25 Japanese Anniversary Edition with 4 Bonus tracks.
In between albums, Billie Eilish won two Oscars, a pair of Golden Globes, and a handful of Grammy Awards. What would typically be huge feats for regular folks has become the norm for the dynamic duo of Eilish and her brother, Finneas, but could they extend that success for another album cycle? For that third effort, Hit Me Hard and Soft, she didn't offer an advance single or major promotion, a move that might have been construed as getting ahead of any negative critical evaluation. And yet, it simply signaled a quiet confidence in the project, which is another home run. This pair can really do anything. A brisk ten songs, this is a "no skips" gem that is ideal for leaving on repeat and getting lost in the hazy, yearning snapshots of lust, longing, and heartbreak…

Adrian and Paul Gurvitz might be better known for their travels with Ginger Baker in the Baker Gurvitz Army, but in the late '60s the brothers helmed the heavy rock trio Gun and caught a whiff of success in the U.K. with their debut single "Race with the Devil." Using the less-ethnic surname Curtis, Adrian (guitar) and Paul (bass) teamed up with drummer Louis Farrell and pounded out some distinctive psych-flavored proto-metal. Floating about in the mix along with the guitar pyrotechnics and drum workouts are brass and string sections that aren't always welcome, but "Race with the Devil" uses these potentially square instruments well, adding texture to an otherwise brutal stomp. "Yellow Cab Man" is the highlight of the set, a hard pop number with a buzzing guitar hook and frantic, heavily distorted soloing from Adrian…

The second album by Brazilian organist Walter Wanderley, released originally in 1963, is a hidden bossa nova gem. Fortunately the latest reissue reveals the sounds, rhythms, and swirling organ lines to be as crisp and soothing as ever. Wanderley’s albums have sometimes been packaged as lounge or exotica, but this release locates Samba No Esquema De Walter Wanderley firmly in the pantheon of first-wave Brazilian bossa nova.

Being labeled and marketed as a blues musician was never really a good fit for Keb' Mo'. True, he first came to the attention of most when he came out of Compton playing Robert Johnson songs on a National Steel guitar, and that’s how his recording career started, but this is a guy who used to be a staff songwriter for A&M Records, so he has always had plenty of pop, soul, R&B, and jazz in his kit bag and, truth be known, he’s really closer to an artist like James Taylor than he is to Howlin’ Wolf. His album The Reflection, the first on his own Yolabelle record imprint (he also self-produced the album) after several releases with Sony, has nothing on it that could be called blues, and nothing that even really comes close. It’s a calm, easy, and mellow mixture of adult pop…

The Codex Faenza 117 features the richest instrumental variations of medieval plainchant masses and offices that have come down to us, including three pairs of Kyrie-Gloria settings, a ceremonial motet and several sections of a Marian office. Mala Punica’s ground-breaking recording of this repertoire has shown different possible combinations between voices and—mostly keyboard—instruments to be suitable for the repertoire. The program stages five voices and five instrumentalists.

Long one of the finest living interpreters of Bach's sacred music, Philippe Herreweghe here adds two secular cantatas to an already distinguished discography. In the festive Vereinigte Zwietracht der wechselnden Saiten and the celebratory Tönet, ihr Pauken! Erschallet, Trompeten, Herreweghe leads his Collegium Vocale, Ghent in performances of rare beauty and great joy. Taking the symbolic roles of Diligence, Honor and Gratitude in one cantata and the scarcely less symbolic roles of Irene, Bellona, Fama, and Pallas in the other, the vocal quartet of Carolyn Sampson, Ingeborg Danz, Mark Padmore, and Peter Kooy performs with brilliant characterizations and consummate artistry.

The title Seelen-Music (Soul Music) refers to the first complete collection of all the extant Cantatas by Johann Theile for soprano solo with viol accompaniment, presented here with the recording premieres of Sacred Concertos by Theile’s fellow Northern German Christian Flor and Instrumental Suites by the Gottorf violinist Gregor Zuber. The composer Johann Theile is of great significance in music history inasmuch as he is held to be one of the last pupils of Heinrich Schütz, who was the most important German-language composer of the seventeenth century.

After the impressive list of awards, sales results and chart positions all over the world, Gregorian certainly need no introduction. It is in fact a project that long has become a music genre itself.
For one more time, the interpretations of iconic pop and rock songs in monk s cowl take the listeners on a fantastic journey across all genres and decades and offer a balanced mix of classic pop and rock from the past and present. Ranging from the melancholic Angel, originally performed by Sarah McLaughlin, to recent chart success by the young British alternative trio London Grammar (Strong) to maybe the most recognizable songs from the 80s, Tears For Fears Shout, Gregorian constantly perform at a high level. With two original compositions the hymn Masters Of Chant featuring the stunning Amelia Brightman who also showcases her impressive vocal range on Rihanna's Farewell…