Halestorm is aptly named, as vowel-averse frontwoman Lzzy Hale has an F5 tornado for a voice, which she uses to great effect on her band's fourth studio long-player. The follow-up to 2015's Into the Wild Life, which was the group's highest-charting outing to date, Vicious doesn't deviate too much from the stock hedonism of its predecessor – the holy hard rock trinity of sex, drugs, and rock & roll is alive and well – but it connects on such a visceral and familiar level that listeners will likely be unable to resist the urge to turn things up to 11. In lesser hands, big-box hard rock songs like "Skulls," "Uncomfortable," and "Black Vultures" would blow in one ear and out the other, but Hale and company are as adept with hooks as they are with decibels, which makes the material sticky enough to leave some residue on its way out of your head.

"Famed film composer" John Williams and star cellist Yo-Yo Ma are featured on this unique album, an expression of their decades-long collaboration and friendship.

Breakthru were a powerful live act who never managed to "break through" into the record charts despite a talented and charismatic line-up. 40 years later, Circle Records has released a compilation of their recorded material that we can now hear and appreciate for the first time. Breakthru never managed to have an album released of their own which was unfortunate as their only record was a solitary single "Ice Cream Tree" that has since appeared on various 1960s compilations.
Now, decades later, the previously un-released recordings they made have been assembled into the one and only Breakthru album titled "Adventures Highway". This collection the band members say, represents how they would like the group to be best remembered…

Steven Rickards has a light, precise counter-tenor voice which he uses very imaginatively in this sequence of 19 madrigals, including many of Dowland’s finest. So a lively number like Fine knacks for ladies has a crispness and spring to bring out its lightness; even more impressively Rickards, with tone rock-steady and little or no hooting, superbly sustains the long legato lines of such great madrigals as Flow my tears, I saw my lady weep and Come, heavy sleep. There are also well-chosen lute solos from Dorothy Linell, supplementing her excellent accompaniments. The recording, made in New York, is clear and well balanced. Full texts and good notes are provided.

‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ is the worldwide smash hit debut album from Rick Astley. 2022 marks the 35th Anniversary of the multi-platinum selling album that topped the album charts in the UK, Australia, Germany and Spain and Top 10 in many more. It is an album that has defined a generation of 80s pop music, helmed by the legendary songwriting trio, Stock Aitken and Waterman. Remastered at Abbey Road, it is this album that gifted the World one of the most instantly recognizable and best-loved singles of all time ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’, plus the hit singles ‘Together Forever’, title track ‘Whenever You Need Somebody’ and Rick’s cover of the Nat King Cole classic ‘When I Fall In Love’. Curated with the and sequenced with input from Rick himself, the new double CD reissue features 31 tracks including the remastered original album plus b-sides, remixes and Rick’s own reimagined versions of the original singles from the album. The double CD also comes with an expanded booklet that includes previously unseen photographs of Rick from 1987/1988 and liner notes written by Craig McLean, featuring contributions from Rick, Mike Stock and Pete Waterman.

In April 2019, the brass ensemble phil Blech Wien for the first time joined forces with Olivier Latry (titular organist Notre Dame, Paris) to form a new, unique body of sound under the baton of Anton Mittermayr. The concept for this extraordinary listening experience was worked on for over a year: the declared aim was not the usual juxtaposition, but the merging of the two sound worlds, realized through trombonist Mark Gaal's arrangements. After the great success of the first performance in the sold-out Kulturpalast Dresden with the new Eule organ, the concert was repeated a week later on April 25, 2019 in the great Musikvereinssaal in Vienna. Olivier Latry on the Rieger organ with its 6,138 pipes and the 17 musicians create atmosphere, beauty, as well as powerful sound normally associated with large orchestras.

James LaBrie, known internationally as the vocalist for progressive metal icons Dream Theater, embarks on uncharted waters with his fourth solo album, titled Beautiful Shade of Grey. The new endeavour sees him traverse personal maturation, loss, a myriad of complex relationships, and most importantly – LaBrie’s burning passion for music. On paper, the latest studio offering from the Canadian singer first took shape shortly after the global pandemic began to emerge. But in reality, LaBrie formed a bond with his fellow collaborator, bassist Paul Logue, nearly a decade earlier. On Beautiful Shade of Grey the end goal isn’t creating something that meets a certain genre characterization, but rather being informed by decades of finding beautiful expression across a wide swath of musical artists, and knowing that veering away from familiar habits is a part of creative growth.

On his third solo recording for Cantaloupe Music, Florent Ghys radically retools his creative approach with Ritournelles & Mosaïques — a wide-ranging two-part opus that pulls back the curtain on an intrepid composer, double bassist and electronics bricoleur in full sonic exploration mode. Ghys began work on the project in late 2019, but like the rest of the world, he soon found himself in the midst of a prolonged isolation period, which inspired him to expand his creative palette. On his previous album Télévision, Ghys had begun with an audio-visual idea; this time, he started at the root: with the sound.

The Swiss organist Samuel Cosandey says about his debut album PASSAGES: "When we compose a program, we try to remove each piece from the context of its creation and embed it in a new dynamic. The impact caused by the juxtaposition of works that are different in every respect invites us as listeners to ask ourselves the question: How do the works relate to each other? So, composing a program means creating a journey along which each piece finds itself in the next. The content of this album was created with these thoughts in mind. This results in a motto that is described in the album title PASSAGES." Three major works of the 20th century by Alain, Fachard and Ferneyhough invite the listener to follow Cosandey on his path from one to the next.

Piano phenom Eldar Djangirov has most certainly heard it all before: his similarities to Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, his astounding speed, the way he's able to move his way through some of jazz's most intricate numbers, that he's played with some of the genre's biggest names, at some of the most important venues; that all of this has been accomplished before his 20th birthday. And the amazing thing about this is that all of these statements are completely true. Eldar is an exceptionally gifted pianist, regardless of age, very skilled at improvising upon a theme without completely obliterating it, alluding to it constantly while still adding his own distinct voice. All of this is portrayed very well on Eldar Live at the Blue Note…

Written and produced by Dave Stewart, EBONY MCQUEEN tells a great modern life story, loosely based on Stewart’s own biography. “A boy at the crossroads is visited by a living, breathing manifestation of the blues, setting in motion an extraordinary journey that will take him from his teenaged bedroom in the northern English city of Sunderland to stages and studios in London, Nashville, the Caribbean, and countless places in between”, as the plot goes. The 26 songs were recorded at Nashville’s legendary Blackbird Studio and his own Bay Street Recording Studio in the Caribbean, with contributions from an array of top vocalists, session players, and a 60-piece Orchestra. The joyful, rousing score brings together Stewart’s seminal early inspirations – his father’s Rogers & Hammerstein records, Robert Johnson’s blues, and the mind-blowing sounds of The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones…
EBONY MCQUEEN is more than Dave Stewart’s own story – it’s for everyone whose lives have been steered by the redemptive magic of music and mysterious power of love.

In light of the 1990s post-rock scene and the often clear links back to Krautrock of all stripes, Ash Ra Tempel's monster debut album stands as being both astonishingly prescient and just flat out good, a logical extension of the space-jam-freakout ethos into rarified realms. Featuring the original trio of Hartmut Enke, Manuel Gottsching and Klaus Schulze, Ash Ra Tempel consists of only two side-long tracks, both of which are gripping examples of technical ability mixed with rock power. If more progressive music was like it, there wouldn't be as many continuing complaints about that genre as a whole. "Amboss" contains the more upfront explosions of sound, though it mixes in restraint as much as crunch. Starting with Manuel Gottsching's extended guitar notes and Klaus Schulze's cymbals, it begins with a slow, ominous build that is equally haunting, as mysterious as the cryptic artwork of temples and figures found on the inside…

Moby's latest album Reprise - Remixes is now available as a Mintpack CD. The booklet contains personal quotes from all the remixers involved, as well as from Moby himself. Reprise - Remixes conquers a borderland where electronic and acoustic sounds meet. The album will be released on May 20, 2022 by Deutsche Grammophon, just in time for the anniversary of Moby's first disc, released in 1992.

Mari Samuelsen's latest Deutsche Grammophon album explores the phenomenon on which so much of life on earth depends. Lys - Norwegian for "Light" - presents music by thirteen female composers, from Hildegard of Bingen to Hildur Gudnad¢ttir, combining specially commissioned works with new arrangements of existing pieces. The Norwegian violinist's eclectic programme moves through light's infinitely subtle qualities to reveal a musical world of boundless shades of emotion and expression.

Melody Gardot and acclaimed pianist Philippe Powell have recorded an intimate album of brooding jazz torch songs. Recorded in Paris in December 2021, this intimate new album showcases Melody and Philippe's love of traditional jazz, taking the listener back to its golden age.