VARIOS INTERPRETES MUCH MUSIC - COUNT DOWN SEALED CD

After years of beating their collective head against the post of hard rock stardom, Y&T finally succumbed to the commercial conventions of the '80s and bowed to the synthesizer gods with 1985's Down for the Count. Under the guidance of new producer Kevin Beamish (REO Speedwagon, Saxon), Y&T joined the perm-haired masses then issuing like dandruff out of the California dust to redefine the meaning of the word "dumb." Not exactly a smash hit, the record is littered with faceless, going-nowhere-fast rockers like "Anything for Money" and "Looks Like Trouble." Even the relatively amusing "Don't Tell Me What to Wear" sounds completely forced when coming from a bunch of supposedly grown men. Out of this mucky muck, "Hands of Time" stands out as a fine, dramatic power ballad in the Y&T tradition -- anthemic and cheesy in all the right quantities. Following Down for the Count, Y&T's long-running relationship with A&M would finally come to and end, but the band would find small comfort at their new home, Geffen. ~ Edua

Visible Noise ( December 04, 2006 ), Genre: Heavy Metal

Anticon ( November 03, 2009 ), Genre: R&B

Following Seal's first compilation by five years, Hits covers much of the same ground as Best: 1991-2004: a whopping ten of its 18 songs are also on Best, including every one of his big hits ("Kiss from a Rose, " "Crazy, " "Killer, " "Prayer for the Dying"), with the remaining eight tracks including two new cuts bookending the album and singles released since Best. This makes it more comprehensive and complete than Best, but casual fans can be excused for thinking that there's not much difference between the two compilations for the very fact that Seal hasn't had many big hits since 2004, with not a single single crossing over into the American Top 40 ("Amazing" and "The Right Life" appeared on the dance charts, "If You Don't Know Me by Now" on the adult contemporary). So, anybody who already has Best: 1991-2004 will not be tempted by this, but anyone in the market for a Seal hits collection will find this generous and enjoyable. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Virgin Records (USA) ( December 08, 1998 ), Genre: Soundtracks

Japanese only SHM paper sleeve pressing. The SHM-CD [Super High Material CD] format features enhanced audio quality through the use of a special polycarbonate plastic. Using a process developed by JVC and Universal Music Japan discovered through the joint companies' research into LCD display manufacturing SHM-CDs feature improved transparency on the data side of the disc allowing for more accurate reading of CD data by the CD player laser head. SHM-CD format CDs are fully compatible with standard CD players.

Personnel: Adam Jackson (vocals); Andrew Corpus (guitar).Audio Mixer: Eric Rachel.Recording information: Trax East, South River, NJ (01/2004).Metalcore is not for the faint of heart. Taking hardcore to the extreme, metalcore thrives on a harsh, punishing, highly ferocious density -- the sort of density one encounters on Twelve Tribes' second album, The Rebirth of Tragedy. There are some hints of screamo on this CD; at times, Twelve Tribes throws in some clean, conventional singing to balance lead vocalist Adam Jackson's tortured screaming. But when all is said and done, The Rebirth of Tragedy is much more metalcore than screamo, and Twelve Tribes does all the things that metalcore bands are known for doing. They kick, punch, batter, pummel, bruise, and beat the listener into submission; they see to that this 2004 release has a claustrophobic, suffocating quality. And because Twelve Tribes go for maximum density so much of the time, The Rebirth of Tragedy is a very exhausting album -- not exhausting in a negat

EMI-Capitol Special Markets

Includes liner notes by John Armstrong.Liner Note Author: John Armstrong .All 15 of the songs on this 2000 anthology were originally released in the late '90s by five Brazilian artists: Ceumar, Renato Braz, Jards Macale, Mauricio Pereira, and Quinteto Violado. According to the back cover, this was assembled with a mind to feature more acoustic-oriented, back-to-basics Brazilian pop musicians, none of them familiar to North American listeners. It's fair, and not amazing, Brazilian pop with characteristic lilting melodies, mixtures of bossa nova beats with jazz and rock, and an overall low-key, pleasant attitude. If you're thinking that's not the sort of stuff that musical revolutions are made of, that's correct. Of course, very few North Americans will be able to understand the lyrics, which might make a difference; we would have to take liner notes author John Campbell's word for it, for instance, that Jards Macale's songs bear some similarities to the work of Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Richard Thompson, and El

The Five Blind Boys of Alabama: Caleb Butler, Eric "Ricky" McKinnie, Jimmy Carter , Ben Moore, Billy Bowers, Tracy Pierce, Joey Williams (vocals).Personnel: Carl LeBlanc (banjo); Ralph Boyd Johnson (clarinet); Darryl Adams (alto saxophone); John Gilbert (tenor saxophone); Alvarez Huntley, Raymond "Taff" Williams, John Brunious (trumpet); Keith Anderson , Jerome Jones, Tyrus Chapman (trombone); Bennie Pete, Benjamin Jaffe (tuba); David Torkanowsky (piano, keyboards); Allen Toussaint (piano); Ronald Guerin (upright bass, electric bass); Shannon Powell (drums); Harry Cook (bass drum); Sammy Cyrus (snare drum).Additional personnel: Hot 8 Brass Band, Allen Toussaint, Preservation Hall Jazz Band.Audio Mixer: Jimmy Hoyson.Liner Note Author: Ben Sandmel.Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA; Piety Street Studios, New Orleans, LA.Photographers: Shannon Brinkman; Mark Gooch.Arranger: Chris Goldsmith.While they may not hail from the Crescent City, the Blind Boys of Alabama obviously have a strong connect