Santana Love Songs? There have been two instrumental collections already, so why not? Sony's choices are pretty solid for the most part, and it's obvious this record was created more as a vibe album than a theme one – given that "Samba Pa Ti" is an instrumental, is it really a love song? But this might have been called Music for Loving or Wit the Lights Off or something like that, because the mood is unabashedly romantic though far from syrupy or sentimental. The sheer sensuality in Santana's guitar tone and the placement of percussion in the mix offers plenty of texture for languid amorous tunes like the band's cover of "Stormy" or J.J. Cale's "The Sensitive Kind."

The double-disc compilation The Essential Julio Iglesias contains 37 of the crooner’s biggest hits of the '80s and beyond, slightly favoring his Spanish-language smashes but also containing several English-language crossovers, including duets with All-4-One, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Frank Sinatra. The only major item missing is the Willie Nelson duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” (the song is present in a solo Spanish version), but everything else here is solid.

Despite being a rather inconsistent act, the Eagles were one of the most successful rock bands of the '70s. Made up of five fine musicians (each with unquestionably superb vocal talent), the band blended impressive but often simple music with melodious vocal harmonies. This 1994 release attempts to collect the best tracks from the Eagles' catalog. While it does succeed in compiling many of the finer songs, the need for certain tracks is questionable. On the whole, however, The Very Best Of retains the Eagles magic that typified their finer moments. For those unfamiliar with the Eagles' music, this release will open eyes as to why the band is so revered. The album goes from strength to strength and only takes a small drop in quality in various places. Being slightly overlong at 71 minutes, this is as complete a best-of as one will find, but includes a few unnecessary tracks.

While its unpretentious cover photo and small text don't proclaim it as an important recording, Noriko Ogawa's 2012 SACD of Mozart piano sonatas is the kind of sleeper album that quietly asserts its value and convinces purely through the beauty of the music. The three piano sonatas presented here also have that kind of unassuming quality. Mozart composed them as teaching pieces, suitable for players of modest skills, yet they have become extremely popular and rank among his best loved works. Ogawa plays them with a light touch that suits their simplicity, and her interpretations of K. 330, K. 331 (famous for its Rondo alla Turca), and K. 332 are transparent and almost naïve, but for the subtlety of attack, balanced phrasing, and shaded dynamics that reveal her artistry. BIS provides nearly ideal sound quality for Ogawa, offering clean reproduction and reasonably close microphone placement that make listening effortless.

Ali Farka Touré is well known as one of the most influential and talented guitarists that Africa has ever produced. His legacy and impact are hard to overstate: Ali’s sound merged his much-loved traditional Malian musical styles with distinct elements of the blues, resulting in the creation of a groundbreaking new genre, now well known as the ‘desert blues’, earning him 3 Grammy awards and widespread reverence. 'Voyageur' is the first release of previously unheard music since 2006’s 'Savane', and features a collection of recordings captured at various points in Ali’s illustrious career. The album, which features fellow Malian superstar Oumou Sangaré on 3 tracks, reaffirms Ali’s status as a globally revered legend of African music.

Here's the guy everybody knows for his monster rock/reggae/electro hit "Electric Avenue." What did he ever do after that? Almost nobody knows, and that's what this Music Club collection attempts to inform the world of for a budget price. Personally, I love Music Club reissues; they are priced super reasonably, they have lovely packages that feature enough tracks to give a representative sample with a few rarities tossed in, and they offer an adequate set of liner notes to educate the listener. This is helpful in the case of Grant, who, at least in the U.S., is a one-hit MTV wonder.

Clapton Chronicles ignores Eric Clapton's 1983 Reprise debut, Money and Cigarettes (which sounded more like an RSO album, anyway), starting with the pair of Phil Collins-produced mid-'80s albums, Behind the Sun and August. Though these had a pop sheen, they were album rock holdovers. Clapton didn't get the balance between hard rock and commercial gloss right until 1989's Journeyman, whose featured songs – "Before You Accuse Me," "Bad Love," and "Pretending" – form the heart of this compilation.

The Very Best of Cher is the eighth compilation album by American singer-actress Cher, released on April 1, 2003. The album includes many of Cher's most popular songs, such as "If I Could Turn Back Time", "Believe", "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" and "Take Me Home". The original U.S. edition features 21 tracks, while the various later editions typically feature more songs or different selections. Live! The Farewell Tour is the only live album by Cher. The album was recorded at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida, United States on a show from her Living Proof: The Farewell Tour. The album was also included in the Special Edition of The Very Best of Cher.

For his first album for the Concord jazz imprint, vibraphonist Gary Burton goes back: back to some of the most enduring compositions in the jazz lexicon, constructing the program on Departure completely from jazz standards, except for "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs" (the theme from the television show Frasier). Along with guitarist John Scofield, drummer Peter Erskine, pianist Fred Hersch, and bassist John Patitucci, Burton also returns here to the quicksilver, porcelain sound of the George Shearing quintet, Burton's first job after graduating from the Berklee College of Music.

Diana Krall paid tribute to her father on Glad Rag Doll, the 2012 album sourced from his collection of 78-rpm records, and, in a sense, its 2015 successor Wallflower is a companion record of sorts, finding the singer revisiting songs from her childhood. Like many kids of the 20th century, she grew up listening to the radio, which meant she was weaned on the soft rock superhits of the '70s – songs that earned sniffy condescension at the time but nevertheless have turned into modern standards due to their continual presence in pop culture (and arguably were treated that way at the time, seeing cover after cover by middlebrow pop singers).