Under the leadership of vocalist Mick Hucknall – the only member to play in all the many incarnations of the band – Simply Red turned from New Wave soul upstarts into British pop institutions, specializing in immaculately tailored, impeccably polished adult contemporary pop with a soulful accent. While Simply Red were hardly unknown entities in the United States – they reached the top of the Billboard charts twice in the '80s, once with the slow-burning original "Holding Back the Years" and again with a cover of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes' "If You Don't Know My by Now" – the group dominated adult-oriented music in Britain and Europe from the late '80s into the early 2000s, racking up such blockbuster albums as 1991's Stars, 1995's Life, and 1998's Blue.

The Fugs First Album (1965). A loping, ridiculous, and scabrous release, the Fugs' debut mashed everything from folk and beat poetry to rock and rhythm & blues - all with a casual disregard for sounding note perfect, though not without definite goals in mind. Actually compiled from two separate sessions originally done for Folkways Records, and with slightly different lineups as a result, it's a short but utterly worthy release that pushed any number of 1964-era buttons at once (and could still tick off plenty of people). Sanders produced the sessions in collaboration with the legendary Harry Smith, who was able to sneak the collective onto Folkways' accounts by describing them as a "jug band," and it's not a far-off description. A number of songs sound like calm-enough folk-boom fare, at least on casual listening, though often with odd extra touches like weirdly muffled drums or out of nowhere whistles and chimes…

The second volume in this series collects up all the known Memphis recordings that were either issued or originally offered to Chess. As such, it stands as a marvelous collection of Wolf's early 78s for that label. But what truly puts it over is the added bonus of a newly discovered acetate featuring several unissued versions of "How Many More Years" and "Baby Ride With Me (Riding in the Moonlight)." Much of this volume is pulled from discs, but the overall sound is good and the performances make it yet another must-have.

After he'd been a fixture of the British new wave/punk/underground/alternative scene since the late '70s, 1994's Take Me to God marked Jah Wobble's first major commercial success as a solo artist, reaching number 13 in the U.K. The use of numerous guest musicians (including Can drummer Jaki Leibezeit) gives this a feel of a rotating collective, with Wobble (who plays several instruments here in addition to the one he's most known for, bass) the constant. Quite a few singers contribute, giving this more of a song-oriented feel than some of his other work, some of the more celebrated including Gavin Friday, Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries, Senegalese vocalist Baaba Maal, and top world music artist Najma Akhtar. The 66-minute length of these sprawling excursions almost inevitably means the program will drag at times, according to your musical inclinations. Lyrically, too, it's so varied as to make it difficult to connect with a pronounced attitude or viewpoint, the concerns ranging from the almost indecipherably frivolous ("Yoga of the Nightclub") to the numerous references to God that pepper the song titles. But it's an interesting assortment of tracks combining currents flowing through mid-'90s alternative rock, world music, reggae, club beats, dub, and African pop, adding up to an extremely heterogeneous whole.

The second Impulse! session for ballad singer Johnny Hartman followed his classic collaboration with John Coltrane. Hartman is heard in peak form throughout these 11 pieces, which include "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," "Sleepin' Bee," "Stairway to the Stars," and even "Charade." Tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet is on five of the songs, guitarists Kenny Burrell and Jim Hall help out on a few tunes, and Hartman is consistently accompanied by pianist Hank Jones, bassist Milt Hinton, and drummer Elvin Jones. This is one of his finest recordings.

It was inevitable, especially considering her recent albums, that Dolly Parton would eventually go all the way back to the mountains with a bluegrass project. A child of the southern Appalachians, Parton would have absorbed this music straight through her skin during her formative years. And, indeed, her performance on this CD is impeccable, as is her choice of material. Producer Steve Buckingham has taken care to bring together a group of accomplished bluegrassers to accompany Parton. Alison Krauss, Stuart Duncan, Dan Tyminski, Jerry Douglas, Rhonda Vincent, and Bryan Sutton are major contributors, as is Patty Loveless.

Some will be aware of the long running partnership between the Finland’s Colossus Project and French label/distributor Musea Records. The fruits of this joining have produced an impressive twenty-plus back-catalogue of ‘compilation’ releases dating back over a decade and a half. The format has altered somewhat over the years, but in essence the varied projects bring together bands and musicians, from across the globe, to offer interpretations from a given theme. This is the second installment in the Colossus Decameron series, spanning Decameron days 4-7.
As the album title implies, the book itself contains one hundred tales - this is told by a group of ten young people who are hiding in an isolated villa just outside Florence in Italy to escape the Black Death, circa 1346-53. Given the storyline the music within this box set steers clear, for the most part, of too graphically portraying the horrors of the subject matter and remains fairly upbeat…

"Purgatorio" is the second part of Tangerine Dream's three part interpretation of Dante's "La Divina Commedia". Unlike the other two parts of the trilogy which were recorded live, this double CD set, running to over 130 minutes, is a studio recording. Once again (as with "Inferno"), the piece is primarily in the form of an oratorio, with seven guest female vocalists. These singers are a mixture of altos and sopranos, all with beautiful, classically trained voices.

The story of the Cranberries is one of dogged survival. Debuting with a maiden release that everybody seemed to rate as a portent of great things, the band suffered not only a "difficult" second album but also an absolute stinker of a third one, as the bandmembers strove desperately – too desperately – to live up to their reputation for sensitivity and thoughtfulness, and completely lost sight of their true virtues in the process. Internecine squabbling, health problems, and general disaffection all took further toll, so much so that, as the band prepared to release its fourth album, 1999's Bury the Hatchet, many observers were shocked to learn that the band even existed any longer, let alone was capable of actually making a new record – especially one that was as good as Bury the Hatchet turned out to be. Filmed at the Paris Omnisport de Bercy on December 9, 1999, toward the end of that album's accompanying tour, Beneath the Skin captures the full 84-minute concert performance, with the band ranging and, occasionally, raging through a veritable greatest-hits collection.

In 2021, Texas blueswoman Carolyn Wonderland released Tempting Fate, her Alligator debut. She'd been in the game for two decades. Dave Alvin produced, played, and sang on it, alongside a cast of Texas luminaries. It was greeted with excited reviews from the rock and blues press, enhancing her touring reputation. Alvin is a big presence on Truth Is, her sophomore outing for the label. He produces, plays, and co-wrote four songs with Wonderland. Her trio – Naj Conklin on basses and Giovanni "Nooch" Carnuccio on drums and percussion – host a studio cast that includes vocalists Shelley King, Marcia Ball, and Ruthie Foster, organist Red Young, pianist/organist Bukka Allen, lap steel guitarist Cindy Cashdollar, and others.