Not long after the 1994 release of Plugged In, Dave Edmunds chose to tune out, slowly winding his way back to his native Wales, where he essentially acted as a hermit. Occasionally, he'd show up on-stage – or on Jools Holland's Later – but his active career essentially ceased, punctuated by the live album A Pile of Rock (a title often recycled in his career) documenting a one-off European show from 1997, plus a 2000-era largely instrumental album called Musical Fantasies. With this in mind, the release of …Again in 2013 is big news: it appears to be his first new album in nearly two decades. This isn't the case. …Again is a curious thing, a 15-track collection that contains no less than nine of the 11 songs on 1994's Plugged In, along with "Return to Sender," his contribution to the Otis Blackwell tribute Brace Yourself (released in 1994, but recorded in 1991), plus five new songs. It's not quite enough to be considered a full-fledged comeback but it's slightly more than tossed-off bonus tracks, too, as these new contributions spin the Plugged In material in a slightly different direction.

On its one and only major-label release, Year of the Rat, NY Loose delivers powerful performances of a punk-pop musical blend that have nothing whatsoever to do with other '90s platinum purveyors of radio punk. Instead of simply being snide or just plain goofy rock stars like Green Day or the Offspring, NY Loose emits a refreshingly punk attitude of contrariness, if not actual rebellion, on this 1996 release. Founding members Brijitte West (guitars and vocals) and Danny Nordahl (bass) are joined on Year of the Rat by drummer Pete Lloyd and guitarist Marc Diamond. Each member seems versed well enough in the standard instrumental punk vocabulary, but West's saucy delivery and upfront lyrics make NY Loose special.

Like Dave Edmunds, guitarist/pianist/vocalist Mickey Jupp was a champion of traditional rock & roll during the late '70s, a time when it had been all but discarded. Unlike Edmunds, Jupp wrote the majority of his own material, which updated '50s rock & roll with a tongue-in-cheek irony.

With their 1998 comeback disc, The Last Wave of Summer – their first album of new material since 1984's Twentieth Century – Aussie rock legends Cold Chisel proved that they still had "the stuff." A tad shy of the standard of their heyday albums of the '70s and '80s, Summer is still formidable rock & roll. As the band's first release in the CD age and, at just under an hour running time, LWOS was considerably longer than their previous studio albums. Hence the makeup is a little different. There is more down-tempo and lighter fare here, which shifts the feel from the usual short sharp-shock of a Chisel disc to a quite different type of listening experience. Less visceral; more cerebral.

Teenage Love is a compilation album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in 1994. The album collected studio recordings, many just demos, that were not used on previous albums. Phil Small said, "There was always a surplus of 3 to 4 tracks with each album." The tracks were recorded between 1976 and 1983. "Hands Out of My Pocket", "Nothing But You" and "Yesterdays" were issued as singles. Don Walker said of the album, "Most of the time they were recorded as demos, so it's just the band in the studio slamming down a new song. For a certain number of them, it's the only time we ever played the song." Walker insisted that the tracks be released without any overdubs."

On his second album Heat Treatment, Graham Parker essentially offered more of the same thing that made Howlin' Wind such a bracing listen. However, his songwriting wasn't as consistent, with only a handful of songs – like "Pourin' It All Out" and the title track – making much of an impression. Unfortunately, the record was also tamed by the production of Mutt Lange, who polishes the record just enough to make the Rumour sound restrained. Which means, of course, the sheer musicality of the band can't save the lesser material. Heat Treatment remains an enjoyable listen – at this stage of the game, Parker hadn't soured into a curmudgeon, and his weaker songs were still endearing – but it's a disappointment in light of its predecessor.

Years of struggle had turned Cold Chisel into one of Australian rock's all-time great bands – many would argue the greatest. But the years had also taken their toll and, by the early '80s, rifts had begun to drag on the band. Drummer Steve Prestwich called it quits in June 1983. Two months later, the band put out a press release saying it was disbanding and in December played its final concerts to sold-out audiences at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The shows were filmed for the documentary Last Stand: this is the film's soundtrack and the cream of those concerts. Undoubtedly a chunk of Aussie rock history, this album also stands purely on the strength of its content.

Twentieth Century is the final studio album for Australian band Cold Chisel until the group reformed in 1998. The album was written and recorded over various sessions during the period of the band's break-up and during breaks in their final tour. It was released in early 1984 and peaked at No. 1 on the Australian albums chart, their third consecutive album to do so. It charted for a total of 46 weeks. Twentieth Century was the first recording to vary the core members of Cold Chisel, with Steve Prestwich having been sacked during the previous year's tour of Germany. For all but three songs, he was replaced by Ray Arnott. The band had announced its intention to separate in August 1983, and by December had played its final shows (before reunion), months before the release of the album.

The Barking Spiders Live: 1983 is a live album by Australian rock band Cold Chisel. It was recorded during the final performances of their Last Stand tour in 1983, at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. The name of the album derives from a name the band used occasionally when playing warm-up shows before tours. Don Walker states a "barking spider" is "Scottish slang for a fart." The album spent 20 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 14. Reviewed in the Canberra Times at the time of release, the album was described as, "a great reminder of the band's power and talent, particularly in concert, and a crucial purchase for all Chisel fans."

Look no further than Aussie quintet Cold Chisel's second album, 1979's Breakfast at Sweethearts, along with the band's eponymous debut disc of the previous year, for the material that took them from little-knowns to mighty pub rock monsters and beyond. In fact, the songs on this album may comprise the best set of any of the band's non-compilation studio discs. But alas, it is a masterpiece tainted by a poor recording job. Cuts like the mean-streets stomper "Conversations," the thudding "Shipping Steel," and the drug-paranoia song "The Door" contain little of the venom they spewed forth when played live. Nevertheless, even the lo-fi subjugation of the numbers cannot scuttle the album.

As part of The Stranglers' celebration of their Ruby Anniversary, the definitive collection of the B-side recordings they made whilst signed to Epic is released for the first time, via their own label. Appropriately, as befits a band marking forty years together, Here & There: The Epic B-sides Collection 1983-1991 gathers 40 tracks across 2 CDs and is also released as a 40 track digital package. The Stranglers released no less than 13 singles in the UK during this period, which saw them produce five albums: four studio and one live. The Stranglers signed to Epic Records in 1982 having been with United Artists / Liberty since 1977. The change of label coincided with changes in marketing policy across the UK industry - often dubbed "the Frankie Goes to Hollywood effect". Previously, The Stranglers' had released only one 12" single - an extended version of Bear Cage in 1980 - but from 2nd Epic single, Midnight Summer Dream until 1990, each release had a 12" version which required extra studio or, increasingly, live tracks to "add value" to the package.

The first volume in a series projected to analyze the punk phenomenon on a year-by-year basis, British Punk Rock 1977 assembles some of the less well-known but no less influential sides to emerge from that pivotal year. Collecting 20 tracks, it jumps from established cult heroes (Alternative TV's "How Much Longer," Penetration's "Don't Dictate," the Vibrators' "Baby Baby") to forgotten favorites (the Drones' "Corgi Crap," the Sniveling Shits' "I Can't Come," the Pork Dukes' "Bend & Flush"); some of it still holds up, some of it doesn't, but all of it remains a testament to its time and place.