Almost Heaven is the tenth regular studio album by European-American pop group The Kelly Family. Based on a concept by Dan Kelly, it was co-produced by Kathy and Paddy Kelly and released in 1996 throughout most of Europe. Following the major success of previous albums Over the Hump and Christmas for All and the number-one single "I Can't Help Myself," the album debuted number-one in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It also entered the top 5 in the Netherlands and Norway and made it to the top 20 in Belgium. Almost Heaven eventually sold more than three million copies worldwide, making it the band's second biggest-selling release to date.

The fourth volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas completes the series of secular cantatas from the composer's years in Leipzig. Seven works are involved here, spanning a period from 1725 to1742, the year of Bach's final secular cantata, BWV 212. Of Bach's occasional compositions, some fifty secular pieces have survived, yet these represent no more than a fraction of what must once have existed. Bach's secular cantatas cover a period of almost exactly three decades.

Peter White is one of those rare artists whose unique sound and natural, unpretentious musical vision encapsulate all the charm, appeal, and excitement of his genre. However one chooses to label that style – new adult contemporary, contemporary jazz, pop instrumental – the English-born acoustic guitarist has struck rare chords, artistically, commercially, and emotionally, in becoming a melodic mainstay at the top of every radio airplay and sales chart known to soulful, smooth jazz since launching his solo career in 1990 with reveillez-vous. White's similarly warmhearted, instantly infectious Columbia debut Caravan of Dreams continues in the R&B vein of his previous two discs (1993's Promenade and 1994's Reflections), focusing on his trademark breezes while texturing street-smart synth grooves with a free-spirited all-star ensemble to create a whimsical musical travelog.

The third volume of our complete recording of Bach's cantatas comprises works drawn from three different categories. First comes a group of seven sacred cantatas from the years 1714-17, the majority of which were written for the Weimar Schloßkirche. Taken together with the cantatas contained in Volumes 1 and 2,these seven works - Cantatas 54,63,155, 161,162,163 and 165 - form the group of 23 sacred cantatas that have survived complete from the years leading up to the end of Bach's term of office as Konzertmeister to the Weimar court in 1717.

In the autumn of 1713, Bach was invited to apply for the post of organist and music director at the Marktkirche in Halle in succession to Handel's teacher, Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow. Bach was honoured to accept the invitation and in doing so made it clear that he was keen to extend his activities. Under Zachow, who had created a respectable repertory of sacred works of the most varied genres, including a large number of church cantatas, music in Halle had flourished and reached a level that offered Bach an area of responsibility that he evidently found attractive.

A northern California-based blues guitarist, Roy Rogers works firmly out of a Delta blues acoustic style and is particularly good with a slide. A member of John Lee Hooker's '80s Coast to Coast Band, Rogers produced and played on Hooker's Grammy-winning comeback album, The Healer, and its follow-up, Mr. Lucky. During the early '70s, Rogers played with a variety of Bay Area bar bands. In 1976, he and harpist David Burgin recorded A Foot in the Door, which was released on Waterhouse Records. For the next few years, he played in various bands before he formed his own, the Delta Rhythm Kings, in 1980.

Pangea is the second project from Dan Lacksman, the man behind the new age studio dance troupe, Deep Forest. Like Deep Forest, Pangea attempts to fuse danceable polyrhythms with worldbeat textures and synthesizers. On the whole, Pangea has a stronger world music influence than Deep Forest, which means it isn't quite as accessible. Nevertheless, Lacksman's knack is for making foreign musics palatable to Western tastes and, at its best, Pangea fulfills that promise quite effectively.

This CD is a fine showcase for guitarist Ronnie Earl, who is teamed with three members of the Legendary Blues Band (pianist Pinetop Perkins, bassist Calvin Jones and drummer Willie "Big Eyes" Smith), plus organist Bruce Katz. Although pianist Perkins takes vocals on most of the songs and bassist Jones sings on two of the numbers, nearly each selection has plenty of solo space for Earl and Perkins. Sticking exclusively to the blues at a variety of tempos, the fine program (which has superior instrumental playing that overshadows the personable vocals) should be of strong interest to both blues and jazz collectors.

Working many late nights in the 2500 year old Swiss town of Basel, the two artists spun a creative tapestry of nautical sounds, electronic ambiences, and solid musicianship into a beautifully crafted album of journeys in the undersea world. Wanderer of the oceans, swimming peacefully for thousands of years. Between the continental shelf and sea level he changes color and pattern at will. Chameleon of the sea, this rare and beautiful fish leads a solitary life, wandering the depths of the world of Scubason…
Zeus Faber's 1993 debut, "Scubason", provides exactly what the album's name signifies: the sound of the deep. The duo's intertwining, often poignant keyboard lines combine with samples, environmental recordings and jazzy touches of bass, guitar, sax and flute for a mellow and otherworldly effect. An accomplished and creative debut…

This Is Jazz, Vol. 2 isn't an ideal overview of Chet Baker's seminal Columbia recordings, but it isn't bad, either. Many of the featured 16 songs are among Baker's very best, giving novices a good idea of the sound, style, and depth of his music, even if it doesn't provide an ideal context. Nevertheless, This Is Jazz doesn't intend to provide context, which will undoubtedly frustrate collectors and jazz purists. However, it does succeed in offering an affordable sampler of his classic Columbia recordings for curious listeners – and it succeeds quite well in that regard.

It is more than twenty years since Solti last recorded Così for Decca, and if that earlier version was far from ideally cast, this new one more than makes amends. Above all, it has a commanding Fiordiligi in Renée Fleming, who conveys all the tragic vulnerability of this central character. Her performance of the great second-act rondo ‘Per pietà’ would be enough to melt the hardest of hearts. Anne Sofie von Otter and Olaf Bär are in fine form, too; and while Adelina Scarabelli is not exactly a mistress of disguises (she scarcely alters her voice at all for Despina’s part as the mesmeric doctor), her vitality is irresistible.

Remakes can be atrocious wastes of wax: subpar carbon copy re-treads dressed up as calculated idolatry, or deconstructionist reconfigurations basking in the laziness of lyrics already written. However, two of the greatest rewrites in history belong to Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The treatments of Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded By the Light" and "For You" included here create a wholly unique variation on the stark, earthy originals by flipping the tracks and exposing the soft, white underbelly, then piling on excessive musical ornamentation like a master filmmaker visualizing a novel, blowing the inspiration at the nucleus into a bowdlerized paronomasia of sonic perfection.

After the lackluster performance of Adrenalize, Def Leppard realized it was time to abandon their trademark wall-of-guitars sound. Jettisoning producer Mutt Lange – who, admittedly, was busy producing his wife, country singer Shania Twain – the group stripped its sound to the basics for Slang. There are very few layers-of-guitar effects on the album, just straight, crunching chords. Most notably, Rick Allen has returned to playing acoustic drums after playing an electronic kit for nearly a decade. The change in approach is apparent and welcome – Def Leppard hasn't sounded so immediate since Pyromania. Furthermore, they decided to expand their musical vocabulary slightly, working elements of R&B and funk into the rhythms. Not all of the experiments work, but Def Leppard sound revitalized, particularly when they attack a straightforward rocker. Slang would have been even better if they had come up with a set of hooks that sounded as alive as their performance, but the album is a much-needed return to form for the group.