L’album qui fascine bien au-delà des frontières de la Gaule. Les années passent et cette Melody Nelson ne cesse donc d’imposer ses formes. Celles de ses mots. Celles de ses mélodies aussi. Cet album-concept, Serge Gainsbourg ne l’a pas enfanté seul mais avec Jean-Claude Vannier qui en a signé les arrangements. Comme il est aussi étroitement lié à la personnalité de sa femme d’alors, Jane Birkin, dont l’androgynie a inspiré ce personnage de Melody Nelson dont le disque narre les pérégrinations. Avec cet opus qui parait en mars 1971, le chant de Gainsbourg devient le parlé de Gainsbourg. Une narration qui s’abandonne dans l’orchestration du disque, ses cordes somptueuses et ses chœurs oniriques. Une sorte de long rêve éveillé qui se déroule sur la toile tendue d’un patchwork musical assez novateur pour l’époque. A noter que cette Deluxe Edition comprend neuf titres en bonus (démos, versions instrumentales, etc.).

Collection includes 11 studio albums and 4 live albums by American blues-rock guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa.

Amnesty International commemorates its 50th anniversary with the release of an album featuring the cream of the world’s music talent covering Bob Dylan songs, with contributions from a huge variety of artists including Adele, Patti Smith, Pete Townshend, Ke$ha, The Gaslight Anthem, Sting, Jackson Browne, Elvis Costello, Sinéad O’Connor, Kris Kristofferson, Bad Religion, Marianne Faithfull, My Chemical Romance, Bryan Ferry, Pete Seeger and many more. Entitled Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan the album features 73 tracks on four CDs.

This is a really great five-CD set. You get all of Bach's concertos except the Brandenburgs - which is a shame because Pinnock's Brandenburgs are terrific. Nonetheless, this remains an absolutely cracking collection of some of Bach's most enjoyable music in excellent performances. In the Harpsichord Concertos Pinnock is himself the soloist and shows why he is such a very well-liked and highly regarded musician. The music springs to life under his fingers (and under his direction) and many of these performances set new and enduring standards when first released in the early 1980s. They have informed much subsequent Bach playing and have worn extremely well themselves, sounding as fresh and involving as they did nearly 30 years ago. He is joined by other fine harpsichordists in the concerti for two, three and four harpsichords, (Kenneth Gilbert, Nicholas Kraemer and Lars Ulrich Mortensen) and the Concerto for Four Harpsichords in particular is an absolute joy.

A much-needed look at an overlooked side of the genius of Quincy Jones – not his jazz work, not his productions for famous soul artists, but instead his huge legacy of soundtrack material – a part of Q's career that really took off in the 60s! By the time he started working in films, Jones had already had a decade under his belt as one of the hippest arrangers, leaders, and composers in jazz – and the film business really respected those talents, and allowed Quincy to bring some really fresh styles into play – modes that really opened up the vibe of American cinema, and also paved the way for the funky styles of the 70s! As that decade approached, Jones left behind the cinema to take on some more higher-profile records of his own – but all the charms of those great albums can be found here at their roots – in this stunning collection of soundtrack material, some of which has never been on CD. The package is way more than just a sampler – and includes an album's worth of material from the films The Pawnbroker, Slender Thread, Mirage, The Deadly Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, In Cold Blood, Walk Don't Run, The Italian Job, Lost Man, and John & Mary – plus two versions of the love theme from The Getaway, and a bonus CD with 18 tracks – titled Q's highlights, and featuring tracks from his Mercury records – plus more by Billy Preston, Arthur Prysock, Bill Cosby, Shirley Horn, Letta Mbulu, Toots Thielemans, and others. Even features the "Sanford & Son" and "Ironside" themes!

Much can be said about the late Amy Winehouse, one of the U.K.'s flagship vocalists during the 2000s. The British press and tabloids seemed to focus on her rowdy behavior, heavy consumption of alcohol, and tragic end, but fans and critics alike embraced her rugged charm, brash sense of humor, and distinctively soulful and jazzy vocals. Her platinum-selling breakthrough album, Frank (2003), elicited comparisons ranging from Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan to Macy Gray and Lauryn Hill. Interestingly enough, despite her strong accent and vernacular, one can often hear aspects of each of those singers' vocal repertoires in Winehouse's own voice. Nonetheless, her allure had always been her songwriting – almost always deeply personal but best known for its profanity and brutal candor.

John Pizzarelli lays it all out in the title of his 2015 album: this tribute to Paul McCartney is designed for play in the smoky late-night hours, when everything turns sweet and mellow. Furthermore, this is a tribute to McCartney, not the Beatles. There isn't a Fab song to be found here, as Pizzarelli focuses entirely on Paul's solo work (for these intents and purposes, this includes Wings records), concentrating on the '70s but also sliding McCartney's Great American Songbook wannabe "My Valentine" into the mix. Pizzarelli digs up a few other obscurities – the early Wings song "Some People Never Know," the Speed of Sound deep cut "Warm and Beautiful" – and he also plays around with expectations, making "Let 'Em In" swing like mad and relaxing "Hi Hi Hi" so it doesn't rock, it grooves. He also invites Michael McDonald to sing on "Coming Up," which swaggers like Sinatra in Vegas, but for as delightful as that is, the key to the record's success is Pizzarelli himself, who delivers upon the laid-back promise of the title but is savvier than he needed to be, which is why Midnight McCartney satisfies.

Originally released in 1993, progressive death metal pioneers Cynic's seminal debut album 'Focus' has been remixed and remastered for its 30th anniversary. The definitive version of a legendary and highly influential album.
Chuck Schuldiner's Death got pretty clinical with the odd time signature, and Atheist got pretty busy with their complex arrangements, but Florida's Cynic simply threw the progressive metal playbook out the window. Their groundbreaking 1993 debut Focus meshed metal and jazz on an unprecedented scale, and explored the creative possibilities of this strange musical hybrid to a degree which has yet to be equaled. For Cynic, the traditional framework of death metal songwriting served as a mere foundation over which the band would take flight, yielding moments of mind-blowing diversity and inspiration…

Time really flies! Twenty years can go by in the blink of an eye. They say you see the passing of time by looking at your children. And yes, children grow up so fast, I can say that when I look at my own children. Sometimes us artists say that our albums are like our babies. It’s a labour of love to make each album and then release them, let them grow and find their own path.

The Troggs were one of the toughest and most gloriously unpolished bands to emerge from the U.K. during the British Invasion era - the leering, monolithic pound of "Wild Thing" and "I Can't Control Myself" was about the closest thing to the Stooges that emerged on vinyl before James Osterberg reinvented himself as Iggy Pop, and lead singer Reg Presley all but defined the word "lascivious" with his guttural howls and moans on their best recordings. The Troggs had dropped off the charts by the end of the '60s, but they were the sort of band that simply didn't believe in giving up, and in 1975 they returned to the studio to cut their first album in five years. Simply called The Troggs, the album found the group updating their sound just a bit, with the results at times suggesting a cross between Status Quo-style boogie and blue collar glam in the manner of Slade, especially on the honest self-celebration of "Full Blooded Band"…

B.B. King is more than just one of the greatest masters of electric blues guitar; he is also an extraordinarily gifted singer. His talents on his instrument are so great that they tend to eclipse his soulful and sophisticated singing voice, but any who might possibly have doubted his ability will do so no more upon hearing Heart to Heart. On this 1994 release, he joins pop-jazz balladeer Diane Schuur for ten surprising tracks. It is a very moody album, with the overall vibe being mainly of the drown-your-broken-heart-in-gin variety. Some of the string and synth arrangements come off as a little unnecessary, as the music is ably framed by piano, guitar, bass, and drums. However, producer Phil Ramone should be credited for minimizing the schmaltzy moments on Heart to Heart as much as possible, as the music is already treading the fine line between sentiment and drivel…

This is a quasi-masterpiece of folk prog music full of refined details. The warm & pleasant acoustic bass contributes to give a slight jazzy tendency to the whole. The tracks are so good that even the country electric guitar parts are absolutely excellent. Everything is well put at the right time, at the right place: the palpable harmony is a strong point on this record. There are practically no psychedelic, spacy or experimental passage: everything is just down to earth; it is a pure, positive and sane music, excellent for your soul. The presence of a few orchestral arrangements, narration passages and many grand backing chants enhance the value of the tracks. The exemplary balance between all the instruments is quite noticeable. The quality of the recording is almost irreproachable considering the release year. Among the wide range of similitudes, let's mention Alan Parson's project, Ray Conniff and Barclay James Harvest…

Un autoportrait insolite entre inédits et standardsPublication phare de la collection Ecoutez le cinéma ! en 2001 le long-box Le Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg trouve une nouvelle jeunesse avec ce nouveau coffret : une déclinaison revue, augmentée et enrichie de deux CDs additionnels. Plus complet, plus précis, il offre un panorama élargi, renouvelé des rapports entre Gainsbourg et l'écriture pour le cinéma. Intégrant notamment des extraits de bandes masters fraîchement exhumées : Manon 70, Le Jardinier d'Argenteuil, Le Pacha, L'Une et l'autre, Les Chemins de Katmandou, La Horse, Slogan… et même Equateur et Mode en France, spécialement remixées pour l'occasion.Plongez avec délectation dans ce nouveau Cinéma de Serge Gainsbourg !6h de musique et une évidence : le grand Serge était aussi un compositeur pour l'image.

After a ten year hiatus, original Boytronic vocalist and songwriter Holger Wobker (Kamerata/Beachead), return with former Boytronic frontman James Knights to release the new Boytronic album The Robot Treatment. Never before in the history of pop music has a predecessor collaborated with their replacement to make a new album. It's very much a thing of legend. And perhaps it's hard for some to understand why two singers occupying the same position would make a new album together. The answer is simply Boytronic! Despite critically acclaimed performances surrounding the release of the Jewel album in 2017, differences of opinion over the musical direction of the band saw James leave the line-up in January 2018. Holger and James decided to meet in Berlin. They soon realised they had far more in common musically than they'd realised…

Hootie and the Blowfish followed the huge success of Cracked Rear View with Fairweather Johnson in 1996, and while it had a lot to live up to, it still landed at #1 on the Billboard 200. With songs like Old Man and Me (When I Get to Heaven) and Tucker’s Town, it shows the band stretching out while holding onto the easy warmth that made so many people connect with them in the first place. Over the last thirty years, Fairweather Johnson has grown into a real fan favourite and stands as an essential part of ’90s rock history, capturing the rise, evolution, and lasting charm of one of the era’s most beloved bands.