On Chris de Burgh's debut album, his gentle, beguiling vocal style is introduced, which instantly trademarks him as a genuine master of the soft ballad. de Burgh's engaging dominance of words and lyrics carries both his love songs and his simple light rock tunes to a higher level, thanks to the attention and care given to each of his pieces. As an inaugural album, the songs hold well as they are delicately cushioned by his voice, but are substantially thin where melody or appealing choruses are concerned. Both "Windy Night" and "Watching the World" draw the most attention, bringing de Burgh's silkiness to the focal point. "Satin Green Shutters" beautifully illustrates his knack for sounding sincere and charismatic within the boundaries of a love song…

The album that made Butler a star. The sweeping ballads, catchy uptempo, dance-oriented hits, and multi-tracked overdubs and background vocalists helped make his music a staple on late '80s Urban Contemporary radio. There is little jazz influence and even less jazz content on this release, but Butler does display a strong, effective singing voice.

Club des Belugas is one of the leading Nujazz bands in Europe, perhaps in the world. They combine contemporary European Electro, Lounge & Nujazz Styles with Brazilian Beats, Swing and American Black Soul of the fifties, sixties and seventies using their unique creativity and intensity. Since 2002 they released 10 studio albums, a 2CD live album, a live DVD, 10 singles and 1 EP.

"King of the Kill" is the 4th full-length studio album by Canadian thrash/heavy metal act Annihilator. The material on the album is a combination of thrash metal riffs and rhythms and traditional heavy metal elements such as anthemic hooks and hard rock/blues influenced riffs and guitar solos. The album also features a couple of more melodic oriented tracks with non-distorted guitars. The song structures are generally a bit formulaic vers/chorus based and while that works pretty well on the most memorable tracks, it doesn´t work as well on the least remarkable tracks. If the hooks aren´t strong enough a formulaic song structure can often feel a bit tedious. The overall quality of the material is decent enough though, and "King of the Kill" is an album which is relatively enjoyable while it plays…

Older Ives enthusiasts may recall the First Piano Sonata in performances by William Masselos who played the work for the first time in 1954, the year the composer died. Odd, but familiar in Ives, for such a masterpiece to have to wait 45 years to be heard! Masselos made two recordings (nla) which established the character of this richly inventive work. The one by Noel Lee (on a Nonesuch LP—only available in the USA) made in the late 1960s is almost as impressive. Joanna MacGregor's recording is now a landmark since there is effectively no competition in the British catalogue: DJF found little to recommend in John Jensen's performance on Music and Arts (9/90) so it is best to compare MacGregor, who is certainly busy in the recording studios these days, with these earlier Americans.

Corazón is Carlos Santana's first album for a major label since 2002's Shaman. It marks his reunion with executive producer Clive Davis, who masterminded 1999's multi-platinum Supernatural. Billed by RCA as his "first Latin album," Corazón is the studio counterpart to the guitarist's HBO Latino concert special that featured his band performing with a host of Latin music superstars in his native Mexico. The singing was (as it is here) mostly in Spanish. For the most part, Santana actually sounds hungry again. His studio band is filled with killers, including drummer Dennis Chambers, timbalero Karl Perazza, and conguero Raul Rekow. Opener "Saideira" features his trademark tone in a passionate, stinging, gritty exchange with vocalist Samuel Rosa, from the Brazilian rock and reggae band Skank. Jittering, insistent horns and layers of percussion push both men to escalate the battle. Juanes lends his soulful croon to first single "La Flaca." It's got an anthemic hook with layers of backing vocals framing Santana's tight and tasty solos.

Named one of Rolling Stone s 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, Robbie Robertson sets to release, How To Become Clairvoyant, his fifth solo album and his first record in more than 10 years. Guitar virtuosos Eric Clapton (who co-wrote three tracks with Robertson), Tom Morello and Robert Randolph guest on the album, which Robertson co-produced with Marius de Vries. How To Become Clairvoyant also features Steve Winwood and Trent Reznor as well as vocalists Angela McCluskey, Rocco Deluca, Dana Glover and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes. Bassist Pino Palladino and drummer Ian Thomas lay down the groove throughout.

Having apparently resolved their Family Cracks, the members of Samla Mammas Manna's '70s quartet - guitarist Coste Apetrea, drummer Hans Bruniusson, keyboardist Lars Hollmer, and bassist Lars Krantz - reunited during the '90s, after well over a decade apart, to play gigs scattered around the globe. In the fall of 1998 they recorded at Hollmer's Chickenhouse studio, and interspersed that material with excerpts from live concerts in Sweden and Norway between 1993 and 1998. The result was 1999's Kaka, a new showcase for the band also heard on the '70s albums Måltid (1974), Klossa Knapitatet (1975), and Gregory Fitzpatrick collaboration Snorungarnas Symfoni (1976). Kaka is actually a fine introduction to the Samlas, nicely balancing their serious musicality and unbridled lunacy. Revisiting material from the band's '70s era with much-improved sound quality, the studio-recorded tunes dominate the proceedings…

As an Australian, guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel doesn't seem to be much bothered about musical categories. Is his music jazz, folk, bluegrass, new age? Depending on the track, it can be any one. Like his mentor, Chet Atkins, Emmanuel is simply a guitar player, and on Little by Little, a two-CD set, he sticks mostly to acoustic guitar, playing mostly originals, tunes that he has used in concert but not recorded before. He is also mostly solo, although the double-disc length allows him room to share space with guests including singers Pam Rose (on her co-composition "Haba Na Hava") and Anthony Snape (on the folk-rock "Willie's Shades"). Among the covers are two versions of "Moon River," one with a bass countermelody, the other with an Emmanuel vocal, Carole King's "Tapestry," Atkins' "Mountains of Illinois," and "The Tennessee Waltz." Emmanuel plays fast runs, slows down for delicate passages, and adds harmonics on tunes that evoke players including Will Ackerman and John Fahey. He also likes folk-pop; "Papa George" needs only a James Taylor vocal to fit into that category. But Little by Little is a tour de force by a musician who usually leaves categories behind.

Along with Kind of Blue, In a Silent Way, and Round About Midnight, Sketches of Spain is one of Miles Davis' most enduring and innovative achievements. Recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 - after Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley had left the band - Davis teamed with Canadian arranger Gil Evans for the third time. Davis brought Evans the album's signature piece, "Concierto de Aranjuez," after hearing a classical version of it at bassist Joe Mondragon's house. Evans was as taken with it as Davis was, and set about to create an entire album of material around it. The result is a masterpiece of modern art. On the "Concierto," Evans' arrangement provided an orchestra and jazz band - Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb, and Elvin Jones - the opportunity to record a classical work as it was…

Buoyed by two U.K. number one singles in "Telegram Sam" and "Metal Guru," The Slider became T. Rex's most popular record on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the fact that it produced no hits in the U.S. The Slider essentially replicates all the virtues of Electric Warrior, crammed with effortless hooks and trashy fun. All of Bolan's signatures are here – mystical folk-tinged ballads, overt sexual come-ons crooned over sleazy, bopping boogies, loopy nonsense poetry, and a mastery of the three-minute pop song form. The main difference is that the trippy mix of Electric Warrior is replaced by a fuller, more immediate-sounding production. Bolan's guitar has a harder bite, the backing choruses are more up-front, and the arrangements are thicker-sounding, even introducing a string section on some cuts (both ballads and rockers).

Oceanic is a collection of tone poems with Ocean themes. On this 1996 release, Vangelis creates a soothing 50 minute journey through deep oceanic spaces, sounding a bit like a Hearts of Space show. The new age music showcases his wonderful ear for melodies and lush synthetic orchestration, but does not have the edge or sense of experimentation that marks his best work. If you listen closely, you’ll also hear a variety of synthesized ambient effects that evoke the ocean woven into the music. Some of his effects sound like whales, ships horns, porpoises, seagulls and even chimes at a beach house. His use of ambient effects is as masterful as his orchestration. Oceanic is not Vangelis’ most challenging album, but will instead reward listeners with a relaxing sonic portrait of an abstract ocean voyage.

By 1973's Tanx, the T. Rex hit-making machine was beginning to show some wear and tear, but Marc Bolan still had more than a few winners up his sleeve. It was also admirable that Bolan was attempting to broaden the T. Rex sound – soulful backup singers and horns are heard throughout, a full two years before David Bowie used the same formula for his mega-seller Young Americans. However, Tanx did not contain any instantly recognizable hits, as their past couple of releases had, and the performances were not quite as vibrant, due to non-stop touring and drug use. Despite an era of transition looming on the horizon for the band, tracks such as "Rapids," "Highway Knees," "The Street & Babe Shadow," and "Born to Boogie" contain the expected classic T. Rex sound.