The Blue successfully expands on the sound experiment of Materia, the previous Novembre album, but also brings in elements from their earlier works. On some songs, it is easy to notice the mix of powerful death metal elements and the more mellow yet progressive side of Materia.
Contrary to their previous disc, The Blue exudes greater use of death metal-styled vocals and screams from Carmelo Orlando, but he hasn't abandoned his sombre clean tone completely. Actually, most of the tunes on The Blue boast his unmistakable clean singing a la Materia, such as "Cobalt of March" with its Ulverian intro and excellent guitar cascades; "Bluecracy" with its penchant for melodic guitar lines and groove-oriented rhythmic facade; or "Architeme" with its detailed Radiohead-like arrangement, something which has been carried over from Materia as well…

Winter's debut album for Columbia was also arguably his bluesiest and best. Straight out of Texas with a hot trio, Winter made blues-rock music for the angels, tearing up a cheap Fender guitar with total abandon on tracks like "I'm Yours and I'm Hers," "Leland Mississippi Blues," and perhaps the slow blues moment to die for on this set, B.B. King's "Be Careful with a Fool." Winter's playing and vocals have yet to become mannered or clichéd on this session, and if you've ever wondered what the fuss is all about, here's the best place to check out his true legacy.

Guitarist Emily Remler's fourth and Concord recording makes one regret even more her premature death at age 32. While her earlier dates were very much in the bop mainstream, this one (in a quartet with trumpeter John D'Earth, bassist Eddie Gomez and drummer Bob Moses) finds her looking ahead and partly finding her own voice on her seven diverse originals. Although she never became an innovator, Remler certainly had a lot to offer the jazz world and this fairly adventurous effort was one of the finest recordings of her short career.

For this all-Mozart twofer from Sony, piano virtuoso Lang Lang, conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and the Vienna Philharmonic present a program of piano concertos, piano sonatas, and several short solo pieces that give a good sampling of the composer's keyboard output. The roster may provoke some cognitive dissonance, though, because Harnoncourt is best known for historically informed period interpretations of Mozart, while Lang Lang and the Vienna Philharmonic are more associated with a conventional, mainstream performance style. One might expect some compromise between the two camps, yet while the orchestra incorporates some aspects of Classical sound into its playing, it remains a modern orchestra of full size, and Harnoncourt doesn't ask for the tone colors and techniques he would demand of his own Concentus Musicus Wien. For the soloist's part, Lang Lang is rather restrained and sensitive to the character of the music, and apart from some showiness in his cadenzas, he shows less of the ebullience and bravura playing he otherwise shows in Liszt or Rachmaninov.

Amon Düü II's follow-up to their landmark double-LP set Tanz der Lemminge features a musical approach less experimental than previous recordings, but nonetheless distinctive and broad-reaching in its sphere of influences. The almost epic tack of the earlier works has been pared down here, but full-forward, guitar-heavy tracks like "C.I.D. in Uruk," "Ballad of the Shimmering Sands," and "Kronwinkl 12" use disparate folk and hard rock elements cannily. The band moves the music with a majestic sweep punctuated by the snaky guitar work of Chris Karrer and John Weinzierl.

Ever since Moon Safari was hailed as an instant classic, Air have swung back and forth between the experimental and accessible sides that Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel united so perfectly on their debut. 10,000 Hz Legend might have been too grandiose and aggressively experimental for some Air fans, but Talkie Walkie sometimes felt as if the duo was presenting the most widely palatable version of their music possible. On Pocket Symphony, Dunckel and Godin find a balance between pretty and inventive that they haven't struck since, well, Moon Safari, even though it isn't nearly as immediate - even by Air's standards, this is an extremely introspective and atmospheric album. It's beyond clichéd to call the duo's music filmic; nevertheless, "Space Maker" and "Night Sight" play like the album's opening titles and ending credits, bracketing a set of songs that are sadder and wiser than anything Air has done since The Virgin Suicides…

No Vacancy – The Best of The Motels is a compilation album by the new wave band, The Motels released in 1990. This album was released in United States, manufactured for BMG Direct Marketing. The album is a re-labeled version of No Reservations, which was released in Australia two years previously.