Toto IV is the fourth studio album by American rock band Toto, released on April 8, 1982 by Columbia Records. The lead single, "Rosanna", peaked at number 2 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, while the album's third single, "Africa", topping the Hot 100 chart, became the group's first and only number 1 hit. Both songs were hits in the UK as well, reaching number 12 and 3, respectively. The fourth single, "I Won't Hold You Back", also peaked within the top ten on the Hot 100, at number 10, but atop the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for three weeks. It also went into the top 40 in the UK. With the success of "Africa", the album climbed back into the top 10 in early 1983 on both sides of the Atlantic. Toto IV received three Grammy Awards in 1983 including Album of the Year, Producer of the Year for the band, and Record of the Year for "Rosanna". It reached number four on the Billboard 200 album charts in the United States, shortly after its release. It also reached the top ten in other countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Any Marianne Faithfull collection from her Decca years that doesn't include "As Tears Go By" is of special interest, as some listeners have never been convinced of her version's merits, regardless of its chart position. In this case, there are 40 songs here in a distinctly folk and pop/cabaret vein, mastered in state of the art sound, that capture some of Faithfull's best moments on various singles and her LPs, alas not in chronological order – she became a better, less self-conscious singer as she went on, and the material here, running right up to her 1967 Decca single "Is This What I Get for Loving You," embodies some of her best work, nicely annotated and well mastered, and the price is definitely right as a budget double-CD set.

Shelby Lynne has been seeking the place inside her music where everything cracks and opens for over a decade. From her Columbia Records debut, she has been writing and singing songs that seek to get underneath themselves and communicate something of the wildness, ambiguity, and emotional depth that is in the grain of her voice. Suit Yourself is a self-produced, loose, organic set of 12 new songs, ten of them originals.

Two CD set highlighting Sharon's 15 year career. The tracks featured on the album brilliantly encapsulate the scope of her musical influences. County Clare-born accordionist/multi-instrumentalist/bandleader is long overdue for a career retrospective and this two-CD set overflows with high points. Although an acknowledged master of Irish traditional styles, this least complacent and most generous of artists never ceases experimenting. The first disc contains instrumentals cherry-picked from six albums. "Cavan Potholes" depicts omni-present Irish road conditions and "The Mighty Sparrow", taped during the "A Woman’s Heart" tour, is a jig augmented by a Caribbean beat and raucously apt sax solo. Disc two is given over to vocals, many of which are performed by stars from other genres. Jackson Browne’s "A Man Of Constant Sorrow" is given a Hibernian Grand Ol’ Opry treatment compete with lovely back-up singing from Mary Staunton. Damien Dempsey, a sensitive roughneck of a Dublin singer-composer, gives the Lennon/McCartney chestnut "Norwegian Wood" a new lease on life and also turns up in "Courtin’ In The Kitchen", a profane little comedy led by the inimitable Dessie O’Halloran. But the late Kirstie MacColl’s treatment of Astor Piazzolla’s "Libertango" is magic of a more wistful, shadowy kind, making us miss her all the more. –Christina Roden

Although he shared the same rockabilly roots as Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison went on to pioneer an entirely different brand of country/pop-based rock & roll in the early '60s. What he lacked in charisma and photogenic looks, Orbison made up for in spades with his quavering operatic voice and melodramatic narratives of unrequited love and yearning. In the process, he established rock & roll archetypes of the underdog and the hopelessly romantic loser. These were not only amplified by peers such as Del Shannon and Gene Pitney, but also influenced future generations of roots rockers such as Bruce Springsteen and Chris Isaak, as well as modern country stars the Mavericks.

Creating extremely interesting baroque pop with a psych twist Classical M could have made a great album if given the chance. As it is, the songs contained on this disc make for a stunning collection, with the band's psychedelic flourishes, outrageous melodies, and fantastic attention to production detail evident throughout. This original music was made in three short years (1967-1970): 24 delirious and provocative songs that establish Classical M as perhaps the best, and certainly the most intriguing English-singing French band of all time. Their offbeat sense of rhythm and harmony, the complex intertwining of voices, and perhaps more than anything, their unusual practice of trying to play all sorts of instruments be they electronic or traditional, these elements make the music of this odd French trio unique and very special.

"Symphonic Rock Album" was released in 2005 by Leader Music Argentina S.A. Leader Music is an Argentine record label known for producing and distributing a wide range of music genres.

A selection of old and contemporary Japanese chamber music performed by the Yamato Ensemble, consisting of Aiko Hasegawa, Kikuko Satoh, Richard Stagg and Makoto Hasegawa.- Info about the artists, the instruments and each of the pieces, including lyrics.

The Heart of the Dragon Ensemble presents beautiful and tranquil traditional pieces and new compositions played on erhu (fiddle), pipa (lute), dizi (flute), xiao (flute), sheng (mouth-blown 'organ'), guzheng (harp) and yang-qin (dulcimer).

The third in Joni Mitchell's ongoing series of thematic compilations drawn from her stellar back catalog, Songs of a Prairie Girl is described by Mitchell in her liner notes as "my contribution to Saskatchewan's Centennial celebrations," an appropriate gesture since she spent most of her childhood in Saskatoon, a city in that Canadian province.

Emmylou Harris is an artist whose body of work is so consistently strong one could almost pull 20 songs at random from her catalog, string them together, and end up with a pretty listenable disc – which suggests that the real choices in putting together a "best of Emmylou" album has as much to do with what not to include as what should be on hand.

Many of the selections on 'Alphabeat' were not even known to exist before the release of the compilation, and few connoisseurs of obscure late 60s pop, psych and prog will be disappointed with it's contents. Dubbed from a master supplied by a Belgian television company 'Foxy Lady' and 'Toad' were recorded live at a pop festival in mid 1968 and prove The Barrier to be as exciting on stage as on their best singles from the same year, whilst Mississippi impress with their heavy bluesy rock which is lifted from their lone and very rare 45 from 1970. The pigeonholeing of Breakthru as a lightweight pop act through their only single 'Ice Cream Tree' is devastatingly dismissed by the unveiling of 2 incendiary slices of psychedelically inclined rock recorded at a Birmingham studio in late 1967, and an unknown group who recorded at R.G Jones' OAK studios sound uncannily like The Game 3 years on with the slow burning 'First Back From Heaven'. The Pathfinders' 'Pumpkin Lantern' has appeared before on compilations on a number of occasions but thanks to the discovery of another acetate copy, it's presented here in premium quality together for the first time with it's previously ignored but very special rendering of the Bee Gees' 'To Love Somebody'.

Hotel rarely shows, in any shape or form, traceable inspiration from the new wave and post-punk era Moby advertised as being in full effect. More surprising is that apart from the lovely ambient instrumentals that open and close it, the album is all valley and no peaks, suggesting that the shelving of his sampling device was the worst creative move he could've made. The first half contains simple - as in basic and/or emaciated, so we're talking poor - modern rock songs that tend to be anthemic and soul-searching in nature. Lead single "Beautiful" is one exception, a tongue-in-cheek thing Moby has imagined being sung by vacant celebrity couples. No matter how affable, vegan, liberal, bespectacled, or vertically challenged he is, the real irony is that a millionaire and former love interest of Natalie Portman has made a song of this kind (see also: Aerosmith's "Eat the Rich")…

In campo operistico, il periodo storico tra Cavalli e Handel - quello, per capirci, che comprende giganti come Stradella, A. Scarlatti, Legrenzi… - è il più trascurato dalla discografia. Ed è un peccato, perché è il periodo nel quale si sviluppano le forme e gli stili che saranno tipici del Barocco maturo, come l'aria con il da-capo ed il virtuosismo belcantistico. Benvenuta quindi questa produzione dell'austriaca ORF, che documenta dal vivo l'esecuzione di questo rarissimo "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" del veneziano Antonio Sartorio, uno dei maggiori eredi di Cavalli nel florido operismo lagunare.

Power Ballads Gold Review by Rob Theakston
Like spandex pants, pyrotechnics, and concept records, the power ballad is as essential to a proper hard-rockin' band as a mid-concert guitar or drum solo. Giving the band a moment to show its sensitive side was just as important as the hardest song on the album, striking a balance and making the music accessible to those who like a little love in their rock. A time-honored tradition since the '70s, this two-disc compilation is not just a reasonably priced two-disc session, it's an anthropological barometer mapping the evolution of the power ballad. Metal love song compilations come and go, but never has this song style been so meticulously documented so well. Every single important moment in the history of power ballads is included in this 30-song session. From its early origins from classic rock bands like Styx, Kiss, Nazareth, and Foreigner; to its prime time golden years as a crucial centerpiece in a hair metal band's oeuvre (Poison, Extreme, Warrant, etc.), it's all here. Songs that transcended hard-rocking FM stations to soft rock background stations and back again. Lacking filler completely, this is a collection that is essential for any serious fan of the song style that has touched so many lives.