The Album 2001

With this album eleven British and American blues stars took the fabric of some of the best songs of the 20th Century and spun their own magic, performing from the heart in the way great Blues and Soul artists have always done.

Angel in the Dark is a lovely recording featuring the graceful vocals and finely crafted songs that everyone expects from Laura Nyro. These sessions were completed in the summer of 1995 and represent the last music Nyro recorded. The title cut and "Sweet Dream Fade" mine the same soul terrain as her late '60s recordings, featuring horns and underlined by heavy guitar riffs. These upbeat pieces perfectly integrate voice, arrangements, and lyrics to create an organic whole, and are two of the best cuts on the album. Slower, piano-based songs like "Triple Goddess Twilight," "He Was Too Good to Me," and "Serious Playground" are mixed in-between these songs. These pieces are quieter and introspective, with Nyro's voice more intimate. It is almost as though she was sitting at the piano, late at night, and singing to herself. There are also several covers including "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" and "Let It Be Me." The first of these is over five minutes and has been slowed down so much that it drags. In fact, she slows down all of the covers as if to convert them into heartfelt ballads.

The second half of the '90s was difficult for the Cranberries, not just because of changing fashions, but because the group embraced both a social consciousness and a prog rock infatuation, crystallized by the Storm Thorgerson cover of Bury the Hatchet. Thorgerson has been retained for their fifth effort, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee, but the group has hardly pursued the indulgent tendencies of their previous collaboration with him – instead, they've re-teamed with producer Stephen Street and come up with an album that's as reminiscent of their debut as anything they've done since. So, even if it's wrapped in new clothing, this is essentially a return to basics, and it's a welcome one, since it's melodic, stately, and somber – perhaps not with the post-Sundays grace of "Linger," but with a dogged sense of decorum that keeps not just the group's musical excesses in check, but also O'Riordan's political polemics (although she still sneaks in cringe-inducing lines like "Looks like we've screwed up the ozone layer/I wonder if the politicians care").

From start to finish this album defies categorical classification. It employs the best of R&B, Afro-beat, folk, and blues while remaining true to the Blind Boys' gospel roots. And with a tasteful selection of material by Tom Waits, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and Ben Harper, in addition to their usual array of traditional gospel hymns and folk tunes, it will appeal to generations of listeners. Though varied in its stylings, the album works as a whole due to the high-quality production, arrangements, and musicianship throughout.

One of the bastions of progressive rock and an innovator in the use of keyboards in rock music, former Yes keysman Rick Wakeman is a true musical pioneer. The 2001 live album Out Of The Blue spotlights the man in all his synthesizer glory, each track an epic in itself. It is also evident that he has influenced nearly every keyboard player in the progressive rock and metal field. Performing with Wakeman at this concert, recorded at the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, are vocalist Damian Wilson (Ayreon, Threshold), drummer Tony Fernandez (The Strawbs), guitarist Ant Glynne, bassist Lee Pomeroy, and Wakeman’s son and fellow keyboardist Adam Wakeman.

The Storm is an excursion into deep, often un rooted ambience. Stearns can completely transform a space with his swirling layers of sounds. Environments cascade atop each other as the Balinese "Ketjak" chante merges from a white noise of rain and barber-pole glissando, but he also leavens The Storm with welcome respites of minimally drawn melody. The Last Feeling is a techno-tribal trance work of plaintive flute melody and hypnotic hand percussion, while The Light in the Trees illustrates the deep melancholy Stearns can evoke with just a few well-placed chords.

The Storm is an excursion into deep, often un rooted ambience. Stearns can completely transform a space with his swirling layers of sounds. Environments cascade atop each other as the Balinese "Ketjak" chante merges from a white noise of rain and barber-pole glissando, but he also leavens The Storm with welcome respites of minimally drawn melody. The Last Feeling is a techno-tribal trance work of plaintive flute melody and hypnotic hand percussion, while The Light in the Trees illustrates the deep melancholy Stearns can evoke with just a few well-placed chords.

Mick Jagger had struggled with launching his solo career for over 15 years when he unleashed Goddess in the Doorway. Although he was one of the most famous men on earth, he couldn't separate himself from the Stones no matter how hard he tried, and he tried so hard that many of his struggles appeared desperate…