The Dead Milkmen - Bucky Fellini download album

The Dead Milkmen - Bucky Fellini

Artist: The Dead Milkmen

Album: Bucky Fellini

Release Date: 1987

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

A step up from the good but not great Eat Your Paisley, Bucky Fellini begins with a parody of the bandmember introductions from Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" and raises another fun and funny stink. The most entertaining and ridiculous thing the band ever did takes deserved center stage -- "Instant Club Hit (You'll Dance to Anything)." Consisting of drum machine fills, intentionally basic basslines and Rodney Anonymous' instantly recognizable sneer, it's a hilarious, all-too-knowing rip on '80s new wave / dance culture. With lines like "Oh, baby, look at you, don't you look like Siouxsie Sioux" and "'I met Andy Warhol at a really chic party/Blow it out your hair, dude, cuz you work at Hardee's!" it's hilarity personified (and bizarrely enough won them an appearance on an MTV dance show, where they encouraged a bout of stage diving). Nothing equals that song's sublime satire, but the Milkmen still stir things up with a touch more fire and sass than before. Naming a song "I Am the Walrus" that has absolutely nothing to do with the Beatles song proves that the jokers are in full effect. The goofy, country-tinged "Watching Scotty Die," features Joe Jack Talcum's surprisingly good Dobro playing. In honor of the album's Texas recording locale, some native sons are honored via covers. Daniel Johnston's "Rocketship" keeps its charm in a full-band arrangement, while the LeRoi Brothers' "Big Time Operator" gets an appropriate rave-up that also trashes Lone Star blowhards like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Charlie Sexton. Add in songs trashing Graceland and titles like "(Theme From) Blood Orgy of the Atomic Fern," and the result is another successful batch of silliness.

Jason & the Scorchers - Midnight Roads & Stages Seen download album

Jason & the Scorchers - Midnight Roads & Stages Seen

Artist: Jason & the Scorchers

Album: Midnight Roads & Stages Seen

Release Date: May 5, 1998

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

This seminal country-punk outfit proves they haven't lost any power in their punch with this double-live effort. There are even a few unreleased studio tracks tacked on the tail of the second disc. Check out the searing cover of Dylan's "Absolutely Sweet Marie." It just goes to show what many have said for years: there's nothing like a Jason and the Scorchers show.

All Angels - All Angels download album

All Angels - All Angels

Artist: All Angels

Album: All Angels

Release Date: November 13, 2006

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

Released for the Christmas market, when the "once a year" brigade comes out and buys a record, the debut album by the teenage quartet All Angels hit the Top Ten in the last week of November 2006. However, the competition for classical crossover albums was strong that year, All Angels competing with chart albums from the Fron Male Voice Choir, Katherine Jenkins, Il Divo, and the very similar-sounding Angelis. The momentum could not be sustained, and All Angels disappeared entirely from the chart even before Christmas week. This album mixed arrangements of classical repertoire, mainly the more popular and well-known end, with soft MOR pop songs. It included Delibes' Flower Duet, Mascagni's Hosanna from Cavalleria Rusticana, and -- almost inevitably for a group of angelic female singers -- Schubert's Ave Maria and Barber's Agnus Dei. The pop repertoire included "The Windmills of Your Mind," Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird," and also inevitably, Robbie Williams' "Angels." Those who did not like the voice on the original "Angels" could at least focus on the guitar solo, but even that was lacking on the All Angels version, as the track was watered down to provide the ideal of a middle-of-the-road, easy listening song. Universal were masters at promoting classical crossover music, and although a cynic might point to the CD's initial high chart position and rapid descent as a sign of failure, the girls were very talented singers and musically this was a very accomplished album. All the tracks were obviously chosen for maximum effect and profit but lacked originality -- and ultimately All Angels was a nice easy listen but unsatisfying, the classical pieces being superior to the pop choices.

Rima - This World download album

Rima - This World

Artist: Rima

Album: This World

Release Date: May 20, 2003

Genre: Electronic

Format: mp3 / FLAC

A project from longtime broken beat/drum'n'bass producer Domu and the Archive/Neroli label was inevitable, as a lot of Domu's recent success had been via Archive and Neroli. However, what's amazingly interesting is that the duo decided to record for Michael Reinboth's Compost label rather than their own. Whatever the label, the results most likely would have been the same. Crisp, sharp drum programming over soulful strings and beautiful song arrangements run rampant on Rima's This World, especially when hi-tech jazzman Ian O'Brien is called in to add his special touch of musical genius to the formula, as he does so well on the album's leadoff track, "Modern Times." Contributions from Mark de Clive-Lowe and Julie Dexter only enhance the album's sweetness, providing an extra treat for broken beat fanatics. From start to finish, it's a gorgeously produced album, one of the best from Compost in ages. And it's this consistency that not only sets This World apart from most other downtempo artist full-lengths, but it's also a testament as to how far the genre has come in such a short span of time.

The Waterboys - The Best of the Waterboys: 1981-1990 download album

The Waterboys - The Best of the Waterboys: 1981-1990

Artist: The Waterboys

Album: The Best of the Waterboys: 1981-1990

Release Date: 1991

Genre: Pop/Rock

Format: mp3 / FLAC

What separates The Waterboys' music from other bands of the same Celtic, folk-rock sound is the intricacies that lead singer Mike Scott puts into his work. His lyrics are forever tangled up in metaphors and philosophy, brightened by accompanying mandolins, saxophones, and even trumpets. Rich in its boatyard appeal and seaside caricature, The Best of the Waterboys harbors their most renowned pieces from 1981 straight through to 1990, bringing to light their dockside effervescence with songs like "Fisherman's Blues" and "Strange Boat." Superb at conveying atmosphere with their instruments, The Waterboys added depth and uniqueness to a decade that was being saturated with arena rock, synth pop, and heavy metal. The sweetness of tunes like "A Girl Called Johnny" and "Spirit" are blanketed with the comfort of Anthony Thistlethwaite's sax and upright bass strumming, and "A Bang on the Ear" loses itself in its cozy Englishness. The prettiest of all the songs is by far "The Whole of the Moon" from This Is the Sea, which has Scott singing his most passionate assortment of romantic lyrics to the relaxed pace of Karl Wallinger's synthesizer. The beauty of their music unfolds throughout their vivid collaboration of voice and instrument, heightened in tracks such as "A Man Is in Love" and "All the Things She Gave Me." Here, the small village idioms wrap themselves around the music to produce a certain innocence that forever binds itself to Scott's persona. It is this collaboration of esoteric lyricism and jovial harmonies that cast wonderment throughout each separate piece. This compilation is an excellent discovery point for anyone interested in the gorgeous complexity of The Waterboys' music. [This album was reissued in 2003 as Essential].

John Lee Hooker - I Feel Good! download album

John Lee Hooker - I Feel Good!

Artist: John Lee Hooker

Album: I Feel Good!

Release Date: 1971

Genre: Blues

Format: mp3 / FLAC

Nine songs recorded double-quick in one session, with Lowell Fulson on lead guitar on most of it -- the rare embellishment on a Hooker release makes for unusually complex and rewarding listening, instrumentally speaking, beneath Hooker's ominous vocals. The textures on this reissue are very crisp and vivid, with a crunchiness that should make this a CD of choice for Hooker's rock fans, much more so than, say, the Canned Heat collaborations -- Hooker and Fulson make a mean team on "Dazie Mae." Among the other highlights is Hooker's own take on the blues standard "Rollin' and Tumblin'," done here as "Roll and Tumble." The uncredited band that shows up on some of these cuts (which, in some instances, may have originated in Paris) is loose enough to follow Hooker, and he and Fulson play like one person together.

Lionel Hampton - 1945-1946 download album

Lionel Hampton - 1945-1946

Artist: Lionel Hampton

Album: 1945-1946

Release Date: May 27, 1997

Genre: Jazz

Format: mp3 / FLAC

The sixth CD in Classics' series of Lionel Hampton records documents his music during a one-year period. Hampton's big band, riding high after "Flying Home," continued to grow in popularity during this era. The vibraphonist's showmanship and his sidemen's extroverted solos generated constant excitement, as can be heard throughout these 20 selections. With the exception of Dinah Washington's lone vocal on "Blow Top Blues" and the original version of "Hey! Ba-Ba-Re-Bop," most of the selections were formerly a bit rare, including a pair of rollicking V-disc performances ("Vibe Boogie" and "Screamin' Boogie"). Hampton is heard on 14 numbers with his big band (which included such key sidemen as trumpeter Joe Morris, tenorman Arnett Cobb, the eccentric Herbie Fields on alto and clarinet, and pianist Milt Buckner), four workouts with a septet, and two tunes (including a pair of vocals) with a rhythm quartet. Bing Crosby guests on so-so versions of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" and "On the Sunny Side of the Street" (sounding very much out of place), but otherwise, everything works. Stirring and accessible music.

Kris Kristofferson - The Essential Kris Kristofferson download album

Kris Kristofferson - The Essential Kris Kristofferson

Artist: Kris Kristofferson

Album: The Essential Kris Kristofferson

Release Date: March 2, 2004

Genre: Country

Format: mp3 / FLAC

The two-CD Essential Kris Kristofferson compilation isn't a balanced retrospective of his lengthy career, heavily emphasizing his 1969-1971 recordings, which in fact comprise all of disc one. And it doesn't represent many of his albums at all (particularly the ones not done for Monument or Columbia), including just one post-1985 track. On the other hand, for the vast majority of Kristofferson listeners who want a best-of that offers more than a single-disc greatest-hits anthology can, it serves its purpose well. His best-known songs are here, in the original Kristofferson-sung versions: "Me and Bobby McGee," "Help Me Make It Through the Night," "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down," "Why Me," and "For the Good Times." His earliest Monument records are sampled particularly deeply, with no less than nine of the 12 songs from his 1970 debut, Kristofferson, appearing. Still, there's no doubt that his early work was his most popular and best, and the disproportionate representation allows for the appearance of good songs from the era that escape skimpier greatest-hits collections. And there's no doubt that disc two, devoted almost entirely to post-1971 material, is less impressive and consistent, not to mention more haphazardly organized in its chronology, with the 1972 track "Why Me" appearing as the second-to-last cut. Room's also made for a few songs Kristofferson recorded with others, those being "I'd Rather Be Sorry" (a duet with Rita Coolidge), "Highwayman" (done with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash), and "How Do You Feel About Foolin' Around" (on which he paired with Willie Nelson).