Horses & Trees
Artist: Ginger Baker

Bill Laswell's musical career has been a highly collaborative one. Almost every new release from solo excursions to a variety of mercurial group projects finds him engaged with a notable instrumentalist from the arenas of jazz, electronica, funk, hip-hop, reggae, and world music. It's not that he seems dominating as a musician per se, but the... Read More

BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert
Artist: Family
Anthology, Vol. 2
Artist: Hawkwind
Birdy
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Community Score: 8.60

Peter Gabriel's first foray into soundtracks was for Alan Parker's contemplative film Birdy and is a successful companion piece, providing a backdrop that is moody and evocative. Nearly half of the album's dozen tracks incorporate threads from material found on Gabriel's 1982 Security set, including "Close Up," which makes use of keyboard... Read More

Anthology, Vol. 1
Artist: Hawkwind
Singles A's & B's
Artist: Be Bop Deluxe

A collection of eight A-sides and seven B-sides (one B-side, "Lights," was used twice, first for the withdrawn "Between the Worlds" and then for "Maid in Heaven"). This particular collection is an excellent way to get a quick introduction to Be Bop Deluxe, the band that helped turn Bill Nelson into a British guitar hero. There's a small... Read More

Sunburst Finish
Artist: Be Bop Deluxe

Adding keyboard player Andrew Clark to make Be Bop Deluxe a quartet, Bill Nelson finally found a balance between his virtuosic guitar playing and the demands of pop songwriting. The arrangements were still busy, but the humor of Nelson's music was on display as never before, and the songs frequently were catchy. For the first time, it began to... Read More

Stella
Artist: Yello
Community Score: 10.00

Yes, Stella is the album that includes Yello's biggest hit, "Oh Yeah." It's also their best single LP, an excellent production throughout by Boris Blank, from the theatric instrumentals "Stalakdrama" and "Ciel Ouvert" to the frenetic pitched percussion on "Let Me Cry." As well, Dieter Meier proves he's at his best vocally, whether it's the seamy... Read More

Wish You Were Here
Artist: Pink Floyd
Community Score: 8.33

Pink Floyd followed the commercial breakthrough of Dark Side of the Moon with Wish You Were Here, a loose concept album about and dedicated to their founding member Syd Barrett. The record unfolds gradually, as the jazzy textures of "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" reveal its melodic motif, and in its leisurely pace, the album shows itself to be a... Read More

The Best of the Alan Parsons Project - ARISTA 1983
Artist: The Alan Parsons Project
Community Score: 7.50

The 12 tracks that appear on The Best of the Alan Parsons Project include some of their greatest singles, like "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" from 1977's I Robot and the inducing "Games People Play" off of The Turn of a Friendly Card. Even though these songs are splendid all by themselves, they seem to lose their conceptual weight when taken... Read More

Over
Artist: Peter Hammill

One of the best albums ever made about the end of a relationship and the trauma that results, Over is the harrowing document of the failure of a long-term relationship Peter Hammill had been in. With a brief side-step to examine the loss felt by parents when their children move out ("Autumn"), Hammill exposes feelings of guilt, rage, betrayal,... Read More

Passion
Artist: Peter Gabriel
Community Score: 8.22

Passion is in actuality Peter Gabriel's soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese film The Last Temptation of Christ, retitled as a result of legal barriers; regardless of its name, however, there's no mistaking the record's stirring power. Like much of Gabriel's solo work, the album is a product of his continuing fascination with world music, which he... Read More

Hamburger Concerto
Artist: Focus
Community Score: 5.95

Focus had well proven their ability to write rocking instrumentals by the time of this release. Their catalog, although consisting of four albums, rarely had a dull moment between them. Hamburger Concerto is equally consistent, much of it being prime Focus material. The Akkerman-written "Birth" and "Early Birth" are examples of Focus fully... Read More

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Artist: Brian Eno
Community Score: 9.15

A pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience, and Third World music, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts expands on the fourth-world concepts of Hassell/Eno work with a whirlwind 45 minutes of worldbeat/funk-rock (with the combined talents of several percussionists and bassists, including Bill Laswell, Tim Wright, David... Read More

BBC Radio 1 in Concert
Artist: Be Bop Deluxe