Richie Sambora's second solo album Undiscovered Soul is a more ambitious affair than Stranger in This Town, finding the guitarist trying on a wide variety of styles. Not all styles are fit Sambora's bluesy hard rock foundation, but it's interesting him to try out blues-rock, power ballads, pop/rock, arena rock and Stonesy rock, even if he's not always successful. Sambora has a pleasantly bland voice and knows how to craft a hard rock song, even if he doesn't always come up with a good hook. The result is a respectable journeyman album filled with competent songwriting and fine guitar playing – just the kind of record that will appeal to his fans.

Bohemian composer Jan Dismas Zelenka is a strong candidate for the greatest rediscovery of the Baroque revival. He worked for most of his career in Dresden (the booklet, in French and English, goes into a great deal of detail about the political determinants and musical implications of this fact), and Bach, who didn't admire many composers, admired him. Each new Zelenka work that emerges, if competently performed, seems to astonish, and I Penitenti al Sepolchro del Redentore, ZWV 63 (The Penitents at the Sepulchre of the Redeemer), composed late in Zelenka's career in 1736, is no exception. The work is a bit hard to get a grip on because of its odd genre. Annotator Vacláv Luks calls it a "sepolcro oratorio": it is a little religious semi-drama based on the idea that biblical figures, who may not (as in this case) actually meet in the Bible at all, gather at Christ's tomb and contemplate his divine mysteries.

The violin virtuoso Heinrich Anton Hoffmann (1770-1842) was a member of the Kurmainzer Hofkapelle until 1799. Later he moved to Frankfurt, where he became concertmaster of the theatre orchestra and vice music director. His string quartets Op.3 (1795) astound with their modernity, which despite their proximity to the models of the Viennese Classical period already show the style of later decades. They are characterised by formal variability and harmonic flexibility with a special preference for chromaticism. The Ensemble Alte Musik Koln, playing on historical instruments, lets us discover this amazing Beethoven contemporary.

In the lineup of promising music geniuses whose lives were cut short, Norbert Burgmüller (1810-1836) is an imposing figure. During his lifetime, he made an impression on Mendelssohn and found an ardent champion in Schumann, who proclaimed "After Franz Schubert's early death, no other death could cause more grief than that of Burgmüller." He studied composition with Louis Spohr, who left a mark on the four string quartets. Three of them were completed while Burgmüller was still a student, but nothing in them suggests juvenilia. These are serious works steeped in a post-Beethoven outlook. While drawing upon Spohr's classicism and 'quatuor brillant' style, they look forward to early Romanticism and have lyrical qualities akin to Schubert.

Simply The Best is a 2001 compilation album by British blues band Fleetwood Mac, which also was released in 1996 as The Best Of Fleetwood Mac.

Definitive's mini-anthology of classic recordings featuring pioneer electrically amplified guitarist Charlie Christian is an excellent core sample taken from his brief and eventful career. Note that Definitive has also issued what purport to be compilations containing all of Christian's complete live and studio recordings, as well as another more modestly proportioned sampler entitled The Genius of the Electric Guitar. Charlie Christian was like a will-o'-the-wisp, a strikingly creative sideman who appeared at studio sessions and live jams during a span of months only adding up to a couple of years before succumbing to tuberculosis at the age of 25 in 1942. On Definitive's Celestial Express, the guitarist is heard with various groups led by Lionel Hampton and Benny Goodman, with Edmond Hall's Celeste Quartet, and with the Kansas City Six (a band including Count Basie and Lester Young) at the second From Spirituals to Swing concert in Carnegie Hall.

The ultimate Squeeze album is, of course, Singles, 45's and Under. This is a classic album of 1980s pop that belongs in any record collection. This compilation (The Piccadilly Collection) is an updated release of classic Squeeze tunes, containing many of the favorites from Singles, 45s and Under (Pulling Mussels, Tempted), as well as newer material from the 1990s (Everything in the World, Some Fantastic Place). It includes a few other noteworthy songs (Hourglass, Love's Crashing Waves) that are worth having, as they are of the same quality as the material from "Singles". In addition, there are a few interesting tunes (Spanish Guitar, Elephant Girl) that are positive additions and are relatively unknown. This is a good compilation to buy if you need a Squeeze CD that covers the highlights but also adds some newer material.

Electric Light Orchestra's more modest follow-up to Eldorado is a very solid album, if not as bold or unified. It was also their first recorded at Musicland in Munich, which became Jeff Lynne's preferred venue for cutting records. At the time, he was also generating songs at a breakneck pace and had perfected the majestic, quasi-Beatles-type style (sort of high-wattage Magical Mystery Tour) introduced two albums earlier. The sound is stripped down a bit on Face the Music, Louis Clark's orchestral contributions generally more subdued than on Eldorado, even when they compete with the band, as on "Strange Magic." The soulful "Evil Woman" was one of the most respectable chart hits of its era, and one of the best songs that Lynne ever wrote (reportedly in 30 minutes), while "Strange Magic" showed off his writing in a more ethereal vein.

Playing Falla in date order makes an odd-shaped recital: the tail is at the front. But it gives a graphic portrait of an explorer. The Spanish presence steadily insinuates itself until it grows fiercely concentrated, finally almost aphoristic. Baselga, an individual pianist in this very personal music, plays the Piezas españolas intensely, with plenty of staccato and a free pulse, scorning easy charm to find strength. In the stupendous Fantasía bética he lets the rhythms take hold gradually and locates the full gypsy-like restlessness of the ultra-ornamented melody at the centre. His ear for balance and virtuoso control of pace are compelling, but short of the ultimate physical exultation. Around these peaks he browses rewardingly, with more warmth and more pedal for the early pieces, relieving the often dry piano tone. It’s the mature and late works that awaken his interest most, and these include the quirkiest of them. Imagine the ‘Song of the Volga Boatmen’ in the style of Pictures at an Exhibition and you’re halfway there: an improbable political commission that Falla met at full power.

This is every inch a follow-up to Loggins & Messina, including a '50s rock & roll pastiche in the style of "Your Mama Don't Dance" called "My Music" that hit number 16 as a single. Other notable material included Jim Messina's island-rock anthem "Lahaina" and one of Kenny Loggins' sensitive but generic ballads, typically called "A Love Song." But then, the charm of L&M was that they could get away with something this sappy. Balance is the key to L&M albums, and it's the chief talent (among many) that producer Messina brings to them. Here, as on L&M's first two albums, he achieves a musical flow that's exhilarating, and the record is only denied a "finest" rating because the quality of the songwriting doesn't quite match those LPs.

Don't be fooled by the heavy riffs and scratchy semi-throaty vocals. The Lake of Tears of "Greater Art" are the same ones that would later bring excellent retro-gothic albums like "A Crimson Cosmos" and the masterpiece "Forever Autumn". What happens is that here the influence of Celtic Frost and Black Sabbath is still very long, and the true personality of the band was yet to emerge. A somewhat raw production, too ethereal lyrics and a similar structure in almost all the songs do not help too much either. In any case, if you enjoy doom-gothic metal with progressive and seventies touches, you can give this "Greater Art" a try, although without a doubt the best of the group was yet to come.