Before there was Norah, Diana, Patricia, or even Jacintha, there was Julie London. Just as audiophiles today seem to gravitate towards sexy, breathy singers, audiophiles in the mid-fifties found themselves inextricably connected to Ms. London, thanks in great part to the Liberty Records original ((LRP-3006), issued December, 1955.

Very few singers can get this close to a dry microphone, be balanced way forward of the backup band and sound as good as Peggy Lee does on this series of standards backed by a pair of small ensembles, recorded in 1953 and 1956. Neither the original nor the reissue notes explain the album’s temporal context so perhaps there’s no story there.

It always seemed as if there was a great recording lurking under the glaze of the original 1994 CD release. Finally, 14 years later Pure Pleasure gives us an answer: yes! Wow is there a great recording here on Keb' Mo's audacious, country/blues/soul debut.

The nextgen Taj Mahal delivers a rollicking set of crisp, good humored, powerfully delivered originals and collaborations, punctuated by two Robert Johnson covers (arranged and performed with uncharacteristic aggression and drive), managing to simultaneousy sound modern and authentic.

Dennis Wilson didn�t sing very well in the conventional sense of the word: his pitch was frequently off, he warbled, his vocal timbre was raspy and calling his range �limited� would be an overstatement.



Yet his commitment to communicating his feelings, which were often downcast but ever hopeful, overcame has limitations. Still, in order to enjoy this tribute you�ll need to come to grips with the fact that Wilson�s singing abilities were limited and his mood was bluer than the ocean.

If you choose to linger on the external contours and often predictable constructive conventions of these tunes, instead of on how the musicians fill the spaces, this Horace Silver set can sound conventional, overly familiar and even mundane to 21st century ears.



All but the final tune “Mo’ Joe,” written by the 29 year old tenor saxist Joe Henderson, are Silver originals but none weigh in as strongly as the title tune of his previous album “Song For My Father,” the intro of which Steely Dan filched for the opening of “Ricki Don’t Lose That Number.”

True, The Who were once called The High Numbers, but can you imagine a more self-loathing album title than The Who By Numbers? Painting by numbers or doing anything by "the numbers" usually connotes rote work. It was an honest assessment of the album.

By the time this Who album was issued in 1975, Pete Townshend had traded the youthful exuberance and bluster of his most creative period for unfinished, burnt out self-confessionals fueled by fear of impending middle age. It's where he found himself in life and it became a necessary act of self-clarification and contrition.

I haven�t heard Mo-Fi�s hybrid SACD reissue containing twice as much music, but I have compared this limited edition 180g LP sourced from the original tapes with the Ace German boxed CD set that I own and the deep, richly dimensional mono LP laughs at the flat, cardboardy and cold sounding CD.

In his first commercial release since 2005's folk-laden Hotel ; Moby brings the eclectic Last Night . The album could be considered Moby's return to the high-tempo dance music, which brought about his late 1990s fame. Whereas Hotel explored the synergy (and sometimes lack of) between guitar-strumming light rock and bass heavy electronica, Last Night is pure dance. Moby does not lend his voice to the double album's 14 songs, but his cast of vocalists highlights his arranging skills.

This band of British rock and roll survivors led by David Gedge has been at it since 1985, releasing their debut LP George Best (named after a famous �60�s era soccer star) two years later on their own Reception Records label.



Later, the band issued Tommy a collection of singles and unreleased tracks recorded for BBC�s Radio 1. If that title strikes you as odd, not to mention having already been taken, there was also a Ukranian folk music side project dedicated to the late, great John Peel, who was an early supporter, but that�s another story.

The timbre may have deepened, though almost imperceptibly, but caressing the soft, melodic waves of this set of tidily drawn, dreamy reveries, k.d. lang�s voice remains a magnificent, mellifluous instrument.