Robinson Ottoobre

It's an irresistible budget-priced summary of their prime Motown recordings. There may be a couple of noteworthy songs missing, but many of their best-known songs are here, including "The Tracks of My Tears," "Ooo Baby Baby," "The Tears of a Clown" and "I Second That Emotion." Serious fans will want something more extensive, but this is an excellent introduction for neophytes and a great sampler for casual fans, considering its length and price. That doesn't erase the ridiculousness of the series title, but the silliness is excusable when the music and the collections are good.

One of the most subtly satisfying electric blues albums of the '70s. Fenton Robinson never did quite fit the "Genuine Houserocking Music" image of Alligator Records – his deep, rich baritone sounds more like a magic carpet than a piece of barbed wire, and he speaks in jazz-inflected tongues, full of complex surprises. The title track hits with amazing power, as do the chugging "The Getaway," a hard-swinging "You Say You're Leaving," and the minor-key "You Don't Know What Love Is." In every case, Robinson had recorded them before, but thanks to Bruce Iglauer's superb production, a terrific band, and Robinson's musicianship, these versions reign supreme.

Porter Robinson had already moved beyond festival-ready EDM by the time Worlds, a full-length debut filled with widescreen electro-pop tunes inspired by anime and video games, arrived in 2014. After the album became a massive success, topping Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart and influencing numerous producers, Robinson felt pressured to deliver another major statement that would live up to his reputation. He scored a gold-certified hit with "Shelter," his 2016 collaboration with Madeon, and following the duo's extensive international tour, he branched off with Virtual Self, a hyper-fun side project influenced by trance and Dance Dance Revolution, which surprisingly earned the producer his first Grammy nomination.

For the most part, another easy-going trip to the mellower side of contemporary blues, Robinson's jazzy tone and buttery vocals applied to a couple of his '50s-era numbers ("Crazy Crazy Lovin'" and "Schoolboy") along with some intriguing new iteams and Lowell Fulson's mournful "Sinner's Prayer." Tasty backing helps too. His Japanese fans reverently dubbed Fenton Robinson "the mellow blues genius" because of his ultra-smooth vocals and jazz-inflected guitar work. But beneath the obvious subtlety resides a spark of constant regeneration – Robinson tirelessly strives to invent something fresh and vital whenever he's near a bandstand.