Highway to Hell (Dlx)

AC/DC’s 1979 album digitally remastered and reissued in a special digipak plus a 16 page full color booklet containing all original album art, many unpublished photos, classic memorabilia and new 2003 liner notes. Epic.

Price: $6.92

Legendary Weapons

2011 release from the world-famous Hip Hop collective. Wu-Tang: Legendary Weapons includes a heavy dose of Ghostface Killah (he is featured on eight of the album’s 11 songs) alongside The RZA and all of the other core Wu-Tang group members. Dark, raw tracks produced by The RZA together with members of the Brooklyn based band The Revelations provide a solid foundation for the crew’s tales of violent New York street life and debauchery.

Price: $7.49

Kill All Control

George Lynch is one of the most dynamic and influential guitarists in music today. During the rush of the 1980’s rock scene, his catchy riffs, soaring guitar solos, and impassioned songwriting, elevated Dokken well above most other bands in the glam, Hair Metal, era. Over a dozen hit singles and a string of successful platinum albums, including Under Lock and Key and Back for
the Attack, have stood the test of time, and become part of the very fabric of musical culture. Desiring a move, Lynch switched gears with his new band, Lynch Mob, adding a blues, smoky approach complemented by soulful, heartfelt vocals. Mr. Scary, as he is known to his fans, went solo in 1993 with the incredible Sacred Groove, experimenting with many sounds, singers and
songwriters – a formula now copied by so many guitar greats. Other projects, such as Souls of We and Lynch/Pilsen, allowed Lynch to explore and expand into even more styles and themes. Always pushing ahead, he still took time to appreciate his past. Seeking to reconnect with the magic that defined his earlier career, George reformed Lynch Mob, to his fan’s delight, and released Smoke and Mirrors. The album was seen as brilliant display of heart and soul, and has ushered in an extended tour, as well as the reunion of the original Lynch Mob lineup. While the band continues to create new material for their upcoming 2011 album, George Lynch is proud to release Kill All Control, ‘a solo record that will undoubtedly excite long time fans with the vast flavors of his career and welcome in many new listeners. Kill All Control began as a follow up to Let the Truth Be Known, Lynch’s first Souls of We release. As he began writing with London LeGrand (Brides of Destruction), the project took on a whole new direction, solidifying this original course with the addition of Powerman 5000 drummer Adrian Ost. The creative juices flowed and we wrote most of the CD in ten days , said Lynch. As writing and recording progressed at Slate Studios, I experimented with additional singers, including Will Marten (Earshot), Marc Torien (Bullet Boys), and Keith St. John (Montrose), hoping to create a collective listening experience , Lynch offered. The continued reflection on earlier days spawned a following up to Mr.Scary , called Son of Scary , featuring renowned percussionist Fred Coury of Cinderella.

Price: $9.98

Chief

To some modern country artists, the words critics are using to describe Eric Church’s third studio album may seem off-putting, but to the trailblazing mutineer and his equally passionate fans, the terms: “strange,” “aggressive,” “wild,” and “rare,” couldn’t be more complimentary. Church’s third studio album, Chief, has been buzzing as the most experiential, head-turning country album of the year.

“I have a theory that all of us [artists] only get a small window of time to make records when people will really listen and care,” said Church. “It’s up to us to move the needle. People like Waylon and Cash or Garth and Strait,– they all took the format and said, We’re going over here,’ and they each changed the direction of the music a little bit– helping to make it what it is today.”

That desire to move the needle is the very reason Church has chosen to use the successes of six Top 20 country singles (“How Bout You,” “Two Pink Lines,” and “Guys Like Me” from his 2006 critically-acclaimed debut, Sinners Like Me; “Love Your Love The Most,” “Hell On The Heart,” and “Smoke A Little Smoke” from his sophomore release Carolina) and an ACM Award for New Solo Vocalist of the Year to push the creative envelope even further with Chief. Church took a month off and went to a secluded cabin in North Carolina to reflect and write the entire album which he later recorded in Nashville with producer, Jay Joyce (Patty Griffin, Cage the Elephant), who also produced his previous two releases.

The songs that resulted from the diversion illustrate Church’s impressive range and infinite creative canvas. Songs like “Drink in My Hand” and “Hungover & Hard Up,” illustrate his ability to connect with a rowdy audience. Other songs like “Springsteen” and “Like Jesus Does,” reveal a deeper emotions complemented by sophisticated song structures; and then there’s “Homeboy” the provocative lead single and Church’s fastest-rising career single to date– that’s already turning heads and causing critics from USA Today and Billboard to champion the release.

The “alive and breathing” feel of the new music inspired Church to name the album, Chief, after a nickname given to his grandfather, and one he has consequently adopted over the years out on the road. “When it’s show time, I put on the sunglasses and the hat, and that’s how people know it’s game time. This album was made from a live place; we recorded it with the live show in mind, so it just seemed right to make that the title,” he adds.

With the release of his third studio album, Church hasn’t forgotten the true captains of his career his loyal fans. “More than anyone else, we have built are career on the backs of the fans,” he says. “We have not had a lot of TV exposure or number one songs, but we have had music that stirs passion, we put on shows that stoke the flames of that passion, and our fans have carried the torch. Our music belongs to them.”

Price: $6.00

Frank [Deluxe Edition]

This 2 CD Deluxe set features Amy’s first album “Frank” and a second disc that features 17 previously unheard songs. These include original demos for the “Frank” sessions, B-sides and remixes. Between the two discs there are 29 songs here!!

Price: $15.85

Frank

With her debut album Frank, Amy Winehouse proves to be one of the most original, honest, and brave singer/songwriters to emerge in recent years. Over the course of the 13 songs, she manages to do everything required of a classic album. This is a stark piece of work, comprising husky, frequently sexually charged vocals, painfully honest lyrics and soft trumpets, laidback beats, and sparse guitar work. It seems that soulful jazz doesn’t always have to be bland–it can also be playful, twisted, and arrogant (“Amy Amy Amy”). “F*** Me Pumps” charts a seemingly guilt-free act of infidelity: “What do you expect when you leave me here alone?” she asks coyly, as if by way of justifiable explanation. “You wouldn’t want me to be lonely,” she adds. You can’t help warming to her, despite what she’s saying. A unique sense of humour (how rare in music now) and a no-bull attitude make for an interesting, compelling debut. Frank? Yes, but refreshingly so. You wouldn’t want her for a girlfriend, but as a life companion she may yet prove indispensable. –Cortman Virtue

Price: $11.97

Roots of Amy Winehouse

2009 collection of tracks that inspired the troubled British Soul vocalist. There’s something about the soulful voice of Amy Winehouse that brings out the goosebumps in everyone. The hairs standing at the back of the neck, like when Aretha hits that note or Billie Holiday fights off the blues. Beyond the tabloids, tattoos and tantrums, way back to when she was listening to her dad’s record collection and fostering a heady love of Sinatra, there was always something of the lost and lonely about the Grammy-award winning singer. 20 tracks. Snapper.

Price: $9.81

Mahler: The Complete Works – 150th Anniversary Box

EMI CLASSICS CELEBRATES THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF GUSTAV MAHLER WITH THE RELEASE OF THIS EXCLUSIVE 16-CD BOX SET CONTAINING THE COMPOSERS COMPLETE WORKS.

Price: $31.98

Rockferry

The most hotly anticipated album release of this New Year comes not from someone rammed into the collective consciousness by their media ubiquity. Duffy is an unknown quantity at this point, having performed but a small number of gigs, mostly in support of The Magic Numbers, and having only just begun to be seen on TV, most notably with recent appearances on Jools Holland’s Later and New Year Hootenanny.

Yet her soulful voice has already beguiled many of the nation’s musical tastemakers and news of its beauty and of the strength of her songs is spreading by word of mouth even as you read these words. Radio One’s Jo Whiley chose Duffy’s title track and album taster `Rockferry’ as her Single of the Week in late November, further adding to the momentum. Now, as the comparisons fly (Dusty Springfield has emerged as the favourite), it’s time to discover her for yourself.

Duffy was born and spent her childhood years in the north Wales coastal community of Nefyn, a place too remote to be driven by style wars or opposing music factions (the nearest record counter was a bus ride away and only stocked the Top 40). The upbringing she describes is one in which everyone had to rub along together, making do and mending, accepting each other and their tastes without prejudice.

Having no CD collection of her own, her first real musical memory is of walking into the kitchen unannounced to find her mother and stepfather dancing to Rod Stewart. The first steps she took towards defining her own personal identity came when she borrowed one of her dad’s VHS tapes of the `60s TV show `Ready, Steady, Go!’. “It had The Beatles, the Stones, the Walker Brothers, Sandie Shaw and Millie singing `My Boy Lollipop’. So sexy and exciting! I played it again and again until finally it disintegrated.” Says former Suede guitarist and record producer Bernard Butler of this artlessness, “Duffy managed to grow up without any concept of what was cool or current, what she should or shouldn’t like, how to behave or even how to sing. For her, coming to London at all was the stuff of fairytales.”

“And to come here to write songs with some random bloke who’d been recommended to her, me? It meant taking two buses and then two trains and took all day. Then she’d do the same in reverse to get home, playing the music she’d just made to old ladies she encountered on the journey. It’s hard for cynical music industry types to get their heads around just how far removed she was from our world, geographically and in every other way. But what you’ve got as a result is someone who acts and sings completely and unselfconsciously from the heart. That’s a rare and magical thing.”

Butler was introduced to Duffy by Rough Trade’s Jeannette Lee who,in August 2004 and after hearing demos recorded in this or that mate’s home, became the singer’s mentor and manager. For Duffy, to have not just a friend but also point of both safety and reference in the strange new world she found herself in was crucial to her own musical development and sense of self.

“People keep saying to me, `You’ve made a great record’ but I can’t take that in because I didn’t do it on my own. Jeannette and I made `Rockferry’ together and she’s been with me every step of the way, broadening my horizons, introducing me to people I can trust.” Butler was just one of them: having written the glorious, chorus-free, utterly hypnotic `Rockferry’ together at the beginning of the project, they then worked on a further three of the ten tracks on what is already being talked about as 2008’s most important debut release. Jimmy Hogarth & Steve Booker are the other collaborators on this classic-in-waiting.

What can you expect to hear? The title track and album opener, as atmospheric, slow-building and idiosyncratic song as you could hope for, leads into a collection of original material that some might call retro in feel (those Dusty flavours, that girl group vibe) but which Duffy herself prefers to identify as classic. You’ll find arrangements as sparsely effective as those against which Dionne Warwick told her Bacharach & David-wrought tales of heartbreak in the early 1960s. You’ll find lush choruses and swooning hooks (as perfected by the late Miss Springfield and various distinguished others). But this is far from pastiche.

What you’ll find instead is irrefutable evidence of a significant new talent, and one that has developed in splendid isolation, not in reaction to market forces or the input of focus groups and industry experts. Duffy is the real, unspoiled original deal. “People keep asking me where my voice comes from and the fact is I don’t know,” says the brightest new star of 2008. “Why are your eyes the colour they are? It’s no answer at all but it’s the only one I have.”

Duffy Photos

Price: $8.54

Back to Black

Hailed by Newsweek Magazine as a cross between Billie Holiday and Lauryn Hill, British soul singer Amy Winehouse’s U.S. debut, Back To Black hits the US amid a flurry of accolades, radio and TV buzz unprecedented in recent years for a young siren.

Her brassy mix of emotive vocals tinged with 60’s girl-group stylings, sly funk, and anguished jazz, sparked the New York Daily News to crown Back To Black a “marvelous debut that would do Etta James proud” while New Yorker Magazine called her “a fierce English performer whose voice combines the smoky depths of a jazz chanteuse with the heated passion of a soul singer,” and Spin Magazine affirming “there’s never been A British star quite like her.”

Back To Black smolders with a bristling fusion of old school doo-wop/soul inflected uprisings, (the charismatic singer/songwriter wrote or co-wrote all of the songs on the album) brewing instant classics such as the Shirley Ellis influenced “Rehab,” the Supremes tinged title song “Back To Black,” the aching “Wake Up Alone,” and the album’s closer, “Addicted.”

Price: $12.81

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