This is an excellent “traditional” version of the Opus 10 Concertos. I Musici returned three times to that cycle, all for Philips. The first was in 1958 with Gastone Tassinari (who had already recorded the complete flute concertos for Vox in 1956 with an ensemble called “I Musici Virtuosi di Milano”, not the same as “I Musici”… ).

Rhino's 1993 collection The Very Best of Wilson Pickett remains the best single-disc anthology of the fiery soul singer's work, choosing 16 of his best tracks for Atlantic and presenting them in excellent remastered sound quality. Pickett never departed all that much from the rough, swaggering vocals that first made his name, but he was utterly electrifying within that style, setting the standard for Southern soul singers behind Otis Redding. All of Pickett's early signature hits – "In the Midnight Hour," "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)," "Land of 1,000 Dances," "Mustang Sally," and "Funky Broadway" – lead off the disc in quick succession, capturing the emergence of Southern soul as a viable commercial style. But Pickett is just as charismatic on the rest of the material, nearly all of which made the R&B Top Ten and went under appreciated on the pop charts – he was just too much for white audiences to handle. Pickett did his best to shake up his formula – he cut a near-psychedelic soul tune, "Engine No. 9," with future Philly soul architects Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff; he helped bring Bobby Womack back into the music business by covering his "I'm in Love" and "I'm a Midnight Mover"; and he made some unpredictable cover choices in the Beatles' "Hey Jude," the Archies' bubblegum tune "Sugar Sugar," and Free's "Fire and Water."

The tuba is associated with numerous prejudices branding it as comical, clumsy and incapable of singing. Anyone who has heard Øystein Baadsvik play will know better, however, as witness reviews from his previous recordings: ‘Baadsvik's playing combines sweetness with strength, intensity with perception’ (International Record Review), he ‘conjures a wonderfully mellifluous baritonal tone from his instrument’ (MusicWeb International), and demonstrates ‘a lissome fluencysuggesting that anything a violin can do, a tuba can do too’ (Daily Telegraph).

One of Joe Bonamassa's primary influences was Eric Clapton, so the idea behind Royal Tea makes some sense: he spends the 2020 album saluting British blues. This may seem like a distinction without a difference, since Bonamassa has never shied away from Zeppelin nods on his albums, but Royal Tea does indeed sound different than his other studio albums. Working with his longtime producer Kevin Shirley, the guitarist conjures the spirit of the Jeff Beck Group and Free, relying on heavy, churning riffs but also opening up the jams so there are elastic, soulful accents that help give the record a bit of period authenticity.

A gorgeously rendered holiday-themed effort, In Winter finds singer/songwriter Katie Melua backed by the 25-member Gori Women's Choir. The album is Melua's seventh studio production and first since parting ways with longtime collaborator Mike Batt. Recorded in her native country of Georgia (Melua left with her parents at age nine), In Winter is a lushly produced, thoughtfully conceived album featuring arrangements by esteemed choral composer Bob Chilcott. An acclaimed institution, the Gori Women's Choir are famous for their haunting classical harmonies. They prove a superb match for Melua, who both sings along with the choir and frames herself against its angelic, delicately layered harmonies.

Behaviour is arguably Pet Shop Boys' best album – rivaled by the one that followed it, Very – so it's appropriate that it's paired with the best "further listening" component available in the reissue series. This is certainly a byproduct of the duo's high creativity between 1990-1991, but it's also a smartly selected, sharply assembled album in its own merit, containing several of the group's very best non-LP songs – "It Must Be Obvious," "Miserablism," "Bet She's Not Your Girlfriend," and the anthemic "DJ Culture" – which are sequenced between many fine extended mixes, including one of "Where the Streets Have No Name"/"I Can't Take My Eyes Off You."

The original double-LP version of this compilation was one of the most generous in the Bee Gees' catalog, assembling 20 of their biggest disco-era hits and most important album tracks in one place, all while the disco boom was still alive in a lot of places. The expanded Reprise double-CD edition of this collection, released in September of 2007, boosts the original compilation's running time by more than 30 minutes, most of the latter made up of remixes and alternate mixes of established hits, such as a 12" promo version and a Teddybears remix of "Stayin' Alive," a Jason Bentley/Philip Steir remix of "You Should Be Dancing," a Count De Money remix of "If I Can't Have You," a Future Funk Squad remix of "Night Fever," and a Supreme Beings of Leisure remix of "How Deep Is Your Love." There's also one previously unissued track, "Warm Ride," without a word of mention about when or where it came from – in its defense, it's as good a song as anything the Bee Gees actually released in the second half of the '70s.

With their debut studio album Where Ideal and Denial Collide, Oddleaf makes a noteworthy entrance into the French progressive music scene. Their richly layered music proudly showcases the colors of a timeless symphonic progressive-rock, both inherited from the giants of the 1970s (Camel, King Crimson, Yes) and infused with influences from the contemporary scene (Wobbler, Big Big Train). The album features the enchanting sounds of vintage keyboards (Mellotron, Hammond organ), both electronic and acoustic flutes, expansive four-part vocal harmonies, and the powerful yet refined singing of Adeline Gurtner. Composed by keyboardist Carina Taurer, the six tracks on the album are filled with vibrant melodies, seamlessly shifting between intimate and epic tones.

Best Of…1958-1980: Come and Get Me is a generous collection of Jackie DeShannon's biggest hits, important album cuts, and obscure non-LP singles. The keys to DeShannon's talent lie not only in her own songwriting and ability to handle non-originals as if they were her own compositions, but her versatility as a performer. DeShannon's arsenal of orchestrated pop, rockabilly, the Phil Spector-inspired girl group sound, soul, gospel, folk-rock, and country-pop is rivaled by few. She could also pull off sentimental ballads and was believable when in the singer/songwriter mode. There are many peaks in this anthology, including the proto folk-rock of "Needles and Pins" (written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche) and "When You Walk in the Room" (a sole composition from 1964 that sounds like a Byrds tune as carried out by the Ronettes), as well as the soulful rocker "It's Love Baby" (which features a hot guitar solo) and the initial recorded version of "Bette Davis Eyes" (co-written by DeShannon and later a number one hit for Kim Carnes). A 4,000-word essay by longtime fan Glenn A. Baker rounds out the package.