The first studio album of Band originals since 1971's Cahoot – in many respects, Northern Lights-Southern Cross was viewed as a comeback. It also can be seen as a swan song, in that its recording marked the last time the five members would work together in the studio as a permanent group, with a commitment to making a record they would tour behind and build on as a working band. The album was also, ironically enough, the Band's finest since their self-titled sophomore effort, even outdoing Stage Fright.

Mike Oldfield's groundbreaking album Tubular Bells is arguably the finest conglomeration of off-centered instruments concerted together to form a single unique piece. A variety of instruments are combined to create an excitable multitude of rhythms, tones, pitches, and harmonies that all fuse neatly into each other, resulting in an astounding plethora of music. Oldfield plays all the instruments himself, including such oddities as the Farfisa organ, the Lowrey organ, and the flageolet. The familiar eerie opening, made famous by its use in The Exorcist, starts the album off slowly, as each instrument acoustically wriggles its way into the current noise that is heard, until there is a grand unison of eccentric sounds that wildly excites the ears.

This is Psychedelia takes in 60 great innovators from Jefferson Airplane, The Yardbirds and The Velvet Underground & Nico to the 13th Floor Elevators and the Small Faces, tracing their influence on the best of their contemporaries, both celebrated and neglected. Here you will find classics and rarities from the most experimental period in rock'n'roll history.

Although perhaps a little too similar to volume two of the highly regarded Nuggets series, Acid Drops, Spacedust, & Flying Saucers, compiled by the fine folks at Britain's (in fact, the world's) finest music magazine, Mojo, is the perfect introduction to the rise and fall of British psychedelia. Rather than chart the influence of British music on its surroundings and colonies (as done by Nuggets) Acid Drops takes an easier route. The Nuggets collection focused on all manner and strains of the old empire's R&B, freakbeat, mod, and psychedelic scenes, whilst Acid Drops dissects and inspects the solely British mutation from beat/pop (signified by the Kinks' quasi-raga "See My Friends") into full-blown psychedelia (from the most commercial to most underground of guises).

Priceless Jazz Collection is a budget-priced compilation that intends to give neophytes an affordable introduction to Chick Corea's GRP recordings. Although purists and collectors will find this sampler incomplete and inconsequential, it nevertheless gives new listeners a good idea of Corea's work during this era by featuring such necessary items as "Make a Wish, Pts. I & II," "Spain," "Blue Miles" and "Light Years."

Anyone familiar with the work of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band knows the group had an intriguing penchant for performing odd cover versions from all different areas of popular music. This 1976 album allowed the group to give full vent to this obsession: three of the tracks are band originals, but the rest are a series of covers that hit everything from Irving Berlin to the Osmonds to Alice Cooper. The resulting album has a thrown-together feel that keeps if from cohering properly, but still manages to be a worthwhile listen thanks to a combination of spirited performances and interesting arrangements.

After the success of The Art of Tea, Michael Franks was able to more confidently move closer to the kind of music he wanted to make. Employing a more exotic Brazilian feel on Sleeping Gypsy, with lush orchestration (courtesy of veteran jazz arranger and conductor Claus Ogerman), Franks moved his acoustic guitar work to the background to create a romantic sound with no sappiness. With "Down in Brazil" and, particularly, "Antonio's Song," his ode to Antonio Carlos Jobim, Franks was doing with Brazilian music for the rock crowd in the '70s what Stan Getz did for the jazz crowd in the '60s. He again employed his witty wordplay and evocative storytelling ability on "B'wana-He No Home," a song about a time when Dan Hicks was staying at his house while Franks was away. A romantic, elegant and important album in bringing Brazilian music to a wider audience.

No Lookin' Back is the second full-length solo album from former Doobie Brothers singer/songwriter Michael McDonald, released in 1985. For the first time, he co-produced, as well as wrote or co-wrote all the songs. No Lookin' Back was re-released in 1986 with different album artwork, along with the inclusion of the hit single "Sweet Freedom" from the soundtrack of the Gregory Hines/Billy Crystal movie Running Scared.