The Guilmaster

Released only ten months after their debut album, Stay With the Hollies, their second album was a huge leap forward in every respect. Their famous airtight harmonies were now in place, and the sloppiness of the instrumental attack gone. Most important, the group developed enormously as songwriters. Eight of the 12 tracks were Hollies originals and quite skillful in their mastery of the British Invasion essentials of driving, catchy melodies and shining harmonies. A couple of the covers are duds, but the "Nitty Gritty/Something's Got a Hold of Me" medley is first-rate, and the version of "It's in His Kiss" (retitled "It's in Her Kiss") respectable.

Anybody seeking an exhaustive Britney Spears compilation has been waiting for a collection like 2013's The Essential Britney Spears. Where other Britney compilations ran no longer than a single CD, this is a double-disc set with over 30 tracks more than enough space for all of her hit American singles, although that does mean that there are some singles from non-U.S. territories that are missing in action.

With the help of frequent collaborators (and ambient pioneers) Steve Roach and Robert Rich, as well as percussionist/programmer Djen Ajakan Shean, Vidna Obmana piles layers upon layers of diverse sonic textures to create a seamless, flowing record perfectly suited for meditation or simple relaxation. By incorporating various ethnic instruments (including flutes, didgeridoo, and percussion) with abstract synth textures, natural ambient sounds and effects-layered vocals and chanting, Obmama creates mesmerizing, otherworldly soundscapes unlike anything you've heard before. A nice chill-out disc after a night of overstimulation, The Spiritual Bonding is a soothing, natural remedy for 21st century digital burnout.

China Crisis underwent a complete change in sound for their third album, completely ditching the heavy dub rhythms and challenging arrangements of 1982's Difficult Shapes & Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It's Fun to Entertain and 1983's Working with Fire and Steel (Possible Pop Songs, Vol. 2) with an altogether smoother and less aggressive sound. That doesn't equal a commercial capitulation, however; if anything, the choice of Walter Becker (of the then-unfashionable Steely Dan) as producer was a more commercially daring maneuver than anything the group had previously attempted.

Like 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative, 2009's The Singles runs 18 tracks but the selected songs result in a very different listening experience. To begin with, the five years separating the two compilations were tumultuous ones for Britney Spears, but they resulted in a clutch of hits that kept her on the charts despite all the drama, hits that firmly entrenched Britney as a dance club diva. This stretch of six singles – "Gimme More," "Piece of Me," "Womanizer," "Circus," "If You Seek Amy," "Radar" – along with the excellent new Max Martin-written and produced single "3" (much better than any of the three new cuts on My Prerogative), help push The Singles away from teen pop and toward pure dance-pop bliss, a shift in tone underscored by the virtual absence of ballads (the only one included is "Everytime," which in this context plays a bit as a chill-out number). In some regards, giving her early sticky bubblegum and fluffy ballads a bit of a short shrift does downplay Britney's era of dominance, but it does result in a stronger overall listen, since there are no slow patches here, just a parade of relentless hooks and rhythms that wound up defining the sound of a decade.

Music is a crucial element in every Oscar-winning film. In this concert you will be taken on a musical journey through the sounds of the greatest Oscar winners of all time, from classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to monumental cinematic works like The Godfather and blockbusters like Forrest Gump - blockbusters with music, that for almost a century have made us shudder, melt and cry in the darkness of the cinema.

Music is a crucial element in every Oscar-winning film. In this concert you will be taken on a musical journey through the sounds of the greatest Oscar winners of all time, from classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to monumental cinematic works like The Godfather and blockbusters like Forrest Gump - blockbusters with music, that for almost a century have made us shudder, melt and cry in the darkness of the cinema.

The Seeds were one of the most influential bands in the '60s American garage rock scene; they delivered hypnotic, stripped-down tunes dominated by Daryl Hooper's circular keyboard lines and the fuzzy, feral guitar breaks of Jan Savage, while lead singer Sky Saxon wailed a thinly veiled paen to drugs and sex, including "Mr. Farmer," "Rolling Machine," and "Up in Her Room." The Seeds scored their biggest hit with "Pushin' Too Hard" in 1967, but the band had already attracted a sizable following in their hometown of Los Angeles, and they would release a string of memorable singles through the end of the decade. Singles As & Bs 1965-1970 collects both sides of the 11 singles the Seeds released during their heyday, including variant B-sides for two releases, and as a bonus the set includes a rare, unedited take of "Pushin' Too Hard"…