One of the greatest jazz-rock guitarists of the '80s and '90s provides this classic Christmas guitar album. A hugely successful guitarist and composer, Larry Carlton emerged from the Los Angeles studio scene of the late '60s, eventually becoming a popular contemporary jazz artist in his own right. Noted for his lithe technique, sweet-toned, blues-inflected sound, and distinctive use of volume pedals, Carlton first came to prominence as a member of crossover jazz and R&B outfit the Crusaders. From there, he developed into an in-demand session player, recording on up to 500 albums a year and appearing on over 100 gold albums. His studio credits from the '70s and early '80s include work with musicians and groups like Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Michael Jackson, Sammy Davis, Jr., Herb Alpert, Quincy Jones, Bobby Bland, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and literally dozens of others.

If proof were needed that Roxette are the new ABBA, the lack of critical respect should be enough. Like Abba, Roxette is a masterful pop band (with just the right amount of kitsch in its armor) that routinely gets slagged off for lacking substance, whatever that may be. Room Service showcases a band at the top of its form with its feet firm on the pedal: this album is a case study in songcraft and pop smarts. With its na-na-na choruses and sparkly guitars, Room Service is also trademark Roxette, a mostly no-surprises package that divides its time between the soaring, emotive power ballads and the rife-with-hooks rock-dance stompers that the band pretty much took patents out on back in the '80s and '90s.

The Toronto-based Loverboy, comprised of vocalist Mike Reno, guitarist Paul Dean, bassist Scott Smith, keyboardist Doug Johnson, and drummer Matthew Frenette, was never a big hit with critics, but the band members' blend of hard-edged pop won droves of fans and kept them at the forefront of pop/rock for most of the '80s. This album contains most of their hits (excepting some more minor cuts like "Queen of the Broken Hearts"), giving a broad overview of their work. Sex was always a hot topic for the band – think "Hot Girls in Love" – but there is more to Loverboy than just hormones. There are also party anthems, with "Working for the Weekend" and "Turn Me Loose" being iconic in the genre.

The group's first album with Michael McDonald marked a shift to a more mellow and self-consciously soulful sound for the Doobies, not all that different from what happened to Steely Dan – whence McDonald (and Jeff Baxter) had come – between, say, Can't Buy a Thrill and Pretzel Logic. They showed an ability to expand on the lyricism of Patrick Simmons and Baxter's writing on "Wheels of Fortune," while the title track introduced McDonald's white funk sound cold to their output, successfully. Simmons' "8th Avenue Shuffle" vaguely recalled "Black Water," only with an urban theme and a more self-consciously soul sound (with extraordinarily beautiful choruses and a thick, rippling guitar break).

Hotel California is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Eagles, and is one of the best-selling albums of all time. Three singles were released from the album, each reaching high in the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town" (number 1), "Hotel California" (number 1), and "Life in the Fast Lane" (number 11). The album became the band's best-selling album after Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975). It has been certified 26× Platinum in the U.S., and has sold over 32 million copies sold worldwide. The album was ranked number 37 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

It's been eight years since Medusa, Annie Lennox's last studio album, was released. It's been 11 since her debut solo effort and five since the short-lived Eurythmics reunion. And while she may not be prolific, Lennox is always enigmatic. Bare is a collection of self-penned tracks, as the artist explains in the liners: "This album contains songs that are deeply personal and emotional. In a sense I have 'exposed' myself through the work to reveal aspects of an inner world that are fragile…broken through experience but not entirely smashed. I am not a young artist in their (sic) twenties. I am a mature woman facing up to the failed expectations of life and facing up to 'core' issues." Sound pretentious? One listen proves that Lennox lives up to her claims in spades. Here are 11 wholly – even infectiously – accessible, lyrically savvy, and gorgeously wrought pop songs full of spiritual and emotional depth that make for a deeply moving whole.

Released in 1978, just as the hot streak starting with 1975's Fighting and running through 1977's Bad Reputation came to an end, Live and Dangerous was a glorious way to celebrate Thin Lizzy's glory days and one of the best double live LPs of the 70s. Of course, this, like a lot of double-lives of that decade – Kiss' Alive! immediately springs to mind – isn't strictly live; it was overdubbed and colored in the studio (the very presence of studio whiz Tony Visconti as producer should have been an indication that some corrective steering may have been afoot). But even if there was some tweaking in the studio, Live and Dangerous feels live, containing more energy and power than the original LPs, which were already dynamic in their own right. It's this energy, combined with the expert song selection, that makes Live and Dangerous a true live classic.

Even though he had been suffering from hearing and sight impairments, Prefab Sprout man Paddy McAloon actually picked up the pace with the release of Crimson/Red, an album that follows Let's Change the World with Music by four years, halving the eight-year wait after 2001's The Gunman and Other Stories. It's also interesting that songs like "Mysterious" (an appreciation of Bob Dylan) and "The Songs of Danny Galway" (a lush love letter to the work of Jimmy Webb) cover the same ground as Let's Change the World's numerous odes to the power of pop music, but that album was arguably "tricky," because with the Sprout, overly smart and overly ambitious are the delicious pratfalls fans still savor.

Passion is in actuality Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ, retitled as a result of legal barriers; regardless of its name, however, there's no mistaking the record's stirring power. Like much of Gabriel's solo work, the album is a product of his continuing fascination with world music, which he employs here to create an exceptionally beautiful and atmospheric tapestry of sound perfectly evocative of the film's resonant spiritual drama; inspired by field recordings collected in areas as diverse as Turkey, Senegal, and Egypt, Passion achieves a cumulative effect clearly Middle Eastern in origin, yet its brilliant fusion of ancient and modern musics ultimately transcends both geography and time.

After the '70s, Jethro Tull struggled with each album to update their sound, but kept falling short with out-of-place synthesizers and drum machines. Three attempts at harder-rocking albums were followed by the Little Light Music tour in 1992, one which took a step back into a relaxing semi-acoustic setting. This album, a document of that May's European shows, should be treasured by fans looking for something more than the 10,000th performance of "Aqualung" (although it does contain the 10,001st performance of "Locomotive Breath"). The playing highlights the gentlest musical abilities of Ian Anderson, Martin Barre, bassist/mandolinist Dave Pegg, and temporary drummer Dave Mattacks (Pegg's Fairport Convention buddy). Old favorites are rearranged alongside rarely performed tunes from the Tull catalog.

Originally issued as two seperate albums, Truth and Beck-Ola are brought together here on one CD. Truth is the debut album by Jeff Beck, released in 1968 in the United Kingdom on Columbia Records and in the United States on Epic Records. It introduced the talents of his backing band The Jeff Beck Group, specifically Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, to a larger audience, and peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200. Beck-Ola is the second album by Jeff Beck, released in 1969 in the United Kingdom on Columbia Records and in the United States on Epic Records. It peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and at No. 39 on the British album chart. The album’s title puns on the name of the Rock-Ola jukebox company.