Russel Band

"Our inconsistency is our consistency/our insincerity is our sincerity," Russel Mael sings at one point on A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip. It's a sentiment that could pass for Sparks' manifesto: Over the years, fans have come to expect dizzyingly witty lyrics and dazzling, ever-changing sonics from the Mael brothers. Their 24th album offers plenty of both, as well as a more pointed outlook and a slightly more down-to-earth sound than the duo's last outing, 2017's Hippopotamus. Ron and Russel Mael give these songs about misfits, outliers, and disasters a driving urgency, whether on "Sainthood Is Not in Your Future"'s sprightly tale of betrayal or the darkly cosmic "Nothing Travels Faster Than the Speed of Light," which provides a great showcase for Ron Mael's formidable keyboard skills.

One Shot 80: Da oltre di 10 anni è la collana più completa dedicata ai successi Pop e Dance della decade che va dal 1980 al 1989. Dopo il successo ottenuto con la prima serie arrivata al 20° volume, anche grazie agli innumerevoli Fans che con e-mail e cartoline contenute all'interno del CD hanno collaborato alla riuscita con le loro segnalazioni, ecco che la Universal Music Italia, propone quello che viene considerato il completamento dell'opera. La Nuova One Shot, come forse avete già capito, oltre ad essere rinnovata nel look, è rinnovata anche nei contenuti, 2 CD per volume che raccolgono anno per anno tutto quello che gli anni 80 hanno offerto.

Michel McLean (guitar, ex-Les Karrik) and Pierre Moreau write most of the music for L'Engoulevent, and the core band is completed by Francoise Turcotte (violin) and Russel Cagnon (cello). They are aided by a number of musicians from Conventum, as well as McLean's old Les Karrik cohort Claude LaFrance on one track. Their first album was entitled "L'Ile Ou Vivent Les Loups", and was released on the Le Tamanour label in 1977. Roughly half the tracks are instrumental, and the vocal tracks are done in a folk style but are not traditional pieces. Perhaps because half the core band is employed on string instruments, there is both an exquisite beauty and contrapuntal richness to much of the music. There can sometimes be three semi-independent, but mutually supportive, harmonic lines going at once…