Al+stewart

For Al Stewart fans who can't afford the five-CD set Just Yesterday, this 30-song double-disc collection is a fair – but only a fair – alternative. It is lacking a few items, however, that would make it more satisfying. For starters, the studio renditions of "Roads to Moscow" and "Nostradamus" are nowhere to be found, and then there's the absence of Stewart's debut single, "The Elf."…

This live recording is something of a surprise – make that a shock, in the most positive way – appearing 45 years into Al Stewart's professional career. From the opening notes of a medley of "Last Days of the Century" and "Constantinople," Stewart – in partnership with guitarist/singer Dave Nachmanoff (who also produced this record) – launches into a set with the kind of energy and enthusiasm one would more easily expect from a twenty-something neophyte than a sixty-something veteran…

Year of the Cat brought Al Stewart a genuine worldwide smash with its title track, and for its successor, he did make a few concessions. These, however, were slight – just a slight increase of soft rock productions, an enhancement of the lushness that marked not only Year of the Cat but also Modern Times. These happened to be welcome adjustments to Stewart's sound, since they increased the dreamy continental elegance at the core of his work…

Eleven songs from Al Stewart's albums Past, Present and Future (1974) through Live Indian Summer (1981), remastered in 1992, which gives it more than decent sound. "Roads to Moscow" is drawn from Past, Present and Future (the inlay card erroneously lists Live Indian Summer), and "Year of the Cat" is the hit studio version, but the producers have chosen live versions of "Nostradamus" (which emphasizes its Tommy-like central riff) and "On the Border," rather than their superior originals, probably to retain the value of the original albums…

UK two CD set containing the British singer/songwriter's first three albums. Includes: Bedsitter Images, his debut album, released in 1967; Love Chronicles, his second album, released in 1969 (musical support from legendary musicians including Jimmy Page, Ashley Hutchings, Simon Nicol and Richard Thompson); and Zero She Flies, his third album released in 1970…

EMI's 1993 double-disc collection To Whom It May Concern: 1966-1970 contains the entirety of Al Stewart's early recordings for Epic Records, including all of his first three albums, Bedsitter Images, Love Chronicles, and Zero She Flies…

Coming on the heels of his departure from The Faces, A NIGHT ON THE TOWN was Rod Stewart's first solo album. With his usual collaborator Ron Wood now a member of the Rolling Stones, Stewart gathered together an impressive group of backing musicians that included Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn and Al Jackson of Booker T & The MG's, Joe Walsh, the Tower Of Power horn section and multi-instrumentalist David Lindley…

Rod Stewart has been mining the Great American Songbook for the better part of a decade, so it would only make sense that he would get a little bit better as time goes by. And, by some stroke of fate, Fly Me to the Moon – the fifth installment in this never-ending series and first since 2005, as Rod spent the back half of the 2000s taking songbook detours into rock and soul – is Stewart’s best album in the entire serie…

None of Rod Stewart's many self re-inventions has been half-hearted, least of all the full-fledged adoption of the full-on electric rock of 1975's ATLANTIC CROSSING. This album saw Stewart moving past the folk and blues of some of his past work, trading it in for some brash saxophones and jumpy R&B-tinged rhythms. AC features a host of well-known Yank studio cats, including guitarist Steve Cropper (whose contribution was also compositional), producer Tom Dowd, and the Memphis Horns, who all lend an able hand in helping Stewart leave his UK roots behind…