A companion album of sorts to 2019's My Songs, Duets collects 17 duets Sting has recorded over the years. Some of these tracks appeared on soundtracks, some were included on albums by his duet partners, others – including "September," a song recorded with Zucchero that makes its debut here – trickled out on compilations. Collectively, these duets showcase Sting The Polymath, a cultured and worldly individual with an ability to synthesize his diverse interests into smooth, jazzy, mature pop. What's striking about the compilation is how a roster as diverse as Eric Clapton, Shaggy, Mary J. Blige, Annie Lennox, Herbie Hancock, Sam Moore, and Julio Iglesias doesn't sound especially eclectic; when the common denominator is Sting, all the guests adapt to his particular ways.

Several years after the original art rock supergroup Colosseum disbanded, drummer Jon Hiseman formed Colosseum II, a more jazz fusion-oriented outfit featuring guitarist Gary Moore (Thin Lizzy) and keyboardist Don Airey. Their eclectic debut, Strange New Flesh, shows some impressive chops from all involved, with an emphasis on Moore's soulful guitar leads. Vocalist Mike Starr, while not an immensely engaging singer, does a nice job keeping up with Hiseman and bass player Neil Murray. Highlights include the technically showy but blissfully irreverent ode to Pink Floyd, "Dark Side of the Moog," a nice version of Joni Mitchell's "Down to You," and the funky "Gemini and Leo."

This ambitious video and musical project was co-ordinated by Tom Galley (brother of former Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley) - the albums are concept affairs, centred on the theme of supernatural phenomena. However, utilizing an impressive list of guest musicians has not always guaranteed a good result, and Phenomena went some way towards proving this truism. With Neil Murray (bass), Cozy Powell (drums), Mel Galley (guitar) and Glenn Hughes (vocals) among the initial line-up, great things were evidently expected for Phenomena. However, the songs were often overtly complex and lacked a central melody line. Dream Runner, released two years later, suffered from similar problems, but the music was less of a disappointment.

Encountering this material in a fresh setting, stripped of the familiar configurations of the original albums, we can reassess this important music in contemporary terms. Right off the bat, As Good As It Gets receives a demerit for omitting "Mary Had a Little Lamb," easily Guy's best known … waxing. Otherwise, the CD provides a reasonable overview of the mercurial guitarist's output. Best of all, the set uncovers three previously unreleased items from the '67 sessions.

Feels Like Home is the ninth studio album by American singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow and was released September 10, 2013. The album is Crow’s debut country music record and also is her first release through Warner Bros. Records. The album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and was produced by Crow and Justin Niebank. The album was ranked by Billboard as one of the ten best country albums of 2013.

As Queen's second live album, Live Magic might appear to be a bit unnecessary, but a closer look reveals that it's a better record than the previous Live Killers. Culled from a variety of dates from the 1986 Kind of Magic tour but concentrating on the final show at Knebworth, Live Magic captures Queen, and Freddie Mercury in particular, at the height of their powers. While the set list might rely a bit too heavily on mediocre mid-'80s material for some tastes, the band is tight and professional, and Mercury has an undeniable hold over the crowd. It's to Queen's credit that the energy rarely dips over the course of the record.

Lucifer's Friend is a German hard rock band, formed in Hamburg in 1970, fronted by British vocalist John Lawton (of Uriah Heep), guitarist Peter Hesslein, bassist Dieter Horns, keyboardist Peter Hecht, and drummer Joachim Reitenbach. The group was an early practitioner of heavy metal and progressive rock; they also incorporated elements of jazz and fusion into their music, especially in their fourth album Banquet of 1974. Evolved from Asterix and comprised of 3/4 of The German Bonds, the group officially disbanded in 1982. They briefly reunited (1993-1997) as Lucifer's Friend II, releasing one album before disbanding once again. Original members John Lawton (ex-Uriah Heep), Peter Hesslein and Dieter Horns thrilled fans when they put Lucifer's Friend back together in 2015.

Tougher Than Love is the debut album by singer-songwriter Diana King. The album peaked at #179 on The Billboard 200, #85 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and #1 on the Top Reggae Albums chart. It features the four hit singles, "Shy Guy", "Love Triangle", "Ain't Nobody" (a cover of the Rufus & Chaka Khan song from 1983), and "Treat Her Like a Lady." Diana King is a Jamaican singer-songwriter who performs a mixture and fusion of reggae, reggae fusion and dancehall. She was born to an Indo-Jamaican mother and an Afro Jamaican father. She is best known for her hit 1995 single "Shy Guy" and her remake of "I Say a Little Prayer" which was featured on the soundtrack to My Best Friend's Wedding.

Sharon Kovacs, who records and performs as Kovacs, is a Dutch singer with a darkly alluring, soul-steeped voice that recalls that of Amy Winehouse. As a youngster, Kovacs played in bands and performed at talent shows, but she didn't make any serious moves until after she graduated high school, when she auditioned for Rock City Institute, a music school based in her hometown of Eindhoven. She was accepted but found that she and her teachers were a poor match. Through social media, she contacted Oscar Holleman and impressed the producer enough to spark a collaboration. The two involved additional songwriters and recorded an album in Holland and Cuba.

When it was first released in 1994, Richard Buckner's debut album Bloomed seemed little short of miraculous, a beautifully spare but rich and compelling set of songs about the sweet and bitter sides of love, accompanied by a superb, primarily acoustic ensemble led by producer Lloyd Maines. In retrospect, Bloomed turned out to reveal just one of the many facets of Buckner's musical personality, but if his muse took him many places after this (and continued to guide him in fascinating ways), this still remains one of the most satisfying and engaging albums in his catalog.

It only seems like there has been an endless stream of Grateful Dead compilations. In reality, there has only been a handful, and the most notable of those were released while the band was still an active recording and touring unit in the '70s – and before they had belated chart success in the late '80s, 20 years after their debut album. So, Warner/Rhino's 2003 collection The Very Best of Grateful Dead marks the first attempt to do a thorough single-disc overview of the group's career, encompassing not just their classic Warner albums but also the records they cut for their own Grateful Dead/UA and Arista.

Pleasures takes us back to the live album of that name culled from two evenings of concerts in Hamburg in August 1975 and is a reissue of that album together with five extra cuts from the same sets (three of which duplicate songs featured earlier in alternate performances). This is definitive mid-70s Chapman, here featured first in solo acoustic mode then from track five onwards with a band (Keef Hartley, Steffi Stephen and Achim Reichel), arguably at the zenith of the soulful-rockin’ phase of his career.

Venus and Mars is the fourth studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, and the sixth album by Paul McCartney after the break-up of the Beatles in 1970. Released in May 1975 as the follow-up to Band on the Run, Venus and Mars continued Wings' run of commercial success and provided a springboard for a year-long worldwide tour. The album was McCartney's first post-Beatles album to be released worldwide by Capitol Records rather than Apple. After recording Band on the Run as a three-piece with wife Linda McCartney and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney recruited guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton to the band in 1974.

A-ha's sixth studio CD (seventh if their greatest-hits collection is included) came seven years after their previous album, Memorial Beach, and in that time it seems that a-ha mellowed out. They do not seem to have concern about attracting the youth/dance market, but instead seem to be focusing in on how to make perfect middle-of-the-road pop songs with '90s technology. This is not a criticism, as it produces several fantastic songs, such as "Little Black Heart" and the wonderful "I Wish That I Cared."

For his 2001 All-Star Band outing – his fourth captured on album – Ringo Starr is joined by fellow old-timers like bassist Greg Lake, Ian Hunter on guitars, Sheila E., Howard Jones, and Supertramp's Roger Hodgson (who contributes three songs, with the rest relegated to a single track apiece). It's an eclectic group, but all deliver fine, if predictable, readings of their biggest hits, with Sheila E.'s ten-minute version of her "Glamorous Life" a concert and album highlight.