Rhino repackaged and re-released the first five Monkees LPs on Colgems – The Monkees, More of the Monkees, Headquarters, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd., and The Birds, the Bees & the Monkees – as a slipcased box set.

The dean of American pop vocalists took a different and exciting fork in the road for his third Duets album, recruiting the best Latin vocalists in the world, and rejuvenating classic material like "The Best Is Yet to Come" (featuring Chayanne), "For Once in My Life" (featuring Marc Anthony), "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" (featuring Gloria Estefan), "The Way You Look Tonight" (featuring Thalía), and "Return to Me" (featuring ranchera legend Vicente Fernández). Most of the charts are big band – one of the exceptions being the highlight, his duet with Fernández – but crossover fans will note that Bennett's English gives way to his duet partners' Spanish, an intriguing and successful choice.

Many observers were prepared to write off the B-52's after the release of Bouncing Off the Satellites. Granted, the album was completed in the wake of Ricky Wilson's death, but the group appeared bereft of new musical ideas and were sounding rather stale. In other words, the last thing anyone expected was a first-class return to form, which is what they got with Cosmic Thing. Working with producers Don Was and Nile Rodgers, the B-52's updated their sound with shiny new surfaces and deep, funky grooves – it was the same basic pattern as before, only refurbished and contemporized. Just as importantly, they had their best set of songs since at least Wild Planet, possibly since their debut. "Cosmic Thing" and "Channel Z" were great up-tempo rockers; "Roam" had a groovy beat blessed with a great Cindy Wilson vocal; and "Deadbeat Club" was one of their rare successful reflective numbers.

A comprehensive collection of Wolf's early years. The songs on this set dating from 1951-1958, sum up the first half of Wolf's recording career with Chess Records, a period when he sung mostly self-penned compositions. The lead track 'Smokestack Lightnin'' is probably the most covered, being recorded by the Animals and Yardbirds among others. All tracks have been digitally remastered for optimum sound quality.

2014 release from the Blues/Jazz/Rock guitarist. A Day In Nashville was recorded live in a single session. Robben chose to record the album in a controlled environment but treat it like a live performance. The album features news songs by Ford along with 'Cut You Loose' by harmonica great James Cotton and 'Poor Kelly Blues' by Maceo Merriweather.

This lesser-known set, released by several Japanese labels including a 1991 CD issue by Denon, features flugelhornist Art Farmer with pianist Masahiko Satoh (doubling on electric piano), bassist Ron Carter, drummer Jack DeJohnette and a 14-piece string section arranged and conducted by Satoh. Despite its initial release in Japan, the music was actually recorded in New York City. Farmer is in excellent form on the seven modern jazz originals, most of which are given fresh treatments. The arrangements are fine, and Farmer is up to the task of carrying the main load on such songs as "Nica's Dream," "Blue In Green," "Maiden Voyage" and "Naima".

Along with Songs from the Big Chair, The Seeds of Love was part of a one-two artistic punch in the late '80s that situated Tears for Fears as one of the decade's more ambitious pop groups. But at the time, Tears was more a platform for Roland Orzabal than a true band – Curt Smith is present only on the smash "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (his only co-writing credit), while Ian Stanley was replaced by Nicky Holland as a keyboardist and Orzabal's songwriting partner. Like their other albums, The Seeds of Love continues the concept of moving from hurting to healing to beginning anew (the hit "Sowing the Seeds of Love") to growing apart. The songs feature expansive melodies instead of blatant hooks, and the sound is more grounded in soul and gospel on songs like "Woman in Chains," the updated Philly-soul strain of "Advice for the Young at Heart" and "Badman's Song." Orazabal's passionate vocals are well matched by Oleta Adams' fervent contributions. The group even dabbles in jazz on "Standing on the Corner of the Third World," the fabulous "Swords and Knives," and the slow-burning "Year of the Knife".

20 killer tracks from B.B. King's 1950s heyday, including quite a few alternate takes and a few tough-to-locate items ("Bye Bye Baby," "Dark Is the Night," "Jump with You Baby"). Many of the titles are familiar ones – "Woke Up This Morning," "Every Day (I Have the Blues)," "Please Love Me," "Whole Lotta Love" – but often as not, compiler Ray Topping unearthed contrasting versions from the same sessions that shed new, fascinating light on King's studio techniques.

In her second solo collection, Julia's voice dances between hopeful and weary, defeated and desperately alive. Composed in California, refined in France and sculpted in Australia and India, as the summer turned to fall in New York City, they poured through her hands to the ears and hands of Producer Thomas Bartlett who has worked with Doveman, Antony & the Johnsons and The National and is currently producing upcoming record by Glen Hansard. Bartlett expertly creates living and breathing sounds along with the most understatedly talented musicians on 'By The Horns'. The sessions were co-produced by Patrick Dillett, equally known for his work recording powerful female vocalists like Mary J Blige and Mariah Carey, and as a producer for David Byrne and Arto Lindsay and mixed Julia's first solo album 'The Memory Machine'. 'By The Horns' signals a great transition; an introduction of Julia Stone as a singular artist of her own voice, the birth of a mature voice of formidable strength and delicate insight, out of the shadow of past successes.

The intention of the Universal Music Group compilation series called The Definitive Collection is to occupy the price point in between its more expensive two-CD Gold series and its budget-priced 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series. It is, thus, aimed at the fan who wants a reasonably complete single-disc anthology of a particular artist's hits. In that sense, the Righteous Brothers' edition of the series is a good example. The duo reached Billboard magazine's Hot 100 21 times between 1963 and 1974, and 17 of those chart entries are contained on this album. (The most notable exceptions are the two follow-ups to the novelty comeback hit "Rock and Roll Heaven," "Give It to the People" and "Dream On," which UMG didn't choose to license from EMI.) Also included are a couple of LP tracks and a solo track each by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. All have been digitally remastered and are in excellent sound.

Opus is the eighth studio album of the music project Schiller created by the German electronic musician Christopher Von Deylen. On this album Schiller has collaborated with Russian operatic soprano Anna Netrebko, French pianist Hélène Grimaud and German classical oboist Albrecht Mayer.

This well-planned Naxos programme is carefully laid out in two parts, each of viol music interspersed with harpsichord and organ pieces and ending with an anthem. It gives collectors an admirable opportunity to sample, very inexpensively, the wider output of Thomas Tomkins, and outstandingly fine Elizabethan musician whose music is still too known. Though he is best known for hid magnificent church music, it is refreshing to discover what he could do with viols, experimenting with different combinations of sizes of instruments, usually writing with the polyphony subservient to expressive harmonic feeling, as in the splendid and touching Fantasia for six viols. Perhaps the most remarkable piece here is the Hexachord fantasia, where the scurrying part-writing ornaments a rising and falling six-note scale (hexachord). The two five-part verse anthems and Above the stars, which is in six parts, are accompanied by five viols, with a fine counter-tenor in Above the stars and a bass in Thou art my King.

Heaven and the Sea isn't quite as dance-oriented as Pete Shelley's first two albums, nor does it have the nervous pop energy that was a hallmark of those records and his work with the Buzzcocks. Instead, it's a layered and textured release, given a polished, mature production which ironically only emphasizes the lack of notable songs. There are a handful of relatively strong cuts on the record, but even they don't match the high points of its two predecessors.

Not quite as definitive of their time as Brit-pop sensations like Elastica and Sleeper and not quite as inventive and enduring as Garbage, Republica made a splash on the charts with "Ready to Go" and then more or less faded away, for stateside audiences at least. The British retrospective Ready to Go: The Best of Republica may be somewhat surprising to casual fans of the group, who may not have been aware that Republica recorded a second album, 1998's Speed Ballads, which didn't receive distribution in the U.S. An even mix of highlights from the group's two albums, Ready to Go features two versions of the group's catchy, dance-meets-Brit-pop title hit, along with the follow-up single "Drop Dead Gorgeous" and notable tracks from the more complex, electronic Speed Ballads such as "From Rush Hour With Love" and "Fading of the Man." Indeed, the collection manages to gather most of both of Republica's albums, making it the only Republica release anyone curious about the band needs to own.

Listening to this, it's easy to believe that June Tabor was made to sing these old border ballads, tales of the uneasy coexistence of families in the marches between England and Scotland. Her dark voice is well-suited to the texts, which are often bloody and vengeful, and quite certainly epic – in some respects, the very essence of British balladry, whether it's "The Battle of Otterburn," with its gloriously textured Kathryn Tickell arrangement, or the demanding "The Duke of Athole's Nurse," where Martin Simpson is reunited with Tabor, his guitar offering shining counterpoint to her voice. The songs, tried and tested over the centuries, are wonderful in themselves, but Tabor's presentation of them brings them fully to life, like "The Cruel Mother." Harrowing at the best of times, it becomes pure torment in her hands. And her "Sir Patrick Spens" makes the old Fairport Convention version sound like a playground romp. Intensity has always been one of Tabor's fortes, and here she takes full advantage of the opportunity to indulge it.