The films Shostakovich was scoring somehow sought legitimacy or outright approval from Soviet power regimes, but as in all his music, Shostakovich enacted subtle subversions. The parade-step march cadences of The Counterplan are exaggerated just enough to integrate all kinds of conflicting dark undertows, emphasized coyly by Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The excerpts from Alone are all over the map, spooky and turbulent and bleak in equal measures, in answer to so many mandated bright, blasting musical ventures elsewhere in the Soviet cultural regime. The works continue until 1967, with a twisty waltz from Sofia Perovskaya, which seems more like a distant comment on the notion of a dance piece than music scripted for dance. For its mix of big, lit sweeps and minute, shadowy motions, this is one of the best single-CD Shostakovich sets–themed or not–in print.

–Andrew Bartlett (Amazon)

The Rolling Stones - Out Of Our Heads (US Version) (1965) [2002 Hybrid SACD]
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC+CUE+LOG -> 121Mb | MP3 @320 -> 63Mb | Artwork
ABKCO 18771-9429-2

Early Stones recordings don't get much better than this. Firmly established as celebrities, the band began to use the … Full Descriptionpandemonium it inspired as an artistic source. Nowhere is the band's initial reaction to fame and music business drama more apparent than in the humorous, mocking "The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man," in which the Stones effectively skewer the sleazier side of the record industry. Naturally, this will always be known as the album that features the original version of "Satisfaction," which would remain the band's signature tune throughout its career, but that's really just the tip of the iceberg.