Black Sabbath - Never Say Die! (78)

Download

1 Never Say Die
2 Johnny Blade
3 Junior's Eyes
4 Hard Road
5 Shock Wave
6 Air Dance
7 Over to You
8 Break Out
9 Swinging the Chain

After quitting briefly following the band's previous tour, singer Ozzy Osbourne returned to Black Sabbath for 1978's Never Say Die! — an album whose unfocused songs perfectly reflected the band's tense personnel problems and drug abuse.

The title track kicks things off with a promising bang, but repeated listens quickly reveal its barely disguised lack of enthusiasm (also terribly evident on "Shock Wave" and "Over to You").

The saxophone-led (?!) "Breakout" goes absolutely nowhere, and many songs on the record sound strangely disjointed, especially "Junior's Eyes" and the synthesizer-heavy "Johnny Blade."

A pleasant surprise arrives in the very original and experimental "Air Dance," featuring tasteful piano flourishes from leading session keyboardist Don Airey.

Still, only Sabbath completists will find any redeeming value in this recording.

Bad Company - Holy Water (90)

Download

1 Holy Water
2 Walk Through Fire
3 Stranger Stranger
4 If You Needed Somebody
5 Fearless
6 Lay Your Love on Me
7 Boys Cry Tough
8 With You in a Heartbeat
9 I Don't Care
10 Never Too Late
11 Dead of the Night
12 I Can't Live Without You
13 100 Miles



Bad Company's last platinum album, Holy Water is a formulaic yet reasonably engaging collection of AOR hard rock.

Although the only original members on Holy Water are guitarist Mick Ralphs and drummer Simon Kirke, the band does a fair job of approximating the sound of classic Bad Company while adding enough elements of '80s pop-metal to make the record appealing to teenagers who grew up on power ballads.

And the band does turn in a first-rate power ballad with "If You Needed Somebody," which rose all the way to number 16 on the singles chart. Surprisingly, that was one of three hits from the album — "Holy Water" and "Walk Through Fire" also received a fair amount of airplay.

What that success signals is not a creative rebirth for Bad Company, but that the group knew how to follow a formula very well.

Holy Water hasn't aged as well as their original hit albums — instead of the clean, ballsy attack of Bad Company and Straight Shooter, it's awash in echo and synths — but it is a finely crafted, big-budget record of the late '80s and early '90s.

It's just as indicative of its era as Bad Company is.

Amboy Dukes - Journey To The Center Of The Mind (68)

Download

1 Mississippi Murderer
2 Surrender to Your Kings
3 Flight of the Byrd
4 Scottish Tea
5 Dr. Slingshot
6 Journey to the Center of the Mind
7 Ivory Castles
8 Why Is a Carrot More Orange Than an Orange
9 Missionary Mary
10 Death Is Life
11 Saint Philips Friend
12 I'll Prove I'm Right
13 Conclusion
14 You Talk Sunshine, I Breath Fire [*]

Long before Ted Nugent made his name as a mighty crossbow hunter, there was this heavy Detroit band in which he was content to play lead guitar, something he does very well and with much less threat to the Midwest's deer population.

±

The Nuge shouldn't try to take all the credit for this band, because the other members such as vocalist John Drake and rhythm guitarist Steve Farmer contributed with great aplomb, the latter writing much of the material on the second side's ambitious suite as well as co-writing the title hit with Nugent.

±

This is some hard-hitting, well-done psychedelic music, recorded with taste by a producer known much more for his work with mainstream jazz artists, Bob Shad.

­±

One thing that made the Amboy Dukes special was the amount of power and drive in their playing, something lacking in other psychedelic outfits that take a more airy-fairy approach. The Nuge's guitar sound is recorded as if this was a mainstream jazz album by Harold Land, and it helps.

±

Ringo Starr - Anthology ... So Far (01) Box 3 CDs

Disco 1

Disco 2 PT1

Disco 2 PT2

Disco 3 PT1

Disco 3 PT2

1 It Don't Come Easy
2 The No No Song
3 Iko Iko
4 The Weight
5 Shine Silently
6 Honey Don't
7 Quarter to Three
8 Raining in My Heart
9 Will It Go Round in Circles
10 Life in the Fast Lane
11 Desperado
12 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
13 Walking Nerve
14 Boris the Spider
15 You're Sixteen (You're Beautiful and You're Mine)
16 Photograph
17 The Really Serious Introduction
18 I'm the Greatest
19 Don't Go Where the Road Don't Go
20 I Can't Tell You Why
21 Girls Talk
22 People Got to Be Free
23 Groovin'
24 Act Naturally
25 Takin' Care of Business
26 You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet
27 In the City
28 Bang the Drum All Day
29 Black Maria
30 American Woman
31 Weight of the World
32 Back off Boogaloo
33 Yellow Submarine
34 Show Me the Way
35 Sunshine of Your Love
36 I Hear You Knockin'
37 Shooting Star
38 Boys
39 Baby, I Love Your Way
40 A Salty Dog
41 I Feel Free
42 Alright Now
43 I Wanna Be Your Man
44 A Whiter Shade of Pale
45 Hungry Eyes
46 All by Myself
47 With a Little Help from My Friends

Spanning three discs and 47 tracks, The Anthology So Far collects highlights from all of Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band tours, which means it doesn't just have hits from Ringo (basically, all of his solo and Beatles anthems), it also has signature songs from fellow classic rockers like Dr. John, Levon Helm, Rick Danko, Joe Walsh, John Entwistle, Dave Edmunds, Timothy B Schmidt, Felix Cavaliere, Randy Bachman, Burton Commings, Peter Frampton, Simon Kirke, Jack Bruce, Eric Carmen, and the great Todd Rundgren.

♪

In other words, this is the best of the oldies and, if it's taken for what it is, it's not bad.

♪

It's entertaining, well-performed, and filled with songs you know and (if you're listening to this) love.

♪

That doesn't make it necessary, of course, but it is a nostalgic good time if that's what you're looking for.

♪

Jeff Beck - Beckology Box 3 CDs

Disco 1 PT1

Disco 1 PT2

.

Disco 2 PT1

Disco 2 PT2

.

Disco 3 PT1

Disco 3 PT2

1 Trouble in Mind
2 Nursery Rhyme [live]
3 Wandering Man Blues
4 Steeled Blues
5 Heart Full of Soul
6 I'm Not Talking
7 I Ain't Done Wrong
8 The Train Kept A Rollin'
9 I'm a Man
10 Shapes of Things
11 Over, Under, Sideways, Down
12 Happenings Ten Years Time Ago
13 Hot House of Omagarashid
14 Lost Woman
15 Rack My Mind
16 The Nazz Are Blue
17 Psycho Daisies
18 Jeff's Boogie
19 Too Much Monkey Business [live]
20 The Sun Is Shining [live]
21 Mister, You're a Better Man Than I [live]
22 Love Me Like I Love You [live]
23 Hi-Ho Silver Lining
24 Tallyman
25 Beck's Bolero
26 Shapes of Things
27 I Ain't Superstitious
28 Rock My Plimsoul
29 Jailhouse Rock
30 Plynth (Water Down the Drain)
31 I've Been Drinking
32 Definitely Maybe
33 New Ways Train Train
34 Going Down
35 I Can't Give Back the Love I Feel for You
36 Superstition
37 Black Cat Moan [live]
38 Blues Deluxe/Bba Boogie [live]
39 Jizz Whizz
40 Cause We've Ended as Lovers
41 Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
42 Love Is Green
43 Diamond Dust
44 Freeway Jam [live]
45 The Pump
46 People Get Ready
47 Escape
48 Gets Us All in the End
49 Back on the Streets
50 Wild Thing
51 The Train Kept A Rollin'
52 Sleepwalk
53 The Stumble
54 Big Block
55 Where Were You

This triple-CD set — obviously modeled after the four-CD Eric Clapton Crossroads box — was the first attempt to survey Jeff Beck's entire career.

♫.☼.►.◄

In actual fact, that would be a hopeless task, given the amount of anonymous session work that the guitarist did circa 1964-1966, but Beckology still manages to touch a few unexpected bases, even as it strings together all of the obvious and most of the important sides in Beck's output.

♫.☼.►.◄

Disc one opens with the most alluring part of the entire set, three demo tracks left behind by Beck's 1963-1965 group, the Tridents; the first official releases by this band are of far more than academic interest, presenting a first-rate blues/RB outfit supercharged by Beck's guitar and Ray Cook's drumming, doing killer Jimmy Reed and Bo Diddley material, and even showing off Beck's prowess as a singer.

♫.☼.►.◄

The next 15 tracks represent the core of the Yardbirds' output during Beck's tenure, which lasted from March of 1965 through the summer of 1966 — anything here could justify a place on a Yardbirds best-of set; the makers have rounded this disc out with four live cuts by the band from the BBC archives, including Beck's extraordinary homage to Elmore James' guitar playing on "The Sun Is Shining" and the unheralded group original "Love Me Like I Love You", and finish the platter with Beck's first three solo single sides, two of which, "Hi Ho Silver Lining" and "Tally Man," comprise the guitarist's brief, achingly beautiful virtuoso digression into trippy psychedelic pop, before he broke through to the more fertile field of what came to be known as heavy metal.

♫.☼.►.◄

Disc two is all of that, made up of the core of his output with the Jeff Beck Group and Beck Bogert Appice, the latter filled out with a pair of previously unissued tracks: a live version of "Blues Deluxe/BBA Boogie" and "Jizz Whizz."

♫.☼.►.◄

Disc three skips across Beck's instrumental sides off of Blow by Blow, Wired, and There and Back and his tour with the Jan Hammer Group from the later 1970s, and wraps up with ten songs from Flash and Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop, sandwiching some key odd singles and Beck's contributions to the soundtracks of the movies Twins and Porky's Revenge.

♫.☼.►.◄

There are flaws in this set, to be sure; originally conceived as a four-disc retrospective, it was reduced to three, over Beck's wishes that some proposed cuts be omitted and Sony Music's timidity over the sales prospect of the four-CD set.

♫.☼.►.◄

But it is a good package within those boundaries, with fairly thorough annotation accompanied by great photos and a Pete Frame family tree, and, above all, excellent tape research — not only were the right masters (i.e., the mono masters) used on "Hot House of Omagarashid" and "Lost Woman," but this is also the only CD package to combine the Yardbirds' 1965 catalog material with their 1966 tracks (owned by separate parties who will not get together).

♫.☼.►.◄

The mastering of it all is so clean that it put most of the older versions of this material to shame at the time.

♫.☼.►.◄

Ian Gillan – Toolbox (91)

Download

1 Hang Me Out to Dry
2 Toolbox
3 Dirty Dog
4 Candy Horizon
5 Don't Hold Me Back
6 Pictures of Hell
7 Dancing Nylon Shirt, Pt. 1
8 Bed of Nails
9 Gassed Up
10 Everything I Need
11 Dancing Nylon Shirt, Pt. 2

Ian Gillan's final solo outing before his second comeback with Deep Purple is possibly the singer's most rocking solo collection.

ø

Originally a European release, Toolbox finally appeared in North American record stores in 1997.

ø

The disc is hampered by its '80s production (complete with faux-Van Halen guitar licks and big reverb drum sounds) but Gillan's personality and dynamic performances preserve Toolbox's sharp rock & roll edge.

ø

Tracks like "Candy Horizon" and "Don't Hold Me Back" have more than their share of questionable lyrics, but Gillan's trademark screams easily overshadow any poetic shortcomings.

ø

Nothing can compare to the classic recordings Gillan was involved with in the early '70s, but among his second-tier offerings, Toolbox is definitely one of the best.

ø

Gótic – Escènes (06)

Clique para Download

1 Escenes de La Terra en Festa I de La Mar en Calma
2 Imprompt
3 Jocs d' Ocells
4 La Revolucio
5 Danca d' Estiu
6 I Tu Que Ho Veies Tot Tan Facil
7 Historia d' una Gota d' Aigua

There are three editions -on CD- of this album: the first one was released in 1988, and it's the only one to be packed on jewel case.

The second edition is this one, packed on one-sheet digipack, but not remastered. It was released on the DiscMedi/Blau label.

The third edition was released among other albums on a series of spanish prog rock re-releases (and some re-rereleases) from the difunct Gong/Movieplay-Fonomusic label (now property of Dro EastWest).

This third edition is packed on two-sheet digipack, unlike the version avaible for download on this blog, and it's the one with best sound quality, since it was remastered.

Goma - 14 De Abril (Remastered)

Clique para Download

1 Aqui y Ahora

2 Madre Tierra + Pellizco

3 Un Nuevo Abril Sin Sal

4 Shotin' Up (Subiendo)

Avalanch - El Ángel Caído (05)

Clique para Download

1 Hacia La Luz
2 Tierra de Nadie
3 El áNgel Caã­Do
4 Xana
5 La Buena Nueva
6 Levã¡Ntate y Anda
7 Alma en Pena
8 Corazã³N Negro
9 Delirios de Grandeza
10 Antojo de un Dios
11 El Sã©Ptimo Dã­A
12 Las Ruinas del Edã©N: Acto I
13 Las Ruinas del Edã©N: Acto II
14 Las Ruinas del Edã©N: Acto III
15 Santa Bã¡Rbara

Música Dispersa - Música Dispersa (70)

Clique para Download

1 Hanillo
2 Cromo
3 Swani
4 Gilda
5 Rabel
6 Eco
7 Cefalea
8 Arcano
9 Fluido
10 Citara

There are two editions on CD of this album: the standard one, released in 1995 on jewel case and not remastered, and a more recent one, remastered on digipack.

The version avaible for download on this blog is the standard one.

Eduardo Bort - Eduardo Bort (06)

Clique para Download

1 Thoughts, Pt. 1 [Pensamientos]

♪
2 Thoughts, Pt. 2 [Pensamientos]
♪

3 Walking on the Grass [Paseando Sobre LA Hierba]
♪

4 Pictures of Sadness [Cuadros de Tristeza]
♪

5 Yann
♪

6 En Las Riberas del Yann

♪

♪

Psicotropía – Psicotropía (04)

Clique para Download


1 Negro
2 Madre Tierra
3 PQTQ
4 Suite Urdalia: Eclosión/Los Siete Ojos de la Percepción/El Sueño ...
5 Cinco Mundos Excluding Garfios
6 Viaje en Re
7 Bajo el Océano del Sueno
8 Discotropia
9 Oigo Voces
10 Delicada Sal Titánica

Neuronium & Vangelis - A Separate Affair (96)

Clique para Download


1 In London [The Psychotranic Mix] 20:00
2 In London [The After Hours Mix] 12:56
3 In London [The Radio Mix] 3:03

Ac-DC - Who Made Who (86)

Clique para Download

1 Who Made Who
2 You Shook Me All Night Long
3 D.T.
4 Sink the Pink
5 Ride On
6 Hells Bells
7 Shake Your Foundations
8 Chase the Ace
9 For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

On paper, Who Made Who is just a cheap soundtrack to a cheap movie (Stephen King's disastrous Maximum Overdrive), but it's actually much more than that.

It serves as a ripping AC/DC retrospective, tearing through such classics as "You Shook Me All Night Long" and "For Those About to Rock," adding the pounding title track to the band's canon, and rescuing overlooked songs like "Sink the Pink" from otherwise mediocre albums.

It's not a perfect retrospective — there's no "Back in Black," "Highway to Hell," or "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" — but what is here is terrific.

Ac-Dc - Razor's Edge (90)

Clique para Download

1 Thunderstruck
2 Fire Your Guns
3 Moneytalks
4 The Razor's Edge
5 Mistress for Christmas
6 Rock Your Heart Out
7 Are You Ready
8 Got You By the Balls
9 Shot of Love
10 Let's Make It
11 Goodbye and Good Riddance to Bad Luck
12 If You Dare

Although AC/DC's popularity had decreased by the early '90s, the band still had a lot of life left in it.

Arguably the Australian headbangers' strongest album in over half a decade, The Razor's Edge is quintessential AC/DC — rowdy, abrasive, unapologetically fun metal full of blistering power chords, memorable hooks, and testosterone-driven lyrics.

Lead singer Brian Johnson sounds more inspired than he had since 1983's Flick of the Switch, and lead guitarist Angus Young isn't about to take any prisoners on such hard-hitting material as "Shot of Love," the menacing title song, and the appropriately titled "Got You By the Balls."

Although not quite in a class with Back in Black, Highway to Hell, or Let There Be Rock — all of which would, for novices, serve as fine introductions to the distinctive band — The Razor's Edge was a welcome addition to AC/DC's catalog.

Ac-Dc - If You Want Blood You've Got It (78)

Clique para Download

1 Riff Raff
2 Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
3 Bad Boy Boogie
4 The Jack
5 Problem Child
6 Whole Lotta Rosie
7 Rock 'N' Roll Damnation
8 High Voltage
9 Let There Be Rock
10 Rocker

AC/DC was fast becoming one of rock's top live acts by the late '70s. Few others could match the band's electrifying live performances: Angus Young's never-ending energy and wise-ass antics, Bon Scott's whiskey-soaked vocals, and the rest of the band's penchant for nailing simple, yet extremely effective and memorable, riffs and grooves.

While most other rock bands of the era were busy experimenting with disco or creating studio-perfected epics, AC/DC was one of the few specializing in raw and bluesy hard rock, as evidenced by 1978's live set, If You Want Blood You've Got It.

Recorded during their world tour in support of their Powerage album, If You Want Blood contains many of AC/DC's best compositions up until that point: "Bad Boy Boogie" (complete with the break-down section in which Young would "strip"), "The Jack," "Problem Child," "Whole Lotta Rosie," "High Voltage," "Let There Be Rock," and "Rocker."

Strangely, their early anthem "Sin City" was not included, and there's a slight sense of studio enhancement on certain tracks.

While the first disc of the 1997 box set Bonfire is the best document of live Bon Scott-era AC/DC ("Live From the Atlantic Studios"), If You Want Blood You've Got It is highly recommended.

Ac-DC - Fly on The Wall (85)

Clique para Download

1 Fly on the Wall
2 Shake Your Foundations
3 First Blood
4 Danger
5 Sink the Pink
6 Playing with Girls
7 Stand Up
8 Hell or High Water
9 Back in Business
10 Send for the Man

Fly on the Wall continues AC/DC's descent into cookie-cutter mediocrity, with the leering humor of past glories seeming forced and uninspired, and the music remaining somewhat underdeveloped and directionless.

-

Brian Johnson's vocals are mixed far in the background, which is perhaps appropriate since he's not in very good voice.

-

As with nearly every AC/DC album, there are a few good songs, notably "Shake Your Foundations" and "Sink the Pink" (both of which later showed up on Who Made Who), but overall, Fly on the Wall is the sound of a band desperately trying to revive its career without quite knowing how to recapture the spark that made it great.

Ac-Dc - Flick of The Switch (83)

Clique para Download

1 Rising Power
2 This House Is on Fire
3 Flick of the Switch
4 Nervous Shakedown
5 Landslide
6 Guns for Hire
7 Deep in the Hole
8 Bedlam in Belgium
9 Badlands
10 Brain Shake

For Flick of the Switch, AC/DC jettisoned producer Mutt Lange in an attempt to recapture the rawness and simplicity of their early records.

While they more or less succeed in terms of the record's sound, and show more energy than on the preceding For Those About to Rock We Salute You, the songs themselves suffer — AC/DC's music has always been simple, but here it sounds underdeveloped and unmemorable.

As perhaps indicated by the record's idiotic original title, the utterly generic I Like to Rock, AC/DC seemed to be running out of ideas at an alarming rate, and their record sales began to reflect that fact.

Ac-Dc - Blow Up Your Video (88)

Clique para Download

1 Heatseeker
2 That's the Way I Wanna Rock & Roll
3 Mean Streak
4 Go Zone
5 Kissin' Dynamite
6 Nick of Time
7 Some Sin for Nuthin'
8 Ruff Stuff
9 Two's Up
10 This Means War

AC/DC remained a popular concert draw throughout the '80s, although such albums as Flick of the Switch and Fly on the Wall failed to replicate their mass U.S. commercial success of 1980-1981 (Back in Black, For Those About to Rock, a reissue of Dirty Deeds).

)(

But the successful soundtrack for Stephen King's lackluster movie Maximum Overdrive, titled Who Made Who, put AC/DC back on the right track commercially.

)(

Their first new studio album of all-new material in three years, 1988's Blow Up Your Video turned out to be their most successful album since 1981's For Those About To Rock, even though it was chock full of filler.

)(

The driving album opener, "Heatseeker," turned out to be a surprising Top Ten single in the U.K., while the anthemic "That's the Way I Want to Rock n' Roll" proved to be another highlight (video clips were filmed for both songs, as well).

)(

But from there on (with the exception of "Kissin' Dynamite" and "This Means War"), it gets pretty unfocused.

)(

The album is glutted with such throwaways as "Nick of Time," "Ruff Stuff," and "Two's Up" — completely missing the point of what made such previous albums as Back in Black so great (they simply did not contain a weak moment).

)(

Blow Up Your Video also marked the return of AC/DC's early production team, Harry Vanda and George Young, who man the boards for the first time since 1978's If You Want Blood.

Ac-DC – Powerage (78)

Clique para Download

1 Rock 'n' Roll Damnation
2 Down Payment Blues
3 Gimme a Bullet
4 Riff Raff
5 Sin City
6 What's Next to the Moon
7 Gone Shootin'
8 Up to My Neck in You
9 Kicked in the Teeth

Powerage was a first in the sense that it debuted bassist Cliff Williams, but it really is more of a final curtain to the band's early years.

↕

It would be the last produced by Vanda & Young, the legendary Australian production team who also helmed hits by the Easybeats, and it was the last before AC/DC became superstars.

↕

As such, it's perhaps the most overlooked of their '70s records, also because, frankly, it is the most uneven of them. Not that it's a bad record — far from it, actually.

↕

There are a few genuine classics here, most notably "Down Payment Blues" and "Up to My Neck in You," and there's a real appeal in how Bon Scott's gutter poems of excess are reaching a mythic level; there's a real sense that he truly does believe that rock & roll leads straight to hell on "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation."

↕

But overall, the record is just a bit too wobbly, one where the parts don't add up to a record as hard and addictive as before — but there's still plenty worth hearing here.

§

Ac-DC - Highway to Hell (79)

Clique para Download

1 Highway to Hell
2 Girls Got Rhythm
3 Walk All Over You
4 Touch Too Much
5 Beating Around the Bush
6 Shot Down in Flames
7 Get It Hot
8 If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
9 Love Hungry Man
10 Night Prowler

Of course, Highway to Hell is the final album AC/DC recorded with Bon Scott, the lead singer who provided the group with a fair share of its signature sleaze.

Just months after its release, Scott literally partied himself to death, dying of alcohol poisoning after a night of drinking, a rock & roll fatality that took no imagination to predict.

In light of his passing, it's hard not to see Highway to Hell as a last testament of sorts, being that it was his last work and all, and if Scott was going to go out in a blaze of glory, this certainly was the way to do it.

This is a veritable rogue's gallery of deviance, from cheerfully clumsy sex talk and drinking anthems to general outlandish behavior.

It's tempting to say that Scott might have been prescient about his end — or to see the title track as ominous in the wake of his death — trying to spill it all out on paper, but it's more accurate to say that the ride had just gotten very fast and very wild for AC/DC, and he was simply flying high.

After all, it wasn't just Scott who reached a new peak on Highway to Hell; so did the Young brothers, crafting their monster riffs into full-fledged, undeniable songs.

This is their best set of songs yet, from the incessant, intoxicating boogie of "Girls Got Rhythm" to "If You Want Blood (You've Got It)."

Some of the credit should also go to Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who gives the album a precision and magnitude that the Vanda & Young LPs lacked in their grimy charm.

Filtered through Mutt's mixing board, AC/DC has never sounded so enormous, and they've never had such great songs, and they had never delivered an album as singularly bone-crunching or classic as this until now.

Ac-DC – Ballbreaker (95)

Clique para Download

1 Hard as a Rock
2 Cover You in Oil
3 The Furor
4 Boogie Man
5 The Honey Roll
6 Burnin' Alive
7 Hail Caesar
8 Love Bomb
9 Caught with Your Pants Down
10 Whiskey on the Rocks
11 Ballbreaker

In over 20 years, AC/DC never changed their minimalist, bone-crunching hard rock.

During their first ten years, that wasn't a problem, since they were still finding ways to expand and subvert the pattern, but ever since For Those About to Rock, they had trouble coming up with consistent material.

Consequently, their performances tended to be a little lazy and their records didn't deliver a reliable knockout punch.

Released in 1990, The Razor's Edge showed some signs of life, and their comeback culminated in the Rick Rubin-produced Ballbreaker. What makes Ballbreaker different than the albums AC/DC churned out during the '80s is simple — it's a matter of focus.

Although "Hard as a Rock" comes close, there aren't any songs as immediately memorable as any of their '70s classics, or even "Moneytalks." However, unlike any record since Back in Black, there are no bad songs on the album.

Surprisingly, Rubin's production is a bit too dry, lacking the muscle needed to make the riffs sound truly earthshaking.

Nevertheless, Angus Young's riffs are powerful and catchy, showcasing every element that makes him one of hard rock and heavy metal's greatest guitarists.

Throughout the album, the band sounds committed and professional, making Ballbreaker the best late-period AC/DC album to date.

Ac-DC - Dirt Deed Done Dirt Cheap (76)

Clique para Download

1 Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
2 Love at First Feel
3 Big Balls
4 Rocker
5 Problem Child
6 There's Gonna Be Some Rockin'
7 Ain't No Fun (Waiting Round to Be a Millionaire)
8 Ride On
9 Squealer

There's a real sense of menace to "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," the title song of AC/DC's third album.

More than most of their songs to date, it captured the seething malevolence of Bon Scott, the sense that he reveled in doing bad things, encouraged by the maniacal riffs of Angus and Malcolm Young who provided him with their most brutish rock & roll yet.

But for as glorious as the title track was, the entire album served as a call to arms from a group that wanted nothing more than to celebrate the dirtiest, nastiest instincts humans could have, right down to the insurgent anti-authority vibe that runs throughout the record.

Take "Big Balls" - sure, it's a dirty joke, but it's a dirty joke with class overthrow in mind. There's a sense on Dirty Deeds that AC/DC is storming the gates - they're problem children sick of waiting around to be a millionaire, so they're gonna make their own money, even if they take down others as they go.

That's what gives Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap its supercharged, nervy pulse; there's a real sense of danger to this record, something that can't be hidden beneath the jokes.

Maybe that's why the album wasn't released in the US until 1981, after Bon's death, after AC/DC had become millionaires - if it arrived any earlier, it would have been too insurrectionist for the common good.

Ac-DC - For Those About To Rock - We Salute You (81)

Clique para Download

1 For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
2 I Put the Finger on You
3 Let's Get It Up
4 Inject the Venom
5 Snowballed
6 Evil Walks
7 C.O.D.
8 Breaking the Rules
9 Night of the Long Knives
10 Spellbound

AC/DC's hot streak began to draw to a close with For Those About to Rock We Salute You.

While Back in Black was infused with the energy and spirit of paying tribute to Bon Scott, it became apparent on the follow-up that the group really did miss Scott more than it initially indicated. Brian Johnson's lyrics started to seem more calculated and a bit clichéd, lacking Scott's devil-may-care sense of humor.

And the band itself slows down the tempo frequently, sounding less aggressive and inspired.

There is still some decent material here — the title track became a concert staple with cannon-firing sound effects — but overall, For Those About to Rock ushers in the band's long '80s slump.

Ac-Dc - Let There Be Rock (77)

Clique para Download

1 Go Down
2 Dog Eat Dog
3 Let There Be Rock
4 Bad Boy Boogie
5 Problem Child
6 Overdose
7 Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
8 Whole Lotta Rosie


Let There Be Rock, the fourth AC/DC album — and first to see simultaneous international release — is as lean and mean as the original lineup ever got.

Shaved down to the bone — there are only eight tracks, giving this a lethal efficiency even with a couple of meandering jams — this is a high-voltage, brutal record, filled with "Bad Boy Boogie."

It has a bit of a bluesier edge than other AC/DC records, but this is truly the sound of the band reaching its peak.

There's the near majesty of "Let There Be Rock," there's Bon Scott acknowledging with a wink that "Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be," and then there's the monumental "Whole Lotta Rosie."

Which gets down to a key thing about AC/DC. If Led Zeppelin were celebrating a "Whole Lotta Love," AC/DC got down to the grimy details in their leering tribute to the joys of sex with a plus-sized woman.

And that's AC/DC's allure in a nutshell — it's sweaty, dirty, nasty rock, music that is played to the last call and beyond, and they've rarely done that kind of rock better than they did here.

Dixie Dregs - Night Of The Living Dregs (79)

Clique para Download


1 Punk Sandwich
2 Country House Shuffle
3 The Riff Raff
4 Long Slow Distance
5 Night of the Living Dregs
6 The Bash
7 Leprechaun Promenade
8 Patchwork

One of the top jazz-rock fusion ensembles ever, the Dixie Dregs combined virtuoso technique with eclecticism and a sense of humor and spirit too frequently lacking in similar projects. Guitarist Steve Morse and bassist Andy West played together as high school students in Augusta, Georgia in a conventional rock band called Dixie Grit.

When Morse was expelled from school for refusing to cut his hair, he enrolled at the University of Miami School of Music, where he met violinist Allen Sloan, who had played with the Miami Philharmonic, and drummer Rod Morgenstein.

The three decided to form a band, and Morse convinced West to come to Miami and join. The Dixie Dregs completed their lineup with keyboardist Steve Davidowski.

Their first album, The Great Spectacular, was recorded for a class project in 1975 and later released by the band (it is long out of print).

Following graduation, the quintet began playing live around the South and got their break after opening for Sea Level on 1976, when a representative from Capricorn Records was impressed enough to sign them.

Mark Parrish, a former member of Dixie Grit, replaced Davidowski for their official debut, 1977's Free Fall.

Their follow-up, What If, proved to be one of their most artistically successful albums, and the Dregs played at the 1978 Montreux Jazz Festival with T Lavitz replacing Parrish.

Half of Night of the Living Dregs contains excerpts from that concert. The group shortened their name to the Dregs for 1981's Unsung Heroes, and added both vocalists and three-time national fiddling champ Mark O'Connor, whose old-timey playing style added another dimension to the group's sound, for Industry Standard.

The Dregs then disbanded; the highly respected Morse formed his own band and recorded several albums, later joining Kansas from 1986 to 1988, while Morgenstein hooked up with pop-metallists Winger.

Clash - London Calling (79)

Clique para Download

1 London Calling
2 Brand New Cadillac
3 Jimmy Jazz
4 Hateful
5 Rudie Can't Fail
6 Spanish Bombs
7 The Right Profile
8 Lost in the Supermarket
9 Clampdown
10 The Guns of Brixton
11 Wrong 'Em Boyo
12 Death or Glory
13 Koka Kola
14 The Card Cheat
15 Lover's Rock
16 Four Horsemen
17 I'm Not Down
18 Revolution Rock
19 Train in Vain

Give 'Em Enough Rope, for all of its many attributes, was essentially a holding pattern for the Clash, but the double-album London Calling is a remarkable leap forward, incorporating the punk aesthetic into rock & roll mythology and roots music.

Before, the Clash had experimented with reggae, but that was no preparation for the dizzying array of styles on London Calling.

There's punk and reggae, but there's also rockabilly, ska, New Orleans R&B, pop, lounge jazz, and hard rock; and while the record isn't tied together by a specific theme, its eclecticism and anthemic punk function as a rallying call.

While many of the songs — particularly "London Calling," "Spanish Bombs," and "The Guns of Brixton" — are explicitly political, by acknowledging no boundaries the music itself is political and revolutionary.

But it is also invigorating, rocking harder and with more purpose than most albums, let alone double albums.

Over the course of the record, Joe Strummer and Mick Jones (and Paul Simonon, who wrote "The Guns of Brixton") explore their familiar themes of working-class rebellion and antiestablishment rants, but they also tie them in to old rock & roll traditions and myths, whether it's rockabilly greasers or "Stagger Lee," as well as mavericks like doomed actor Montgomery Clift.

The result is a stunning statement of purpose and one of the greatest rock & roll albums ever recorded.

In 2000 Columbia/Legacy reissued and remastered London Calling.

Clash - Clash (77)

Clique para Download

1 Janie Jones
2 Remote Control
3 I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.
4 White Riot
5 Hate & War
6 What's My Name
7 Deny
8 London's Burning
9 Career Opportunities
10 Cheat
11 Protex Blue
12 Police & Thieves
13 48 Hours
14 Garageland

The Clash's self-titled U.K. debut sees the band in its most primal, punk form. Despite Mickey Foote's low-key, lo-fi production, Strummer, Jones, Simonon, and Chimes mesh and unite with a snarling ferocity and energy.

Raw, bouncy edginess pours out of each song, with new hooks popping out at odd angles by the second.

The band isn't satisfied lingering in any one genre. "Remote Control" mixes Kinks-style fractured pop with pace changes lifted straight from Chuck Berry. "Cheat" sounds like the Ramones' "Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment" given a rockabilly makeover.

"Police & Thieves" is a massively catchy take on the Junior Murvin/Lee "Scratch" Perry song and an early signpost for the future dub/rock fusions to come on Sandinista! "White Riot" and "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A." reflect the somewhat youthful, early quasi-political leanings of the band.

Though they would come across as slightly amateurish years later, it's hard to deny their punchy charm.

The U.S. edition of The Clash, released in 1979, removed "Cheat," the funky singalong "Protex Blue," the dark and revealing paranoia of "Deny," and the short but utterly delightful "48 Hours."

In their place were the more polished and thus somewhat jarring U.K. singles/B-sides "Complete Control," "(White Man) In Hammersmith Palais," "Clash City Rockers," "I Fought the Law," and "Jail-Guitar Doors."

The U.S. edition might have the original beat in shine and catchiness, but it's a distillation of the band's original ferocity, and some might say an unwelcome tinkering with history. In a way, the U.S. edition served as an extremely early best-of.

Purists will most likely swear on the sonic cohesion of this U.K. edition. Columbia remastered the album and restored its original artwork in 1999, making it a bare-bones but perfect throwback and the easiest way to turn back the clock and discover the Clash at their origins.

Boud Deun - Fiction And Several Days (95)

Clique para Download

♪
1 Sleeping Again
2 Continued
3 Making Circles
4 Swimming for Help
5 Smoking in Japan
6 Calvin's Lost His Head Again
7 The Drift
8 Drake
9 Boud Deun
10
♪

Formed in 1994 in Warrenton, Va., the instrumental quartet Boud Deun has built a reputation for its virtuoso playing and spirited live performances.

♪

The group attracts listeners of all ages and interests. Boud Deun's music reflects rapid-fire playing reminiscent of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the lyricism of the Dixie Dregs and the dark angularity of King Crimson, but one can also hear punk, bluegrass and classical elements.

♪

Guitarist and composer Shawn Persinger graduated from the Musicians Institute in Los Angeles, Calif. in 1992. His influences include Leo Kottke, AC/DC's Angus Young and John McLaughlin.

♪

Bassist and composer Matt Eiland played saxophone as a child, switching to bass guitar at age 15.

♪

He played in Weak Old Rice, a DC-area metal fusion band, in 1991-1992.

♪

He is a jazz studies major at the Shenandoah University Music Conservatory.

♪

Violinist Greg Hiser studied from 1985 to 1987 with Andrej Grabier, Concert Master of the Wichita Symphony. He has performed around Washington, DC with bluegrass bands New Mountain and Virginia and the Blue Dots.

♪

Drummer Rocky Cancelose has studied at the Drummers Collective in New York City. The group released Fiction & Several Days on its own E.H.P. label in late 1995.

♪

Cuneiform issued Astronomy Made Easy in 1997.

♪

A General Observation: The Live Album was released in 1998 on E.H.P., as was The Stolen Bicycle on Cuneiform.

♪

The band was slated for inclusion on a Shanachie compilation CD, tentatively titled The Gobi Compilation, in 1998.