There may be too many Carpenters compilations on the market – there are certainly enough to confuse the average neophyte – but Love Songs is a welcome addition to the clutter, since it offers 20 of the duo's very best love songs, including "We've Only Just Begun" and "Top of the World." Anyone looking for a collection of the duo's romantic songs should definitely consider this fine collection, even it does leave off some of their poppier, rock-inflected material.

For his latest Deutsche Grammophon album, Polish-Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has chosen to return to the music of Frédéric Chopin, featuring profoundly personal interpretations of some of the most beautiful and best-loved pieces ever written for solo piano. Lisiecki went into the studio last autumn, and his new recording not only captures the spirit of Chopin's pianism, but also represents the time and circumstances in which it was made, as the pianist himself explains: 'I'm the first to question why we should record something that has been recorded many times before. But music only lives through performance and is different every time we hear it, even when it's a recording. I think there was something for me to say with this album. It reflects on the last year and my thoughts on that as well as on the escape and understanding that music gives us.'

In 1994, explains the booklet that accompanies Morimur, Professor Helga Thoene made the surprising discovery that the monumental "Ciaccona" from Bach's Partita in D minor for solo violin was built around various chorale themes hidden in the music. From the texts of these "secret" chorales and other symbolic musical devices, she deduced that the "Ciaccona" was an epitaph for Bach's wife, Maria Barbara. The revelation might have remained an intriguing (and touching) footnote to Bach scholarship if baroque violinist Christoph Poppen hadn't had the bright idea of taking Professor Thoene's discovery off the library shelves and placing it triumphantly in the concert hall. On this disc, his performance of all five movements of the whole Partita (BWV 1004) is interspersed with the various chorales hidden inside the "Ciaccona," sung with breathtaking precision by the Hilliard Ensemble.

Paris is Hilary Hahn’s comeback project after her one-year sabbatical. Now Hilary is back with her first album on Deutsche Grammophon in five years.

Who would have thought it? Reunited after splitting in the mid-'70s, the Pretty Things return with a new wave album. It's not what anyone might have expected, but it's very far from a disaster. The stop-on-a-dime arrangements and natural power show them to be well-seasoned, and Phil May, with an extremely mannered voice, comes across as a taunting frontman. In fact, you tend to feel that if Thin Lizzy had eased up on the metal, they might have made an album very much like this - great, catchy songs based in R&B and old rock & roll ("Lost That Girl") - but with the tongue firmly in cheek (check the Sting imitation on "No Future") while pandering to fashion. But when the results are as good as the jangly "Office Love" or "I'm Calling," you really don't care where the tongue's residing…

Further establishing Blind Guardian's position among the second generation of power metal elite, Follow the Blind - the group's sophomore release - represents a significant step forward for the metal outfit. The music kicks off appropriately enough with some spooky medieval chanting on "Inquisition" that quickly gives way to song after song of sweeping power metal. Production is at a premium for music as spastic and detailed as this, so even though this early-career effort is more than a modest improvement over the debut, Battalions of Fear, the bigger-budget efforts that came after Follow the Blind capture Blind Guardian's epic musical vision. That is not to say that the record is without its moments. Standouts like "Banish From Sanctuary," "Hall of the King," and "Don't Break the Circle" deliver all the first-rate guitar changes and double-kick and vocal workouts that fans of this genre insist on.

Sweet flute work from the great Sam Most - a player who really shone brightly during his 50s recordings for Bethlehem Records - of which this is one of the best. Sam's got a mean, lean quality to his solos - a mode that rivals that of Frank Wess on the instrument at the time, and may well beat Herbie Mann - able to step lively on more boppish numbers, but step back into these soulful lines at just the right moments. The rest of the group has a tight feel too - modern, but a bit playful too - with Marty Flax on baritone, Barry Galbraith on guitar, Billy Triglia on piano, and Oscar Pettiford on bass.

The Alan Parsons Project is a "project" of acclaimed English producer Alan Parsons, best known for his works as an engineer with with names such as the Beatles (Abbey Road, the Get Back roofttop concert) and Pink Floyd (Dark Side of the Moon, Atom Heart Mother). Along with songwriter Eric Woolfson, Parsons created a series of 10 (and counting) albums of progressive rock, employing a rotating cast of session musicians to do most of the performing (Parsons does play keyboard and sings on some tracks.). He creates the concept, writes some of the music and hires the artists, while Woolfson writes the lyrics, some of the music and sings on many tracks.
36 tracks are collected on this expansive compilation album from these prog rockers, which is a neat way to review their impressive career.

This super deluxe edition boasts an abundance of material. Disc one features a 2016 remaster (by Andrew Walter at Abbey Road) approved by Charlie Burchill and the second disc gathers 12-inch remixes and instrumentals of the singles, a few of which enjoy their CD debut. Various edits and B-sides can be found on the third CD in the set while disc four features previously unreleased BBC John Peel and Kid Jensen radio sessions, recorded in February and August 1982. All ten tracks on disc five are previously unreleased; made up of alternative mixes and demos.
One of Scotland's finest exports, Simple Minds deliver a strong synth-reared release on New Gold Dream. This album harks the darker side of the band's musicianship, and such material alludes to their forthcoming pop-stadium sound which hurled them into rock mainstream during the latter part of the '80s…