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Anthology (Album of the Day)
Friday, August 21, 2015
In 1977, a Belfast, North Ireland cover band named after Deep Purple's "Highway Star" caught the punk bug and adopted the name of a Vibrators song: Stiff Little Fingers. With the sectarian Troubles raging around them, frontman/songwriter Jake Burns had plenty of material to draw from, and such incendiary, politically informed tracks as "Suspect Device," "Alternative Ulster" and "Wasted Life" have lost none of their power. The three-volume ANTHOLOGY gathers all the single A- and B-sides from Stiff Little Fingers' original incarnation, a tasty sampling of the group's 1990s reunion albums and a live set recorded at London's Brixton Academy in 1989. This consistently exciting collection is worthy of Ireland's answer to The Clash.
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The Warner Bros. Years 1971-1983 (Album of the Day)
Thursday, August 20, 2015
The Doobie Brothers got their start playing in Northern California biker bars; if that origin did little to endear the band to critics, it likely helped teach the discipline and focus on accessible songs that enabled the Doobies to crank out 10 strong albums in little more than a decade. What's most impressive about THE WARNER BROS. YEARS 1971-1983 is how quickly the band grew from its humble beginnings, incorporating country, folk and blue-eyed soul to produce a string of hits, first with frontman Tom Johnston ("Rockin' Down the Highway," "China Grove") and later Michael McDonald ("Takin' It To The Streets," "What A Fool Believes"). From their eponymous debut to their live farewell tour set, this affordable 10-disc set of the Doobies' WARNER BROS. YEARS is the ideal way to "Listen To The Music."
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The Very Best of Billy J Kramer (Album of the Day)
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
British singer Billy J. Kramer had been toiling for British Railways and playing music in his spare time when he caught the eye of manager Brian Epstein and his future was set. Kramer was paired with a solid instrumental group, The Dakotas, and supplied with some songs penned by one of Epstein's other acts – The Beatles. With producer George Martin at the controls, Kramer turned Lennon-McCartney's "Do You Want To Know A Secret?," "Bad To Me" and "I'll Keep You Satisfied" into Top 10 U.K. hits in 1963, and in the next two years had similar success with "Little Children" and "Trains And Boats And Planes." These and two dozen more from Billy and The Dakotas can be heard on the 2005 Parlophone collection THE VERY BEST OF. Featuring all of his British Invasion hits (and a few surprisingly tough sides for a singer better known for ballads), the collection paints a vivid portrait of Billy J Kramer, who was born in this day in 1943.
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Foreigner [Expanded] (Album of the Day)
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
With three Americans and three Englishmen in their line-up, Foreigner's name was appropriate everywhere on the globe, and the band's irresistible arena rock brought it immediate success around the world. The sextet's self-titled 1977 debut was a smash thanks to such tracks as "Headknocker," "Long, Long Way From Home," "Feels Like The First Time" and "Cold As Ice" - the latter two Top 10 U.S. singles – and the album quickly went multi-platinum. There's no denying the craftsmanship of these songs or the one-two punch of vocalist Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones; the four bonus demos on the Expanded Edition of FOREIGNER make that chemistry even clearer. The band's original drummer, Dennis Elliott, turns 65 today, and we'll celebrate the birthday with another spin of this AOR classic.
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The Studio Albums 1979-2008 (Vol. 2) (Album of the Day)
Monday, August 17, 2015
What's the most successful American rock group after The Beach Boys? Chicago. The horn rock hitmakers have charted in every decade since their late-'60s inception, and the latter portion of their still-ongoing career is the focus of THE STUDIO ALBUMS 1979-2008. The 10-disc collection of the most recently remastered, bonus track-laden versions of the band's 13, XIV, 16, 17 (the best-selling album of the band's career at 6x platinum), 18, 19, TWENTY 1, NIGHT & DAY, XXX and STONE OF SISYPHUS shows Chicago's instrumental and songwriting chops to be second to none. The group's emergence as first-class romantic balladeers and the post-Peter Cetera evolution heard on the new THE STUDIO ALBUMS set mark Chicago as one of the most consistently appealing performers of the last 30 years.
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Sonny & Cher's Greatest Hits (Album of the Day)
Friday, August 14, 2015
King and queen of the Sunset Strip in the mid-1960s, Salvatore “Sonny” Bono and Cherilyn “Cher” Sarkisian had apprenticed with producer Phil Spector and constructed their own wall of sound on hits beginning with “I Got You Babe,” which reached No.1 on the U.S. singles chart on this day in 1965. The double-album SONNY & CHER'S GREATEST HITS includes that classic love ballad along with the cream of their output for Atco – more than half of the 20 tracks were charting singles, including Top 10 hits “Laugh At Me” and “The Beat Goes On.” While hitting the highlights, the collection digs a little deeper into the duo's work, with cuts from their three albums (and movie soundtrack GOOD TIMES) revealing Sonny to be a first class pop songwriter. SONNY & CHER'S GREATEST HITS brims with folk-rock magic.
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Going For The One (Deluxe) (Album of the Day)
Thursday, August 13, 2015
Yes' eighth studio longplayer was cut after a three-year break to give its members the chance to do solo albums; to judge from GOING FOR THE ONE, the time apart did them good. The album marked the return to the fold of keyboardist Rick Wakeman, whose work on Moog synthesizers, Mellotron and a church pipe organ is inspired throughout. Except for the closing epic “Awaken,” the songs are punchier and stand easily on their own; singles “Wonderous Stories” and the title track were very radio-friendly, helping to push the album to the top of the U.K. chart on this day in 1977. Rhino's Deluxe Edition of GOING FOR THE ONE makes this underrated prog rock gem even better with the addition of seven previously unreleased tracks from the album sessions.
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Love Over Gold (Album of the Day)
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
For those who only know Dire Straits from swinging sultans or computer-animated workers on MTV, the British quintet's fourth album should be mandatory listening. LOVE OVER GOLD displays all the musical ambition and instrumental proficiency that enamored the band to both critics and fans on both sides of the Atlantic. From the 14-minute epic, “Telegraph Road,” that opens the set, Dire Straits blaze a path through blues-based rock and progressive atmospherics, and the remaining songs (the title track, “It Never Rains” and singles “Private Investigations” and “Industrial Disease”) are equally rewarding. Of all Dire Straits albums, LOVE OVER GOLD may be the one that best displays guitar virtuoso Mark Knopfler's fine fretwork, so we'll give the gold-certified collection another spin in honor of the man's birthday.
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Nowhere (Album of the Day)
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
In the early 1990s, a wave of groups that used guitars to build hazy walls of sound crested in Britain; dubbed “shoegazers” because of their players' focus on effects pedals, these bands made some of the most dreamiest sounds in alternative rock. Oxford quartet Ride were leaders of this movement, and their debut NOWHERE remains among its crowning achievements, cited by Pitchfork as one of the decade's top 100 albums. Effectively coupling melody and distortion with spacey neo-psychedelia, the Sire set features 11 originals by guitarist Andy Bell and Mark Gardner including the shimmering single “Vapor Trail.” Bell turns 45 today, and we'll celebrate the birthday with a trip to NOWHERE.
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Feel Like Makin' Love (Album of the Day)
Monday, August 10, 2015
With classical training and a strong jazz background informing her brand of R&B, Roberta Flack was among the most distinctive artists on the radio in the early 1970s. She had a pair of No.1 hits and a couple of Grammys to her credit when she entered the studio to cut FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE, and the title track was another smash; it topped the U.S. singles chart on this day in 1974. The Atlantic Records collection was the first she produced herself - under the pseudonym “Rubina Flake” - employing a small army of top jazz players and background singers (including future stars Patti Austin and Deniece Williams) to sublime effect. Beyond the title hit, songs like “Mr. Magic” and “Feelin' That Glow” set the tone for FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE: ethereal beauty, rich emotional texture and intimate reverie.
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