After the greatest-hits collection Back to Front disappeared without a trace in 1992, Lionel Richie spent four years making Louder Than Words, his first album for Mercury Records. Although there are some slight attempts to incorporate new jack and hip-hop influences into Richie's sound, Louder Than Words relies on his trademark balladeering, which remains his forte. All of the weak moments on Louder Than Words are ill-advised forays into rap to put it bluntly, he can rap about as well as Snoop Dogg can sing. Although the ballads aren't as strong as his late-'70s and early-'80s standards, they are nevertheless pleasant, which makes the record a worthwhile purchase for fans.

Hailing from New Orleans, Louisiana – Galactic has been exploring their seemingly limitless musical possibilities for more than 20 years. Since then, the band has consistently pushed artistic boundaries on the road and in the studio, approaching their music with open ears and drawing inspiration as much from the sounds bubbling up from their city’s streets as they do from each other. Galactic’s release “Into The Deep” features collaborations with artists they’ve made connections with over the last 20 years - including Macy Gray, Mavis Staples, JJ Grey, Ryan Montbleau, David Shaw of The Revivalists, Maggie Koerner, Brushy One String and Charm Taylor.

Legendary German hard rockers Bonfire strikes back with the brand new album "Higher Ground".
Bonfire are one of the most seminal German hard rock bands of the past fifty years. Originally founded as Cacumen in 1972 by guitarist Hans Ziller in Ingolstadt, Germany, the group initially played local venues, steadily building a fan base before releasing their first album under the name Cacumen.
The band’s trademarks continue to be and always have been deeply melodic hard rock songs, driven by captivating guitar
parts, grooving rhythms and haunting vocal melodies. To this day, band founder/guitarist Hans Ziller and his exceptional group regularly awe their fans with new releases and impressive shows.
"Higher Ground" is a new life chapter for Bonfire and the very first release under the wings of Frontiers Records.

2007 reunion album from the legendary Scottish Prog Rock band. Beggars Opera released a spate of classic albums in the early 1970's. After fading from the 'live' gigging scene, founder member Ricky Gardner began to suffer from illness which also prevented any further recording. However, in 2007 the guitarist and his wife keyboard player and vocalist Virginia Scott released Close to My Heart, an album that had taken them 10 years to compose and record. Together with drummer Tom Gardiner, they devised this 12 track set of performances that heralded a Beggars Opera comeback. Most of the pieces are tightly constructed in length and don't roam into 'Prog' instrumental excess. The vocals are prominent, while an intriguing atmosphere is provided by tough guitar riffs and meandering Mellotron themes. The effect has been compared to a blend of Pink Floyd with Hawkwind symphonic space age moods.

The most varied and accomplished of any synth pop debut, Yello's first album presents a few irresistible pop songs (the hit "Bostich," plus "Bimbo" and "Eternal Legs"), Boris Blank's synthesizer interpretations of several different forms of music ("Downtown Samba," "Bananas to the Beat," "Rock Stop," "Coast to Polka"), and even a three-song suite of atmospheric industrial music that functions as a miniature invisible soundtrack. The dark lyrical concerns and futurist electronics immediately lifted Yello above the rut of Kraftwerk imitators.

Credited to Merrell & the Exiles, this is a selection of rarities and unreleased material by Merrell Wayne Fankhauser's mid-'60s band, essentially the one that cut the great rare psych-folk-rock album that was credited to Fapardokly. It's pretty much a collection of outtakes with a few rare non-LP singles thrown in, and as such doesn't measure up to the best of Fankhauser's '60s material. Often derivative of the British Invasion, folk-rock, and early '60s teen pop, it's not bad, just not terribly memorable. The fake British Invasion of cuts like "Send Me Your Love" rank as the highlights. It also has his late-'60s non-LP single cover of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," although for some reason it's missing one of his mid-'60s non-LP 45s, "Can't We Get Along"/"That's All I Want From You" - it was reissued on a rarities tape that Merrell himself released, if you can find it…

Alan Curtis' stellar recording of Alcina, which joins a respectable number of very fine recordings of the opera, is remarkable for the supple liveliness of his conducting and the outstanding performances of the soloists. The elasticity of his performance, leading Il Complesso Barocco, should dispel any misconceptions about Baroque music being rigid and metronomic. The nuanced care with which he brings out the emotional depth of Handel's writing is evident from the first measures of the overture and enlivens the entire opera.

SEON (Studio Erichson) is a period music label by the legendary producer Wolf Erichson. Erichson founded the label in 1969 as one of the first labels dedicated only to authentic music. The recordings were made with the best available recording techniques of the time and still deliver a high quality product in line with today's standards. This special boxset offers all SEON CD reissues from the late 90s on 85 CDs in a limited edition boxset.

Luigi Rossi (ca. 1597 - 20 February 1653) was an Italian Baroque composer. Rossi was born in Torremaggiore, a small town near Foggia, in the ancient kingdom of Naples and at an early age he went to Naples. There he studied music with the Franco-Flemish composer Jean de Macque who was organist of the Santa Casa dell’Annunziata and maestro di cappella to the Spanish viceroy. Rossi later entered the service of the Caetanis, dukes of Traetta.

Shemekia Copeland continues to prove herself as one of the strongest young talents in the blues on this disc. While the material itself isn't as strong as that on her stellar first album, she still invests her all in tunes like the blasting "Not Tonight" and the romantic "Love Scene."

One of Les McCann's greatest albums, Much Les encapsulates much of what McCann did best in his early years, while adding a few novel embellishments - like a string section and Latin percussionists - that enhance his core sound. The results are winning, likable, and consistently engaging, making for an underrated classic. McCann is joined on every cut by his trio of the time, bassist Leroy Vinnegar (who contributes "Doin' That Thing") and drummer Donald Dean, who offers solid, laid-back support. However, it's actually the string section that provides the dominant flavor of McCann's accompaniment; of the six tracks, they appear on all three slow songs, plus - in an offbeat touch - the laid-back soul-jazz of "Doin' That Thing," giving it an almost movie soundtrack feel…