Isaac Hayes - The Best Of brings together 10 soulful cuts from Stax Records’ incomparable creative force. As composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Isaac Hayes changed the face of music in the early 1970s and this collection is the perfect introduction to his music. Including the Academy Award Winning “Theme From Shaft” with its distinctive wah-wah guitar intro, “Walk on By,” and “Never Can Say Goodbye” all newly mastered by Paul Blakemore.

Styled as a conspicuous companion piece to Tug of War, Pipes of Peace mirrors its 1982 cousin in many ways: its title track holds up a mirror to its forefather – and, if that weren't enough, Paul McCartney serves up the knowing "Tug of Peace," an almost-electro collage that twists the songs into McCartney II territory – it serves up two showcases for duets with a former Motown star along with a cameo from fusion superstar Stanley Clarke and, most importantly, it is also produced by former Fab Four ringleader George Martin. Some of that production occurred during the sessions for Tug of War, with roughly half of the record culled from outtakes from that album, but Pipes of Peace has a distinctly different feel than its predecessor, seeming fleet, adventurous, and modern, almost as an accidental riposte to the consciously classical Tug of War.

Following the Pandolfi-Mealli's Sonatas disc (CC72948), Eva Saladin's second contribution to Challenge Classics catalogue is a collection of Sonatas by Veracini. Following Veracini's own suggestion, this is a personal selection of favourite movements from the twelve sonatas in the anthology.

After two albums that downplayed their penchant for gothic sounds and mystical lyrics, Uriah Heep brought these elements back to the fore on 1975's Return to Fantasy. The resulting album retains the musical experimentation that marked Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld but has an overall harder-rocking feel that makes it more consistent than either one of those albums. Return to Fantasy throws down the gauntlet with the title track, which builds from a tapestry of spooky synthesizer and organ riffs into a thunderous rock tune where the guitar and organ duel over a galloping backbeat laid down by Lee Kerslake.

With their first records, Ride created a unique Wall of Sound that relied on massive, trembling distortion in the vein of My Bloody Valentine but with a simpler, more direct melodic approach. The shatteringly loud, droning neo-psychedelia the band performed was dubbed shoegazing by the British press because the bandmembers stared at the stage while they performed. Along with their initial influence, My Bloody Valentine, Ride stood apart from the shoegazing pack, primarily because of their keen sense of songcraft and dynamics. For a while, Ride were proclaimed the last great hope of British rock, but they fell from the spotlight nearly as quickly as they entered it.

The Doobie Brothers had two distinct phases during their 1970s peak, evolving from boogie rockers with a penchant for mellow good vibes into a smooth blue-eyed soul outfit. Subsequent reunions and decades as a successful live attraction blurred the divide between the rambling "Black Water" and funky "What a Fool Believes," the band's two number one hits on Billboard.

Specializing in raunchy, sleazy boogie and melodramatic ballads, Aerosmith were one of the biggest hard rock bands to emerge in the 1970s, shaping the sound and style of hard rock and metal in the decades to come.

As a songwriter and performer, Willie Nelson has played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, he spent the 1960s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price ("Night Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls"), and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away"), as well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA that earned him a small but devoted cult following. During the early '70s, Nelson abandoned Nashville for his native Texas, setting up shop with the redneck hippies in Austin and taking control of his music on the landmark Shotgun Willie (1973) and Phases & Stages (1974). He found a kindred spirit in Waylon Jennings and, together, they spearheaded the outlaw country movement that finally made him a star by 1975.

Legendary Milanese combo Calibro 35 continue their journey into the world of cinematic jazz-funk with their new album "Exploration." Set for worldwide release on June 6, "Exploration" marks their return to independent label Record Kicks after their last studio album "Nouvelle Aventures" released on Universal Music in 2023. The band picks up from their latest EP, "Jazzploitation," released on Record Kicks last October.

With a limitless supply of dirty riffs, snarling vocals, and timelessly catchy, anthemic choruses, AC/DC is one of the most important and most lasting forces in hard rock. Founded in the early '70s by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm and Angus Young, the Aussie band exploded onto the international stage in 1979 with the release of their multi-platinum-selling sixth album, Highway to Hell. The death of charismatic frontman Bon Scott in 1980 threatened to derail the group, but AC/DC powered through. They recruited Geordie vocalist Brian Johnson and unleashed their most successful effort to date, Back in Black, which has become the second best-selling album in history. The band continued to help define the sound of hard rock and metal throughout the '80s, '90s, and beyond, spawning countless imitators and enjoying steady, consistent commercial success. They also became one of the best examples of arena rock, playing to enormous crowds as the years went on, and rocking as hard as ever on studio albums like 1990's pop-glinted The Razor's Edge and 2020's Power Up, both of which reached the upper tiers of multiple charts.

Amnesiac is the fifth studio album by the English rock band Radiohead, released in June 2001 by Parlophone. Recorded during the same sessions as Radiohead's previous album Kid A (2000) with producer Nigel Godrich, the album incorporates similar influences of electronic music, 20th-century classical music, jazz and krautrock. Its lyrics and artwork explore themes influenced by memory and reincarnation, with influences from ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology. Singer Thom Yorke described it as "another take on Kid A, a form of explanation." Though many critics considered it inferior to Kid A, Amnesiac received positive reviews and in 2012 Rolling Stone ranked it number 320 in their updated version of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 2009, Pitchfork ranked Amnesiac the 34th best album of the 2000s. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

This is a delightful, inventive, witty, charming, enchanting, inspiring disc. In the Verbruggen disc, only four of the six sonatas appear together, plus one other trio sonata (BWV 1031). Perhaps Ms. Verbruggen thought that BWV 526 and 528 did not translate well to the recorder. In any event, the recorder and the harpsichord are outstanding here, as is the recording quality. Highest recommendation.

In many facets, Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills is the quintessential album to spring from the outcome of the Summer of Love. Best known as Janis Joplin's major-label debut, the 1968 set arrived when the countercultural movement was in full swing and before co-optation, drugs, and violence signaled the fall of the era. Ranked #338 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, it puts a female singer in the prominent position traditionally given to a male and showcases a band pouring a potent cocktail of fiery psychedelic, blues, and folk sounds that informed the unfettered creativity of the San Francisco scene. Produced by John Simon, Cheap Thrills also features one of the most iconic and elaborate album covers in history.

I started writing the songs on this album as the pandemic began winding down; the titular song “What Did You Miss” pointed the way forward, with its final verse: “I’ve been writing it down/song by song/as a personal history” when imagining this collection of songs as memoir, and how the wisdom that comes with growing older becomes a north star, whether one is celebrating life’s joys or navigating life’s inevitable losses. From the first verse of “Paint + Turpentine” about sitting in the dark of the Birchmere Music Hall watching Guy Clark teach a master class in songwriting and story telling, to coming to terms with how later life turned out in “Girl and Her Dog”, to inventorying what matters in “The Saving Things” to discovering the wisdom in words and phrases that we usually roll our eyes towards in “Say It Anyway”, it is my hope that these songs allow the listener to come away not only with a musical sketch of my life from young adulthood on, but also an affirming reflection of their own life as well.

Italian pop singer Umberto Tozzi began singing at a very young age, joining a band called Off Sound in 1968 and later teaming up with Adriano Pappalardo. "Un Corpo un 'Anima" became his first hit in 1974, and he recorded his debut album, Donna Amante Mia, in 1976. Ti Amo followed in 1977, and the successful Tu was released in 1978. Tozzi's breakthrough came a year later when he climbed the Italian and Latin American charts with "Gloria," a song covered by Laura Branigan on her 1982 self-titled debut record.