For the Alice Cooper fans who feel his output was spotty before and after the 1989 classic Trash on Epic, Brutal Planet is a cause to rejoice. It is a solid hard rock offering. Cooper is in great voice, and he sounds mean and spirited…

Two types of records usually have the highest potential for embarrassment: "comedy" records and "scary" records. Unlike an awful pub rock mistake or a tuneless ambient workout, there seems to be nothing more obnoxious than listening to a record that tries – and fails – to be either funny or frightening. Coil's Musick to Play in the Dark 2 takes the latter stab into forbidding, blood-velvet territory and consistently bungles it up…

Lovers Rock, the title of Sade's first album of the 21st century, could be taken on many levels. Never before has the singer infused more mainstream rock elements (prominent strummed guitars) into her music as evidenced by the first single, "By Your Side." That's not to say that she has eschewed her own tried-and-true brand of smoky, dusky ballads…

The Cinematic Orchestra is a British nu jazz and downtempo music group created in 1999 by Jason Swinscoe. The group is signed to independent record label Ninja Tune…

Born Chantal Vanlee in Hasselt in 1965, Dana Winner found fame in the early '90s with Flemish cover versions of the Carpenters' "On Top of the World" ("Op Het Dak van de Wereld") and the Cats' "One Way Wind" ("Westenwind"). Guided by Belgian composer Jean Kluger, she released her debut album, Mijn Paradijs, in 1994 and went on to achieve success in South Africa and Germany at the end of the decade after recording material in various different languages…

Chie Ayado, the Japanese Jazz Giant with that fabulous expressive dynamic voice sings standards of jazz and pop from the fantastic version of Work Song to Leaving on a Jet Plane. How can there reside such a great voice in such a tiny body? As always her interpretations are extraordinary and thrilling although accompanied mostly just by her own piano…