tour which included gigs in Australia and Japan.

After the debacle that was Spoiled Girl, Carly Simon moved to her fourth record label, Arista, and returned to soundtrack work, which had given her her second biggest hit, "Nobody Does It Better," from The Spy Who Loved Me, in 1977. This time, she wrote "Coming Around Again" for Heartburn, and it hit number 18 in early 1987, her biggest hit in more than six years…