Deluxe collection of expanded editions of the four best-selling albums by the ever-soulful Howard Hewett whose rise to international prominence began with the global hit making trio Shalamar. Featuring 56 tracks, this first-of-its-kind 4CD box set is titled after ‘I’m For Real’, Howard’s Top 5 RnB hit single from his debut Elektra LP, ‘I Commit To Love’.With photographs from Howard’s personal collection featured in the stellar artwork by Roger Williams, plus excellent mastering by Nick Robbins, ‘I’m For Real’ is co- produced by acclaimed music historian and writer Tim Dillinger and SoulMusic.com
founder David Nathan, whose liner notes for the box set include extensive 2022 quotes and comments from Howard himself.

NRJ Music Awards 2022 is the official compilation of the television musical event which will take place on November 18 live on TF1. All hits and excluded news selected by NRJ are gathered on this 4CD Digipack edition.

There have been many compilations based on tracks sampled by hip-hop producers – such as BGP's Super Breaks series and Virgin's Sampled series – and this one, released through Harmless' Backbeats division, is one of the cheaper and more enjoyable sets. It features not just tracks that have been sampled, but also tracks that remain ripe for use. The selections span the entirety of the '70s, from Parliament's "Come in Out of the Rain" to Vaughn Mason & Crew's "Bounce, Rock, Skate, Roll," and they roam freely from style to style, from smooth soul to funk. One doesn't have to be remotely interested in hip-hop history to find great value here. The relatively obscure material, like Syl Johnson's "Different Strokes," is just as powerful as the hits.

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…

Tom Waits' brilliance is messy - he has so many ideas that sometimes unrealized songs are juxtaposed with moments of greatness on his albums. That may make for the occasional uneven record, but each album has its own distinct tone that makes it a unique listening experience, whether it's a masterpiece or a missed opportunity. And that's the reason why his work, especially his sprawling Island albums, doesn't lend itself to retrospectives like Beautiful Maladies: The Island Years. On the surface, the collection looks promising. The single disc features 22 tracks from Swordfishtrombones, Rain Dogs, Franks Wild Years, Big Time, Bone Machine, and The Black Rider…

Hazel Scott's impressive bop piano was just one facet of talents that extended to playing classical music on the concert stage, singing and acting on-stage and onscreen, and hosting her own radio and television shows. A child prodigy, Scott entered Juilliard at the age of eight and made extensive concert tours of Europe, Africa, and the Near East before recording this date for Debut Records in 1955. For the set, she is accompanied by Debut's founders bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach. Given her talent and training, it's no surprise that Scott has technique to burn. Her energetic presence and personality and easy authority at the piano are amply demonstrated on the up-tempo numbers "The Jeep Is Jumpin'," "A Foggy Day," and "Mountain Greenery," and on the smouldering mid-tempo of Scott's "Git up From Here"…

Need more evidence of the record industry's obsession with youth? Consider that budding Welsh diva Charlotte Church was a ripe, old 16 when this, her first greatest-hits anthology was released. Spanning her first four releases, as well as some outside collaborations and unreleased material, this 18-track collection underscores the soprano's seemingly boundless potential–as well as some potential career obstacles ahead. Her crystalline, still-maturing voice is best showcased on classically oriented works like Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Pie Jesu," Franck's "Panis Angelicus," and her now-ubiquitous rendering of Delibes' "Flower Duet." She also excels on folk traditionals such as "She Moved Through the Fair" and "My Langan Love." But overwrought productions like the already-dated "Dream a Dream" and "Habanera," a faux-flamenco take on Bizet, nearly get the best of her. Still, her promising duet with fellow young phenom Josh Groban on "The Prayer" and her mature, dreamy reading of A Beautiful Mind's "All Love Can Be," as well as strong performances on the previously unreleased "It's the Heart That Matters Most" and "Bridge over Troubled Waters," are ample evidence of her potential for rewarding pop crossover–if she doesn't retire by 21. –Jerry McCulley

Honey Cone, the girl group with the sweet name and the bumblebee persona, didn't masquerade as biker babe wannabes like the Angels, come off as fly foxes like the Ikettes, or fight their battles with tears either. They tell it like it is on "While You're out Looking for Sugar (Somebody's Gonna Take Your Honey and Be Gone)," "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show," "Stick Up," "Want Ads," and others written by a consortium of General Johnson, Angelo Bond, and Gregg Perry, with some Edith Wayne/Ronald Dunbar and HDH tracks in the mix. This complete account of Honey Cone's Hotwax recordings features the excellent "Ace in the Hole" twice – the long album version with the funky, bubbling break and the single edit. Instead of wailing at an imminent breakup, Honey Cone gets philosophical (i.e., "Sitting on a Time Bomb (Waiting on the Hurt to Come)," "The Day I Found Myself," "It's Better to Have Love and Lost," and "Girls It Ain't Easy"). They show vulnerability behind a strong façade on "Take Me With You" and cloying versions of "Ooo Baby Baby" and "Stay in My Corner." With 45 tracks, this gargantuan collection has enough soulful honey to fill a bee hive.

'Break Every Rule' was Tina's follow-up album to the hugely successful comeback album 'Private Dancer' (1984). The first single 'Typical Male' was a big chart success. 'Back Where You Started' earned Tina another Grammy for best rock vocal performance, female in 1987. The album included several star-studded guest performances and songwriting from David Bowie, Mark Knopfler, Bryan Adams, Phil Collins, Steve Winwood and many more. It also saw the return of Terry Britten and Graham Lyle's songwriting partnership, penning the first five tracks of the album. The expanded 2CD edition contains the contents of the first 2CDs from the 3CD/2DVD deluxe edition. The first CD features the original album fully remastered for the first time, with the second CD containing a collection of B-sides, remixes and live performances.

Tori Amos became the voice of a generation of young girls when she delivered her first solo record in 1992. Each of the tracks on Little Earthquakes painted an evocative picture, and the album delivered 5 singles: “Crucify,” “Silent All These Years,” “Winter,” “China,” “Me and A Gun.” The album has already received the deluxe treatment in 2006, and this 2-LP is the first time the tracks have been remastered for this format. Notes are the same as those featured in the 2015 reissue, but the remastering was done lovingly by Jon Astley at Abbey Road Studios. In 2022, to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the record, Z2 announced a graphic novel of the album, and Tori toured the US and Europe.

SATANIC WARMASTER needs no introduction. Since the band's formation in 1998, founder Werwolf has prolifically - and provocatively - stoked fires that refuse to be quenched. A totally independent artist in all aspects, SATANIC WARMASTER has sold hundreds of thousands of albums internationally and played stages all across the world, from north to south and east to west. The band's black metal is devoutly traditional but eternally fruitful, standing as an immovable monument to the purest and proudest foundations of the artform. Cryogenic and caressing is its melodicism, in the glare of burning churches, and deftly dusted with subtle synths that heighten the mysticism at the heart of the SW sound, Aamongandr's six songs charge forth with the grim grandiosity of mighty steeds; not for nothing is one of the album's highlights titled "Duke's Ride (Ride of the Spectral Hooves)." All told, this sixth long-form statement of intent is immediately recognizable as SATANIC WARMASTER but irrevocably proves that its creator's imagination continues to flow as infinitely as the Atlantean depths.

Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as 'Cleopatra' was the last active pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. To this day, Cleopatra remains a popular figure in Western culture. Her legacy survives in numerous works of art and the many dramatizations of her story in literature and other media, including William Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, George Bernard Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra, Jules Massenet's opera Cléopâtre and the 1963 film Cleopatra. But she was also inspiration for the third rock opera made by the Dutch band Kayak, after releasing Merlin - Bard Of The Unseen (2003) and Nostradamus - The Fate Of Man (2005) earlier.

Così fan tutte is the third most-frequently performed work at the festival after Le nozze di Figaro and Die Zauberflöte. This DVD provides a closer look at a classical staging from the Salzburg Festival in the series of important opera productions seen at the festival in the last decades. Riccardo Muti had made a sensational Salzburg début in 1971 and this Così fan tutte was his first Mozart opera at the festival. It was acclaimed by both the general public and international critics, who were virtually unanimous in their praise of the aesthetic quality of the production. Muti was praised for his authoritative approach to Mozart’s music, while the remarkably homogeneous team of international soloists was equally applauded. The singers form an admirably cohesive ensemble and all of them are outstanding Mozart singers.

…[Böhm] may be an octogenarian, but he directs the opera for the most part with a spirit and an urgency that many a young man might envy. Most of the accompanied recitatives are alert and fiery, and in this particular work they carry a great deal of the emotional weight. Here and there I find myself at odds with a choice of tempo. Especially in the closing scenes, some of the orchestral recitative seems to need to go more slowly; it is inclined to lack the proper sense of momentousness. I was a little surprised too at the quickish tempo for the opening aria and, most of all, for the great quartet in Act III, which has more turbulence and urgency than usual, particularly with its sharply contoured dynamics and its incisive accents.

This imaginatively-curated, generously-filled Christmas package is sure to find favor during this and future holiday seasons. Why? Because it packs in every conceivable carol, tune, choral work or song in timeless performances from the greatest artists in the world: singers of immense communicative gifts including Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming and Luciano Pavarotti to name but four. It truly offers something of every Christmas mind, spirit, and looks fantastic.