Bruce Springsteen Among rock music's most iconic figures, Bruce Springsteen often feels like the one who loves and believes in rock & roll the most, eager to re-create the breathless emotions it brings out in him. Embracing the pleasures of the sounds of AM radio in the 1950s and '60s (garage rock, British Invasion, R&B, blue-eyed soul, emotional teen pop) with the literacy of the singer/songwriter movement and a fierce desire to document the lives of the blue-collar world in which he grew up, Springsteen's music was always a grand, ambitious amalgam. (He once said he dreamed of making an album with words like Bob Dylan, sounding like Phil Spector, and with vocals like Roy Orbison.) His sound found full flower on 1973's eclectic The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (which introduced his most important backing group, the E Street Band), and he rose to stardom with 1975's streetwise, sweeping Born to Run. 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town and 1980's The River marked a thematic shift, as his songs addressed the malaise of the working class, whose dreams had begun slipping out of reach.

Grateful Dead So much more than just the archetypal jam band, the Grateful Dead grew to become an artistic and cultural institution that existed entirely on their own terms. While the band initially came out of a psychedelic revolution in the Bay Area's musically and chemically exploratory mid-'60s, they quickly evolved from their acid rock beginnings, incorporating elements of Americana and Bakersfield country into gently majestic albums like 1970's American Beauty. Their live shows were completely separate from their studio output, based on freeform improvisation borrowed from jazz and made up of extended performances and set list variations that ensured no two shows were exactly like.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Grateful Dead, the four original members — Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, and Bob Weir — will reunite at Chicago's Soldier Field, nearly 20 years to the day of the last Grateful Dead concert, which took place at the same venue. “Fare Thee Well: Celebrating 50 Years of Grateful Dead" will occur over three nights on July 3, 4, and 5, 2015, marking the original members' last-ever performance together. The band will be joined by Trey Anastasio (guitar), Jeff Chimenti (keyboards), and Bruce Hornsby (piano). The group will perform two sets of music each night.

Released in 2014 by RockBeat Records, Halloween Nuggets: Monster Sixties a Go-Go is an ambitious, sprawling, and beautifully curated three-disc box set celebrating the glorious golden age of vintage novelty horror rock. Packing an incredible ninety-eight tracks across over three and a half hours, this collection unearths a goldmine of highly obscure, rare, and deeply entertaining mid-century gems primarily spanning the late 1950s and the 1960s. The musical lineup is exceptionally diverse, offering a magnificent blend of raw garage rock stomp, surf rock twang, wild rockabilly, and early psychedelic experimentations all bound together by ghoulishly playful themes. Listeners are treated to an absolute festival of monsters, witches, vampires, and ghouls, featuring iconic tracks like Round Robin's driving I'm The Wolfman and Jackie Morningstar's frantic Rockin' In The Graveyard. Interspersed throughout the musical selections are dozens of authentic, spine-tingling audio snippets and vintage horror movie theatre trailers, including timeless advertisements for cult classics like Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster, and Night Of The Blood Beast. This definitive compilation serves as the ultimate high-energy time capsule for collectors of vintage garage rock and obscure Americana pop culture artifacts.

Released in 1998 on Warner Bros Records, Indispensable serves as a definitive and beautifully curated retrospective celebrating the career of the master of sophisticated vocal jazz and smooth jazz, Michael Franks. Spanning an impressive sixty-nine minutes across seventeen tracks, this collection highlights Franks' unique gift for blending witty, poetic lyricism with breezy melodies, soft bossa nova rhythms, and impeccable pop-jazz sensibilities. The album captures his finest moments and fan-favorite compositions, including the playful breakthroughs Eggplant and Monkey See-Monkey Do, the timelessly elegant and sultry ballad The Lady Wants to Know, and the beautifully atmospheric, travel-inspired gems like Down in Brazil and Rainy Night in Tokyo. Backed by elite studio musicians and slick production throughout, Franks' soft, signature vocal delivery shines as a beacon of relaxed coolness and emotional warmth. This compilation stands as an essential, comprehensive introduction for newcomers and a perfect, nostalgic summary for longtime listeners, encapsulating the laid-back brilliance of an incredibly influential singer-songwriter.

INXS hailed from the pubs of Australia, which is part of the reason the band never comfortably fit in with new wave. Even when they branched out into synth pop on their early recordings, they were underpinned by a hard, Stonesy beat and the Jagger-esque strut of lead singer Michael Hutchence. Ultimately, these were the very things that made INXS into international superstars in the late '80s. By that time, the group had harnessed its hard rock, dance, and new wave influences into a sleek, stylish groove that made their 1987 album Kick a multi-million-selling hit. While that sound was their key to stardom, it also proved to be their undoing; INXS became boxed in by their style of Stonesy pop-funk in the early '90s, when audiences became entranced by harder-edged alternative rock.

NOW Music will release Yearbook ’72 – Extra, a 3CD companion to the main Yearbook ’72 that was released last week. It features 61 songs including sizeable hits from Elton John, T. Rex, Paul Simon, Rod Stewart, The Kinks, Hot Chocolate, Michael Jackson, Al Green, The Supremes, Bill Withers, Sly & The Family Stone, The New Seekers, Elvis Presley, The Moody Blues, The Hollies, Slade, Mungo Jerry and more. As usual, this ‘Extra’ is presented in a six-panel card sleeve and is only available on CD there’s no vinyl edition. Yearbook ’72 Extra will be released on June 2026.

Original Hits: 70s is a decent six-disc set, highlighting 111 pop singles released in that decade. Along with the original versions of radio classics by Al Stewart, Blondie, the Knack, KC & the Sunshine Band, and Dr. Hook, are less-than-obvious inclusions by Peter Tosh, XTC, the Move, and Benny Hill!

Texas Troubadour is a four-disc box set that packages the late songwriter Townes Van Zandt's first seven studio albums for the Poppy and Tomato labels: For the Sake of the Song (1968); Our Mother the Mountain (1969); Townes Van Zandt (1970); Delta Momma Blues (1971); High, Low and In Between (1972); The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (1972), and Flyin' Shoes (1978). In addition, there are four studio outtakes from 1972-73 and a decent portion of Live at the Old Quarter, Houston issued in 1973. Charly reproduces the original cover art in miniature, two covers to each CD. Sound is the same as on the original CD issues, so fans who already own these albums will not be served by purchasing them again in this format. Musically, the work is superb, and since many of Van Zandt's recordings are out of print, this is a fine argument for getting them altogether. Another plus is Adam Komorowski's extensive biographical essay included in the 36-page color booklet that's loaded with photos.

2010 three CD set that contains their first five albums for Liberty Records (1968-72) plus bonus tracks. With a career that spans an impressive five decades, the Groundhogs are a veritable British Blues-Rock institution. With a line-up cemented around Peter Cruickshank on bass guitar, Ken Pustelnik on drums and fronted by singer, guitarist and principle songwriter Tony (T.S.) McPhee, this bluesy power trio were joined by harmonica toting Steve Rye for their full length debut, Scratching The Surface released on Liberty Records in 1968. With a reputation hard won by their incessant touring schedule, the band recorded Blues Obituary as a three piece in 1969, followed by Thanks Christ For The Bomb (1970), then hitting #5 with their most successful record, Split, in 1971 and rounded off by the fabulously titled Who Will Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs (1972).

UK three CD collection from the influential Jazz vocalist. While her life may have been tragic, her music has remained an integral part of American Jazz history and is constantly discovered by a new generation or rediscovered year after a year. This three CD collection features 78 tracks including 'God Bless the Child', 'Pennies from Heaven', 'Gloomy Sunday' and many others.

Ever the iconoclast, if there is one thing that Brian Eno has done with any degree of consistency throughout his varied career, it is presenting his art in an array of perpetually "out of the box" forums. All that changed – in a manner of speaking – with the release of two companion multi-disc compilations. Eno Box I: Instrumentals (1994) condenses his wordless creations, while Eno Box II: Vocals (1993) does the same for the rest of his major works on a similarly sized volume. Interestingly – and in his typically contrary fashion – this initial installment was actually issued last. Each of Eno Box I: Instrumentals' three CDs respectively concentrates on a specific facet of the artist's copious back catalog.

NOW Music proudly presents the second instalment in our celebration of 12” 80s classics: NOW 12” 80s: 1986 – Part Two, a 4CD collection bringing together 45 extended, remixed and full-length 12” versions that defined the dancefloors, airwaves and pop culture of 1986.

Proper, the famous British reissue label, has given the world a series of four-CD "Proper boxes" that contain essential recordings by legendary musicians. Proper's The Lester Young Story is an excellent introduction to this man's phenomenal artistry. Beginning with two instrumentals from his very first recording session on November 9, 1936, Proper skims along the surface of the first 13 years of Lester Young's career, touching upon his adventures with Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday, Una Mae Carlisle, Sammy Price, the Kansas City Six and Seven, pianist Nat King Cole, and numerous others who collaborated with Pres on records issued under his name. This musical odyssey is a colorful mosaic of historical recordings that originally appeared on the Vocalion, Columbia, Victor, Signature, Keynote, Savoy, Aladdin, and Mercury/Norgran/Verve labels. The survey closes with two extended jams from a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert held at Carnegie Hall on September 17, 1949. Although it stops short of dipping into the best of his later works, Proper's The Lester Young Story may serve both as a superb introduction and a tasty addition to already well-stocked jazz libraries.

NOW Music are proud to announce the latest release in the iconic numbered NOW series – NOW That’s What I Call Music! 123 – Out April 17th! 40 stellar tracks across 2 CDs – NOW 123 includes must-have hits from the current Sales and Airplay Charts – an essential round-up of recent highlights featuring the biggest names in the world of pop!