On their wide musical journeys in the '80s, the Chieftains decided to collaborate with Van Morrison, who had an artistic peak at the end of the decade. The result was a highlight in both of their '80s productions: the traditional Irish Heartbeat, with Morrison on lead vocals and a guest appearance from the Mary Black. Morrisonand Moloney's production puts the vocals up front with a sparse background, sometimes with a backdrop of intertwining strings and flutes, the same way Morrison would later use the Chieftains on his Hymns to the Silence. The arrangement and the artist's engaged singing leads to a brilliant result, and these Irish classics are made very accessible without being transformed into pop songs…

The French equivalent of prog-rock bands Yes and Genesis, Atoll recorded four albums in the mid- to late '70s with a lineup that stabilized by the time of the group's second album. L'Araignee Mal (1975) included vocalist/percussionist André Balzer, guitarist Christian Beya, bassist Jean-Luc Thillot, keyboard player Michel Taillet, and drummer Alain Gozzo. Gradually commercializing its sound beginning with third album Tertio, Atoll released only one more studio album (plus a compilation) before breaking up. In the late '80s, however, a new, pop-oriented version appeared. Including only Beya from the previous lineup, the band released L'Ocean and the live album Tokyo C'est Fini (both 1989).

BIS is justifiably proud of its audiophile reputation, and this disc offers ample evidence of the label's recording prowess. The same goes for the virtuosity of the Swedish Radio Choir and Orchestra. Although neither performance ranks as the best on disc, together these two great works and these solid, committed interpretations make a tremendously satisfying program–robust, intense, sensuous, and sonically stunning.

German metalheads Rage had decided to disband after their disappointing second album, Execution Guaranteed; but it took band prime mover Peter "Peavey" Wagner less than a year to have second thoughts, so he proceeded to rebuild from the ground up. First by penning a new batch of quality songs, then by bringing in new musicians in guitarist Manni Schmidt and drummer Chris Efthimiades so as to reconfigure Rage from a quartet into a trio, making them "stronger, faster, better than they were before," as the saying goes. Sure enough, the resulting LP, 1988's exemplary Perfect Man, became the most successful and enduring of their career. With undeniable winners like "Wasteland," "Don't Fear the Winter," and the title track fueling its charge down the heavy metal autobahn, Perfect Man boasted a perfect combination of razor-sharp brutality and crisp production values…

A stunningly sophisticated leap into modern musical textures, I'm Your Man re-establishes Leonard Cohen's mastery. Against a backdrop of keyboards and propulsive rhythms, Cohen surveys the global landscape with a precise, unflinching eye: the opening "First We Take Manhattan" is an ominous fantasy of commercial success bundled in crypto-fascist imagery, while the remarkable "Everybody Knows" is a cynical catalog of the land mines littering the surface of love in the age of AIDS.

Bluebeard's Castle is a difficult opera to cast. Bluebeard himself must either be a bass who can get up to a high F or a baritone who can get down to low G. In the former category, to which Samuel Ramey belongs the usual risks are that he will sound unsuitably fatherly or will be uncomfortably tense in the upper register. Ramey avoids both hazards with ease: he combines gravity with believable youth, and has no problems with the upper reaches of the part. His is a slightly cool reserved, soft-grained Bluebeard, there is no swell of homage in the last scene when he hails his former wives as ''immortal, unforgotten'', but you may well prefer his sobriety to Fischer-Dieskau's meticulous but at times melodramatic expressive shading of every syllable.

The second collection covering hit singles from the '70s top funk and soul band, Earth, Wind & Fire. This anthology has recently been supplanted by a box set covering virtually all of their big Columbia singles and some early Warners material. If you enjoyed their disco and late '70s cuts more than the early tracks, this anthology is worth getting.

New Jersey is the fourth studio album by American rock band Bon Jovi, released on July 19, 1988 through Mercury Records. The album was the follow-up to the band's third album, Slippery When Wet, and reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart in its second week of release after making its debut at No. 8. It remained at No. 1 for four consecutive weeks. It produced five Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits, the most top ten hits to date for any hard rock/glam metal album, including "Bad Medicine" and "I'll Be There for You", which both reached No. 1. The album was certified 7x Platinum in America. The album also debuted at No. 1 in the UK and was the band's first UK No. 1 album. New Jersey was released by the Soviet state-owned record company "Melodiya", being the first American album ever released in USSR officially.

This album is Don Airey's debut solo album, released in 1989 and paying tribute to the dramatic 1986 K2 expedition that took the lives of 13 extraordinarily experienced climbers. Featuring beautifully orchestrated keyboard, guitar and drum parts all of which are played by friends from bands from Airey's past: Gary Moore, Cozy Powell and Colin Blunstone on vocals complete this Prog-Rock anthem of an album. 'K2 - Tales of Triumph and Tragedy' is a story told by music; intriguing and breathtaking.

After establishing his name with THE complete Paganini violin concertos on DG in the early 1970s Accardo migrated freely between record companies. His Collins coupling of the Elgar and Walton concertos remains a highlight for me and is now reissued on the budget Regis label. The sojourn with Philips also bore healthy fruit.

Altoist Bobby Watson's debut for the Blue Note label used his future group name Horizon but was actually more of a transition band recorded right before Horizon's personnel became stabilized. Most notable is the fact that Watson utilizes two up-and-coming players (trumpeter Roy Hargrove at the beginning of his career and trombonist Frank Lacy) in addition to a top-notch rhythm section comprised of pianist John Hicks, bassist Curtis Lundy and either Kenny Washington or Victor Lewis on drums. Their reportoire on this disc is quite fresh (five of Watson's challenging originals, Pamela Watson's "And Then Again" and Billy Strayhorn's "Blood Count") and the advanced hard bop solos are full of spirit and unpredictable ideas.