Ever since Californication re-united the band with John Frusciante and spawned a couple hundred major hit singles, Red Hot Chili Peppers have done something that would have caused people to laugh at the sheer ridiculousness of the idea some decades back, becoming one of the planet's biggest rock acts. By the Way might have been a somber, mellow product of age and Frusciante's sudden hold on songwriting but its sudden style-switch did nothing to the general trajectory and launched the band even further. Stadium Arcadium, in all its bloated, massive glory is in its essence an album made by a Huge Band. It doesn't necessarily reflect on the scale of the sound - there's plenty of slower, subtler moments - but in its sound it's loud and clear an album that could only be made by a band that knows its stuff and knows they have to perform their stuff to millions of fans in thousand-head venues. In essence, an honest arena band rock record…

Clouds were a highly influential Scottish prog-rock band formed in Edinburgh in the mid-1960s. Under their original name 1-2-3, the band gained attention in London's underground scene, especially at The Marquee Club in 1967. Their sound was ahead of its time–melding classical, jazz, and rock influences with no lead guitarist, and Billy Ritchie taking centre stage on keyboards. Ritchie's flamboyant, frontman-style organ work would later inspire keyboardists like Keith Emerson.

With its complexity and instrumental richness, its ability to develop anguishing themes and electric rises and its overgrowing tension, Shylock has often been compared to King Crimson. Actually, this instrumental combo also belongs to wild and intricate Progressive rock with tormenting atmospheres, but has its own personality. The latter is expressed through overwhelming lyricism and refined romanticism, a bit like Pulsar. With its schizoido-electronic dimension, Shylock can also make you think of Heldon. What's more, each musician is a real virtuoso, especially guitarist Frédéric L'epee and outstanding drummer André Fisichella. As "Gialorgues" (1975) can be considered as a very good debut album, "Ile de Fièvre" (1978) is widely known as an absolute masterpiece.

To say that Iron Maiden's The Book of Souls was ardently anticipated would be a vast understatement. Though it was (mostly) finished in 2014, vocalist Bruce Dickinson's cancer diagnosis and treatment delayed its release until he was medically cleared. While 2006's A Matter of Life and Death and 2010's The Final Frontier showcased longer songs, Book of Souls is epic by comparison. Their first double album, it's 92 minutes long, and three of its 11 tracks are over ten minutes. Steve Harris contributed one solo composition, and co-wrote six tracks with various bandmates. Dickinson - for the first time since Powerslave – wrote two solo tunes, the album's bookends, and collaborated on two more. The music is cleanly divided between the two discs. The first is tight; it offers a bit of everything that makes Iron Maiden…well, Iron Maiden. It is seemingly self-contained…

Originally released in 1995, Balance marked the final studio album from the classic Van Halen lineup of Sammy Hagar, Eddie Van Halen, Alex Van Halen, and Michael Anthony. The Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum record debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and spawned the Top 40 hit “Can’t Stop Lovin’ You,” along with fan favorites “Don’t Tell Me (What Love Can Do)” and “Amsterdam.”

Live On Tour was recorded at the Agora in Cleveland on December 18, 1978 and published as promo LP for radio broadcast in 1979. Recorded on the More Songs About Buildings and Food tour, the promo release was never officially released for the public. This is the first official release of the full show, fully remastered from the original analogue tapes and features one previously unreleased track.

As far as debut albums go, this eponymous release is a surprisingly accomplished effort from the Nottingham-born teenager Jake Bugg. Although he stares out from the album cover like a younger, long-lost cousin of the View or the Enemy, while those U.K. indie acts found their nourishment on a diet of the Jam, Oasis, and the Strokes, Bugg found time to explore pre-Beatles music from the likes of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens. These influences - combined with a folk sensibility and moments of delicate acoustic fingerpicking that betray a love for Bob Dylan and Donovan - make for an accessible, pop-focused record that doesn’t attempt to chase innovation. Much of the material here was co-written, produced, and mixed by Snow Patrol and Reindeer Section collaborator Iain Archer…

The definitive version of Funkadelic’s groundbreaking 1970 debut, remastered from original master tapes and restored to its full cosmic glory.