Freddie Mercury was a British singer, songwriter and record producer, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. He was known for his flamboyant stage persona and four-octave vocal range. Mercury wrote numerous hits for Queen, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and "We Are the Champions". He led a solo career while performing with Queen, and occasionally served as a producer and guest musician for other artists. He formed Queen in 1970 with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor. Mercury died in 1991 at age 45 due to complications from AIDS, having confirmed the day before his death that he had contracted the disease.

2018 studio album from the great blues man with guests Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Jeff Beck & James Bay. On The Blues Is Alive And Well Buddy Guy delivers a rather extensive collection of material, containing fifteen tracks and clocking in at nearly sixty-five minutes of groove laden music. This is his eighteenth full length studio album. Keith Richards and Jeff Beck play guitar on the song "Cognac", and Mick Jagger plays harmonica on the song "You Did the Crime". The front cover photograph was taken by Chuck Lanza at State Highway 1, Lettsworth, Louisiana where Guy was born in 1936. The Blues Is Alive and Well won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album at the 61st Grammy Awards.

Geoff Downes, Steve Howe, and Carl Palmer surprised everyone when they re-formed Asia in 1992, with a new singer (John Payne) and a second guitarist (Al Pitrelli). Even more surprising was the fact that Aqua – the album no one had been expecting – was quite impressive, arguably superior to its three predecessors. What could easily have been an isolated one-shot experience turned into a continuing success story when Downes returned to the studios two years later, but without Howe and Palmer. The latter was replaced by drummer Michael Sturgis. Howe, of course, could not be "replaced" (that would have been an insult to his talent) – so Pitrelli thus became the sole guitarist of the band. Asia, now a quartet, nonetheless managed to release yet another amazing album.

Something Beautiful is the ninth studio album by American singer Miley Cyrus. It was released on May 30, 2025, through Columbia Records and was accompanied by a musical film of the same name on June 6, 2025. It is a visual album with existential themes, centered around healing from trauma and finding beauty in the darkest moments of life. Cyrus executively produced the album with Shawn Everett and collaborated with various musicians, including Molly Rankin and Alec O'Henley of Alvvays, Cole Haden of Model/Actriz, Danielle Haim, Flea, Pino Palladino, and Adam Granduciel of the War on Drugs. Naomi Campbell and Brittany Howard appear as guest artists. Upon its release, Something Beautiful was met with generally positive reviews from music critics. The album has charted within the top 10 in Australia, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

No Earthly Connection is a studio album by English keyboardist Rick Wakeman, released in April 1976 on A&M Records. After touring worldwide in late 1975 in support of his previous studio album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975), Wakeman retreated to Herouville, France to record a new studio album with his rock band, the English Rock Ensemble. He based its material on a part fictional and non-fictional autobiographical account of music that incorporates historical, futuristic, and science-fiction themes.

The Magic Whip is the eighth studio album by the English rock band Blur. It was recorded in Hong Kong and London, and released by Parlophone on 27 April 2015 and Warner Bros. Records on 28 April 2015. It is the band's first studio album since Think Tank (2003), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in Blur's career. The album received universal acclaim from music critics. It debuted at number one the UK Albums Chart, marking Blur's sixth UK number-one album.

This compilation CD has material recorded by Gary Moore between 1977 and 1979, when he was signed under MCA label, and issued on albums and singles either as a solo artist as well as a member of Colosseum II. Four songs: Back On The Streets, Fanatical Fascists, Don't Believe A Word and Parisienne Walkways come from his second solo album titled Back On The Streets, originally issued in december 1978. All these four songs fwature Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy in a way or another. Back On The Streets has Phil Lynott on backing vocals, Fanatical Fascists was written by Lynott, Don't Believe A Word (a Lizzy song played here in a slower tempo) and Parisienne Walkways have both Lynott on lead vocals. Musicians on these four songs are Gary Moore (guitar and vocals), Phil Lynott (bass and vocals), Don Airey (keyboards), Simon Phillips (drums). Parisienne Walkways has Thin Lizzy's Brian Downey on drums.

Though Cheap Trick's second album, In Color, draws from the same stockpile of Midwestern barroom favorites as their debut album, it was produced by Tom Werman, who had the band strip away their raw attack and replace it with a shiny, radio-ready sound. Consequently, In Color doesn't have the visceral attack of its predecessor, but it still has the same sensibility and a similar set of spectacular songs. From the druggy psychedelia of "Downed" and the bubblegum singalong "I Want You to Want Me" to the "California Girls" homage of "Southern Girls," the album has the same encyclopedic knowledge of rock & roll, as well as the good sense to subvert it with a perverse sense of humor. Portions of the album haven't dated well, simply due to the glossy production, but the songs and music on In Color are as splendid as the band's debut.

While not quite as strong as the band's debut, Scoundrel Days is still a-ha succeeding as a marketed "pretty boy" band which can connect musically and lyrically as much as any musical sacred cow. The opening two songs alone make for one of the best one-two opening punches around: the tense edge of the title track, featuring one of Morten Harket's soaring vocals during the chorus and a crisp, pristine punch in the music, and "The Swing of Things," a moody, elegant number with a beautiful synth/guitar arrangement (plus some fine drumming courtesy of studio pro Michael Sturgis) and utterly lovelorn lyrical sentiments that balance on the edge of being overheated without quite going over. Although the rest of the disc never quite hits as high as the opening, it comes close more often than not.

Formed in 1967 by former Motions guitarist Robbie van Leeuwen, the Dutch quartet Shocking Blue originally had a lineup of VanLeeuwen on guitar, lead vocalist Fred DeWilde, bass player Klaasje Van der Wal, and drummer Cornelius Van der Beek, and the initial configuration of the band had a minor homeland hit with “Lucy Brown Is Back in Town” a year later in 1968. Things really got moving, though, when DeWilde was replaced by sultry singer Mariska Veres, whose sexy presence and solid singing brought the band a second Netherlands hit, “Send Me a Postcard,” and then a huge international smash with “Venus” in 1970 after the group had signed to Jerry Ross' Colossus Records imprint.

Former Asia front man John Wetton has released more than his share of live albums in recent years. The performance, recorded in Poland on the Arkangel tour, is strong and nearly perfect.

Asia hadn't released an album of new music since 1985, so changes were to be expected. But changes for the better – well, that was a pleasant surprise. Aqua found the band infused with new energy, represented by a younger generation of arena rockers in bassist/vocalist John Payne and guitarist Al Pitrelli. Although Payne doesn't invite comparison to John Wetton or Greg Lake (his voice tends to get rougher as it gets louder), he gets the job done and turns out to be a pretty good songwriter in the bargain. Pitrelli, who had recently worked with Alice Cooper, knows his rock guitar; he's no replacement for Steve Howe, but he doesn't have to be – Howe makes guest appearances throughout the disc. Aqua is an amalgam of arena rock and hair metal that avoids sounding sappy or self-pitying, two adjectives that would describe Alpha or Astra.

Somewhere in Afrika, an ode to Mann's home country of South Africa, contains a formula that is atypical of Manfred Mann's Earth Band sound. With rhythms that combine an African flavor with a modern rock feel, vocalist Mick Rogers takes over on vocals with the number 22 hit "Runner," released as the album's only single. Tracks such as "Demolition Man" and "Eyes of Nostradamus" are model Earth Band efforts, but the compelling material lies in songs such as "Lalela," "Koze Kobenini," and the title track, which conveys Mann's love for his birthplace without sounding overly pretentious or manufactured.

The companion volume to the hugely successful first ‘Best Of’, with yet more excellent highlights from 15 years of bassist/bandleader Bill Wyman’s post-Stones musical project, sampling six key albums. Includes standout tracks from studio and stage, where the Rhythm Kings are in their element. Numerous special guests include Albert Lee, Georgie Fame, Procol Harum’s Gary Brooker and former colleague Mick Taylor on slide guitar (‘Can’t Get My Rest At Night’). A re-cut of the Stones’ ‘Melody’ – originally from the ‘Black And Blue’ album on which Bill appeared – features Eric Clapton, while George Harrison guests on ‘Love Letters’. A lively cover of the Beatles’ ‘Taxman’ features Australian guitar virtuoso Tommy Emmanuel. Specially released to coincide with Autumn 2012 Rhythm Kings European dates. Expertly remastered by Jon Astley (whose past credits include recordings by the Who, Led Zeppelin, George Harrison and many others). Superb sound – the best in the business!

Cheap Trick's comeback album is by no means a return to the creativity and vitality of their glory days. But even though Lap of Luxury is largely formulaic, the band's strongest collection of material in some time fills that late-'80s pop-metal formula quite well. Combining grandly romantic power ballads ("Ghost Town") with catchy hard rockers ("Never Had a Lot to Lose"), Lap of Luxury consistently delivers strong hooks and well-crafted songs, proving that Cheap Trick were still capable of outdoing many of the bands they helped inspire. The album produced two Top Five singles in a cover of Elvis Presley's "Don't Be Cruel" and the band's first number one hit, "The Flame."