Joe Cocker - Hymn For My Soul

Genre Soft Rock Adult Contemprorary

year: 2007 - notes: The songs include a Cocker's signatures on Bob Dylan's "Ring Them Bells", John Fogerty's "Long As I Can See The Light" and Stevie Wonder's "You Haven't Done Nothin".

Duran Duran - Greatest

Genre New Romantic Synth Pop

review: An outstanding collection, containing many more hits then the one that preceded it. But also, like "Decade," what prevents "Greatest" from earning a full five stars is that insidious disease that afflicts most wanna-be great hits lineups: "songus interruptus." Nothing destroys a greatest hits compilation more than stingily edited versions of the tunes you most want to hear in full flower, like "Skin Trade." A good addition to your collection if you don't already have "Decade" (I do,) but I'd hold out for a definitive boxed set that contains the FULL versions of EVERY song, even the ones you may not be so crazy about.

Santana - Abraxas

Genre Pshychedelic Latin Rock Rock&Roll

year: 1970 review: When one considers just how different Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Moby Grape, and the Grateful Dead sounded, it becomes obvious just how much it was encouraged. In the mid-'90s, an album as eclectic as Abraxas would be considered a marketing exec's worst nightmare. But at the dawn of the 1970s, this unorthodox mix of rock, jazz, salsa, and blues proved quite successful. Whether adding rock elements to salsa king Tito Puente's "Oye Como Va," embracing instrumental jazz-rock on "Incident at Neshabur" and "Samba Pa Ti," or tackling moody blues-rock on Fleetwood Mac's "Black Magic Woman," the band keeps things unpredictable yet cohesive. Many of the Santana albums that came out in the '70s are worth acquiring, but for novices, Abraxas is an excellent place to start.

Deus - Pocket Revolution

Genre Alternative rock

year: 2006 review: Pocket Revolution finally arrived in 2006 (the album was first made available in 2005 as an import, however), and once more, the group offers an album that refuses to be pinned down to a single style. It's easy to pick out modern-day bands which sound comparable, such as the Coldplay-ish "7 Days, 7 Weeks" and the Eels-ish "If You Don't Get What You Want," but dEus has been around a heck of a lot longer. Other standouts include the title track, which alternates between calm verses and a grandiose choruses, as well as a tribute to jazz visionary Sun Ra titled, uh, "Sun Ra." Despite the extended break between albums, dEus picks up right where they left off with Pocket Revolution.