Although Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) found the Heartbreakers regaining their strength as a band and discovering a newfound ease at songcraft, it just didn't sell that well. Perhaps that factor, along with road fatigue, led Tom Petty to record his first solo album, Full Moon Fever…

Recorded for a small French label soon after Simone relocated to Paris, Fodder On My Wings found the artist in a difficult period in her life. Not only was Simone feeling isolated in a new country, but her mental illness was worsening and her family life was fractured. However, she channelled her despair into writing some of her most powerful material, including ‘I Was Just A Stupid Dog To Them’ and the near-title-track, ‘Fodder In Her Wings’, which Pitchfork included in their roundup of Simone’s most iconic songs.

Stop! is the debut studio album by the English female singer-songwriter Sam Brown. It was originally released in June 1988, on the label A&M, and was distributed by Festival in Australia. Produced by Sam Brown, her brother Pete Brown, Pete Smith, Danny Schogger, and John Madden the album was recorded at the Power Plant, in London, England, with then-Pink Floyd member David Gilmour's guitar parts on "This Feeling" and "I'll Be In Love" being recorded at Greene Street Studios, in New York, United States. The track "Merry Go Round" has lyrics slightly adapted from W. H. Davies poem "Leisure".

With this amazing album, Dead Can Dance fully took the plunge into the heady mix of musical traditions that would come to define its sound and style for the remainder of its career. The straightforward goth affectations are exchanged for a sonic palette and range of imagination. Calling it "haunting" and "atmospheric" barely scratches even the initial surface of the album's power. The common identification of the duo with a consciously medieval European sound starts here – quite understandable, when one considers the mystic titles of songs, references to Latin, choirs, and other touches that make the album sound like it was recorded in an immense cathedral.

A belated sequel to Rhino's 2012 box set The Studio Albums 1969-1978, 2015's The Studio Albums: 1979-2008 rounds up the expanded remasters of Chicago's next ten studio albums, beginning with 1979's Chicago 13 and ending with 2008's Chicago XXXII: Stone of Sisyphus (which was actually recorded in 1994 but shelved for 14 years)…

Bill Evans Trio - How My Heart Sings (1962) {Riverside Japan, VDJ-1618, Early Press}
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© 1962, 1988 Riverside / Victor Japan | VDJ-1618
Jazz / Modal Music / Post Bop / Piano

Bill Evans' return to full activity in 1962 came almost a year after his celebrated trio recordings at the Village Vanguard. Just ten days after that classic 'live' session, bassist Scott LaFaro had died in a highway accident. Evans, deeply shaken, eventually reformed his trio with the same drummer (Paul Motian) and Chuck Israels on bass. Their first visit to a studio was for a dual purpose: to make an all-ballad-tempo album, Moonbeams, and this 'normal' set at the same time.

Brazilian technical metal monsters Sepultura grew slowly from a devotion to the legends of their genre, eventually becoming the most successful metal band in Brazil's history as well as a worldwide influence. Founding member Max Cavalera sang and played guitar in the band until a deeply personal dispute over management led him to unceremoniously leave the band in 1996…

Evelyn ‘Champagne’ King - The RCA Albums 1977-1985 (2020) {8CD Set, Soul Music Records SMCR -5197BX}
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© 2020 RCA / Soul Music Records | SMCR -5197BX
R&B / Disco / Contemporary R&B / Post-Disco

Combining her diva-level vocal power and teen-next-door effervescence, Evelyn "Champagne" King scored a trifecta with "Shame," a Top Ten hit on Billboard's club, R&B, and pop charts across 1977 and 1978. The definitive disco classic was merely the start of a long run with RCA Victor highlighted by 19 additional charting singles and a trio of Top Ten R&B LPs through 1986. Commercial R&B evolved rapidly during this period. King was in on virtually all of the developments, including but not limited to funky disco (backed by members of Instant Funk, whose underappreciated T. Life discovered and first produced her) and pop-flavored post-disco (assisted most prominently by innovators Morrie Brown, Kashif, and Paul Laurence Jones).

Gary Burton - Live In Cannes (1981) {Jazz World ‎JWD102.214 rel 1995}
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© 1981, 1995 Jazz World / Intermusic / Movieplay | ‎JWD 102.214
Jazz / Post Bop / Vibes

This eight track (52 minutes) album is from an '81 concert in Cannes, France. The sound is very good–crisp and clean sounding with a slight warmth that's very agreeable. Needless to say this is another live set of some great Burton playing. The tunes with Jamal give a nice foundation for Burton, and there's some audience clap-along in the beginning of "One" but that soon ends. "No More Blues" is another good solo spotlight for Burton and he does a very fine job on this tune. On "The Night…" the rhythm section is very good–both Michelot and Humair are very fine at setting a good foundation for Burton while subtly pushing the tune along. "Autumn…" is one of the better tunes here from this particular group with Jamal, with everything coming together nicely.

T. Rex were an English rock band, formed in 1967 by singer-songwriter and guitarist Marc Bolan. The band was initially called Tyrannosaurus Rex, and released four psychedelic folk albums under this name. In 1969, Bolan began to shift from the band's early acoustic sound to an electric one. The following year, he shortened their name to T. Rex. The 1970 release of the single "Ride a White Swan" marked the culmination of this development, and the group soon became a commercial success as part of the emerging glam rock scene.

Portrait is predominantly a series of encounters between Ritenour and several guest interlopers, presumably to provide a well-rounded stylistic composite. The more heartening result is the acceleration of Ritenour's growth into a tastier, more musical guitarist, whether in the lead or sharing the spotlight.

"Of all David Bowie's many distinctive personae, none have done more to lodge this most ingenious of British artists in the world's consciousness than his 1972 amalgam of the alien visitor and Christ-like rock star: Ziggy Stardust. Cheap glamour, spacemen and ambiguous sexuality surface throughout the loosely conceptualised collection that is The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. If its premise sounds faintly ludicrous, then inspired and dramatic songs such as "Starman" and "Five Years" dispel all doubts about Bowie's genius, and the theatrically tragic "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" brings the album and it's fictional protagonist to a close. As a cultural and musical signpost, Ziggy Stardust points simultaneously backwards to early rock & roll and forward to the simpler, tougher inclinations of late-1970s punk and New Wave rock. As one of the defining rock albums of the 20th century, its influence is immeasurable."

Freddie Hubbard - Skagly (1979) {Columbia–Wounded Bird WOU6418 rel 2009}
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© 1979, 2009 Columbia Records / Wounded Bird Records | WOU 6418
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Trumpet

The title reads like a typo, but the album's a great set of smooth fusion from Freddie Hubbard – self-produced, and almost a summation of all the styles he'd mastered in the 70s! The session's never too over the top or too ambitious – just features Freddie working with a hip group in a laidback setting – blowing lean and mellow lines that almost take him back to his best CTI funk. The group features Billy Childs on keyboards, Hadley Caliman on tenor and flute, and some guest work by George Duke and Paulinho Da Costa – on titles that include "Skagly", "Rustic Celebration", "Happiness Is Now", and "Cascais".