John Lee Hooker never abandoned his raw, gut bucket Mississippi-Delta-comes-to-the-city approach to the blues throughout his fifty-year career, and if he got a tad bit slicker towards the end of that career, it was only a tad and only by degree. There are innumerable Hooker collections on the market, and this two-disc set wouldn't be anything particularly special except that it actually charts through his entire history, beginning with the ageless "Boogie Chillen," which was recorded in 1948 and topped the R&B charts for Modern Records in 1949, through "Tupelo," which was recorded in 1993 and released on the Pointblank LP Chill Out in 1995.

The Album is the ninth album released by English progressive rock band Caravan. It was recorded at Farmyard Studios, Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire in July 1980. After a year of inaction followed by Caravan being dropped from Arista Records, Caravan reformed with a line up of Pye Hastings, Geoff Richardson, Dave Sinclair, Richard Sinclair and Richard Coughlan. After attempting to record a live album, Richard Sinclair dropped out of the line up and was replaced by Dek Messecar. The group decided to scrap the live album when it was learned that a studio album could be recorded with the same budget. Members Dave Sinclair and Geoff Richardson contributed to songwriting duties alongside main songwriter Pye Hastings. The material moved in the direction of shorter songs and more mainstream instrumentation than previous albums.

For All The Cats - The Best of Marc Bolan & T. Rex is the definitive 2CD / 49 tracks Marc Bolan collection featuring 20 Top 50 Hits including 4 Number 1 singles plus a generous helping of B-sides, key album tracks and rarities plus a new essay by Alexis Petridis, 20 page booklet featuring label photos and liner notes.

Heart had a second run on the charts in 1985 when they signed to Capitol Records and refashioned themselves as a mainstream pop/rock band, heavy on melodies and power ballads. The move paid off immediately, as they scored four Top Ten hits from Heart, their first record for the label: "What About Love?," "Never," "These Dreams," and "Nothin' at All." Heart kept up their hot streak for several more years, reaching the Top Ten three other times with the number one hit "Alone," "Who Will You Run To," and "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You." All of those songs are on Greatest Hits 1985-1995, along with 11 other tracks, including the semi-rarities of the Ann Wilson and Robin Zander duet "Surrender to Me" and the "studio version" of "You're the Voice." It may run a little long for the more casual fans, but overall, this is an excellent overview of the era, perfect for fans that don't need the full-length studio albums.

Although it isn't the revelation or surprising, extraordinary achievement that his 2010 record Praise & Blame was, Spirit in the Room is another solid, very welcome set of stripped-back interpretations from Tom Jones, produced once again by Ethan Johns, making those comparisons to Johnny Cash's late-period recordings with Rick Rubin all the more fitting. Know that the songbook has changed from classic (spirituals, blues, and traditional numbers) to more contemporary (Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, the Low Anthem, and others) and that Jones and Johns are both in top form and you've got the picture, along with that same frustration that no matter how fun "What's New Pussycat?" and "Sex Bomb" were, a couple more albums like this along the way would have been rich and rewarding.

Live at the Royal Albert Hall is a live album released by English synthpop duo Erasure in 2007. It is a double-CD set that is a recording of a concert appearance performed on 25 September 2007 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This concert was a performance to promote the band's 2007 album Light at the End of the World. It was recorded and distributed in conjunction with Live Here Now and was available only through direct order and as a digital download via Live Here Now. Because of this limited availability, the album was ineligible for the UK Albums Chart. A DVD of the same concert was released at the beginning of 2008 and got wider commercial release so that it charted at #7 in the UK music DVD chart and at #19 in the German music DVD chart.

London based Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate are Malcolm Galloway and Mark Gatland on their own or with Kathryn Thomas. They combine prog/alt-rock, classical, minimalist, and electronic elements. They often explore scientific, sci-fi, and historical themes. The 8th album by Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate explores the idea of uncertainty. Certainty is, on the whole, comfortable, but often misleading and dangerous.

The achievements of the brothers Gibb are truly unique. No other band has scored Number Ones around the globe in each of five decades. This album contains the best-loved number one singles, plus classic songs taken from Number One albums. In all, 20 stunning tracks which prove the Bee Gees' Greatest achievement: touching the heart and soul of millions of people with their music.

The Most Popular Guitar is the fifteenth studio album by guitarist Chet Atkins, released in 1961. It is an example of his highly orchestrated, smooth sound with lush strings and vocal choruses. While it did not top the chart action of his previous release Chet Atkins' Workshop, it spent ten weeks on the Billboard LP chart.

After half a century in the music industry, it's amazing that Cher is still making records in 2013. That Closer to the Truth is any good at all is even more shocking. With the help of her longtime producer Mark Taylor, plus Billy Mann and Paul Oakenfold, the album has a fully modern sound, a large portion of the songs (written by the usual cast of many who include P!nk and Cher herself) are hooky and fun, and her voice, aided by technology or not, still carries a lot of weight and power. The album is split down the middle with the first half made up of shimmering, supercharged dance tracks that have disco and house influences and seem destined to fire up clubgoers with their soaring choruses.

Safe Trip Home, the third album from singer-songwriter Dido, sees the chanteuse cook up a slightly different ambience than on previous albums No Angel (1999) and Life for Rent (2003). Though her signature elements remain in place–the limited, slightly cracked falsetto; the dreamy, comforting trip-hop vibe–there seems to be an extra density to Safe Trip Home, doubtless provoked by the loss of her father in 2006. The added weight is predominantly in the lyrics, which tend to focus on loss and heartache, but there's extra detail and depth in the musicianship too, since Dido has been busy honing her skills as a multi-instrumentalist. Despite the denser themes, the music still drifts by in classic Dido style, moving smoothly through the insouciant “Don't Believe in Love", the aptly titled “Quiet Times", and “Never Want to Say It's Love", before arriving at the somber-yet-elegant six-minute standout “Grafton Street", co-written with Brian Eno and featuring Mick Fleetwood on drums. The rest of the album unfurls in similarly sophicticated fashion, featuring the folkish “Look No Further", the upbeat “Us 2 Little Gods", and a nine-minute poetic closer called “Northern Skies". Put simply, Safe Trip Home is Dido in superlative form.

Better by Far is the eighth studio album by Canterbury scene rock band Caravan. Caravan are an English rock band from the Canterbury area, founded by former Wilde Flowers members David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Pye Hastings, and Richard Coughlan in 1968. The band have never achieved the great commercial success that was widely predicted for them at the beginning of their career, but are nevertheless considered a key part of the Canterbury scene of progressive rock acts, blending psychedelic rock, jazz, and classical influences to create a distinctive sound.

Press to Play is the sixth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney, released in August 1986. It was McCartney's first album of entirely new music since Pipes of Peace in 1983, and his first solo album to be issued internationally by EMI following a six-year alliance with Columbia Records in the United States and Canada. Keen to re-establish himself after his poorly received 1984 musical film Give My Regards to Broad Street, McCartney enlisted producer Hugh Padgham to give the album a contemporary sound. On release, Press to Play received a mixed critical reception and was McCartney's poorest-selling studio album up to that point. Although it failed to make the top 20 in America, the album peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and achieved gold status in September 1986.

Manouevres was released in 1983 as the follow-up to Greg Lake's 1981 self-titled debut album. His core group of musicians (Gary Moore, Tristam Margetts, Tommy Eyre, and Ted McKenna) is still present, but Manoeuvres is a different sort of album than the '81 effort. The heavy, gritty, guitar-driven feel of the previous record is not quite as evident and this seems a more restrained album. Many, Greg Lake included, tend to sell this album short and that is a mistake. Perhaps sales were discouraging, but this is a well-crafted, well-performed album on which Lake seems to rely more on melody than he did in 1981.

Vocalion Ltd repackaged and re-released two Blood, Sweat and Tears LPs originally on Columbia – Mirror Image (1974) and New City (1975) – as a SACD Hybrid Multi-channel. Included on these mid-'70s releases are "Look Up to the Sky," "Are You Satisfied," "Ride Captain Ride," "One Room Country Shack," and "Got to Get You Into My Life." All tracks available in stereo and quadraphonic mixes.