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?

Living in a Fantasy is the last album to yield hits for Leo Sayer in America, closing out the terrific '70s run as the '80s began. A-ha/Bow Wow Wow/Squeeze producer Alan Tarney chooses to keep the production slick and sparse, the large mix of musicians who helped craft albums like Thunder In My Heart, Endless Flight, Here, World Radio, and others vanishes as the singer goes back to the pared-down format of his Just a Boy period. The big difference is that Sayer had gone beyond the singer/songwriter personality of those early recordings to having marquee value, as well as his own TV show.

Collector's Choice Sweetwater is the only Sweetwater album to feature Nanci Nevins on vocals throughout, and it's hard to get a grip on. Sometimes it's attractive Californian folk-pop-psych not too far removed from the Mamas & the Papas, as on "Through an Old Storybook"; sometimes it's trying for a rock-Baroque-classical-jazz fusion, although the material doesn't match the ambitions of the arrangements. Whether intentionally or otherwise, Nevins' vocals often recall those of Grace Slick, though she isn't as good. On "My Crystal Spider," they seem to be going for a far-out psychedelic sound; the ascending and descending bit of harsh electronics in the middle sounds uncomfortably close to effects employed, earlier and to more effective use, by the United States of America on "Hard Coming Love."