Unlike many similar bands, the Vinyl Kings are at least upfront about what they're trying to accomplish. This seven-piece band is unapologetically obsessed with the pop music of the era roughly between 1963 and 1971, and their second album is a hodgepodge of lifts from the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and all the rest. (There's also a strong resemblance to classic-era Electric Light Orchestra in spots, mostly because Jeff Lynne himself was so enamored of the same pop music era.)

Actionfredag is releasing their second album on November 8th! "Lys Fremtid I Mørke" is a life-affirming prog salute inspired by British brick buildings, Sundborn paintings, and vintage Norwegian children's TV. Coinciding with the rerouting of Oslo's buses, the album brings 10 fresh tracks, still defiantly in the major key, maintaining their Swedophile and Canterbury-esque sound, while taking a nostalgic step closer to the band's childhood stomping grounds in East Oslo.
This is a wonderful album that glides along sometimes pithy, sometimes dreamy, sometimes jazzy-intricate, sometimes anthemic-jubilant, sometimes playful-dancing, very varied, yet compact and to the point. By the way, the title of the album is very apt; all in all, this very optimistic and positive music actually seems like a bright spot of light in a rather dark time.

Released in 1994 and curated by Joe Boyd, the 16-track collection Way to Blue held true to its claim as An Introduction to Nick Drake. Though largely unknown during his lifetime and brief career, the beguiling English folksinger ascended to a kind of romantic cult hero in the two decades following his 1974 death. His name was known among artists and hardcore record collectors and thanks to Boyd's Hannibal Records label, his three lone albums along with the essential 1986 rarities disc Time of No Reply were all back in print. Artists like R.E.M., the Cure, and the Dream Academy had all cited him as an influence in the mid-'80s, but it really wasn't until the '90s that his gentle, austere music began to achieve the legendary status that it would enjoy well into the 21st century. A handful of other Nick Drake compilations had existed before this one, but Way to Blue remains the definitive primer for aspiring and casual fans.

It is now generally accepted that Vivaldi wrote ten cello sonatas – one of them now lost. Six (RV 47, 41, 43, 45, 40 and 46) of the surviving nine were published posthumously as a set, in Paris, by Charles-Nicolas Le Clerc around 1740. The other three survive in manuscript collections: RV 42 (along with RV 46) is preserved in the library at Wiesentheid Castle at Unterfranken in Germany; RV 39 and 44 (along with RV 47) are to be found in a manuscript in the Naples Conservatoire.
Geminiani’s opus 5 consists of six cello sonatas, and was first published in Paris in 1746. The twenty years either side of 1740 saw the cello rise to a very fashionable position in French musical society, largely at the expense of the bass-viol – a change of fashion which stirred such strong emotions that in 1740 Hubert Le Blanc published his fierce Defense de la basse de viole contre les entreprises du violon et les pretensions du violencel. Music such as that by Vivaldi and Geminiani which is played here by Roel Dieltiens and his colleagues must have made a powerful counter-case for the cello.

One of the bands that came to Warner Bros. in their buyout of Autumn Records were the Tikis. They had only recorded a handful of singles, and in terms of musical direction and group identity, they definitely had potential. Enter producer Lenny Waronker and session musician /arranger /songwriter /general musical architect Van Dyke Parks. The two of them brought then-drummer Ted Templeman up to the front as co-lead vocalist, along with Dick Scoppettone, and created a soft-rock identity for the group, renaming them Harpers Bizarre. Their first single was perhaps their greatest shot: a cover of the then-brand new Paul Simon song, "Feelin' Groovy." Buttressed by an amazing Leon Russell arrangement and some great performances from the A-list of L.A. session cats, the song quickly went into the Top Ten. The resulting album is almost as great as the single, with songs by Van Dyke Parks ("Come to the Sunshine"), Randy Newman ("Debutante's Ball"), and others. An excellent and definitive slice of California soft pop.

A disc of Handel opera arias from Roberta Invernizzi is remarkable in its own right because it breaks new ground for the Milanese soprano. True, she has taken part in complete operas on disc as on stage, and has recorded plenty of arias by other composers of the time such as Vivaldi, Leo, Porpora, Feo or Mancini (Arias for Domenico Gizzi and I Viaggi di Faustina being two recent albums). This new release from Glossa, however, sees Invernizzi reflecting Handel’s special brand of emotional investigation and making her selection from the many regal characters which pepper Handel’s operas – Cleopatra, Berenice, Arianna and Alcina, among them – and their ardent, affecting, distraught and stately feelings.

On her first Pentatone album, pianist Tamara Stefanovich presents a highly personal selection of solo works by Bach, Bartók, Ives and Messiaen. Influences shows how these extraordinarily original and idiosyncratic composers let themselves be inspired by the exterior world, thereby demonstrating how authenticity comes from looking outside as well as inside. The repertoire spans from Bach's embrace of Italian musical elements in his Aria variata alla maniera italiana, Bartók's incorporation of folk elements in his Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, and Messiaen's use of Hindu rhythms in Cantéyodjayâ to the collage of marching bands, sounds of trains and machinery, church hymns, ragtime and blues in Ives' first piano sonata.

What…do they sound like when played on a modern concert grand? The answer is: wonderful, life-enhancing and completely convincing. But really, assuming the performers are out of the top drawer (as they are here), no one should be astonished…Kirschnereit brings rhythmic elan and a light-handed touch to the solo part. Matthias Kirschnereit performs Handel's Six Concertos for the Organ and Harpsichord, op.4 on piano. It is only now that the depth and beauty of these concertos can be heard in full!

Richly detailed, alternately rugged and studio slick, the airy and expressive debut album from Montreal's Half Moon Run is caught somewhere between the pastoral, harmony-laden northwoods folk of Fleet Foxes, the hazy classic rock meanderings of Band of Horses, and the soulful midnight din of Alt-J and Jeff Buckley. Formed via a craigslist ad, the band's internal anonymity is hardly relative with regard to its cohesiveness, as each track on the brainy yet intuitive Dark Eyes sounds like the sum of its parts, but there is enough space between those parts to suggest a sort of unspoken agreement to avoid any sort of showboating.

Combining virtuosic tapping, ferocious shredding, and deep hooks, Controlled Chaos is the debut solo album from versatile American guitarist Nita Strauss, who first caught the metal scene's attention playing in the all-female Iron Maiden tribute band the Iron Maidens and the popular West Coast hard rock/glam metal outfit Femme Fatale. Citing influences like Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, and composer Johann Strauss, the latter of whom is actually a distant relative, the 11-track instrumental set delivers a lethal blend of melody and might.

Japanese original release. Jackson Browne brings a live album with tracks selected from his Japan tour in 2015, featuring a tight band of top-notch musicians. The songs are selected and mastered by Jackson Browne himself, including “These Days,” “The Crow on the Cradle,” and “Far From the Arms of Hunger.” Clyde Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 18 million albums in the United States. Coming to prominence in the 1970s, Browne has written and recorded songs such as "These Days", "The Pretender", "Running on Empty", "Lawyers in Love", "Doctor My Eyes", "Take It Easy", "For a Rocker", and "Somebody's Baby". In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, and given an honorary doctorate of music by Occidental College in Los Angeles, California. In 2015, Rolling Stone listed him as the 37th greatest songwriter of all time in its list of "100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time".

This is the best record of the year and Minott is the best male vocalist of the decade. The Jolly Boys deserve a best vocalist Grammy, best cover song Grammy, best album Grammy, best all around Grammy and those who value solid music with raw power and hair-raising soulfulness deserve to honor their ears with this one. The Jolly Boys take some great songs on here and make them better as they own them, and they elevate some other mediocre pop songs (that until the Jolly Boys got hold of them were just whiny lyrics and plasticine substance around bubble gum basics) into the bluesy phenomenal stratosphere of hair-raising profound expressions of old school realism.

Dirt is Alice in Chains' major artistic statement and the closest they ever came to recording a flat-out masterpiece. It's a primal, sickening howl from the depths of Layne Staley's heroin addiction, and one of the most harrowing concept albums ever recorded. Not every song on Dirt is explicitly about heroin, but Jerry Cantrell's solo-written contributions (nearly half the album) effectively maintain the thematic coherence - nearly every song is imbued with the morbidity, self-disgust, and/or resignation of a self-aware yet powerless addict. Cantrell's technically limited but inventive guitar work is by turns explosive, textured, and queasily disorienting, keeping the listener off balance with atonal riffs and off-kilter time signatures. Staley's stark confessional lyrics are similarly effective, and consistently miserable…