ROLLING STONES
Beggars’ Banquet
[LP/CD](ABKCO)
For its 50th anniversary, ABKCO pulls out all of the stops and repackages the classic 1968 trendsetter with both covers, a MONO 7" of "Sympathy For The Devil" and a flexidisc with an unheard Mick Jagger from 1968. "Beggars" the album remains a real palette cleanse for The World's Greatest Rock N'Roll Band and the beginning of their triumphant run of must-own timeless albums. After the failure of the rainbow, vivid "Satanic Majesties," it was back to square one. Except the Stones were coming of age. They made bluesy records before, but none was as earthy and lean. They had already written enough great songs to maintain a career, so they wrote about how unsettling this could be (the political unrest of "Street Fighting Man,") and the demons of life on the road (the searing "Stray Cat Blues.") Beyond these high points, Jagger and Richards reached high in writing and recording every song as Brian Jones was steadily drifting out of the picture. "Beggars" remains a staple of every Rock N'Roll diet.
FLEETWOOD MAC - 50 Years: Don't Stop
[CD/DLX CD](Rhino)
Oh let us pour forth the Mighty Mac. So much attention is focused on the classic lineup, that it is easy to forget there were far more incarnations of this incredible band. "Don't Stop" is the first collection to celebrate all periods. The three-CD set (which carries the recommendation here) contains several real surprises especially in those middle years that are not mentioned as much. "Don't Stop" digs up the best of the Bob Welch era ("Sentimental Lady" and "Sands of Time" featuring the underrated Danny Kirwan) while giving you just enough classic Peter Green-era Mac to venture into the earlier Blues album when Fleetwood and McVie formed the band after leaving John Mayall.
RUSH - Hemispheres
[CD/DLX CD/LP/DLX LP]
(Mercury/UME)
1978's "Hemispheres" is the last album for the very Prog side of Rush. Tough and gritty, yet impeccably organized and written, the sidelong "Cygnus X-1:Book 2 Hemispheres" is just as composed as its name and completes what was opened on "A Farewell To Kings." However, side two is where the real change in the powerful trio was brewing. "Circumstances" is the band writing more compact and concise, yet jamming their massive bursts of riffing into a single-length song. Oddly enough, the conceptual "The Trees" with its beautiful acoustic opening and tight organization that became the standard (and the first single.) Finally, "La Villa Strangiato" became the pinnacle of all lengthy Rush songs - nine minutes of furious guitar, bass and drums that left the band exhausted - and exhausted with the long songs. By their next album, audiences would be clamoring for the tracks that captured the spirit of what they heard on the radio. This latest package adds a long-sought-after 1979 Pinkpop performance (that was originally scrapped because the engineers forgot to record the opening "2112") and a Blu-Ray with their first videos and more.
