For their third album, the Go-Go's abandoned all pretense of being punk, or even new wave, and went for an unabashed mainstream pop masterpiece. They nearly achieved their goal with Talk Show, an album filled with great pop songs but undermined by its own ambition. Talk Show has a sharper sound than its predecessors, with bigger guitars and drums, which helps drive home the accomplished pop hooks of "Turn to You," "I'm the Only One," and "Yes or No." However, the record is cluttered with half-realized songs and an overly detailed production which occasionally prevents the songs from reaching their full potential. But when the production and song are teamed well, the results are incredible, such as the surging "Head Over Heels," another classic single.

If you prefer Bach on the piano served up in heaping Romantic portions, accompanied by dollops of creamy tone, tapered phrases and languishing tenutos, Edna Stern's ravishing pianism will turn your ears to jelly. …a disc that will cause unrepentant pianophiles to jump for joy while historically informed performance mavens duck for cover.

Stefano Landi (1587-1639) was a Roman by birth and career. He enjoyed the support of several powerful and culture-loving Roman families, for whom he composed numerous vocal pieces. Landi might well have been the personality who would make Rome the successor to Florence and Mantua as the commanding center for early experimentation in opera. Because of the fluctuating opposition of successive popes to theatrical performances, such was not to be, and it was Venice that would fill the vacuum. It was during an early period in Padua (his family’s home city), in about 1619, that Landi made his only venture into opera, composing La Morte d’Orfeo.

Certains s'étonneront de voir la note maximale décernée à un enregistrement où certains solistes accusent de sérieuses faiblesses, Ian Honeyman en particulier. Pourtant, il y a quelque chose de magique dans cette interprétation des petits motets de Couperin. D'abord, Henri Ledroit y est superlatif et signe sans doute l'un de ses meilleurs disques où l'on s'émerveille sur la clarté du timbre, la justesse dans l'aigu, la grâce dans le phrasé, la douceur de l'émission.

Another great example of what Rhino does so well, Anthology brings together no less than 27 of Tommy James and the Shondells' nuggets on one disc. Along with good liner notes from Parke Puterbaugh, who interviewed James extensively (James himself contributes a slew of fun and informative anecdotes about many of the songs) and the usual skilled remastering job, it makes for one heck of a collection. James himself sums up his own appeal best of all: "We were really having fun, and you can hear it in the grooves." "Hanky Panky" understandably kicks things off, but the collection really doesn't take off until the just-plain-irresistible "I Think We're Alone Now," notably (and some would argue memorably) covered by Tiffany in the late '80s…

The Lone Cat Sings and Plays Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals and Blues features a selection of old-time blues, ragtime, and string band songs, all performed by the one-man band Jesse Fuller. With his 12-string guitar, harmonica, kazoo, cymbals, and six-string bass (which he played with his foot), Fuller created a very unique sound that surprisingly didn't sound particularly jokey - instead, it sounded like it was part of a tradition. None of his best-known songs are included on Lone Cat, but there is an abundance of strange, wonderful music on the record.

Anyone's Daughter was a late-'70s, early-'80s symphonic prog rock band heavily influenced by Genesis as well as by German bands such as Elroy and Grobschnitt. After breaking up in the mid-'80s, the group reformed in 2000. Consisting of Uwe Karpa (guitars), Matthias Ulmer (keyboards, vocals), Harald Bareth (bass, lead vocals), and Kono Konopik (drums), Anyone's Daughter was formed in 1978. Their first record, Adonis (1979), featured English vocals, epic tracks with reflective and aggressive moments, and a prominent keyboard sound with heavy use of Moogs in particular. Anyone's Daughter (1980) found the band moving towards shorter material, but 1981's Piktors Verwandlungen, on which the band first sang in German, was their most experimental work…

Electronic Music for the flight through the universe of fantasies and emotions that's the topic of the 32nd album of the German electronic artist. With deep soundscapes, pulsing sequencer and groovy rhythms BackSpace beams you up and brings you back to the tension and relaxation of the space music of the 80s. By his albums of the recent years Robert Schroeder has shown his musical diversity and so he brought music of various types on the disc. 'It is once again time to remember the roots of EM in the 70s and 80s', that's the idea the German sound wizard came in mind and thus he started to work on the vision of BackSpace. Of course Robert released a wonderful spacey EM disc in 2007 with his work SphereWare, but BackSpace could even be on top of SphereWare…

There's rare and then there are records like this: a limited vinyl release in Japan in 1975 that's never been reissued anywhere else in any format since. Perhaps that's not completely surprising, though: to be frank, it feels like something of a footnote to the career of the illustrious Haynes, which began almost 30 years earlier in the first full blast of be-bop. Here, electric piano and a twanging, slightly-too-high-in-the-mix bass guitar nod towards the fusion that was fashionable at the time: ‘Azteca’ is an up-tempo latin original with blazing hi-hat; while the title track (subtitled ‘Bullfight’) is a slightly corny Iberian-flavoured foxtrot. The two standards hint at Haynes's roots: ‘Tin Tin Deo’ is a leisurely vamp, and ‘Dear Old Stockholm’ is a trio with Nakamura sitting out and Barron switching to acoustic piano. It sounds exactly like what it is: a laid back jam session. And why not?