To the uninitiated Cracker might seem to be just another 90s alternative rock band. However, fans recognize that the band is much more than that, having skillfully explored a wide array of styles over nearly 35 years.Regrettably, when newcomers hear a Cracker song and wish to learn more about the band, they often start with algorithmic streaming playlists. These playlists are typically limited to the dozen or so tracks with the most streams. As a result, these playlists are dominated by a few albums from the early 1990s, the heyday of alternative rock radio. There are also a few “greatest hits” compilations for Cracker available, but these at best cover only the first third of the band’s 35-year career. Both of these sources overlook some of the band’s most critically acclaimed and fan-favorite work.

'Into The Gap' by Thompson Twins is an era-defining album of the '80s. This 40th anniversary reissue is the most comprehensive reissue of this album ever, remastered at Abbey Road Studios and compiled with the full blessing of all three band members from the classic line-up. 'Into the Gap' stands as one of the band's most successful albums, emblematic of the synth-pop era's peak. At the time, Thompson Twins were a leading force in the new wave movement, with 'Into the Gap' reaching number one on the UK Albums Chart and selling over 1 million copies in the US. 'Into the Gap' encapsulated the spirit of 1980s pop culture, combining innovative sound with a strong visual identity, making it a defining record of the decade. Both physical formats feature digitally restored artwork and new liner notes, written by John Earls and features contributions from all three band members. The triple CD format includes 30 bonus tracks, 12 of which are previously unreleased and a 24-page booklet.

Mexican superstar Luis Miguel followed up his immensely successful ballads collection, Romance, with the aptly titled Grammy-winner Segundo Romance (meaning second romance). The album, of course, is a first-rate collection of timeless Latin American standards. Miguel, one of Latin America's reigning superstars, has a wonderful, passionate voice, and the songs were exquisitely produced by the artist himself. The album opens with a romantic accordion leading into the first song, "El Dia Que Me Quieras," setting the tone for the rest of the set. Other highlights include his lush version of "La Media Vuelta," one of the album's biggest hits, complete with horns, strings, and Spanish guitars.

Demon / Edsel are delighted to announce the release of multi-million-selling singer-songwriter, musician and actor Natalie Imbruglia’s first ever live album. Recorded in 2022 in London’s Shepherd’s Bush, ‘London - Live’ showcases the artist at the very top of their powers on what’s effectively a greatest hits, in live format. Highlights include ‘Shiver’, ‘Wrong impression’, ‘Wishing I Was There’, ‘Big Mistake’, and the invincible ‘Torn’, named by ‘Rolling Stone’ as one of the 50 best tracks of the 1990s.

Nobody Loves You More is Kim Deal’s debut album, although it’s technically not her first release under her own name – she self- released a 5-part, 10-song 7” vinyl series in 2013, and beyond that, she’s earned her stripes as early as the late 80s with bands Pixies and The Breeders. The long-awaited record’s creation began with its oldest songs, “Are You Mine?” and “Wish I Was,” which were written and recorded in 2011, and included in 2013 vinyl series, shortly after Deal concluded Pixies’ ‘Lost Cities Tour’ and relocated to L.A. In the years since, the record took shape in pieces, with a variety of collaborators including Breeders past and present (Mando Lopez, Kelley Deal, Jim Macpherson, and Britt Walford), and new friends like Jack Lawrence (The Greenhorns) and Savages’ Fay Milton and Ayse Hassan. Tracked over the last several years, the record’s last recording was helmed by iconic engineer and Deal’s close friend Steve Albini, tracking “A Good Time Pushed” with Jim and Kelley in November 2022.

So much more than just the archetypal jam band, the Grateful Dead grew to become an artistic and cultural institution that existed entirely on their own terms. While the band initially came out of a psychedelic revolution in the Bay Area's musically and chemically exploratory mid-'60s, they quickly evolved from their acid rock beginnings, incorporating elements of Americana and Bakersfield country into gently majestic albums like 1970's American Beauty.

The Book of Taliesyn is the second studio album by English rock band Deep Purple, recorded only three months after Shades of Deep Purple and released by Tetragrammaton Records in October 1968, just before their first US tour. The name for the album was taken from the 14th-century Book of Taliesin. The structure of the album is similar to that of their debut, with four original songs and three rearranged covers, although the tracks are longer, the arrangements more complex and the sound more polished than on Shades of Deep Purple. The music style is a mix of psychedelic rock, progressive rock and hard rock, with several inserts of classical music arranged by the band's keyboard player Jon Lord.

Allan Taylor is one of England's most-respected singer/songwriters. His songs have been covered by artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Don Williams, Frankie Miller, Fairport Convention, Dick Gaughan, the McCalmans, the Fureys, the Clancy Brothers, and De Dannan. Folk Roots praised him for his "ability to crystallize a mood and evoke an era with the ease of a computer memory access, crafting perfect songs with dramatic changes in the spirit of Brecht, Bikel, and Brel." The Oxford Book of Traditional Verse felt as strongly, writing that Taylor was "one of the most literate and sensitive of contemporary songwriters in terms of words and music and one who is capable of exploring more complex subjects than most of his contemporaries."

Themes from Calmi Cuori Appassionati is a soundtrack album by Irish singer, songwriter and musician Enya, released in Japan on 30 October 2001 by WEA International. It is compiled of songs recorded between 1986 and 2000 that were used for the soundtrack to the 2001 Japanese romantic film Calmi Cuori Appassionati. The album entered the Japanese album chart at number two, and become Enya's second album after Paint the Sky with Stars – The Very Best of Enya (1997) to sell one million copies in the country.

10cc's first two albums, recorded under the sponsorship of entrepreneur and one-time pop star Jonathan King, are combined on one disc for this CD reissue. 1973's 10cc shows that from the start, the group had an uncommon command of recording studio technique; the performances are polished, the harmonies superb, and the production flawless and often witty (all the more remarkable from a new band producing themselves, albeit one comprised of music-biz vets). However, the group was still getting up to speed in terms of their songwriting at this point, and while the craft is fine, there isn't a lot of inspiration on hand. Except for the sardonic "Rubber Bullets" and sarcastically sprightly "The Dean and I," the '50s-inspired parodies on side one don't wear well, and most of side two is clever but not terribly distinguished. 1974's Sheet Music was where 10cc truly hit their stride; the album is full of effective barbed humor buffered by the superbly polished production, which leans toward pretension without quite falling into the pool.

Steely Dan hadn't been a real working band since Pretzel Logic, but with Aja, Walter Becker and Donald Fagen's obsession with sonic detail and fascination with composition reached new heights. A coolly textured and immaculately produced collection of sophisticated jazz-rock, Aja has none of the overt cynicism or self-consciously challenging music that distinguished previous Steely Dan records. Instead, it's a measured and textured album, filled with subtle melodies and accomplished, jazzy solos that blend easily into the lush instrumental backdrops.

Sync might be envisioned as a modified sax/bass/drum trio, where the bassist has been replaced by Jerome Harris on either acoustic guitar or acoustic bass guitar, and where the drummer’s role is taken by Samir Chatterjee on tabla and dumbek. With Rothenberg moving among alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the Japanese shakuhachi and composing looping ribbons of melody with odd rhythmic contours, the trio has found a most palatable merger of jazz and Asian music. The uncommon instrumentation is enhanced by a shared sense of purpose that gives Sync its winning character. Each player displays both the techniques and the sensitivity required to function as both soloist and accompanist, allowing Sync to maintain its three-way conversations after Rothenberg has finished soloing. This is not simply a matter of the leader’s ability to sustain extended melodic and rhythmic variations at lower volumes through circular breathing; it also results from the assurance that allows Harris to sustain a pronounced rhythmic underpinning in his guitar work and rare melodic fluency on bass. Chatterjee, who can sing and then play back the most complex patterns in the manner of the great tabla masters, also senses how to highlight more compact, swing-oriented parts through shifts in accents and dynamics.

One of the guitar heroes of fusion, Al di Meola was just 22-years-old at the time of his debut as a leader but already a veteran of Chick Corea's Return to Forever. The complex pieces (which include the three-part "Suite-Golden Dawn," an acoustic duet with Corea on "Short Tales of the Black Forest," and a brief Bach violin sonata show di Meola's range even at this early stage. With assistance from such top players as bassists Jaco Pastorius and Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Barry Miles, and drummers Lenny White and Steve Gadd, this was a very impressive beginning to di Meola's solo career.

Johann Sebastian Bach arrived in Leipzig on May 22, 1723. After peaceful years in the small residence town of Cöthen he was moving to the busy mercantile and university city, forsaking the office of Capellmeister at the princely court for the post of Cantor, as he was to call it. Just eight days later, on May 30, Bach presented his first cantata. On every Sunday and feast day outside the periods of Advent and Lent preceding Christmas and Easter respectively, it was the task of the Thomaskantor to direct such pieces in the churches of St. Nicolai and St. Thomas in turn.

Guitarist Dave Specter has always straddled the blues/jazz fence with a hip disregard for arbitrary restrictions. On Speculatin', his sixth Delmark CD, Dave has put his distinctive mark on a collection of outstanding instrumental tunes from all corners of these related genres, tossing in a latin beat and some greasy organ in addition to his unmistakable West Side and Texas-inspired blues licks. The result will please all lovers of lean, inspired guitar work and will astound the blues buyer who previously considered instrumentals to be mere CD filler. Speculatin' features nine original compositions and covers of tunes by Charles Earland, The Meters, Dizzy Gillespie and Junior Walker. Dave is accompanied by his working band of Rob Waters, Hammond B3 organ; Harlan Terson, bass; Mike Schlick, drums; and Rich Parenti, tenor sax.