Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1979
Artist: Kate Bush

While Kate Bush has never managed to find major success in the United States, she has created quite a legend for herself in her home country of England. Still, there are legions of die-hard fans in the U.S. who buy her every album. The news of the live concert Live at the Hammersmith Odeon 1979 being made available, ten years after its... Read More

Half Alive in Hollywood
Artist: Beer for Dolphins
Community Score: 6.00

This is a dense, 2-CD set. Let's look at disc one. Here, BFD offers itself on the operating table to student engineers at the Musicians' Institute in Hollywood, CA. Keneally's detailed notes are everything the studio engineer and Keneally-buff need. If you just want to appreciate Mike's rabid feats of guitar science in arrangement and... Read More

From the Beginning: Retrospective
Artist: Greg Lake

Let's face it -- no matter how far he gets stylistically from his work with Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and he has gotten very far afield from it at times, Greg Lake's fandom is always going to be rooted in his work with the prog rock trio during the 1970s and its various incarnations since. So it's no surprise that the entire first half of this... Read More

Red Queen to Gryphon Three/Raindance
Artist: Gryphon

This single-disc collection gathers the complete contents of both Red Queen to Gryphon Three (1974) and Raindance (1975), respectively the third and fourth titles from Gryphon. Initially the band made a significant niche for themselves with a myriad of intricate and equally beautiful acoustic folk melodies. However, by the time of these two... Read More

How High the Moon: Live at the Viper Room
Artist: Masters of Reality

Even though they play hard rock, the Masters of Reality's sensibilities have always been more in line with the improvisatory nature of late-'60s blues-rock than the plodding chords of late-'70s arena-rock. Consequently, it shouldn't be a surprise that How High the Moon: Live at the Viper Room captures the band at their best, running through... Read More

Sluggo!
Artist: Beer for Dolphins
Community Score: 8.00

The odd-numbered of the first half-dozen tracks here are throwaways, in my book. It is especially insidious how Keneally infects the listener with the "potato chorus" to the opening number. Lyrically quirky, the songs are still possessed with a contrived, safe pop-rock feel that I do not want from a 'stunt guitarist' that first came to my... Read More

Beyond & Before: BBC Recordings 1969-1970
Artist: Yes

Yes' early years, up until The Yes Album, are usually perceived as a formative period, primarily of interest to hardcore fans. This double-CD set of live BBC and other radio-related tracks from 1969-70, however, forces the listener to take this era of the group's history on its own terms. The performances and repertory all date from the tail end... Read More

Hounds of Love - UK
Artist: Kate Bush

Kate Bush's strongest album to date marked her breakthrough into the American charts, and yielded a set of dazzling videos. The material ranges from the sensual ("Hounds of Love," "Running up That Hill" -- the latter one of the most sensual recordings ever made) to the mystical ("Hello Earth," "The Morning Fog"). This was also the first album... Read More