Tom Waits released Real Gone in October 2004. Waits' only album to date to feature absolutely no piano on any of its tracks, Waits beatboxed on the opening track, Top of the Hill , and most of the album's songs begin with Waits' vocal percussion" improvisations. A more rock-oriented effort, with less blues influence than his previous releases, Harp Magazine chose it as the finest release of the year. The Real Gone Tour played sold out locations in North America and Europe in October and November 2004, and on 21st November performed at Amsterdam s Koninklijk Theater Carré, where Tom and band put on a quite mesmerising show which included several numbers from the new album alongside a fine selection of choice cuts from previous records. Recorded for live FM Radio Broadcast, this entire show is now available for the first time on this dynamic 2CD Set.

Brian Wilson's retirement from performing to concentrate on studio recording and production reaped immediate dividends with Today!, the first Beach Boys album that is strong almost from start to finish. "Dance, Dance, Dance" and "Do You Wanna Dance" were upbeat hits with Spector-influenced arrangements, but Wilson began to deal with more sophisticated themes on another smash 45, "When I Grow Up," on which these eternal teenagers looked forward to the advancing years with fear and uncertainty. Surf/hot rod/beach themes were permanently retired in favor of late-adolescent, early-adult romance on this album, which included such decent outings in this vein as "She Knows Me Too Well," "Kiss Me Baby," and "In the Back of My Mind." The true gem is "Please Let Me Wonder," one of the group's most delicate mid-'60s works, with heartbreaking melodies and harmonies.

Mojo magazine is celebrating the re-release of Pink Floyd's catalog with its own series of Floyd albums covered in their entirety by contemporary artists. First comes Return to the Dark Side of the Moon, the classic 1973 Floyd album re-imagined here by bands like Gallops, the Oscillation, Our Broken Garden and the Pineapple Thief. The album is available on CD, packaged together with Wish You Were Here Again, a remake of 1975's Wish You Were Here featuring new versions of select tunes from the album by various contemporary acts (Beak>, The Orb).

Silverstate is Simon Hulbert. This album was also released under the alias "Chorus of Tribes" as Myth. This is great music along the vein of Deep Forest and Enigma. Its a decent New Age album for those into that genre.

Lynchpins of the late-'90s post-grunge/nu-metal wave, Godsmack, have spent over two decades applying their brooding yet polished sound to the mainstream rock charts. Lighting Up the Sky is the Massachusetts band's eighth and reportedly final album. A sonic composite of their seven prior efforts, the eleven-song set straddles multiple hard rock and heavy metal sub-genres, from crushing alternative metal to classic rock-tinged post-grunge. Featuring the hard-hitting singles "Surrender" and "You & I," Lighting Up the Sky debuted at No. 1 on the US Top Hard Rock Albums chart and reached the upper echelons of charts in Austria, Germany, and the UK.

It is fun even if it isn't remotely the best jazz, or jazz at all. Benny Golson leads an orchestra featuring Art Farmer on trumpet and flugelhorn, Eric Gale on guitar, and Bernard Purdie at the drums, doing jazzed versions of the theme music from popular commercials. Some of it does work-Farmer and Gale have their moments-but a good deal of this recording (especially material like "The Swinger," for the Polaroid camera) comes off as jazz-muzak; it's doubtful that even Miles Davis could have done much more with the repertory here, and Golson wasn't being half as ambitious. Elliot Horne's original notes talk about Golson's credits and musical imagination, but here he even leaves the vocal choruses intact on several tracks, which ensures that listeners think of the original commercials and the products, not the music; in fact, next to this record, Verve's Count Basie Plays The Beatles is hot, swinging, and daring…

Jadis have re-released their first proper album as "More than Meets the Eye 25" in a special edition to mark 25 years since its original release in the early 1990s. This 2xCD Digipak has a brand new remix by Gary Chandler and disc 2 has newly recorded acoustic renditions of ‘Wonderful World’ and ‘G13’ by Martin Orford and Gary using 12 String Guitar, Piano, Flute and Vocals as well as live versions of ‘The Beginning and the end’ and ‘This Changing Face’ recorded in 1993. There are also 4 remastered songs from ‘Medium Rare’ ‘Follow me to Salzburg’, 'All in one day,’ 'View from above’ and ‘This Changing Face’ acoustic.

The late, great Lightnin' Hopkins was one of the most natural of bluesmen, a poet who would often make up lyrics as he recorded. He was at his best when unaccompanied, as on this Prestige date recorded in 1961. Though he usually played electric guitar, the Texas blues titan performed on this release with an acoustic, and the result is most rewarding. Tunes include "Goin' to Dallas to See My Pony Run" and "Buddy Brown's Blues."

Tyrannosaurus Rex's transformation from oracles of U.K. hippie culture to boogie-friendly rock stars began with the album A Beard of Stars, released in early 1970 when the band picked up electric instruments, and by the time the year was out, Marc Bolan had pared their name down to the more user-friendly T. Rex and dropped their first album with the new moniker. Oddly enough, while the songs on T. Rex bear a much stronger melodic and lyrical resemblance to what would make the band famous on Electric Warrior in 1971, the tone of the album is a bit more pastoral than A Beard of Stars; on most of the tunes, the electric guitars are more successfully integrated into the arrangements so they lack the jarring immediacy of "Elemental Children" or "Pavilions of the Sun," and Mickey Finn still wasn't using a full drum kit, so the tunes don't quite have the kick of a full-on rock band…

RMI's Steve Dinsdale, Duncan Goddard, and Gary Houghton know how to coax all sorts of nuances from their machines, and they function as a live, interactive trio, with each member responding to the others' riffs and musical motifs. It doesn't hurt any, either, that Houghton has very impressive guitar chops, so when he eases into the mix with some blistering Stratocaster bursts, he rather convincingly updates (and improves upon) Edgar Froese's generic and rather predictable guitar flights on the seminal Tangerine Dream recordings. In a word, Radio Massacre International nail the vintage electronic music sound, but the band is simply more "nimble" than the first generation models, which greatly enhances the listening pleasure of the suitably attuned listener…if you're a musical novice unacquainted with RMI's sources, this music will serve as a stellar introduction to the form.

Duke Ellington had so many talents (composer, arranger, bandleader, personality) that his skills as a pianist could easily be overlooked. Fortunately he did record a fair amount of trio albums through the years so there is plenty of evidence as to his unique style which was both modern and traditional at the same time. The Pianist has trio performances from 1966 and 1970 and finds Ellington shifting smoothly between styles and moods while always remaining himself.

This compilation presents two very different views into the performance life of King Crimson. The first disc gathers live material from the 1971/1972 quartet, a majority of which was culled from the Live at Summit Studios, Live at Plymouth, 1971, and Live in Detroit, MI 1971 archival recordings. The second disc, subtitled "Schizoid Men," contains a single 54-minute rendering of "21st Century Schizoid Man" that consists of ten separate sax and guitar solos seamlessly combined together. These were taken from various performances throughout the 1971/1972 era - although exact dates are conspicuously absent in the packaging. Although the track is indexed for easier access to the edits, there are no interruptions or fades from blow to blow…

An uplifting, enlightening, and soothing peek into the '80s and rock workhorse singer/songwriter Phil Collins. This drummer/vocalist from mega-group Genesis brings out all of the magic from bag for this daring, sizzling record, scoring four smash hits with the passionate, emotionally resonant "Take Me Home"; the red-hot "Sussudio"; the fervent "Don't Lose My Number"; and the dreamy "One More Night." The positive thing about 12"ers is that this is a perfect fit for a dance record, meaning all the material is made up of mixes with brilliant flashes of layered creativity. Throughout the record one hears his trademark percussive statements and dramatic keyboard soundscapes. Perhaps the main thing that jumps out is Collins' endearing vocals, which contain a remarkable range, purity, and sincerity - on both the danceable and the relaxing melodies…

The album features 4 additional tracks (of which one was recorded live with the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra and the other three without).
Katatonia have achieved legendary status in the realm of Swedish metal, with an evolution not dissimilar to English counterparts Anathema and Paradise Lost. One element that has remained intact throughout their various transformations is their masterful use of atmosphere, even if the compositional component has been largely streamlined by now. "The Fall of Hearts" is thankfully a largely adventurous offering, moreso than anything the band has recorded in many years. This latest by the morose quintet features plenty of surprising songwriting choices, including some of the their most bold musical explorations in quite some time…

Peace…Back by Popular Demand finds Keb' Mo' covering nine classic protest and peace songs from the 1960s and early '70s, and what is immediately apparent is how well these songs translate forward into the current political milieu. This is an album where the songs themselves are the stars, and Keb' Mo' wisely takes a low-key and measured vocal approach to each of them, letting the messages take hold over light soul-jazz backings, with just enough funk in the horn charts to give the arrangements some push. It's hard to argue with the song selection, but as an interpreter, Mo' seldom makes any of these tracks his own, and behind each stands the ghostly but clear memory of the original version. Perhaps that would be unavoidable under any circumstances, because songs like John Lennon's "Imagine" and Marvin Gaye's "What's Happening Brother" are so perfectly realized in the original recordings…