The First The One

Among the first things one notices about the Promise Ring's big breakthrough album on Anti-Records are the beautifully crisp, metallic photos of plants in a greenhouse shot by photographer Chris Strong. Strong is an amazing photographer who has worked with Owen, American Football, and Hey Mercedes, among others, and whose full, glossy work on Wood/Water delivers the message that the tone on this album is going to be different than previous Promise Ring works…

Greatest hits albums are a big thing for Air Supply. Their first, 1983's Greatest Hits, is their biggest seller in the United States, earning five platinum certifications within its first decade of release, after which it was continually replaced by collections both considered and sloppy. All of which is to say, Real Gone Music's 2016 The Columbia & Arista Years: The Definitive Collection has some stiff competitors for the title of definitive Air Supply compilation, but this physical rendition of the 2014 digital release The Essential Air Supply does offer an overview of the soft rock duo's prime that's thorough in a way its predecessors aren't. Much of this is due to sheer length: at 30 tracks and two CDs, it's nearly a third longer than the previous standard bearer, 2003's Ultimate Air Supply (and it doesn't replicate all of that disc's songs, either, cutting away four tracks most fans won't miss).

Give him points for persistence: Alice Cooper just won't quit. He's seen it all from the bottom to the top – and done the trip more than once – but still continues on his merry-morbid way, punching out albums like a spry young'un. The first thing one has to say about The Eyes of Alice Cooper is thank Jehovah and all his witnesses that the Mascara'd One has grown out of his metal/industrial phase. That look just never took. Discs like Brutal Planet (2000) and the somewhat better Dragontown (2001) offered little to his legacy or his legion of fans – aside from nascent headbangers discovering the Coop for the first time. Eyes harks back to Alice's overly maligned early-'80s discs Special Forces and Flush the Fashion – albums that suffered by comparison with his landmark '70s releases but remain far more musically appealing than the aforementioned new-millennium fare.

The Thrills - So Much For The City
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 441 MB | MP3 CBR 320: 108 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Virgin 7243 5 84968 2 6 | Country/Year: UK 2003
Genre: Rock | Style: Pop Rock

Five friends who grew up together in Dublin, called the Thrills, have produced a remarkably neat debut album. At the heart of their sound is a professed love for the tunes of the American West Coast of the '60s and '70s. Set to a backdrop of Al Green, Carole King, and the Band, they quickly pieced together tracks for their debut album, So Much for the City, during a four-month holiday on a beach in San Diego…

Don't let the photos on some of Sara Gazarek's albums and promtional stuff–a barefoot young lady dressed more like a folk singer from the 60's–fool you. This lady is a jazz singer–and an up and coming jazz lion at that. Recording an album live–especially an acoustic jazz album–has to be somewhat schizophrenic for an artist. On one hand, there is the "electricity" that performing before a live audience can bring to a performance; on the other hand, any miscues or imperfections are likely to make it to the recording, too.

Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent's Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously. As with that album, The Serpent's Egg was heralded by an astounding first track, "The Host of Seraphim."

Gus Till is one of the true pioneers of the psychedelic trance sound. Having worked with music since the 70s he found himself in London at the height of the goa trance moment. He had productions on almost every significant record label of the day - including Dragonfly, Twisted and TIP, but it was his work with the Slinky Wizard and Stoop and Fidget projects on Flying Rhino that earned him a reputation for absolute top quality. Despite this, he never managed to release a full length dance album. With the demise of Flying Rhino, and much more of the older material difficult to find, Gus has chosen to release not one but two compilations of his music…

Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent's Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously. As with that album, The Serpent's Egg was heralded by an astounding first track, "The Host of Seraphim." Its use in films some years later was no surprise in the slightest – one can imagine the potential range of epic images the song could call up – but on its own it's so jaw-droppingly good that almost the only reaction is sheer awe. Beginning with a soft organ drone and buried, echoed percussion, Gerrard then takes flight with a seemingly wordless invocation of power and worship – her vocal control and multi-octave range, especially towards the end, has to be heard to be believed. Nothing else achieves such heights, but everything gets pretty darn close, a deserved testament to the band's conceptual reach and abilities.

Dead Can Dance - The Serpent's Egg (1988)
1st German Pressing 1988
EAC AccurateRip | FLAC, IMG+CUE, LOG | 199,2 MB | Complete Scans (300 dpi) | 23,1 MB
Modern Classical, Gothic, Ethnic Fusion, Ambient | Label: 4.A.D./Rough Trade | Catalog Number: RTD CD 92 | Time: 36:10 | RAR | RS.com

Perry and Gerrard continued to experiment and improve with The Serpent's Egg, as much a leap forward as Spleen and Ideal was some years previously. As with that album, The Serpent's Egg was heralded by an astounding first track, "The Host of Seraphim." Its use in films some years later was no surprise in the slightest – one can imagine the potential range of epic images the song could call up – but on its own it's so jaw-droppingly good that almost the only reaction is sheer awe. Beginning with a soft organ drone and buried, echoed percussion, Gerrard then takes flight with a seemingly wordless invocation of power and worship – her vocal control and multi-octave range, especially towards the end, has to be heard to be believed. Nothing else achieves such heights, but everything gets pretty darn close, a deserved testament to the band's conceptual reach and abilities. Slow plainsong chants such as "Orbis De Ignis" mix with the harpischord and overlaid vocals of "The Writing on My Father's Hand" and the slow build and sweep of "In the Kingdom of the Blind the One-Eyed Are Kings." Two of Perry's finest vocal moments occur here. The first, "Severance," is a slow, organ/keyboard led number that showcases his rich, warm vocals exquisitely – it's no wonder that Bauhaus chose to cover it some years later on its reunion tour. "Ullyses," the album's closing track, makes for a fine ending as much as "The Host of Seraphim" did an opening, Perry's delivery almost like a reading from a holy book, the arrangement of strings and percussion rhythmic, addictive and lovely. AMG