Dire Straits/Making Movies
Artist: Dire Straits

In 1980, Warner Brothers released Dire Straits/Making Movies, which contained Dire Straits' two finest albums (interestingly, their first and third) onto one cassette. If cassette is your format, this is an excellent way to obtain these two great albums. ~ Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide Read More

The John Lennon Collection
Artist: John Lennon
Community Score: 8.60

This 15-song collection (expanded to 19 in 1989 for the CD), released just short of two years after Lennon's death, provided a very generous overview of his solo career on a single LP, drawing on most of the major singles and also on songs that were widely covered, and from all periods of his career, from his late-Beatles-era solo political... Read More

Spark in the Dark
Artist: Alpha Band

Despite its obvious reference to "the light of the triune God," to which "this music is humbly offered," Spark in the Dark may be the most accessible of the Alpha Band's three recordings. At the same time, it lacks the consistency and flow of their excellent, yet offbeat debut. "East of East" is an auspicious opener, but a couple of near-misses... Read More

The Completion Backward Principle
Artist: The Tubes
Community Score: 9.50

The Completion Backward Principle was the first release on EMI/Capitol by San Francisco-based the Tubes. It found the outrageous septet working with producer David Foster, who gives the record a high-gloss sheen. It's a pairing that, while possibly surprising to fans of the band's earlier releases, actually works quite nicely. The ballads (the... Read More

Argybargy - BONUS TRACKS
Artist: Squeeze

Where Cool for Cats marked a great leap over the debut, Argybargy improved at least that far over its own predecessor. Still a distinctly British band, Squeeze compensated with an incredibly catchy batch of songs that, despite the subject matter, spoke the universal language of bright, bouncy, instantly endearing pop. The acute observations of... Read More

Tug of War
Artist: Paul McCartney
Community Score: 10.00
Abacab
Artist: Genesis
Community Score: 7.32

After gaining some limited commercial success with Duke, Genesis went for the jugular of American radio with the well-crafted pop of Abacab. While there are still some traces of their art rock past, the album is primarily filled with a new wave sound and concise songs. Phil Collins, who replaced Peter Gabriel years earlier as the lead vocalist,... Read More

Love over Gold
Artist: Dire Straits
Community Score: 8.46

Adding a new rhythm guitarist, Dire Straits expands its sounds and ambitions on the sprawling Love Over Gold. In a sense, the album is their prog rock effort, containing only five songs, including the 14-minute opener "Telegraph Road." Since Mark Knopfler is a skilled, tasteful guitarist, he can sustain interest even throughout the languid... Read More

Elvis Christmas Classics
Artist: Elvis Presley

Taken from various points in his career, Elvis Christmas Classics is a collection of many of the holiday tracks recorded by Elvis. His excellent "Blue Christmas" starts off the disc, instantly making the rest of the album slightly weaker if only because Elvis really puts his all into that one song. He loses some momentum on the next few tracks,... Read More