Mud

Although countless Mud compilations have been released over the years, none of them managed to cover every phase of the group's career. This was remedied in 1997 with the release of The Singles '67-'78. This overwhelmingly generous collection spans two discs and includes the A- and B-sides of each single the group released. Of course, the most impressive tracks are the hits from the group's stint at RAK Records: the combination of pop hooks and guitar firepower utilized for stomping glam classics like "Tiger Feet" and "Dynamite" still sound fresh and exciting today. However, this set also unearths some surprisingly good tracks from the group's oft-overlooked periods at Private Stock and RCA Records: "L'L'Lucy" is a full-throttle rock tune built on a smile-inducing vocal stutter hook and the languid yet catchy "Slow Talking Boy" is unlike anything else in the Mud catalog.

With their second album, Rio Grande Mud, ZZ Top uses the sound they sketched out on their debut as a blueprint, yet they tweak it in slight but important ways. The first difference is the heavier, more powerful sound, turning the boogie guitars into a locomotive force. There are slight production flares that date this as a 1972 record, but for the most part, this is a straight-ahead, dirty blues-rock difference. Essentially like the first album, then. That's where the second difference comes in – they have a much better set of songs this time around, highlighted by the swaggering shuffle "Just Got Paid," the pile-driving boogie "Bar-B-Q," the slide guitar workout "Apologies to Pearly," and two Dusty Hill-sung numbers, "Francine" and "Chevrolet." There are still a couple of tracks that don't quite gel and their fuzz-blues still can sound a little one-dimensional at times, but Rio Grande Mud is the first flowering of ZZ Top as a great, down-n-dirty blooze rock band.

Between 1970 and 1976, James Taylor released six albums with Warner Bros. Records that became the foundation for his unparalleled career that includes five Grammy® Awards, induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, and more than 100 million records sold worldwide. Originally signed to Apple for his 1968 debut, Taylor switched to Warners for the 1970 follow-up Sweet Baby James, which was a huge success reaching number three in the Billboard charts, nominated for a Grammy and has sold in excess of three million copies in the US alone making him quite the handsome acoustic troubadour, with records that became the foundation for his garlanded career that includes five Grammy Awards, induction into the Songwriters and Rock and Roll Halls of Fame, and more than 100 million records sold worldwide.

This 30-track collection charts the life of the genre. Here you will find Sweet, T Rex, David Bowie, Suzi Quatro, Mud, Alice Cooper …

When it was first released in 1994, Richard Buckner's debut album Bloomed seemed little short of miraculous, a beautifully spare but rich and compelling set of songs about the sweet and bitter sides of love, accompanied by a superb, primarily acoustic ensemble led by producer Lloyd Maines. In retrospect, Bloomed turned out to reveal just one of the many facets of Buckner's musical personality, but if his muse took him many places after this (and continued to guide him in fascinating ways), this still remains one of the most satisfying and engaging albums in his catalog. Buckner's songs on Bloomed dig deep, whether he's pondering the mysteries of love on "Blue and Wonder" and "Mud," or sketching an indelible portrait of a young man succumbing to despair and self-pity on "22," and his wordplay is at once artful and down to earth, and all the more effective for Buckner's strong, burnished voice and thoughtful phrasing; it's hard to imagine another voice putting so much effortless resonance behind lines like "This is where things start going bad," or "Christ, how this life, from mud to miracles, is just the prettiest little burden."

Once again working with producer/songwriter Tom Hambridge – the bluesman's main collaborator since 2008's Skin Deep – Buddy Guy serves up a straight-ahead platter with Born to Play Guitar, his 28th studio album. Many of Guy's latter-day records loosely follow a theme, but Born to Play Guitar is pretty direct: just a collection of songs designed to showcase Buddy's oversized Stratocaster. Which isn't to say there's either a lack of variety or pro forma songwriting here. Hambridge cleverly colors Born to Play Guitar with a few bold, unexpected flourishes: the sweeps of sweet strings that accentuate "(Baby) You've Got What It Takes," a duet with Joss Stone that lightly recalls Etta James' Chess Records work; the big, blaring horns of "Thick Like Mississippi Mud" that moves that track out of the Delta and into an urban setting; the acoustic "Come Back Muddy" which performs that trick in reverse, pushing Chicago blues back down south.

In the path of successful compilations such as the Progressive Rock Trilogy, Punk Trilogy and Heavy Metal Trilogy, Music Brokers presents Glam Rock Trilogy, a wonderful three-disc album that summarizes all the splendor of the style that influenced much of British rock, from punk through Brit pop to techno pop. As a cultural and musical style, glam rock was born in 1971, with the release of the song Ride A White Swan by T. Rex. From that moment forward, there arose a veritable fever which invariably topped the European charts. Artists such as David Bowie, Alice Cooper, Roxy Music, Slade, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, New York Dolls, Suzi Quatro, Glitter Band, The Sweet, Mott, Cockney Rebel, Suede and the aforementioned T. Rex became the heads of style, and all are included in Glam Rock Trilogy, the definitive album.