The Singles 86>98 is a singles compilation album released in 1998 by Depeche Mode. It was released as a follow-up to the band's previous compilation, The Singles 81→85, which was also re-released in the same year. The compilation covers the band's 7-inch single releases spanning five studio albums (from 1986's Black Celebration to 1997's Ultra), as well as including the band's 1998 stand-alone single "Only When I Lose Myself". Also included is "Little 15" (from Music for the Masses, released as a single in Europe), and the live version of "Everything Counts" (from the live album 101) which was released as a single in 1989. All tracks on The Singles 86>98 were newly remastered, as was the case with the re-release of The Singles 81→85.

Fine set presenting vintage barrelhouse piano and stomping blues by Big Joe Duskin, one of the last true stylists in both genres. Duskin's album was released with no fanfare and didn't attract the widespread notice it deserved.

Masaaki Suzuki was an organist before he was a conductor, and his recordings of Bach's organ works have made a delightful coda to his magisterial survey of Bach cantatas with his Bach Collegium Japan. This selection, the second in a series appearing on the BIS label, gives a good idea of the gems available. You get a good mix of pieces, including a pair of Bach's Vivaldi transcriptions. Fans of Suzuki's cantata series will be pleased to note the similarities in his style between his conducting and his organ playing: there's a certain precise yet deliberate and lush quality common to both. And he has a real co-star here: the organ of the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel, built in 1983 by French maker Marc Garnier. The realizations of Bach's transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos fare especially well here, with a panoply of subtle colors in the organ. Sample the first movement of the Concerto in D minor, BWV 596, with its mellow yet transcendently mysterious tones in the string ripieni. BIS backs Suzuki up with marvelously clear engineering in the small Japanese chapel, and all in all, this is a Bach organ recording that stands out from the crowd. Highly recommended.

A double-disc set that draws from all of the phases of Joe Walsh's career, with the notable exception of The Eagles, Look What I Did! features almost every worthwhile song the guitarist ever recorded, even though it does contain pure dreck like "I.L.B.T.s," which is also known as "I Like Big Tits".

Remastered reissue of the post-punk new wave act's 1981 second and final album. Reproduction of the original UK version with original artwork. Includes bonus tracks taken from the vinyl album 'Buff Manilla' that was originally released to coincide with their final tour as a very limitedrelease and included their final UK EP. Bonus tracks.

When the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields began to popularize Vivaldi's music in the 1970s, it was on the cutting edge with its light, warm chamber orchestra sound, burnished to technical perfection yet sounding completely different from its symphonic cousins. Now, a recording like this one, with star violinist Joshua Bell, sounds conservative in comparison with young bucks like Fabio Biondi on the historical-performance side or even the young Dutch firebrand Janine Jansen. This big-budget (by classical standards) release is the kind of thing you don't see so often now, with a big poster showing Bell carefully decked out in a partially undone tie, as well as individual full-color cards reproducing, in Italian and English, the descriptive seasonal sonnets that provide the program for the four concertos. It could have collapsed under its own weight, but Bell pulls it off. Conducting the Academy strings himself, he forges tight, not-overly-sweet recordings of Vivaldi's four familiar concertos, with a nice contrast between orchestra and solo that showcases his easy, compelling agility and his Heifetz-like sharpness and brilliance.

A collection of Scofield's more reflective and tender music, which still retains the edge of his fertile musical mind. The guitarist selected and sequenced the twelve titles, ensuring that they would provide the most accurate picture of the gentle side of John Scofield.

The English, historical-instrument, Baroque ensemble La Serenissima (the term was a nickname for the city of Venice) has specialized in somewhat scholarly recordings that nevertheless retain considerable general appeal, and the group does it again with this release. The program offers some lesser-known composers, and some lesser-known pieces by famous composers like the tiny and fascinating Concerto alla rustica for two oboes, bassoon, strings, and continuo, RV 151. What ties the program together formally is that it covers a range of Italian cities that were becoming cultural centers as they declined in political power: not only Venice (Vivaldi, Albinoni, Caldara), but also Padua (Tartini), Bologna (Torelli), and Rome (Corelli). There are several works by composers known only for one or two big hits, and these are especially rewarding. Sample the opening movement of Tartini's Violin Concerto E major, DS 51, with its unusual phrase construction and daringly chromatic cadenza passage: it has the exotic quality for which Tartini became famous, but it does not rely on sheer virtuosity. That work is played by leader Adrian Chandler himself, but he also chooses pieces for a large variety of other solo instruments: the Italian Baroque was about more than the violin. Each work on the album has something to recommend it, and collectively the performances may make up the best album of 2017 whose booklet includes footnotes.

Charlie Musselwhite takes four different approaches on this Alligator release. On two tracks, he turns to guitar, proving a competent instrumentalist and convincing singer in a vintage Delta style. He also does two gospel numbers backed by the legendary Blind Boys of Alabama, which are heartfelt, but not exactly triumphs. Musselwhite reveals his jazz influence on three tracks, making them entertaining harmonica workouts. But for blues fans, Musselwhite's biting licks and spiraling riffs are best featured on such numbers as "If I Should Have Bad Luck" and "Leaving Blues." Despite the diverse strains, Musselwhite retains credibility throughout while displaying the wide range of sources from which he's forged his distinctive style.

After languishing for ten years in the rock wilderness, the Scottish stadium-shakers are back with Black And White 050505, which has been trumpeted by manyas a mighty return to form. And yes, Jim Kerr's vocals are still tremulously emotive, Charlie Burchill is as stirring as ever on his jangling, soaring guitar and the songwriting errs, as always, on the side of supersize anthem. But this spanking new effort, while powerful, boasts a distinctly ethereal quality, softening the stomping stridency of the Simple Minds we knew in the 1980s. Opening track "Home" flirts with an intriguing new sound, haunting yet uplifting with Kerr at his dramatic best, while "Sparkle In The Rain" shimmers with chiming glory. Packed with potential crowd-pleasers, Simple Minds may have stuck wisely with their winning New Gold Dream formula, but they've brought it rocketing up to date. Fans will be gleefully punching the air within minutes. Dissenters, well, they might just be converted.

Raven presents, on a great value Double CD, three landmark albums by legendary multi-instrumentalist, producer and solo artist Al Kooper. Few American musicians have pursued a more diverse or fascinating career than Kooper. As well as having played organ on Bob Dylan's timeless 'Like a Rolling Stone', formed Blood Sweat & Tears and produced Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kooper has issued more than a dozen solo albums and continues to record. Easy Does It (1970), New York City (You're a Woman) (1971) and A Possible Projection of the Future (1972) were his 5th, 6th and 7th albums recorded for Columbia and incorporate soul, pop, country and jazz elements with seamless ease. All showcase Kooper's incredible musicianship at its creative and innovative peak. Also features a stellar cast of session musicians including Herbie Flowers, Joe Beck, Rick Marotta, Carol Kaye, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Rita Coolidge etc.

Alto saxophonist Pete Brown has been showing up on Keynote and Savoy reissues for years, but seldom if ever has there been an entire package devoted to recordings made under his name. The Classics Chronological series has accomplished many impressive feats, but this disc deserves special attention. Brown brought excitement and sonic ballast to nearly every band he ever sat in with. His works with John Kirby and especially Frankie Newton are satisfying, but this CD contains the very heart of Brown's artistry. It opens with "Cannon Ball," a boogie-woogie from 1942 sung by Nora Lee King. This relatively rare Decca recording features Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Hamilton, and Sammy Price, the pianist with whom Brown would make outstanding music a bit further on down the road. Similarly rare and even more captivating are two extended jams recorded in Chicago in April of 1944. Brown's quartet on this date consisted of electrically amplified guitarist Jim Daddy Walker, bassist John Levy, and drummer Eddie Nicholson.

Both the term symphonic poem and the form itself were invented by Franz Liszt, who in works such as Les Préludes (1848; after Alphonse de Lamartine’s Méditations poétiques) used thematic transformation to parallel the poetic emotions. That’s true again with Byron (Tasso, lamento e trionfo), Schiller (Die Ideale) and Victor Hugo (Mazeppa). A winning quartet!

Jah Wobble is perhaps the only man who could safely assume the mantle of the UK's King Of Dub. 'I Could Have Been A Contender' is the first true major retrospective that chronicles the entirety of Jah Wobble's dazzling career. Includes three PIL classics, 'Public Image', 'Poptones', & 'Death Disco'. Remastered three CD set featuring 37 tracks total.

Dornel’s imaginative and dynamic compositional style was perfectly suited to the lively and ever-changing musical environment of Paris in the first decades of the eighteenth century. The glorious years of Louis XIV’s reign were coming to a close, and with it the Sun King’s uncompromising grip on permitted musical taste was beginning to weaken. As musical life at the royal court began to decline so the hub of French musical life shifted from Versailles to Paris, and a strong sense of new found freedom prevailed in the city’s cultured circles. The relative merits of French and Italian musical styles were hotly debated, and works by the likes of Corelli and Vivaldi became well known and were eagerly consumed. In addition, a tradition of public concerts (including Philidor’s famous Concert Spirituel) began in Paris, giving visiting artists from far afield a chance to demonstrate their skills as well as giving composers a chance to air new works. Dornel’s Pièces de clavecin were published in 1731. His keyboard pieces were highly praised in the Mercure de France, and are notable for how little they owe to Rameau’s seminal 1724 collection. Instead the influence of François Couperin’s Ordres from fifteen years or so before is much more strongly discernible.