The Corroner

After the incredible success of their "Doctorin' the Tardis" single in 1988 (better known as that theme from Dr. Who), Drummond and Cauty had plenty of money to hire talented musicians (instead of merely sampling them, as on their early recordings). The White Room is the result, an album bursting with hit singles that nevertheless flows as well as any concept album. Often overlooked as a classic from the acid house era (mostly because of the KLF's retirement one year later), The White Room represents the commercial and artistic peak of late-'80s acid-house.

Director Roman Polanski's film The Pianist is based on the memoirs of Polish classical pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman about his harrowing experiences under the Nazi occupation of Warsaw during World War II. The soundtrack album consists almost entirely of Chopin piano pieces, most of them played by Janusz Olejniczak. Most of those, in turn, are solo performances, although Olejniczak is joined by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tadeusz Strugala, for Grand Polonaise for Piano and Orchestra. The sole non-Chopin track is the excerpt from Wojciech Kilar's score, "Moving to the Ghetto October 31, 1940," a klezmer-like piece running only 1:45 in which Hanna Wolczedska plays clarinet, accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic. Appropriately, the album ends with an actual recording by Szpilman of the Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17, No. 4.

The Parlor Mob's bid for rock & roll stardom was initially thwarted by major-label reshuffling (dropped by Capitol, they quickly reemerged with the ostensibly independent Roadrunner), then stunted by confusing musical allegiances (lost somewhere between retro- and indie rock, they followed Wolfmother and the Sword into "hipster metal" purgatory), so it's now up to their sophomore album, Dogs, to turn the band's career prospects around. What's more, the Asbury Park, New Jersey natives have to pray that consumers will listen with eyes closed and minds opened, ignoring the intra-genre politics and critical recriminations ignited by the issues cited above, in order to give said music a fair shot. So, eyes closed now, just listen. Fundamentally, Dogs finds the Parlor Mob aiming to first streamline, then modernize their debut's classic hard rock hallmarks, losing most of their primal hard rock bombast (and reams of colorful keyboard and organ backdrops), but gaining some infectious simplicity in the process.