Simple Minds Scotland's Simple Minds evolved from artful late-'70s post-punks into global purveyors of pop grandeur with a string of U.K. chart-topping albums in the '80s that include Sparkle in the Rain and their global breakthrough Once Upon a Time, and built that success into a long-running career that has continued well into the 2020s. While the band was widely embraced in the U.K., Europe, and Oceania, it took the smash hit "Don't You (Forget About Me)," from the film The Breakfast Club, to break them in the U.S. Along with the similarly anthemic "Alive and Kicking," it is still their best-known Stateside hit, though they remained one of the U.K.'s biggest bands throughout the remainder of the decade. After 1989's Street Fighting Years and a series of personnel shuffles, Simple Minds' popularity faded somewhat. Founding members Jim Kerr (vocals) and Charlie Burchill (guitar) have made up the band's core partnership since its inception and over the subsequent decades have continued to mount successful tours and release high-quality late-period albums like 2014's Big Music and 2018's Walk Between Worlds. Following two live albums and a compilation, they returned to studio recording with 2022's Direction of the Heart.

Cut From The Original Analog Master Tapes By Kevin Gray. All Analog Process (AAA). High Quality Vinyl Release. Original Gatefold Design. All runouts are etched. In 1962, legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans collaborated for the first time on record with jazz guitarist Jim Hall to create the landmark album Undercurrent. And even though it is a two-person improvisational affair, it is almost unfathomable that these two giants alone fill up all the grooves on this record. The thoughtful interplay between these two musicians created such a beautiful, lush, and emotional journey that their work influenced many. At the time of this recording, Bill Evans was one of the top jazz pianists (his performance with Miles Davis on Kind Of Blue is still a high-water mark), but he had stopped performing and recording after the death of his peer, bassist Scott LaFaro.

The rumors are true. On January 30, 1985, Hüsker Dü recorded a peak high performance to 24 track tape at Minneapolis’s Firat Avenue club in front of their hometown massive. This performance was supposed to come out as a live album later that year, but the band’s rapid upward trajectory caused priorities to shift. The tapes were shelved – thought to be possibly lost in the same 2011 house fire that consumed a precious portion of the Hüsker Dü archive. Nearly 40 years later, these tapes have been rescued from the abyss, and we’ve tasked the team at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio on the transferring and Beau Sorensen at Tiny Telephone for the mixdowns.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth is the second solo album from the English keyboardist Rick Wakeman, released on 3 May 1974 by A&M Records. The album is a live recording of his second of two concerts on 18 January 1974 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. With its concept based on Jules Verne's science fiction novel of the same name, the album tells the story of Professor Lidenbrok, his nephew Axel, and their guide Hans, who follow a passage to the Earth's centre originally discovered by Arne Saknussemm, an Icelandic alchemist. Wakeman performs with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, and a group of hand-picked musicians for his rock band, which later became the English Rock Ensemble. Actor David Hemmings narrates the story. Journey to the Centre of the Earth was overall well received by music critics. It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, the first album from A&M to do so, and peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200 in the United States.

Hymn is the twelfth studio album by English soprano Sarah Brightman and first since 2013's Dreamchaser. The five-year gap between both studio albums marks Brightman's longest break between studio releases. This album marks Brightman's ninth studio collaboration with producer Frank Peterson. The album was released on 9 November 2018, entering at No. 1 on both the Billboard Classical Crossover Albums and overall Classical Albums, making Brightman the female artist with the most No. 1s in both charts.

The Cosmos Rocks is the only studio album by Queen + Paul Rodgers, released on 15 September 2008. It contains 14 new tracks written by Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Paul Rodgers. This is the first studio album of new material from the two remaining members of Queen since 1995′s Made in Heaven. The album's release came 17 years after the death in 1991 of former Queen singer Freddie Mercury. "It had some great stuff on it," Taylor recalled. "I just think that Paul's more blues and soul – one of our favourite singers, ever, but, when it boils down to it, he wasn't the perfect frontman for us. I felt the album was badly promoted by EMI, who were falling to bits at the time. We were on tour in Europe, and I went into record stores and we weren't in them. And I remember being furious, thinking, 'Why did we make this fucking record?'"

Made of Bricks is the debut studio album by English singer-songwriter Kate Nash, released in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2007 by Fiction Records, Cherrytree Records, and the Universal Music Group. The album was a commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart and spawning a number-two single in the form of the lead single "Foundations".

Third & final volume in Ace Records' anthology series for the guitar legend highlights Lonnie's recordings for Harry Carlson's Cincinnati-based Fraternity label between 1963 and 1967. It follows in the wake of Lonnie on the Move & Memphis Wham! 26 tracks including previously unissued versions.

'Sexy Girls Sing Sexy Songs' screams the cover of this CD, and look hard at the track list and you'll note it contains just what it boasts on the tin. This compilation includes 25 tracks from classy dames who like to leave a little to the imagination, as they tease their men with innuendo, subtle put downs and occasional ridicule - but will never come across explicitly or "talk dirty". So please say it one time for the girls who know how to get their man, keep their man and drive their man wild as they dance in the old fashioned way.

Vladimir Ashkenazy's style of conducting, not dissimilar to his keyboard style, is unmatched in the development of long climaxes, exploding in the end with a surge of precise power. Sibelius is one of the composers most suited to his style, and you can confidently pick from among his recordings of the Finnish master. His reading here of the Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39, the most purely Tchaikovskian work among Sibelius' seven symphonies, is among the very best available, with awe-inspiring control in the development of the first-movement material and the emergence of a superbly responsive instrument in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, whose recordings of large-orchestra music in recent years have been second to none.

Conductor Nicholas Collon’s second Sibelius album together with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra focuses on works written by Sibelius during or just before World War I, and culminating in the 5th Symphony, one of the composer’s symphonic key works. Two opuses for violin and orchestra, Two Serenades and Two Serious Melodies, one of Sibelius’ most religious works, are featuring star violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Sibelius’ music for Strindberg’s Symbolistic play Swanwhite is a rarely performed gem with interesting thematic connections to other works included on this album, including the 5th Symphony.

Joni Mitchell Counterbalances Love and Trust with Freedom and Confusion on Court and Spark: Ranked the 110th Greatest Album of All Time by Rolling Stone. Mobile Fidelity's Numbered-Edition Hybrid SACD Plays with Revealing Detail, Clarity, Presence, and Openness. Court and Spark, the most commercially successful album of Joni Mitchell's trailblazing career, arrived after a year in which she took some time to breathe and kept a low profile. The pause led to more breakthroughs for the singer-songwriter. Marking Mitchell's increasing drift toward jazz (and affinity for Miles Davis and John Coltrane), Court and Spark garnered four Grammy nominations, earned the Best Album of the Year vote in the prestigious Pazz & Jop poll, and ranks #110 on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Spiritchaser is the seventh studio album by Dead Can Dance, and the last before Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard went their separate ways. It expands on its exploration of world music, and like Into the Labyrinth, was recorded at Quivvy Church, Perry's personal studio in Ireland. The album was dedicated to Lisa Gerrard's deceased brother, Mark Gerrard. The track "Indus" contains a melody that is very similar to that of "Within You Without You", a Beatles song that George Harrison wrote and recorded with Indian musicians in 1967. Although not deliberate, Perry and Gerrard were asked to contact Harrison for his permission to use it; he granted it, but the record company insisted that they give him partial songwriting credit on "Indus".

Jacques Ibert’s piano music isn’t exactly the most exciting part of his output, amounting to a series of short picturesque pieces written in a bland neo-classical vein, with just a hint of impressionism or humor here and there to liven up the expression. Lack of both imagination and strong features have kept these pieces away from the current concert repertoire, but on CD they make nice if quickly forgotten listening. The collection of Histoires, including the famous Le petit âne blanc (The Little White Donkey), comes off the best, along with Les rencontres, a little suite in the form of a ballet that displays some lively melodic figures underlined by slightly spicy harmonies, as in the softly swinging The Creoles. The other pieces do little else than round off the total timing of the CD. Hae-won Chang plays with charm and delicacy, with a clean and neat technique that is just what these unpretentious pieces require. The recording is well balanced and truthful.

Digitally remastered and expanded two CD edition. Carly's classic comeback album celebrates turning 30 with a deluxe edition curated by the lady herself… Carly Simon first burst on to the pop scene in 1971. By the mid-'80s, Simon's album sales had declined and she felt less relevant in the marketplace. That all changed when Clive Davis signed her to Arista Records, which had already restored the commercial fortunes of both Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin. Simon's first release on the label was her 1986 single "Coming Around Again" which was the theme song from the movie Heartburn starring Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson. The single made #18, returning Simon to the Billboard top 20 for the first time in six years. The song also made #5 on the AC chart, and went on to make the top ten in the UK and Ireland. Coming Around Again followed in April 1987 with production from the likes of Paul Samwell-Smith, Frank Filipetti, John Boylan and Richard Perry and made #25 in both the US and UK. Hot Shot Records' deluxe edition of Coming Around Again features 17 bonus tracks and an in-depth interview with Carly.