Ringo Star - Blast From Your Past

Release Date: Nov 20, 1975
Within the span of five years, Ringo Starr was able to muster up seven Top Ten singles, with three of them coming from the self-titled Ringo album. Taking all of these tracks and adding three more, Blast From Your Past ends up being a worthy ten-song collection of Starr's best solo tunes. In 1973, Ringo had back-to-back number one hits with both "Photograph," aided by George Harrison's harmony vocals, and the quirky, adolescent-sounding "You're Sixteen," with Harry Nilsson backing him and Paul McCartney playing the kazoo. His first hit, "It Don't Come Easy," had Badfinger filling in on harmony, while the humorous "No No Song" which went to number three in 1975, was penned by Hoyt Axton. Starr's easygoing character and blatant lightheartedness presents his music with a welcomed distinction, contrasted but hardly bettered by John Lennon's social, philosophical, and politically guided material that was coming out at around the same time. The jovial spirit of Ringo Starr shines through in songs like "Back off Boogaloo" and in the innocent satire of "I'm the Greatest" with a little help from his friend Mr. Lennon -- not one of Starr's best efforts, but entertaining nonetheless. For an enjoyable skip through Starr's best solo work, Blast From Your Past surely foots the bill.

Track list:

1. "You're Sixteen" (Bob Sherman/Richard Sherman) – 2:47
2. "No-No Song" (Hoyt Axton/David Jackson) – 2:29
3. "It Don't Come Easy" (Richard Starkey) – 3:02
* Previously a single release, Starr's first British and second American single, issued in April 1971
4. "Photograph" (George Harrison/Richard Starkey) – 3:55
5. "Back Off Boogaloo" (Richard Starkey) – 3:18
* Previously a single release, Starr's second (third in US), issued in March 1972
6. "Only You (And You Alone)" (Buck Ram/Ande Rand) – 3:23
7. "Beaucoups of Blues" (Buzz Rabin) – 2:32
* Starr's first solo single (in America, only) from the 1970 album of the same name
8. "Oh My My" (Vini Poncia/Richard Starkey) – 4:17
9. "Early 1970" (Richard Starkey) – 2:19
* Previously the B-Side to "It Don't Come Easy" in 1971.
10. "I'm The Greatest" (John Lennon) – 3:22

LINK

LCD Soundsystem - A Bunch of Stuff EP

A Bunch of Stuff is a digital only EP by the band LCD Soundsystem released on 18 September 2007. It is a US-only release as all the songs on the EP (except the Franz Ferdinand cover of All My Friends) will be included on the Someone Great single which will be released in all other territories.

Track list:

1. All My Friends (Franz Ferdinand version)
2. Get Innocuous! (Soulwax Remix)
3. Sound Of Silver (Carl Craig's c2 rmx rev.3)
4. Us V Them (Any Color U Like Remix By Windsurf)
5. Time To Get Away (Gucci Soundsystem Remix)
6. Us V Them (Live On KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic")

LINK

Brian Wilson - Pet Sounds Live In London

In early 2002, during his first solo tour of Europe and England, Brian Wilson included complete performances of his masterpiece Pet Sounds, which attempted to re-create, in a live setting, one of the greatest feats of studio wizardry in rock history. He recorded the music heard on Pet Sounds Live over four nights at London's Royal Festival Hall before a crowd packed with luminaries (simply read the liners for a lengthy who's-who list of intelligent pop musicians in attendance). Though he has trouble taking some of the leads he or brother Carl originally sang some 35 years earlier, the backing harmonies are surprisingly good (even in comparison to the nonpareil Beach Boys), and the ten-piece band is marvelous at summoning the necessary range of emotions, following the arrangements closely ("Let's Go Away for Awhile" alone must have taken days to perfect), and adding innumerable little touches for the benefit of those possessing a near-total familiarity with the original. To all this praise, however, must be added the considerable caveat: Wilson's stage presence is still problematic, if not completely bizarre. He still sounds tentative and forced when pressed to live performance, at one point interjecting "Hooray for the audience!" into a blank void; later, it's difficult to tell whether he's joking when he twice announces, "Here's an instrumental, with no voices, OK?" Those who've seen a Wilson concert before won't be surprised at the push-and-pull between clever musicianship and embarrassing showmanship, while curious Pet Sounds fans will find only scattered bits to intrigue them.

Track list:

01.Show Open
02.Wouldn't It Be Nice
03.You Still Believe In Me
04.That's Not Me
05.Don't Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)
06.I'm Waiting For The Day
07.Let's Go Away For A While
08.Sloop John B
09.God Only Knows
10.I Know There's An Answer
11.Here Today
12.I Just Wasn't Made For These Times
13.Pet Sounds
14.Caroline No
15.Band Intros
16.Good Vibrations
17.End Credits

LINK

Duffy - Live in London EP (iTunes Exclusive)

Live in London EP (iTunes Exclusive)

Track list:

01.Mercy
02.Tomorrow
03.Rockferry
04.Breaking My Own Heart

LINK





Duffy - Rockferry [ALBUM]

MORE INFO

LINK

Elvis Viva Las Vegas [2008 soundtrack]

On September 18, ABC USA aired one of the most successful Elvis documentaries ever produced. Elvis Viva Las Vegas was the chronicle of Elvis' life during the Vegas years with the focus on his music, his ground-breaking style and his legacy. As Elvis paved the way for today's performers in Las Vegas, the documentary also featured stellar performances by some of the today's biggest stars doing their unique interpretations of the Elvis song that had the most influence on them.

This CD is the official soundtrack and features these great performances as well as the original masters by the King of Rock 'n' Roll.

Track Listing:

1. Miranda Lambert - Jailhouse Rock
2. Daughtry - Suspicious Minds
3. Chris Isaak/Brandi Carlile - Love Me Tender
4. Toby Keith/Joe Perry - Mystery Train
5. Faith Hill - Peace in the Valley
6. The Little Willies (Lee Alexander, Jim Campilongo, Norah Jones, Richard Julian, Dan Rieser) - Love Me
7. Bruce Springsteen - Viva Las Vegas
8. Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
9. Elvis Presley - Love Me Tender
10. Elvis Presley - Love Me
11. Elvis Presley - Peace in the Valley
12. Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock
13. Elvis Presley - Viva Las Vegas
14. Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds
15. Pattie Scialfa - Looking for Elvis

LINK

The Beatles - The Lost Paris Tapes

bootleg
Olympia season in Paris, Jan. 1964.
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Beatles' interview at the Bourget airport
02.If I Had A Hammer (Trini Lopez)
03.Robert Marcy's comment
04.From Me To You
05.This Boy
06.I Want To Hold Your Hand
07.She Loves You
08.Twist And Shout
09.Robert Marcy's comment
10.I Saw Her Standing There
11.This Boy (incomplete)
12.Twist And Shout
13.From Me To You (incomplete)
14.Long Tall Sally
15.From Me To You (incomplete)
16.From Me To You

LINK

Lily Allen - Alfie EP

Release Date: Jul 11, 2007

Track list:

1. Alfie
2. Smile
3. Everybody’s Changing (Keane Cover)
4. Nan You’re A Window Shopper (50 Cent Cover)
5. Alfie (Css Remix)
6. Smile (Mark Ronson Remix)

LINK

Deep Purple - Live at the Olympia '96

Release Date: Jun 9, 1997
Recording Date: Jun 17, 1996
As a present to their fans, particularly the ones on the Internet, the band decided to put out another live album -- such live releases now tallying in double figures, unprecedented for any rock band. Unedited, undubbed and with a three-piece horn section blowing in on four tunes at the Olympia in Paris, Deep Purple are in their best habitat -- exhibiting raw power, free-for-all jamming and charging into the new numbers culled from Purpendicular. Reinvigorating the classics, namely "Smoke On the Water," "Speed King" and "Highway Star," the veterans still prove they can mess with the best on stage.
CD covers included

Track list:

CD 1
101.Fireball
102.Maybe I'm a Leo
103.Ted the Mechanic
104.Pictures of Home
105.Black Night
106.Cascades I'm Not Your Lover
107.Sometimes I Feel Like Screaming
108.Woman from Tokyo
109.No One Came
110.The Purpendicular Waltz

CD 2
201.Rosa's Cantina
202.Smoke on the Water
203.When a Blind Man Cries
204.Speed King
205.Perfect Strangers
206.Hey Cisco
207.Highway Star

LINK CD 1
LINK CD 2

Deep Purple - Machine Head [25th Anniversary Edition] [BONUS TRACKS]

Release Date: 1997
Recording Date: 1972
Led Zeppelin's fourth album, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and Deep Purple's Machine Head have stood the test of time as the Holy Trinity of English hard rock and heavy metal, serving as the fundamental blueprints followed by virtually every heavy rock & roll band since the early '70s. And, though it is probably the least celebrated of the three, Machine Head contains the "mother of all guitar riffs" -- and one of the first learned by every beginning guitarist -- in "Smoke on the Water." Inspired by real life events in Montreux, Switzerland, where Deep Purple were recording the album when the Grand Hotel was burned to the ground during a Frank Zappa concert, neither the song, nor its timeless riff, should need any further description. However, Machine Head was anything but a one-trick pony, introducing the bona fide classic opener "Highway Star," which epitomized all of Deep Purple's intensity and versatility while featuring perhaps the greatest soloing duel ever between guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord. Also in top form was singer Ian Gillan, who crooned and exploded with amazing power and range throughout to establish himself once and for all as one of the finest voices of his generation, bar none. Yes, the plodding shuffle of "Maybe I'm a Leo" shows some signs of age, but punchy singles "Pictures of Home" and "Never Before" remain as vital as ever, displaying Purple at their melodic best. And finally, the spectacular "Space Truckin'" drove Machine Head home with yet another tremendous Blackmore riff, providing a fitting conclusion to one of the essential hard rock albums of all time. [EMI's 25th Anniversary U.K. edition was issued as a two-CD set. Disc one contained the 1997 remixed version of the album, while disc two featured the original recordings, along with a few bonus quadrophonic mixes and B-sides.]
CD covers included
320 kbs

Track list:

CD 1
101.Highway Star (1997 Remix)
102.Maybe I'm A Leo (1997 Remix)
103.Pictures Of Home (1997 Remix)
104.Never Before (1997 Remix)
105.Smoke On The Water (1997 Remix)
106.Lazy (1997 Remix)
107.Space Truckin' (1997 Remix)
108.When A Blind Man Cries (1997 Remix)

CD 2
201.Highway Star
202.Maybe I'm A Leo
203.Pictures Of Home
204.Never Before
205.Smoke On The Water
206.Lazy
207.Space Truckin'
208.When A Blind Man Cries (B-Side)
209.Maybe I'm A Leo (Quadrophonic Mix)
210.Lazy (Quadrophonic Mix)

LINK part 1
LINK part 2
LINK part 3

Deep Purple - Fireball (25th Anniversary Edition) [BONUS TRACKS]

Release Date: 1996
Recording Date: 1971
One of Deep Purple's three essential albums, 1971's Fireball finds the band taking the no-holds-barred, hard rock direction of the previous year's Deep Purple in Rock to new creative heights. Metal machine noises introduce the sizzling title track, which is an explosively tight group effort with Jon Lord's organ truly shining. The somewhat repetitive "No No No" threatens to drop the ball, but the fantastic "Strange Kind of Woman" picks things up again. The innuendo-encrusted hilarity of "Anyone's Daughter" features one of singer Ian Gillan's best lyrics, and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore shows his range with one of his most uncharacteristic, bluesy performances. "The Mule" is perhaps Deep Purple's finest instrumental, and they flirt with progressive rock on "Fools," which probably could have been done without the rather boring, drawn-out middle section. Closing the album is the exceptional "No One Came," which sounds so fresh that it's plausible that the bandmembers improvised it on the spot. Their intertwining instrumental lines lock together beautifully, and Gillan weaves a comic, semi-autobiographical story that is equal parts rooted in fact and Monty Python. [This 25th Anniversary Edition includes nine additional tracks -- B-sides, outtakes, and remixes.]
CD covers included
320 kbs

Track list:

01.Fireball
02.No No No
03.Demon's Eye
04.Anyone's Daughter
05.The Mule
06.Fools
07.No One Came
08.Strange Kind Of Woman (a-side remix '96)
09.I'm Alone (b-side)
10.Freedom (album out-take)
11.Slow Train (album out-take)
12.Demon's Eye (remix '96)
13.The Noise Abatement Society Tapes
14.Fireball [take 1 (instrumental)]
15.Backwards Piano
16.No One Came (remix '96)

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock (25th Anniversary Edition) [BONUS TRACKS]

Release Date: 1995
Recording Date: 1970
After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord's overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple's soon-to-be classic Mark II lineup made their proper debut on 1970s awesome Deep Purple in Rock. The cacophony of sound (led by Ritchie Blackmore's blistering guitar solo), which introduces the opener "Speed King," makes it immediately obvious that the band is no longer fooling around. The slightly less intense "Bloodsucker" allows for some breathing room before the band embarks on the album's epic, ten-minute tour de force "Child in Time." In what is arguably his greatest performance, singer Ian Gillan leads the band on a series of crescendos, from the song's gentle beginning through to its ear-shattering climax, and back again to an even more intense encore. With searing power chords, "Flight of the Rat" is another example of the band's new hard-rock stance; though at nearly eight minutes, it too finds room for some extended soloing from Blackmore and Lord. "Into the Fire" and "Living Wreck" are more concise but equally appealing, and despite the closer "Hard Lovin' Man," which waffles on a bit before descending into feedback, this is still an essential album. [This version of the album includes bonus material.]
CD covers included
320 kbs

Track list:

01.Speed King
02.Bloodsucker
03.Child In Time
04.Flight Of The Rat
05.Into The Fire
06.Living Wreck
07.Hard Lovin' Man
08.Black Night [Original Single Version]
09.Studio Chat (1)
10.Speed King (Piano Version)
11.Studio Chat (2)
12.Cry Free (Roger Glover Remix)
13.Studio Chat (3)
14.Jam Stew (Unreleased Instrumental)
15.Studio Chat (4)
16.Flight Of The Rat (Roger Glover Remix)
17.Studio Chat (5)
18.Speed King (Roger Glover Remix)
19.Studio Chat (6)
20.Black Night (Unedited Roger Glover Remix)

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Massive Attack - Remixes & Unreleased

CD 1
01-Daydreaming (Luw It Mix)
02-Safe From Harn (Just A Groove Dub)
03-Sly (Underdog Mix)
04-Protection (J. Swift Mix)
05-Any Love (Larry Heard Mix)
06-Teardrop (Mad Professor Mazarini Vocal Mix)
07-Iternal Creeps (State of Bengal Mix)
08-Karmacoma (Ventol Dub Special)
09-Risingson (Otherside)
10-Blacksmith , Daydreaming
11-Unfinished Sympathy (Neel Hooper 12` Mix)
12-Be thankful for what you've got (perfecto Mix)
13-Superpredators

CD 2
01-Home of the Whale
02-Sly (cosmic Dub)
03-Angel (Mad Professor Remix)
04-Iternal Craps (Manic Street Preachers Version)
05-Daydreaming (Brixton Bass Remix)
06-Protection (Radiation For the Nation)
07-Back, She Comes (Statte of Bengal Mix)
08-Risingson (Underdog Mix)
09-Teardrop (Screen Team Mix)
10-Refection
11-Karmacoma (U.N.K.L.E Situation)
12-Unfinished Sympathy (Perfecto Mix)

LINK CD 1
LINK CD 2

Portishead - Melody Nelson

Portishead tribute to French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg

Track list:

1 Ballade De Melody Nelson
2 Sour Sour Times
3 Toy Box
4 Sheared Box
5 Strangers
6 Melody
7 Glory Box Edit
8 Numb
9 Sheared Times
10 Ah Melody
11 Airbas Reconstruction
12 To Kill A Dead Man
13 Wandering Star
14 Scom
15 En Melody
16 Over
17 Roads
18 Lot More
19 Glory Box [mudflap Mix]

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man - Out Of Season

Out of Season plays to Beth Gibbons' strengths as a vocalist and songwriter more than anything released prior by Portishead. On both Dummy and Portishead, her pained, worn, resilient voice was often made to sound as if it was as much an artifact as the Isaac Hayes and Lalo Schifrin samples. That voice of hers was perfectly suited for the backing provided by her bandmates, but more than a few wondered if it would sound even more perfect -- or in a better setting, naked and completely central -- if it were supported by the type of folk, jazz, and R&B recordings it could've been plucked from in the first place. That "what if" is answered with this album, made by Gibbons in collaboration with Paul Webb, several of his fellow Talk Talk alums, and numerous others. Brass, strings, reeds, organs, acoustic guitar, double bass, and lightly brushed drums are all part of the mix, which never threatens to take the spotlight away from Gibbons. The lyrical themes aren't much of a departure for the singer, who contemplates the passing of time and her love/hate relationship with existence throughout -- one song opens with "God knows how I adore life," and then one song later, she's "So tired of life." The icing on the cake is in the little details, like the sly Carol Kaye imitation snuck in by bassist Adrian Utley during "Romance" and the way the background vocals discreetly drift in and out, alternating between serene and spooky. The sticker that came affixed to the disc contains a quote that proclaims this to be one of the best albums of all time. While that is a stretch, there's no denying that the quote below that one -- "Quietly devastating" -- is 100 percent accurate.

Track list:

# "Mysteries" – 4:39
# "Tom the Model" – 3:41
# "Show" (Gibbons) – 4:26
# "Romance" – 5:09
# "Sand River" (Webb) – 3:48
# "Spider Monkey" – 4:10
# "Resolve" – 2:51
# "Drake" – 3:54
# "Funny Time of Year" – 6:48
# "Rustin' Man" – 4:20

LINK

Feist - Black Sessions [live]

Black Sessions are live recordings, broadcast on the French radio station France Inter during the C’est Lenoir show.

Track list:

01. Gatekeeper
02. Leisure Suite
03. Mushaboom
04. One Evening
05. Lovers Spit
06. Let It Die & Lonely Lonely
07. That Girl & Foolproof
08. When I Was A Young Girl
09. Intuition
10. Now At Last

LINK

Deep Purple - Burn

Although it shook the band's fan base to its core, the acrimonious departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover served to rejuvenate Deep Purple in time for 1973's aptly named Burn album, which unquestionably showed huge improvement over their lackluster previous effort, Who Do We Think We Are. And in an interesting twist rarely attempted before or since, new recruits David Coverdale (vocals) and Glenn Hughes (bass and vocals, ex-Trapeze) traded lead singing duties on virtually every one of its songs -- an enviable tag team, as both possessed exceptional pipes. The phenomenal title track started things off at full throttle, actually challenging the seminal "Highway Star" for the honor of best opener to any Deep Purple album, while showcasing the always impressive drumming of Ian Paice. Up next, the intro to the equally timeless "Might Just Take Your Life," however simple from a technical perspective, remains one of organist Jon Lord's signature moments; and the downright nasty "Lay Down, Stay Down" roared behind wildly careening starts and stops and a fantastic Ritchie Blackmore guitar solo which left no doubt as to who was the band's primal force, regardless of lineup. Moving right along, though it was rarely included in later-day greatest hits sets, "What's Going on Here" was about as good a single as Purple ever wrote; "You Fool No One" was compelling for its sheer intensity; and the funky "Sail Away" was a sign of the band's direction in years to come. Lastly, the fantastic slow-boiling blues of "Mistreated" closed the album proper (let's ignore the record's only throw-away track -- boring final instrumental "A 200") with a command solo performance from Coverdale, as nuanced and sensitive as it was devastating. So impassioned was the singer's delivery, in fact, that the song would remain his personal, in-concert trademark with Whitesnake, long after his tenure with Deep Purple came to a close. Like the vast majority of Burn this song's greatness qualifies it for the highest echelons of hard rock achievement, and therefore ranks as an essential item in the discography of any self-respecting music fan.

Track list:

01 - Burn
02 - Might Just Take Your Life
03 - Lay Down, Stay Down
04 - Sail Away
05 - You Fool No One
06 - What' S Goin' On Here
07 - Mistreated
08 - A 200

LINK

Camera Obscura - Morning Becomes Eclectic

Scottish outfit, Camera Obscura, expose their dulcet tones on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic.
This show was aired last July 19, 2006.

Track list:

Come Back Margaret
The False Contender
Teenager
Let's Get Out Of This Country
Interview
Tears For Affairs
Dory Previn
Modern Girl (Sheena Easton Cover)
Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken

LINK

Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock

After satisfying all of their classical music kinks with keyboard player Jon Lord's overblown Concerto for Group and Orchestra, Deep Purple's soon to be classic Mark II version made its proper debut and established the sonic blueprint that would immortalize this lineup of the band on 1970's awesome In Rock. The cacophony of sound (spearheaded by Ritchie Blackmore's blistering guitar solo) introducing opener "Speed King" made it immediately obvious that the band was no longer fooling around, but the slightly less intense "Bloodsucker" did afford stunned listeners a chance to catch their breaths before the band launched into the album's epic, ten-minute tour de force, "Child in Time." In what still stands as arguably his single greatest performance, singer Ian Gillan led his bandmates on a series of hypnotizing crescendos, from the song's gentle beginning through to its ear-shattering climax and then back again for an even more intense encore that brought the original vinyl album's seismic first side to a close. Side two opened with the searing power chords of "Flight of the Rat" -- another example of the band's new take-no-prisoners hard rock stance, though at nearly eight minutes, it too found room for some extended soloing from Blackmore and Lord. Next, "Into the Fire" and "Living Wreck" proved more concise but equally appealing, and though closer "Hard Lovin' Man" finally saw the new-look Deep Purple waffling on a bit too long before descending into feedback, the die was cast for one of heavy metal's defining albums.

Track list:

01 - Speed King
02 - Bloodsucker
03 - Child In Time
04 - Flight Of The Rat
05 - Into The Fire
06 - Living Wreck
07 - Hard Lovin' Man

LINK

Deep Purple - Fireball

One of Deep Purple's four indispensable albums (the others being In Rock, Machine Head, and Burn), 1971's Fireball saw the band broadening out from the no-holds-barred hard rock direction of the previous year's cacophonous In Rock. Metal machine noises introduced the sizzling title track -- an unusually compact but explosively tight group effort on which Jon Lord's organ truly shined. The somewhat tiring repetitions of "No No No" actually threatened to drop the ball next, but the fantastic single "Strange Kind of Woman" nimbly caught and set it rolling again, just in time for the innuendo-encrusted hilarity of "Anyone's Daughter," featuring one of singer Ian Gillan's first (and still best) humorous storylines to go with one of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's most uncharacteristic, bluesiest performances ever. "The Mule" opened the vinyl album's second side with what is perhaps Purple's finest instrumental, and on the hyper-extended "Fools," the bandmembers proved they could flirt with progressive rock without plunging off its cliff (although the song could probably have done without its drawn-out middle section). And closing the album was the exceptional "No One Came," where intertwining instrumental lines locked together beautifully, Gillan wove another entertaining yarn that was part autobiography and part Monty Python, and the often underrated skills of drummer Ian Paice helped the song sound so unreservedly fresh and intuitive that one could almost be convinced the band had winged it on the spot. Sure, the following year's Machine Head would provide Deep Purple with their commercial peak, but on Fireball, the formidable quintet was already firing on all cylinders.

Track list:

1 Fireball
2 No No No
3 Strange Kind of Woman
4 Anyone's Daughter
5 The Mule
6 Fools
7 No One Came

LINK

Deep Purple - Machine Head

Led Zeppelin's fourth album, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and Deep Purple's Machine Head have stood the test of time as the Holy Trinity of English hard rock and heavy metal, serving as the fundamental blueprints followed by virtually every heavy rock & roll band since the early '70s. And, though it is probably the least celebrated of the three, Machine Head contains the "mother of all guitar riffs" -- and one of the first learned by every beginning guitarist -- in "Smoke on the Water." Inspired by real-life events in Montreux, Switzerland, where Deep Purple were recording the album when the Grand Hotel was burned to the ground during a Frank Zappa concert, neither the song, nor its timeless riff, should need any further description. However, Machine Head was anything but a one-trick pony, introducing the bona fide classic opener "Highway Star," which epitomized all of Deep Purple's intensity and versatility while featuring perhaps the greatest soloing duel ever between guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord. Also in top form was singer Ian Gillan, who crooned and exploded with amazing power and range throughout to establish himself once and for all as one of the finest voices of his generation, bar none. Yes, the plodding shuffle of "Maybe I'm a Leo" shows some signs of age, but punchy singles "Pictures of Home" and "Never Before" remain as vital as ever, displaying Purple at their melodic best. And finally, the spectacular "Space Truckin'" drove Machine Head home with yet another tremendous Blackmore riff, providing a fitting conclusion to one of the essential hard rock albums of all time.

Track list:

1 Highway Star
2 Maybe I'm a Leo
3 Pictures of Home
4 Never Before
5 Smoke on the Water
6 Lazy
7 Space Truckin'

LINK

The Bird and the Bee - The Bird and the Bee

Release Date: Jan 23, 2007
As a label, Blue Note has been changing its focus, drifting closer and closer to mainstream pop material -- not that there's anything wrong with this, but it is a bit of a shock that the name label in jazz since 1939 is looking for hits with Elisabeth Withers and a third Norah Jones offering. That said, the Metro Blue imprint of the label is as adventurous as ever. The self-titled offering from the Bird and the Bee is about as eclectic as it gets. The Bird and the Bee are vocalist and songwriter Inara George (for music historians, she is the daughter of the late Little Feat singer, guitarist, and songwriter Lowell George) and multi-instrumentalist/producer Greg Kurstin. Inara George issued her solo debut, All Rise, to little notice in 2004, and Kurstin handled keyboard and drum machine chores on that one. The duo's debut album is a showcase for ten small, elegant, and strangely sophisticated pop songs that incorporate French pop (and Europop in general), some tropicalia and samba, and a postmodern form of space age bachelor -- and bachelorette -- music. Yet, the end product is more musical and complex than all of them. In its own way, this is as strange as anything by Jane Siberry or Brigitte Fontaine, as quirky as Jill Sobule or Jane Birkin (during her latter Serge Gainsbourg period), and much drier than (while remaining as confessional as) Sam Phillips during her Martinis & Bikinis phase. All of that said, mood music or a backdrop hanging sound isn't the point or the end result. Inara George is more than simply hip -- she's savvy, poetic, and quick-witted: "A pretty idiot is kissing/Everyone she doesn't know/And the pigs are eating popcorn/Selling tickets to the show." The shimmering pop samba in "My Fair Lady" could have been in Breakfast at Tiffany's if the film had been made in 2007 and starred Dorothy Parker in the lead role: "I need someone to show a little kindness/If he can turn his head, a little blindness/I know I might seem a little aimless/And I can also be a little shameless." Kurstin wraps these irony-filled lyrics in layers of skeletal keyboards and beats. The music shimmers, shakes, slightly jerks, and shimmies. This is the place where smart little drinks and hidden emotions find their adjoining playgrounds. And ultimately, this music is playground pastiche, but that's far from a criticism. The sheer instinct and musical dexterity at work here make the album irresistible -- and in particular "I Hate Camera," with its rounded and warm skittering loops and faux harpsichord keys keeping pace with jangling keyboard sounds and sputtering vocal effects. This is a record that gives up its secrets slowly, while being charming and delightful at every turn.

Track list:

01.Again & Again
02.Birds And The Bees
03.Fucking Boyfriend
04.I'm A Broken Heart
05.La La La
06.My Fair Lady
07.I Hate Camera
08.Because
09.Preparedness
10.Spark

LINK

Neil Young - Lucky Seventeen [bootleg]

Track list:

01.This Is Knowhere (Alternate version)
02.Country Girl (Acoust. Live)
03.Everybody's Alone (Unreleased)
04.Bad Fog Of Loneliness (Unreleased)
05.Bad Fog Of Loneliness (Different)
06.Don't Say Your Win Or Lose (Piano,live)
07.Traces (Unrel.)
08.Falling Down (Unrel.)
09.Stringman (From Unrel. Album)
10.Give Me Strength (Acoustic1976)
11.If You Got Love (Outtake)
12.Silver And Gold (Outtake Old Ways)
13.Interstate (Outtake Life)
14.Box Car (Unrel.)
15.Born To Rock (Outtake Ragged Glory)
16.Everything's Broken (Live)
17.Mansion On The Hil

LINK

Bob Dylan - Is This What You Want? (Bootleg)

Bootleg
First class Dylan concert from the New York Supper Club
16.Nov.1993

Track list:

01.Ragged And Dirty
02.Lay, Lady Lay
03.I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
04.Queen Jane Approximately
05.Jacj-A-Roe
06.One Too Many Morning
07.I Want You
08.Ring Them Bells
09.My Back Pages
10.Forever Young

LINK

Dusty Springfield - Complete A and B Sides 1963-1970

Release Date: Jul 31, 2006
It's practically a cliché to say that Dusty Springfield was the greatest white soul singer to ever come out of the U.K., but like most clichés, it's a commonplace wisdom that's based in an obvious fact. While most blue-eyed soul belters sounded as if they were determined to worry a song into submission though brute force and melismatic torture, Springfield's gift was a superb instrument and the wisdom to do its work with a careful balance of emotional force and instinctive restraint (perhaps the product of her fondness for jazz and smart pop as well as rock and R&B). Springfield was also a gifted songwriter who was a shrewd judge of material, and she knew how to match her voice to either Phil Spector-esque bombast or a more subtle and elegant production, and anyone looking for a perspective on just how sure Springfield's instincts in the studio were should give a listen to this set. Complete A and B Sides 1963-1970 is just what its title says it is -- every U.K. single Dusty released during this eight-year stretch is included (except for a stray Yuletide release), with all the A-sides on disc one and the flip sides on disc two (except for the B-side to "Morning Please Don't Come," which was a solo track from her brother Tom Springfield and subsequently left by the wayside). The consistent quality of these recordings is truly a wonder -- there are no throwaway B-sides, no major artistic missteps, and every tune appears to been crafted as if Springfield and her studio helpers were convinced it could be a hit (and in a wiser alternate universe, perhaps they all were). While American fans will notice that a number of Springfield's biggest U.S. hits are missing (remarkably, "I Only Want to Be with You," "Wishin' and Hopin'," and "All Cried Out" were never released as singles in Great Britain), as a document of Dusty performing at the top of her game during her golden era, this set is all but flawless, assembled with care and boasting superb audio, and anyone who loves her music will find much to revel in. Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne contributes a fine and informative essay on Dusty Springfield in the 1960s to the liner notes.
CD covers included

Track list:

CD 1
101.I Only Want to Be with You
102.Stay Awhile
103.I Just Don't Know What to Do with Mysefl
104.Losing You
105.Your Hurtin' Kind of Love
106.In the Middle of Nowhere
107.Some of Your Lovin'
108.Little by Little
109.You Don't Have to Say You Love Me
110.Goin' Back
111.All I See Is You
112.I'll Try Anything (To Get You)
113.Give Me Time
114.What's It Gonna Be
115.I Close My Eyes and Count to Ten
116.I Will Come to You
117.Son of a Preacher Man
118.Am I the Same Girl
119.A Brand New Me
120.Morning Please Don't Come
121.How Can I Be Sure

CD 2
201.Once Upon a Time
202.Something Special
203.My Colouring Book
204.Summer Is Over
205.Don't Say It Baby
206.Baby Don't You Know
207.I'll Love You for a While
208.If It Hadn't Been for You
209.Every Ounce of Strength
210.I'm Gonna Leave You
211.Go Ahead On
212.The Corrupt Ones
213.The Look of Love
214.Small Town Girl
215.No Stranger Am I
216.The Colour of Your Eyes
217.Just a Little Lovin'
218.Earthbound Gypsy
219.Bad Case of the Blues
220.Spooky

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

PJ Harvey- Live in Cologne, 29 April 1995

This is a full recording of PJ Harvey live in Cologne, Germany during her 'To Bring My Love Tour' which was definately the best time to see PJ live.

Track list:

1. the dancer
2. one time too many
3. meet ze monsta
4. working for the man
5. dress
6. teclo
7. c’mon billy
8. down by the water
9. hook
10. harder
11. naked cousin
12. driving
13. 50 foot queenie
14. legs
15. long snake moan
16. goodnight

LINK

Slint - Spiderland

More known for its frequent name-checks than its actual music, Spiderland remains one of the most essential and chilling releases in the mumbling post-rock arena. Even casual listeners will be able to witness an experimental power-base that the American underground has come to treasure. Indeed, the lumbering quiet-loud motif has been lifted by everybody from Lou Barlow to Mogwai, the album's emotional gelidity has done more to move away from prog-rock mistakes than almost any of the band's subsequent disciples, and it's easy to hear how the term "Slint dynamics" has become an indie categorization of its own. Most interestingly, however, is how even a seething angularity to songs like "Nosferatu Man" (disquieting, vampirish stop-starts) or "Good Morning, Captain" (a murmuring nod to "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner") certainly signaled the beginning of the end for the band. Recording was intense, traumatic, and one more piece of evidence supporting the theory that band members had to be periodically institutionalized during the completion of the album. Spiderland remains, though, not quite the insurmountable masterpiece its reputation may suggest. Brian McMahan softly speaks/screams his way through the asphyxiated music and too often evokes strangled pity instead of outright empathy. Which probably speaks more about the potential dangers of pretentious post-rock than the frigid musical climate of the album itself. Surely, years later, Spiderland is still a strong, slightly overrated, compelling piece of investigational despair that is a worthy asset to most any experimentalist's record collection.
CD covers included

Track list:

1 Breadcrumb Trail 5:55
2 Nosferatu Man 5:34
3 Don, Aman 6:28
4 Washer 8:50
5 For Dinner... 5:05
6 Good Morning Captain 7:39

LINK

Frank Zappa - The Best Of Frank Zappa

Release Date: Nov 1, 2004
CD covers included

Track list:

1 Peaches en Regalia 3:38
2 Don't Eat the Yellow Snow [Single Version] 3:36
3 Dancin' Fool 3:45
4 San Ber'dino 5:58
5 Dirty Love 2:59
6 My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama 3:33
7 Cosmik Debris 4:14
8 Disco Boy 5:10
9 Fine Girl 3:32
10 I'm the Slime 3:36
11 Joe's Garage 4:09
12 Bobby Brown Goes Down 2:50
13 Montana 4:49
14 Valley Girl 4:52
15 Muffin Man 5:33

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Van Morrison - Irish Heartbeat

Irish Heartbeat is an album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and The Chieftains released in 1988. Morrison had recently moved from London to Bath, England. The album was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin Ireland.
CD covers included

Personnel

* Van Morrison - vocal, Guitar, Drums
* Paddy Moloney - Harp,Tin whistle
* Ciaran O'Braonain - Bass
* Maura O'Connell - Vocal
* June Boyce - Vocal
* Kevin Conneff - Vocal, Bodhran
* Martin Fay - Fiddle
* Seán Keane - Fiddle
* Mary Black - Vocal
* Derek Bell - Harp, Keyboards, Tiompan
* Matt Molloy - Flute



Track list:

All songs by Morrison unless noted otherwise

1. "Star of the County Down" - (traditional) – 2:41
2. " Irish Heartbeat" – 3:52
3. "Ta Mo Chleamhnas Deanta (My Match It Is Made)" - (traditional) – 3:31
4. "Raglan Road" - (Patrick Kavanagh) – 4:43
5. "She Moved Through the Fair" - (traditional) – 4:44
6. "I'll Tell Me Ma" - (traditional) – 2:29
7. "Carrickfergus" - (traditional) – 4:23
8. "Celtic Ray" – 3:47
9. "My Lagan Love" - (traditional) – 5:19
10. "Marie's Wedding" - (traditional) – 3:17

LINK

Deep Purple - Live In Japan [3CD Box-SET]

Live in Japan is a triple live album by English rock group Deep Purple, released on CD in November 1993. The album was recorded over three nights in August 1972 in Japan. It's a "Twenty-first anniversary collectors 3CD set" of Made in Japan. All 21 tracks were mixed in 1993.

The tracks on the album are mostly from their studio album Machine Head, which was released a few months earlier. According to the liner notes, unlike many live albums, there were "No studio overdubs, no splicing in of solos from other shows, and no fake applause." Recorded live 15, 16 and 17 August 1972 in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan.

CD covers included

Track list:

CD 1: Good Morning

* Recorded in Osaka on 15 August 1972

1. "Highway Star" - 7:37
2. "Child in Time" - 11:51
3. "The Mule" - 9:36
4. "Strange Kind of Woman" - 8:50
5. "Lazy" - 10:26
6. "Space Truckin'" - 21:35
7. "Black Night" (Encore) - 6:25

[edit] CD 2: Next week, we're turning professional

* Recorded in Osaka on 16 August 1972

1. "Highway Star" - 7:07
2. "Smoke on the Water" - 7:25
3. "Child in Time" - 12:30
4. "The Mule" - 10:21
5. "Strange Kind of Woman" - 10:35
6. "Lazy" - 10:21
7. "Space Truckin'" - 20:13

[edit] CD 3: Can we have everything louder than everything else?

* Recorded in Tokyo on 17 August 1972

1. "Highway Star" - 7:15
2. "Smoke on the Water" - 7:06
3. "Child in Time" - 11:32
4. "Strange Kind of Woman" - 11:26
5. "Lazy" - 11:16
6. "Space Truckin'" - 19:19
7. "Speed King" (Encore) - 7:55

LINK part 1
LINK part 2
LINK part 3

R.E.M. - Accelerate

For years, R.E.M. promised that their next album would be a rocker, an oath to fans that perhaps made sense during the early '90s, when they were exploring the pastoral fields of Out of Time and the gloomy folk of Automatic for the People, but in the years after Bill Berry's 1997 departure, the desire of longtime fans for the group to rock again was merely a code word for the wish that R.E.M. would sound like a band again. Apart from a few fleeting moments -- "The Great Beyond," their "Man in the Moon" re-write for the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon; "Bad Day," a mid-'80s outtake revived for a greatest-hits album -- R.E.M. not only didn't sound like a band, but they seemed at odds with themselves and their very strengths, culminating in the amorphous, mummified Around the Sun, a record so polished and overworked it didn't sound a bit like R.E.M., not even like the art-pop outfit the band turned into after Berry's retirement. It was a situation so dire that the band recognized the need for corrective steering, so they stripped themselves down to bare-bones for 2008's Accelerate.

In every way Accelerate is the opposite of Around the Sun: at 36 minutes, it's defiantly lean, it's heavy on Peter Buck's guitars and Mike Mills backing vocals, its songs don't drift, they attack. Even the songs constructed on acoustics feel like they're rockers, maybe because they hearken back to the eerie, ramshackle grace of "Swan Swan H" whose riff echoes through both "Houston" and "Until the Day Is Done." This is not the only time that R.E.M. deliberately refers to the past on Accelerate, but reverential self-reference is the whole idea of this project: they're embracing their past, building upon the legacy and the very sound of such underground rock landmarks as Lifes Rich Pageant and Document. Not that this album could be mistaken for an exhumed classic from the '80s: Michael Stipe's lyrics are forthright and never elliptical, and the same could be said about the music, as it's sonically streamlined and precise, hallmarks of a veteran band. One of the benefits of being veterans is knowing how to create a record this focused, and Accelerate benefits greatly from its concentrated blast of guitars, as the brevity of the album makes R.E.M. seem vital even as they're dredging up the past. By no longer denying the jangle and pop that provided a foundation for the group's success, they sound like a band again.

Such praise dangerously threatens to oversell Accelerate, however, suggesting that the album has either the unearthly mystique of Murmur or the ragged enthusiasm of Reckoning when it has neither. This is a careful, studied album from a band that knew they were on the brink of losing their audience and, worse, their identity. Accelerate finds R.E.M. attempting to reconnect with their music, with what made them play rock & roll in the first place, instead of methodically resurrecting a faded myth. They reconnect handsomely, creating an album the can stand next to work from their peers, like Dinosaur Jr.'s exceptional comeback Beyond and Sonic Youth's casually vital Rather Ripped (whose "Incinerate" reverberates in the dissonant open-ended "Accelerate"). As comebacks go, that's relatively modest, but the very modesty of Accelerate is what makes it such a successful rebirth as R.E.M. no longer denies what they were or what they are, and, in doing so, they offer a glimpse of what they could be once again.

Track list:

1. "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" – 3:11
2. "Man-Sized Wreath" – 2:32
3. "Supernatural Superserious" – 3:23
4. "Hollow Man" – 2:39
5. "Houston" – 2:05
6. "Accelerate" – 3:33
7. "Until the Day Is Done" – 4:08
8. "Mr. Richards" – 3:46
9. "Sing for the Submarine" – 4:50
10. "Horse to Water" – 2:18
11. "I'm Gonna DJ" – 2:07

LINK

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

Recorded over three nights in August 1972, Deep Purple's Made in Japan was the record that brought the band to headliner status in the U.S. and elsewhere, and it remains a landmark in the history of heavy metal music. Since reorganizing with singer Ian Gillan and bassist Roger Glover in 1969, Deep Purple had recorded three important albums -- Deep Purple in Rock, Fireball, and Machine Head -- and used the material to build a fierce live show. Made in Japan, its selections drawn from those albums, documented that show, in which songs were drawn out to ten and even nearly 20 minutes with no less intensity, as guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and organist Jon Lord soloed extensively and Gillan sang in a screech that became the envy of all metal bands to follow. The signature song, of course, was "Smoke on the Water," with its memorable riff, which went on to become an American hit single. But those extended workouts, particularly the moody "Child in Time," with Gillan's haunting falsetto wail and Blackmore's amazingly fast playing, and "Space Truckin'," with Lord's organ effects, maintained the onslaught, making this a definitive treatment of the band's catalog and its most impressive album. By stretching out and going to extremes, Deep Purple pushed its music into the kind of deliberate excess that made heavy metal what it became, and their audience recognized the breakthrough, propelling the original double LP into the U.S. Top Ten and sales over a million copies.

Track list:

01.Highway Star
02.Child in Time
03.Smoke on the Water
04.The Mule (Drum Solo)
05.Strange Kind of Woman
06.Lazy
07.Space Truckin'

LINK

The Doors - Live in Pittsburgh 1970

Live in Pittsburgh 1970 (2008) is the sixth (more or less) full-length live set from the Doors' own Bright Midnight Archives. It is also one of its shortest and arguably most dynamic entries -- a single CD capturing the quartet of Jim Morrison (vocals/hand percussion), Ray Manzarek (keyboards/bass pedals/vocals), Robbie Krieger (guitars), and John Densmore (drums/percussion) at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, PA on May 2, 1970. Granted, the audio fidelity isn't as dynamic as other volumes in the Bright Midnight catalog. Additionally, there are a few "missing" pieces of audio, which will be detailed in a moment. However, the nearly 80 minutes of inspired interaction eclipse the better sounding and more complete performances. Thanks in large part to the atypically coherent and together Morrison, the band are able to collectively turn corners with the rugged precision that had defined the essence of the combo. While certainly not bound to a prescribed song list or running order, there is a degree of continuity in many of the post-Miami (March 1, 1969) performances. One primary difference being the comparative lack of tunes from their recently released (less than two months earlier) long-player Morrison Hotel (1970). But in the spirit of their latest studio affair, the show opens with a blues-fuelled medley of Willie Dixon's "Back Door Man" and a powerful reading of their own "Five to One." Linking the two is a brief diversion through a recitation titled "Love Hides." A blazing "Roadhouse Blues" -- the sole Morrison Hotel representative -- follows as Krieger's incendiary fretwork instigates similarly combustible contributions from the rest of the ensemble. Continuing in a considerably bluesy vein, the Doors catch up with their psychedelic past as it coalesces into a nearly quarter-hour combination of the rockabilly classic "Mystery Train" -- including quotes from the Impressions' "People Get Ready" -- with Morrison's own "Away in India," prior to settling into a raucous overhaul of Robert Johnson's "Crossroads Blues." The creepy and ominous love song "Universal Mind," nor the sinister ballad "Someday Soon" made it onto a studio album. That said, the former title could be found on Absolutely Live (1970). It was not taken from this concert, but from the Aquarius Theater in Los Angeles, CA on July 21, 1969. Incidentally, that entire show is available as Live at the Aquarius Theatre: The Second Performance (2001). While on the subject, it is interesting that even as the Pittsburgh gig was recorded to be among the source materials for Absolutely Live, not a note was used in the final product. The lengthy "When the Music's Over" is one of the strongest outings of the night as the Doors potent improvisational prowess turn the tune into a springboard for some remarkable sonic side trips. They slip in and out of "Break on Through," and a cursory diversion into the Soft Parade (1968) era outtake "Push Push," which leads them into vamping the conclusion to the album's rarely uncorked title track, which is listed here as "The Soft Parade Vamp." The humorous "Tonight You're in for a Special Treat" is a bit of dialogue from Morrison. He jokingly refers to his pending Miami trial for indecent exposure before Manzarek takes a rare lead vocal on a definite return to the blues and to the Willie Dixon songbook for "Close to You." Wrapping up the festivities is a remarkably energetic and playful "Light My Fire," which is where the second "lost" piece of audio resides. Thanks to some handy digital editing by the Doors' original producer and engineer Bruce Botnick, it is doubtful the majority of discerning ears would have even been able to tell. Botnick comes clean in the info-laden, 12-page liner notes booklet that accompanies the otherwise highly recommended Live in Pittsburgh 1970.

Track List:

1. “Back Door Man”
2. “Love Hides”
3. “Five To One”
4. “Roadhouse Blues”
5. “Mystery Train”
6. “Away In India”
7. “Crossroads Blues”
8. “Universal Mind”
9. “Someday Soon”
10. “When The Music’s Over”
11. “Break On Through”
12. “Push Push”
13. The Soft Parade Vamp
14. Tonight You’re In For A Special Treat
15. “Close To You”
16. “Light My Fire”

LINK

Procol Harum - 30th Anniversary Anthology [3 CD Box-SET]

Release Date: Nov 17, 1997
The best collection yet devoted to Procol Harum's classic early period ties together the many facets of their sound and their early history, including numerous outtakes and all of the music on four albums from 1967 through 1970. The clarity of the sound makes the first album -- which was roundly criticized, especially in England, for having been cut in mono in late 1967 -- seem a lot more muscular and progressive here than it did in its original release form. The producers have tampered with the song order on A Salty Dog, moving that record's title track in amongst disc three's single sides for time considerations while still leaving "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" off of the first CD (the original commercial flaw with the debut album in England was the absence of either of those songs, and the seven-month-plus delay in getting it out). From the psychedelic/progressive blues stylings of Shine on Brightly to the self-consciously leaner, harder Home, this is the optimum way to hear the band. The collection also documents the change from somewhat light, optimistic psychedelia in 1967/1968 to the darker, edgier psychedelia of 1970 and beyond. The best part for collectors will be disc three, which, in addition to the group's hit singles and surprisingly fascinating B-sides from 1967-1970, also includes outtakes from unfinished early album sessions and alternate takes (with different personnel) of "Whiter Shade of Pale," "Homburg," and others, some in stereo. The notes are reasonably thorough, although they skimp a little in telling the story of the recording of "Whiter Shade of Pale" and the subsequent assembling of the permanent band.
CD covers included

Track list:

Procol Harum / Shine On Brightly
101.Conquistador
102.She Wandered Through The Garde
103.Something Following Me
104.Mabel
105.Cerdes (Outside The Gates Of)
106.Christmas Camel
107.Kaleidoscope
108.Salad Days (Are Here Again)
109.Good Captain Clack
110.Repent Walpurgis
111.Quite Rightly So
112.Shine On Brightly
113.Skip Softly (My Moonbeams)
114.Wish Me Well
115.Rambling On
116.Magdalene (My Regal Zonophone)
117.In Held Twas In I

A Salty Dog / Home
201.The Milk Of Human Kindness
202.Too Much Between Us
203.The Devil Came From Kansas
204.Boredom
205.Juicy John Pink
206.Wreck Of The Hesperus
207.All This And More
208.Crucification Lane
209.Pilgrims Progress
210.Whisky Train
211.The Dead Man's Dream
212.Still There'll Be More
213.Nothing That Didn't Know
214.About To Die
215.Barnyard Story
216.Piggy Pig Pig
217.Whaling Stories
218.Your Own Choice

Singles A and B sides / Outtakes / Alternative takes
301.A Whiter Shade Of Pale
302.Line Street Blues
303.Homburg
304.Good Captain Clack
305.Quite Rightly So
306.In The Wee Small Hours Of Sixpence
307.Salty Dog
308.Long Gone Geek
309.Monsieur Armand(outtake)
310.Seem To Have The Blues (Mostly All The Time(outtake)
311.A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Alternate Version - Stereo)
312.A Whiter Shade Of Pale (Instrumental)
313.Homburg (Alternate Version 1 - Stereo)
314.Homburg (Alternate Version 2 - Stereo)
315.Conquistador (Alternate Version - Stereo)
316.She Wandered Through The Garden Fence (Alternate Version)
317.Magdelene (My Regal Zonophone)

LINK part 1
LINK part 2
LINK part 3

Ladytron - Velocifero

Velocifero is the fourth studio album from Ladytron and their first to be released by their new label, Nettwerk.

Track list:

1. "Black Cat"
2. "Ghosts"
3. "I'm Not Scared"
4. "Runaway"
5. "Season of Illusions"
6. "Burning Up"
7. "Kletva"
8. "They Gave You a Heart They Gave You a Name"
9. "Predict the Day"
10. "The Lovers"
11. "Deep Blue"
12. "Tomorrow"
13. "Versus"

LINK

The Hacienda Brothers - Music for Ranch & Town

Release Date: Aug 2007
As good as they are, neither of the Hacienda Brothers' two studio albums quite captures the band's charismatic stage presence. Much tougher and more twang oriented live, the forum also allows guitarist Dave Gonzalez, one of Americana's most talented and underrated six-stringers, to strut his stuff without the confines of keeping the songs short and tight. Like the best bands, HB albums are just blueprints for the concert experience, caught here in a single Oslo show with no overdubs or post-gig sweetening. The opening six-minute instrumental "Railed" kicks the gig off with sparks flying. Gonzalez and pedal steel whiz David Berzansky trade licks as the energy keeps mounting on the rollicking country/surf barn burning track; and that's just the introduction to this hour-and-ten-minute performance. After the next 14 tracks you'll be convinced this is the finest country-rock band since the Flying Burrito Brothers in their prime. Along with Gonzalez's hot strings and subtle reverb, he boasts a terrific low-key voice that harmonizes perfectly with Chris Gaffney's more weathered, soulful approach. Together they connect on a set that's as convincing on a weepy honky tonk like the George Jones-styled "Seven Little Numbers" and the devastating torchy blues of "Walkin' on My Dreams" as it is on the more upbeat scorchers. Gaffney's occasional accordion brings in the Tex Mex and when Berzansky lets fly on the pedal steel on the closing "Gone," backed by a rhythm section that's as in the pocket as they come, it's clear that these guys could be the saviors of classic country, a style that seems to have withered away over the decades. Soul drenched covers of "Cry Like a Baby," a showstopping 12-minute version of Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby," and a pre-encore set closing "Cowboys to Girls" (with a detour into the Temptations' "Just My Imagination") further define the R&B impulses that distinguish the Hacienda Brothers from other rootsy country acts without half of this group's talent. This terrific disc is only available at the band's shows and on their web page and isn't considered an official release. But it's the finest item in its rather meager catalog, a must for established fans and arguably the best way to get acquainted with the Hacienda Brothers' substantial charms for newcomers.

Track list:

01 - Intro
02 - Railed
03 - Mental Revenge
04 - Turn to Grey
05 - Leavin' on My Mind
06 - Walkin' on My Dreams
07 - Cry Like a Baby
08 - Since I Met You Baby
09 - Band Intro
10 - Home of the Blues
11 - No Time to Waste
12 - Seven Little Numbers
13 - If I'm Gonna Sink
14 - Brotherized
15 - Cowboys to Girls
16 - Gone

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Amy Winehouse - iTunes Festival 2007

Track list:

01.Addicted
02.Just Friends
03.Tears Dry On Their Own
04.He Can Only Hold Her
05.Back To Black
06.Wake Up Alone
07.Hey Little Rich Girl
08.You Wondering Now
09.Love Is A Losing Game
10.You Know I'm No Good
11.Monkey Man
12.Me & Mr. Jones
13.Rehab
14.Valerie

LINK

U2 - Early Demos [EP]

Released in 2004

Track list:

01.Street Mission
02.Shadows And Tall Trees
03.The Fool

LINK

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

Because of the Times is the third album of Kings of Leon. Because of the Times was released by Hand Me Down on March 30, 2007 in Ireland/Australia, April 2, 2007 in the UK and April 3, 2007 in the US.The album has received generally positive reviews and has appeared in numerous Top-10 lists for "Album of the Year.

Track list:

All songs written by Kings of Leon.

1. "Knocked Up" – 7:10
2. "Charmer" – 2:57
3. "On Call" – 3:21
4. "McFearless" – 3:09
5. "Black Thumbnail" – 3:59
6. "My Party" – 4:10
7. "True Love Way" – 4:02
8. "Ragoo" – 3:01
9. "Fans" – 3:36
10. "The Runner" – 4:16
11. "Trunk" – 3:57
12. "Camaro" – 3:06
13. "Arizona" – 4:50

LINK

The Who - The Who Sings My Generation (U.S. release)

My Generation is The Who's first album. It was released in the U.S. in 1965 under the title The Who Sings My Generation, with a different cover and a slightly different track listing than the UK version.
CD covers included

Track list:

1. "Out in the Street" – 2:31
2. "I Don't Mind" (Brown) – 2:36
3. "The Good's Gone" – 4:02
4. "La-La-La Lies" – 2:17
5. "Much Too Much" – 2:47
6. "My Generation" – 3:18
7. "The Kids Are Alright" – 2:46
8. "Please, Please, Please" (Brown/Terry) – 2:45
9. "It's Not True" – 2:31
10. "The Ox" (Townshend/Moon/Entwistle/Hopkins) – 3:50
11. "A Legal Matter" – 2:48
12. "Instant Party" – 3:12

LINK

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson

Histoire de Melody Nelson is a 1971 concept album by controversial French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. The Lolita-esque pseudo-autobiographical plot involves the middle-aged Gainsbourg unintentionally colliding his 260-horsepower 1910 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost into teenage nymphet Melody Nelson's bicycle, and the subsequent seduction and romance that ensues. Histoire de Melody Nelson is considered by many critics and fans to be Gainsbourg's most influential and accomplished album.

At just under twenty-eight minutes, the short running time and the stylistic consistency and similarity throughout the album gives it qualities more in line with an EP or an extended musical piece with a number of movements. Histoire de Melody Nelson‘s mix of freewheeling guitar, funk style bass guitar, near spoken word vocal delivery, and lush, deep orchestrated string and choral arrangements by Jean-Claude Vannier have proven to be highly influential amongst later francophone and anglophone musical performers including the French band Air, David Holmes, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker, Portishead, and Beck, whose 2002 track "Paper Tiger" from Sea Change is extremely close to the distinctive Histoire de Melody Nelson sound.

After the release of the album, a music video was made for each song, and released all together as "Melody" a short musical.

Jean-Claude Vannier performed the album live at London's Barbican on October 21st 2006 with guest vocalists Jarvis Cocker, Badly Drawn Boy, Brigitte Fontaine, The Bad Seeds’ Mick Harvey and lead singer from Super Furry Animals, Gruff Rhys. Vannier performed the album in its entirety alongside Vannier's solo album L'Enfant Assassin Des Mouches.

Publicity for the Barbican concert revealed that the musicians used for the album were Dougie Wright, Big Jim Sullivan, Herbie Flowers and Vic Flick who all joined Vannier for the concert.

Track list:

1. "Melody" – 7:32
2. "Ballade de Melody Nelson" – 2:00
3. "Valse de Melody" – 1:31
4. "Ah ! Melody" – 1:47
5. "L'hôtel particulier" – 4:05
6. "En Melody" – 3:25
7. "Cargo Culte"

LINK

trivia: #73 - Rate Your Music: Top 100 Albums Ever

Mavis Staples - We'll Never Turn Back

We'll Never Turn Back is a studio album by American Rhythm and blues singer Mavis Staples. It is a concept album with the majority of the songs being about the American Civil Rights Movement. The album was released in 2007 on the ANTI- Records label.

This album was #48 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007

Track list:

1. "Down in Mississippi" (4:57)
2. "Eyes on the Prize" (4:06)
3. "We Shall Not Be Moved" (4:31)
4. "In the Mississippi River" (4:26)
5. "On My Way" (4:10)
6. "This Little Light of Mine" (3:22)
7. "99 and 1/2" (4:46)
8. "My Own Eyes" (7:18)
9. "Turn Me Around" (3:52)
10. "We'll Never Turn Back" (4:06)
11. "I'll Be Rested" (5:44)
12. "Jesus Is on the Main Line" (6:31)

LINK

Pink Panther's Penthouse Party

Release Date: Apr 6, 2004
By 2004 it might have seemed a few years late to be cashing in on the fad for lounge music, but Virgin Records had a specific occasion in mind with this compilation, which celebrated the 40th anniversary of The Pink Panther and its deathless Henry Mancini-penned theme (and, not coincidentally, a DVD box set of the film series). Four new versions of Mancini recordings were commissioned: a Fischerspooner mix of "The Pink Panther Theme," Ludovic Navarre's (aka St. Germain) "The Pink Panther Theme Revisited," Chris Mancini (the composer's son) and Lennart Maven's "Shot in the Dark/Peter Gunn [Under the Gunn Mix]," and a "Malibu Remix" of "The Pink Panther Theme." Needless to say, Mancini's spare, arch melody was never far from being heard again, but it was accompanied by similar mixtures of the old and the new, including the "Gabin Remix Edit" of Peggy Lee's "Fever" and Pizzicato Five's "The Girl from Ipanema." The result was a set of cool background music in the by now familiar lounge manner of tongue-in-cheek hipness.
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Henry Mancini - Pink Panther Theme (From The Pink Panther Strikes Again)
02.Henry Mancini - Panther Theme (Fischerspooner Mix)
03.Peggy Lee - Fever (Gabin Remix Edit)
04.Titan - Corazon
05.Ursula 1000 - Smokebomb
06.Pizzicato Five - The Girl From Ipanema
07.Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice
08.Dimitri From Paris - Sacre Francais
09.Koop (Featuring Yukimi Nagano) - Summer Sun
10.Fantastic Plastic Machine - Bachelor Pad
11.Arling & Cameron - Voulez Vous
12.Ludovic Navarre AKA St. Germain - The Pink Panther Theme Revisted
13.Kinky - San Antonio
14.Chris Mancini & Lennart - Shot In The DarkPeter Gunn (Under The Gunn Mix)
15.Nicola Conte - Bossa Pre Due
16.Les Hommes - Intraspettro
17.Mocean Worker - Tres Tres Chic
18.Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther Theme (Malibu Remix)

LINK

Nina Hagen - My Revelation Is My Revolution

bootleg [soundboard]
Recorded live at:
Waldbuehne Berlin 1983-09-03 & Rheinaue Bonn 1999-08-28
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Nina for President [05:39]
02.Was Es Ist [04:45]
03.Cosma Shiva [02:23]
04.Heiss [03:56]
05.Lorelei [02:37]
06.Tv Glotzer [04:58]
07.African Reggae [04:40]
08.New York New York [04:18]
09.Hoellenzug [03:59]
10.Ska [01:54]
11.Wir Leben Immer Noch [03:46]
12.Yes Sir [03:50]
13.Schachmatt [04:32]
14.Return of the Mother [03:56]
15.Der Wind [05:44]
16.Hey Shiva Shankara Sonnengebet [03:37]
17.My Way [05:06]
18.Habanara Carmen [02:18]
19.Frequency Control [06:31]

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Dinosaur Jr. - Beyond

Release Date: Apr 30, 2007
More than most bands, Dinosaur Jr. left behind some unfinished business -- not just in one regard but two. First, there was the notoriously acrimonious dismissal of original bassist Lou Barlow after the group's third album, Bug, just before the band made the leap to the majors, but when the time came for guitarist/singer/songwriter J Mascis to retire the band's name, he slyly turned the words of his idol Neil Young upside down, choosing to fade away rather than burn out. After 1997's Hand It Over, Mascis ran out the clock, bringing his contract with Sire/Reprise to a close, doing some solo acoustic tours before forming the Fog and cutting a couple records with them without making any real impact outside of his devoted fans. And since he didn't break beyond his cult, Dinosaur Jr. seemed to belong solely to the history books -- the band that bridged the gap between the Replacements and Nirvana, the band that was seminal but not widely popular, a band that for whatever reason wasn't passed down to younger brothers and sisters the way their Boston compatriots the Pixies were. Perhaps it was because, unlike the Pixies, they summed up their times too well, since there was no other alt-rock musician that was as quintessentially slacker as J Mascis. With his laconic drawl and anthems of ambivalence, he was a figurehead for a generation who chose to stay on the sidelines, so sliding away from the spotlight was a logical path for Mascis: he never seemed to really want the fame, so it seemed that he'd be happier on the fringe, which is where he wound up.
CD covers included
320 kbs

Track list:

01.Almost Ready
02.Crumble
03.Pick Me Up
04.Back to Your Heart
05.This Is All I Came to Do
06.Been There All the Time
07.It's Me
08.We're Not Alone
09.I Got Lost
10.Lightning Bulb
11.What If I Knew

LINK part 1
LINK part 2

Bob Dylan & George Harrison - Afternoon Studio Session

bootleg
Columbia Studios B - New York NY 05/01/70, Afternoon Studio Session

Bob Dylan (guitar/piano/vocals)
George Harrison (guitar/vocals)
Charlie Daniels (Bass)
Alvin Rogers (Drums)
Al Kooper (guitar/piano)
Ron Cornelius (guitar)

CD covers included

Track list:

01.Ghost Riders in the Sky [03:34]
02.Cupid [03:42]
03.All I Have to Do is Dream [02:40]
04.Gates of Eden [04:14]
05.I Don't Believe You [03:11]
06.Matchbox (Carl Perkins) [03:29]
07.True Love [01:31]
08.Telephone Line [01:46]
09.Honey Just Allow Me One More Chance [02:33]
10.Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 [01:26]
11.Song to Woody [04:35]
12.Mama You Been on My Mind [02:50]
13.Don't Think Twice (Instrumental) [01:44]
14.Yesterday (Lennonmccartney) [03:11]
15.Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues [03:54]
16.Da Doo Ron Ron (Barryspector) [03:02]
17.One Too Many Mornings I [02:13]
18.One Too Many Mornings II [03:43]

LINK

The Hives - Your New Favourite Band

Release Date: Apr 2, 2002
It's easy to fall into the trap of blaming the band for the marketing; while Sweden's Hives have been turning out unhinged, purebred garage punk since 1997, it was only in the climate of 2002 -- and a spate of newly hyped return-to-rock bands like the Strokes and the White Stripes -- that they emerged as critical darlings. While not even their first U.S. release, Your New Favourite Band (the cheeky title isn't doing them any good either) is a well-timed and well-chosen introduction to the band. It collects four tracks each from the two Hives full-lengths (1997's Barely Legal and 2000's Veni Vidi Vicious), plus four more from their EP work. They're neither as disciplined as the Strokes nor as faithful to music tradition as the White Stripes, though these facts do much to lift them above both bands. Hives songs are short, uneven blasts of pure aggro, barely controlled but occasionally played with a few subtleties intact. Nothing they play sounds particularly new, their inheritors extending from the Stooges to Buzzcocks to Minor Threat (American hardcore is a big influence) and even Ash. Still, the Hives break right through all the marketing hype because they never sound contrived or poised. Lead singer Howlin' Pelle Almqvist must surely be foaming at the mouth as he delivers the largely incoherent middle section on "Untutored Youth," and the group sounds refreshingly innocent bashing out "Supply and Demand," "Mad Man," and "Hate to Say I Told You So." [In 2004, Interscope Records issued Your New Favourite Band with a bonus DVD featuring the videos for "Hate to Say I Told You So," "Main Offender," and "Die, All Right!"]
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Hate To Say I Told You So
02.Main Offender
03.Supply And Demand
04.Die, All Right
05.Untutored Youth
06.Outsmarted
07.Mad Man
08.Here We Go Again
09.A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T
10.Automatic Schmuck
11.Hail Hail Spit N' Drool
12.The Hives Are Law, You Are Crime

LINK

The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious

Release Date: Sep 12, 2000
Rousing, stompin' garage rock from these Swedes, with plenty of mod and frantic punk energy to keep you grooving along. "Party Party!" they seem to be saying, and you just want to join. This is definite change-up from the usual hyperspeed pop-ska-punk dross offered on Epitaph. Perhaps this arises from the fact that these guys are only distributed on Epitaph and yet are actually on the Burning Heart imprint. Plenty of fuzzed, struttin', propulsive guitar work on this disc to assault your ears. Well worth your time to take a spin. More records like this need to exist.
CD covers included

Track list:

01.The Hives-Declare Guerre Nucleaire
02.Die, All Right!
03.A Get Together to Tear It Apart
04.Main Offender
05.Outsmarted
06.Hate to Say I Told You So
07.The Hives-Introduce the Metric System in Time
08.Find Another Girl
09.Statecontrol
10.Inspection Wise 1999
11.Knock Knock
12.Supply and Demand

LINK

The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives

Release Date
Jul 20, 2004
It's clear that a lot care goes into the Hives' seemingly immediate, fired-up sound: this is a band, after all, that has only released three full-length albums in its 11-year lifespan. While the 2002 collection Your New Favourite Band ended up winning the group many more fans thanks to its fortuitous timing with the garage rock revival craze (and also ended up being the band's most consistent release to date), it didn't do much to disguise the fact that the Hives hadn't released a new album since 2000's Veni Vidi Vicious. Two years later, Tyrannosaurus Hives arrives, and proves that the band isn't just a fossil from the days when everyone (or critics, at least) thought that the Hives and the other bands lumped in with the rock revival were going to change the face of pop music. It may have taken the Hives awhile to follow up Veni Vidi Vicious, but they didn't waste any time: Tyrannosaurus Hives is half an hour of highly compressed, high-contrast rock that is far and away the band's best album. As usual, the band's motto seems to be "get in, rock hard, get out," and the album's opening tracks, "Abra Cadaver" and "Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones" -- which boasts a chord sequence that sounds like a sped-up version of Paul Revere & the Raiders classic antidrug rant "Kicks" -- cut right to the chase. But, as with the rest of Tyrannosaurus Hives, these songs are more focused explosions than the nonstop firepower of "Hate to Say I Told You So" and "Main Offender." While recording the album, the Hives mentioned that they were especially inspired by Kraftwerk. Even though nothing here sounds like "Pocket Calculator" and the band hasn't forsaken its black-and-white dress code for Teutonic black and red, that band's influence is indeed all over Tyrannosaurus Hives, most literally on the breakup lament "Love in Plaster," which borrows a motorik beat and squiggly keyboards. More importantly, though, it's noticeable in the band's precise playing throughout the album and particularly on the single "Walk Idiot Walk," which initially sounds downright subdued compared to the Hives' previous singles, but eventually reveals itself as just a more elongated and tense deployment of their forces. Fortunately, this tightly engineered sound doesn't get hamper the band's energy; if anything, it offers a better platform for Pelle Almqvist's howling, especially on "No Pun Intended" and "Dead Quote Olympics." The refinement of the Hives' sound shows up in other ways, such as the excellent new wave soul rave-up "A Little More for Little You" and "Diabolic Scheme"' string-laden wails. Tyrannosaurus Hives might be a little more complex and polished than the Hives' earlier work, but it's not overthought at all; even though they've evolved, they know how to keep it simple, stupid. Crucially, the band remembers that garage rock is supposed to be catchy as hell as well as cleverly dumb, and even their toughest songs have hooks aplenty: "B Is for Brutus" has wonderfully prickly, reverb-drenched guitars and impatient pianos egging it on, and "See Through Head"'s silly "uh-uh-uh-uh-oh!" refrain just adds to its caustic charm. Songs like these once again prove how neutered-sounding most mainstream punk-pop (and indeed, quite a bit of nu-garage rock) really is. But the Hives lead by example; they were going before garage rock became a fad, and Tyrannosaurus Hives shows that they'll be able to keep going long after the fad has faded.
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Abra Cadaver
02.Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones
03.Walk Idiot Walk
04.No Pun Intended
05.A Little More for Little You
06.B Is for Brutus
07.See Through Head
08.Diabolic Scheme
09.Missing Link
10.Love in Plaster
11.Dead Quote Olympics
12.Antidote

LINK

Squirrel Nut Zippers - Christmas Caravan

Since they were riding high on the strength of Hot, the Squirrel Nut Zippers convinced Mammoth to release a holiday album, Christmas Caravan, just months after they delivered Perennial Favorites, their follow-up to Hot. It was an unconventional move, but the Zippers were never about convention, and, appropriately, Christmas Caravan isn't a conventional holiday record. Relying heavily on original material, the crew has created the Christmas equivalent of one of their studio releases -- an album that revives swing and hot jazz, tweaking it a little bit with ironic humor yet remaining reverential of the music's heritage. If anything, they take fewer liberties on Christmas Caravan than before -- there aren't as many jokes and the music sounds surprisingly restrained at places. Still, the Zippers know how to have a good time, and that's exactly what Christmas Caravan does, thanks to their enthusiastic performances, strong songwriting and sharp covers ("Winter Weather," "Sleigh Ride").

Track list:

Winter Weather
Indian Giver
A Johnny Ace Christmas
My Evergreen
Sleigh Ride
I'm Coming Home For Christmas
Carolina Christmas
Gift of the Magi
Hot Christmas
Hanging Up My Stockings

LINK

The Beatles - Kum Back

Recognized as the first Beatles bootleg, Kum Back may have been inadvertantly spread by John Lennon. The tracks were a rough mix for the Let It Be album prepared by Glyn Johns.

Track list:

01 - Get Back
02 - The Walk
03 - Let It Be
04 - Teddy Boy
05 - Two Of Us
06 - Don't Let Me Down
07 - I've Got A Feeling
08 - The Long And Winding Road
09 - For You Blue
10 - Dig A Pony
11 - Get Back Reprise

LINK

Quincy Jones - Big Band Bossa Nova

A byproduct of the bossa nova fad that followed the success of "Desafinado" (and preceded the famous recording Getz/Gilberto), this set finds Quincy Jones utilizing and exploiting bossa nova rhythms in his arrangements for a big band. The personnel includes flügelhornist Clark Terry, altoist Phil Woods, pianist Lalo Schifrin, guitarist Jim Hall, and (on "Soul Bossa Nova") the remarkable Rahsaan Roland Kirk. However, since the selections are all quite brief, and some of the charts are a bit cheesy and inappropriate for the gentle rhythms, this disc (although pleasant enough) is of lesser interest.
CD covers included

1 Soul Bossa Nova
2 Boogie Stop Shuffle
3 Desafinado
4 Manha de Carnaval (Morning of the Carnival) [From Black Orpheus]
5 Se E Tarde Me Pardoa (Forgive Me If I'm Late)
6 On the Street Where You Live
7 Samba de una Nota So (One Note Samba)
8 Lalo Bossa Nova
9 Serenata
10 Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)
11 A Taste of Honey

LINK

Juno [Original Soundtrack]

Music plays a key part in Juno, the way-too-charming indie comedy directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody. Juno, the pregnant teen of the title role, isn't just a kid who loves rock & roll; she and her boyfriend Paulie Bleeker play guitars together, the adoptive father of Juno's kid is a recovering grunge rocker who toured the world and elsewhere in 1993, and Reitman punctuates the film with songs, both classic rock and precious twee folk tunes from Kimya Dawson, formerly of the Moldy Peaches. Some might say that the sickly sweet songs of Dawson don't fit comfortably alongside the Kinks, Mott the Hoople, and Sonic Youth's cover of the Carpenters' "Superstar," but a large part of the appeal of Juno is how the world-weary sarcasm of Gen-X rubs against the unapologetic quirkiness of Gen-Y, and the soundtrack reflects that almost more than the movie, as the Dawson songs are even more prominent on this 19-track album than within the 90-minute movie. This may not be to everybody's taste -- many found the twee tunes irritating, not charming -- but anybody who loved the movie completely will find the Juno soundtrack just as witty and warm as the film itself.

Track list:

1. Barry Louis Polisar - "All I Want Is You" (2:37)
2. Kimya Dawson - "My Rollercoaster" (0:53)
3. The Kinks - "A Well Respected Man" (2:41)
4. Buddy Holly - "(Ummm, Oh Yeah) Dearest" (1:53)
5. Mateo Messina - "Up the Spout" (0:53)
6. Kimya Dawson - "Tire Swing" (3:07)
7. Belle & Sebastian - "Piazza, New York Catcher" (3:01)
8. Kimya Dawson - "Loose Lips" (2:24)
9. Sonic Youth - "Superstar" (4:06)
10. Kimya Dawson - "Sleep" (0:52)
11. Belle & Sebastian - "Expectations" (3:35)
12. Mott the Hoople - "All the Young Dudes" (3:35)
13. Kimya Dawson - "So Nice So Smart" (2:47)
14. Cat Power - "Sea of Love" (2:20)
15. Kimya Dawson and Antsy Pants - "Tree Hugger" (3:14)
16. The Velvet Underground - "I'm Sticking with You" (2:29)
17. The Moldy Peaches - "Anyone Else but You" —(2:58)
18. Antsy Pants - "Vampire" (1:20)
19. Michael Cera and Ellen Page - "Anyone Else but You" (1:56)

LINK

Lily Allen - Alright, Still

Like most British pop, Lily Allen's debut album, Alright, Still, overflows with impeccably shiny, creative productions. However, Allen attempts to set herself apart from the likes of Rachel Stevens, Natasha Bedingfield, and Girls Aloud with a cheeky, (mostly) amusing vindictive streak in her lyrics that belies the sugarcoated sounds around them. You know exactly what she means when she says her ex is "not big whatsoever" on "Not Big"; later, she revels in being the one that got away on "Shame for You." However, this nice-then-naughty approach is at its best on Alright, Still's singles, which open the album in a one-two-three punch. Another ex-boyfriend kiss-off, "Smile," has a silky verse melody that just barely conceals her spite, which finally spills over on the chorus: "At first, when I see you cry/It makes me smile." But even here, Allen keeps her revenge sweet -- she sounds like she's singing about how ice cream or puppies or being in love makes her smile, which gives the song an extra sting. "Knock 'Em Out" is an even sassier, more stylized battle of the sexes than the Streets' "Fit But You Know It" (and could very well be the response from the girl in Mike Skinner's song). And "LDN" is a glorious summer confection, even if "it's all lies" underneath the Lord Kitchener sample and "sun is in the sky" chorus. Alright, Still's production and arrangements, courtesy of Greg Kurstin, Mark Ronson, and Futurecut, balance Allen's tart observations with a backdrop of pop-grime beats and freewheeling, feel-good ska that makes her sound playful and kittenish instead of just catty. While the album doesn't exactly go downhill after its opening salvo, it does lose some steam, particularly with "Take What You Take," a song that feels out of character with the rest of Alright, Still because it's uncharacteristically dull, and "Alfie," which falls especially flat as the album's final song. Allen softens her tough-girl pose more successfully on "Little Things," a ballad that celebrates the mundane moments of a dying relationship ("You'd take me out shopping and all we'd buy was trainers/As if we ever needed anything to entertain us") and "Everything's Just Wonderful," where "bureaucrats that won't give me a mortgage" are the targets of her ire instead of a previous (or soon-to-be previous) boyfriend. As with Nellie McKay (another young, opinionated woman eager to make herself the maverick in her chosen style of music), the dichotomy between Allen's sweet sound and ironic lyrics could be seen as either witty or clever-clever. Still, enough of Alright, Still works -- as pure pop and on the meta level Allen aims for -- to make the album a fun, summery fling, and maybe more.

Track list:

01.Smile
02.Knock 'em Out
03.LDN
04.Everything's Just Wonderful
05.Not Big
06.Friday Night
07.Shame For You
08.Littlest Things
09.Take What You Take
10.Friend of Mine
11.Alfie

LINK

Duffy - Mercy [VIDEO]

LINK

Sons And Daughters - Love The Cup

Release Date: Nov 25, 2003
Arab Strap's David Gow and Adele Bethel put an edge on their previous band's sardonic nature for Sons and Daughters. Love the Cup finds Gow (drums), Bethel (vocals/guitar), Ailidh Lennon (bass/mandolin), and Scott Paterson (vocals/guitar) causing a rumpus with their merry folk-rock blend. The seven-song selection is pure grit, with traditional Scottish folk and blues-rock bits. Sons and Daughters pretty much pay tribute to the original Man in Black, Johnny Cash, throughout Love the Cup and the set list itself sifts through Cash's template of love, God, and murder. Mandolins and guitars create a fracas on "Fight," while the rockabilly-tinged eponym to Cash and hankering licks of "Broken Bones" showcase Sons and Daughters' more brassy side. Love the Cup is a love affair with traditional folk music. Sons and Daughters collect themselves in a cranny of classic poetry and music and in turn, they use their surroundings to craft one of 2003's more interesting albums.
CD covers included

Track list:

1. Fight
2. Broken Bones
3. Johnny Cash
4. Blood
5. Start To End
6. La Lune
7. Awkward Duet

LINK

Sons and Daughters - Dance Me In EP

Release Date: Jul 26, 2005
Recording Date: 2003-Jan 2005

Track list:

01.Dance Me In [Single Version]
02.Come In Out Of The Rain
03.Blood
04.Drunk Medicine
05.Poor Company

LINK

Sons and Daughters - The Repulsion Box

Release Date: Aug 9, 2005
'The Repulsion Box' is the first full length production from the Scottish quartet and delivers a belligerent dose of their distinctly Scottish folk-punk style. Opening with the pacey jig 'Medicine', the band introduces themselves with an energy and excitement apparent throughout. The menacing brogue of Adele Bethal, who sounds like she’s glassed a few people, sounds full of history despite her young age, especially on ttracks like 'Dance Me In'. 'Taste the Last Girl', a fine slice of classic rock and roll, is the most gentle composition, yet it still manages to swing, with the backing harmonies of Scott Paterson making the song quite extraordinay. The duo compliment one other fantastically as well, like on 'Rama Lama', a track so intimidating that one must listen through to its grim conclusion. 'The Repulsion Box' is an album one can get angry to, get sweaty to, get caught up in and taken over by; highly recommended.
CD covers included

Track list:

01.Medicine
02.Red Receiver
03.Hunt
04.Dance Me In
05.Choked
06.Taste The Last Girl
07.Monsters
08.Rama Lama
09.Royally Used
10.Gone

LINK