The Long Ryders kicked off their major label debut, State of Our Union, with one of their most anthemic and most explicitly political songs, "Looking for Lewis and Clark," and that tune set the tone for the rest of the album – State of Our Union found the Long Ryders reaching for a larger audience at the same time that they were using their music to say a great deal more than they had in the past. Musically, plenty of roadwork had tightened the band's interplay to an even finer point than on Native Sons (Sid Griffin and Stephen McCarthy were both in superb voice, and their guitar work meshed perfectly), and Will Birch's production gave the songs a poppier sheen that still allowed the band's roots-conscious sound to shine through. Lyrically, State of Our Union took a long look at Reagan-era America as the gulf between the rich and the poor began to divide the nation, with "You Can't Ride the Boxcars Anymore," "Two Kinds of Love," and "Good Times Tomorrow, Hard Times Today" all exploring issues of economic injustice, and even the less obvious political songs often having a progressive subtext ("WDIA," a tribute to the great Memphis R&B radio station, deals with how the love of music brought together black and white listeners in the 1960s).

Coming off of the enormous success of their brooding cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Sounds of Silence," Chicago nu-metal veterans Disturbed deliver another slab of commercial grade active rock and montage-ready power balladry on their seventh studio effort, Evolution…

Damn the Torpedoes wasn't simply a culmination of Tom Petty's art; it happened to be a huge success, enabling him to call the shots on its successor, Hard Promises. Infamously, he used his first album as a star to challenge the record industry's practice of charging more for A-list artists, demanding that Hard Promises should be listed for less than most records by an artist of his stature, but if that was the only thing notable about the album, it would have disappeared like Long After Dark…

Ten Light Claps and a Scream is the third and final LP by South African rock band Otis Waygood. It was released in 1971 by EMI-Parlophone, at the height of the Big Heavies' popularity – a sudden wave of white anti-Apartheid South African hard rock groups (the tag would be made official with the release of a 1972 compilation LP). Incidentally, Ten Light Claps and a Scream was produced by Julian Laxton, leader of Freedom's Children, another Big Heavy. By this third opus, Otis Waygood had developed an impressive group sound that built on the energy of bands like Free and Bloodwin Pig, adding to the wailing guitars and growling organ a bit of raspy, gnarly saxophone. The resulting sound is startlingly similar to H to He Who Am the Only One-era Van der Graaf Generator (although nothing could suggest that they were an influence on Otis Waygood)…

Perhaps the busiest man in progressive music, multi-instrumentalist/composer Robin Taylor is here with another release from his outfit Taylor's Universe, this one titled Evidence. Joined by longtime bandmate Karsten Vogel (sax, clarinet), the group also features Klaus Thrane (drums), Claus Bøhling ( guitars), and Thomas Thor Viderø Ulstrup (synthesizer), with Taylor contributing guitars, keyboards, bass, flute, and percussion, and guest vocalist Louise Nipper on one track. Though there are only four songs here on Evidence , you get over 40-minutes of material, so that's a lot of bang for your buck. The music is squarely in the instrumental prog-rock/jazz-fusion mold, the songs lengthy and expansive, allowing for plenty of atmosphere as well as dazzling solos…

UK-only five CD set containing a quintet of albums from the Rock great packaged in miniature LP sleeves and housed in an attractive slipcase. Features the albums Rock N Roll Animal (1974); Rock N Roll Heart (1976); Street Hassle (1978); Bells (1979) and Growing Up In Public (1980).

As interesting and fun as the Daevid Allen period was, the name Gong became more meaningful in the context of the music as percussionist Pierre Moerlen assumed the role of bandleader. An emphasis on percussives of all sorts became clear on Gazeuse!, the band's first completely instrumental album, and the music became much jazzier, though never considered jazz. Expresso II finds Pierre Moerlen's Gong at their peak. Like their previous studio release, Gazeuse!, the album is instrumental, the music is very polished, the sound very clean. Vibes and xylophone dominate on this album, somewhat reminiscent of the sound Zappa achieved through Ruth Underwood on One Size Fits All just three years earlier.

This budget LP, which Accord put out in 1981, reminds us just how frustrating inadequate liner notes can be. The liner notes briefly discuss the rise of the Jimi Hendrix Experience and Hendrix's tremendous influence on rock, but they don't tell you anything at all about the material on the LP…

After years of playing a dispiriting game of musical chairs with various lead singers during the early '80s, Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi finally stumbled upon a dependable frontman when he admitted relative unknown Tony Martin into the fold, thereby initiating the original heavy metal band's long awaited return to respectability – if not chart-topping success…

Japan exclusive live album set release from Deep Purple. Disc 1 contains 13 live tracks, including "Smoke on the Water" and "Black Night" performed at Hellfest (2017, France). Disc 2 contains 14 tracks, including "Highway Star" and "Strange Kind of Woman" as well as rehearsal track(s) and radio edit version(s).

Double Trouble is the fifth album by the British rock band Gillan, released in 1981. It was released as a double album, the first disc containing studio material, and the second containing live recordings. It reached No. 12 in the UK charts. In 1989, Virgin re-released the album, with the same track listing, in CD format. It is the first album to feature Janick Gers, since Bernie Tormé left the group during the tour of Germany in 1981. In fact Tormé was fired because he did not want to participate in the playback TV performance of "No Laughing in Heaven" at "Top of the Pops" on 24 June 1981. Janick Gers came in for the rest of the tour on 25 June 1981. In 2007, Edsel Demon Music Group released this album with bonus material.