Ian Dury, like Ray Davies and Paul Weller was a very English talent. The colorful, metropolis-inhabiting characters like Billericay Dickie or Plaistow Patricia he sung about, and the ever so cockney music hall accent he chose to sing in, were a big part of that. But mostly, it was the detailed, poetic way he cataloged English life and the melting pot of musical styles he used to do so, from punk and funk to jazz and rock'n'roll, which left no doubt that Dury's work could only come from one place: The very heart of England. So few were surprised when after his death Sir Paul McCartney, Robbie Williams, Madness and more all lined up to pay their respects with cover versions of some of his best loved songs. You'll find plenty of them here, in their original versions, culled from his entire career from the mid-'70s with pub rockers Kilburn & the High Roads through the golden years with the majestic Blockheads right up to the last studio recordings at the start of the '90s. 2 CD set is comprised of 34 tracks. Music Club. 2005.

Souvenir è il settimo album in studio della cantante italiana Emma, pubblicato il 13 ottobre 2023 dalla Capitol Records. Il progetto discografico ha esordito alla prima posizione della classifica FIMI Album, diventando il quinto album della cantante a ottenere tale risultato. Nel 2024 è stata pubblicata una riedizione dell'album con l'inserimento del brano Apnea, presentato in gara al 74º Festival di Sanremo, seguita da una riedizione streaming con l'aggiunta di Femme Fatale, presentato come singolo inedito per l'estate 2024. Entrambi i brani sono stati poi inseriti nella Extended Edition dell'album, pubblicata il 4 ottobre 2024.

Andy Grammer Releases New Album MONSTER.Los Angeles, CA (October 4, 2024) – Today, Emmy Award winner and acclaimed multi-platinum singer/songwriter Andy Grammer releases his new ALBUM, MONSTER via S-Curve Records. The release comes on the heels of his performance of “I Do,” featuring Maddie & Tae, on Live With Kelly and Mark.
Out today, Monster sees Grammer elevating the high-energy songwriting that has won him millions of fans around the globe and leaning into acoustic melodies inspired by a novel foray into the mandolin. Across 11 poignant tracks, the project explores themes of family, relationships, happiness and letting go. At its core, Monster is Grammer’s most personal and sonically versatile album to date. Rife with vulnerable lyricism—yet still brimming with his distinctive optimism—the project is layered in dichotomy. It spans from catchy, uplifting anthems like “Still Smiling” and “Monster,” which simultaneously reflect on overcoming darkness and the complicated nature of relationships, to bright, soaring moments in “Magic” and “Friends and Family,” which, in contrast, showcase the beauty and hopefulness in connection. Monster is a testament to Grammer’s prowess as a songwriter and artist, as he explores the human condition in all its complex beauty.

Burt Bacharach: One Amazing Night is a tribute from one of today's greatest living American popular composer - Burt Bacharach. This special evening was taped April 8th, 1998 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City and has been aired numerous times on TNT Network Cable Artists featured: All Saints, Barenaked Ladies, Ben Folds Five, Elis Costello, Sheryl Crow, George Duke, Chrissie Hynde, Mike Meyers, David Sanborn, Luther Vandross, Dionne Warwick, Wynonna, and Burt Bacharach. Track highlights include: "Rain Drops Keep Fallin ON MY Head" by Ben Folds Five, "They Long to Close to You" by Barenaked Ladies, "Walk ON By / Say a Little Prayer / Do You Know the to San Jose" by Dionne Warwick, and more!

Haircut 100's debut album, Pelican West is a widely uneven concoction of lite funk and jazzy new wave pop. Although the group's music was frequently so light it virtually disappeared, they did record a pair of classic new wave singles with the effervescent "Love Plus One" and "Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)." Although much of the record lacks the hooks of those two tracks, there's a handful of enjoyably breezy pop songs on Pelican West, such as "Fantastic Day" and "Snow Girl," that makes it worth investigating for new wave fetishists. Still, there's no denying that Haircut 100's material was often inadequate – a situation only emphasized on the American edition of the album, which places the singles at the front – and that the record sounded like a period piece just a few years after its release. [This edition features three B-sides and two 12" mixes as bonus tracks.]

Despite its moments of inspired songcraft, Julian Lennon's fourth album, Help Yourself, didn't find an audience in 1991. Shortly after its release, Lennon parted ways with Atlantic and entered a period of seclusion. By the time he returned to recording in 1998, the Beatles had already undergone one of their periodic "hip" phases, thanks to the hook-crazy Brit-pop crew. In many ways, bands like Oasis and Blur gave Lennon the go-ahead to return to the Beatlesque songcraft of his debut, Valotte, and that's exactly what he does on Photograph Smile, his first album in seven years. Much of the record is devoted to piano ballads similar to his big hit, "Valotte," with a couple of guitar pop numbers thrown in for good measure. There's not much range on the album, but all the music is well crafted and melodic – the kind of music that would receive greater praise if it weren't made by the son of a Beatle.

This 27-track CD of rather mysterious origin is the most comprehensive Billie Davis anthology, but not without its imperfections. In its favor, it does include nine tracks from her 1963-1964 girl group-influenced singles, whereas the most commonly available Davis anthology (Tell Him: The Decca Years has just four of those. In all, it has ten songs not on Tell Him: The Decca Years, but is also missing three songs that are not that release, whose sound quality is better (though not seriously flawed). And the liner notes on Her Best: 1963-1970 are perfunctory, though it does contain a complete 1962-1970 Davis discography. So what most people would pick this up for are the ten songs not on Tell Him, which are useful for Davis fans, but not (with one exception) among her most outstanding recordings. That one exception is the moody, sassy 1964 single "Whatcha' Gonna Do," perhaps her best girl group-styled effort; the Mersey-influenced chirpy warble of its B-side "Everybody Knows" is pretty enjoyable too.

John Hiatt is one of those singer and songwriter types whose songs have worked best, at least commercially, in the hands of others (Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Iggy Pop, Three Dog Night, the Neville Brothers, and many more have covered Hiatt songs and gone places with them), but that doesn't mean he doesn't have a voice. He does, and while he sings fine enough, his real voice is in the songs themselves, which are frequently brilliant. He may not be riding the charts with any of his own versions, but he's built a steady body of work over some 20 studio albums. This three-disc set features tracks from throughout that career, beginning with early material, then running through the 1980s and 1990s, and out into the new century. A good songwriter knows that a good song will have a life of its own – Hiatt has written an awful lot of those. This set offers 57 of them.

Born Again is the sixth album by American composer Randy Newman. Newman later said he thought the album, "was great and would create a big stir. I was looking forward to it coming out so much that I didn't fly any small planes before it was released. It's a weird album full of peculiar songs like the one about an ELO fan getting everything wrong. It's very idiosyncratic, with small subjects. If it had been a hit to follow it might have been different but I have always written the same way."

James Blunt may never live down the success of his first single, "You're Beautiful." It made him a star in 2004 yet it also pegged him as the kind of sad-sack singer/songwriter beloved of doctors' offices the world over, which may be enough to sustain a living but not a career. Blunt is savvy enough to realize this and he started to broaden and enliven his craft fairly quickly, abandoning the slow-footed ballads of Back to Bedlam for a richly textured pop that eventually gained some semblance of color by the time Some Kind of Trouble rolled around in 2010. Three years later, Moon Landing arrived and although its title suggest some kind of spectral scope, it's not quite as lively as its predecessor, preferring the exquisitely textured adult contemporary pop of Dido, but giving those intricately produced ballads insistent melodies and rhythms. Sometimes, Blunt's phrasing can lapse into solipsistic moans – this is especially true when the electronics are stripped away and the tempos slow – but when everything is relatively sprightly, the feel is surprisingly appealing, even though Blunt can't help but piggyback on styles that are a guaranteed rocket to the Top 40.

Badfinger is the fifth album by British rock band Badfinger. The album was recorded in autumn 1973 and released in 1974 on Warner Bros. Records. It was the first of two albums released by the band on the Warner label. The cover art for the album shows a woman wearing a riding outfit and hat from the 1920s and smoking a cigarette in a cigarette holder. Features some melodies & vocal harmonies which are reminiscent of the group's mentors, the Beatles. Includes 'Love is Easy', 'Shine On', 'Song for a Lost Friend' & nine others.

Pop, rock hits are given a 60s makeover on this collection.

Credit to Train for capturing a specific seasonal vibe on their 2015 holiday album Christmas in Tahoe and, furthermore, for making it plain right in the record's title. Where most Christmas albums focus on afternoons filled with snow and evenings by the fire, Train zero in on a Californian Christmas, one with plenty of sun and margaritas to share. Appropriately, the band isn't big on carols – only one makes the cut and that's "O Holy Night," its presence vaguely bringing to mind the Letterman tradition of Paul Shaffer singing it as Cher every holiday – choosing to cover popular favorites from the '50s through the 21st century, throwing in a couple of peppy (and pretty good) originals along the way.

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.

Alone with Everybody is the first solo album by English singer-songwriter Richard Ashcroft, released in June 2000. The songs "A Song for the Lovers", "C'mon People (We're Making It Now)" and "New York" were initially recorded with the Verve for their 1997 album Urban Hymns, but were never released. The two bonus tracks feature on the Japanese version of the album.