The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings of Pearls Before Swine is simply the handsomely repackaged reissue of both albums cut for the label in 1967 and 1968, One Nation Underground and Balaklava. Re-released in the U.S. by Bernard Stollman's erratically active label, the two-on-one CD package features both albums completely remastered for reissue by veteran studio wiz Joe Phillips. In addition to Phillips' own introductory tome, the package includes essays by songwriter and labelmate Randy Burns, a brief paragraph by Stollman, and complete lyrics for both recordings.
One Nation Underground (1967). Psychedelic-folk debut from one of the most erudite, literate minds in rock, Thomas D. Rapp (and the first of his ever-changing Swine)…

While the goth scene in England was picking up commercial steam in the mid-'80s, the Sisters of Mercy may have seemed quiet, but they roared back with 1987's Floodland. Opening with the driving two-part hymn "Dominion/Mother Russia," Sisters leader Andrew Eldritch (along with bassist Patricia Morrison) creates a black soundscape that is majestic and vast. While the earlier Sisters releases were noisy, sometimes harsh affairs, Floodland is filled with lush production (thanks to Meat Loaf writer/producer Jim Steinman and the New York Choral Society) and lyric imagery that is both scary and glorious. The slower tracks, like "Flood" and "1959," are some of the best ethereal sounds goth has to offer, and the downright regal "This Corrosion" is one of the best songs of the genre. A definite milestone.

Recorded live in Chicago in 1977, this captures a a brief set by each of these blues legends. The Albert King set finds him in excellent form, tearing up his guitar on "Born Under a Bad Sign" and "I Worked Hard," and turning in fine vocals on "The Very Thought of You" and the title track, here mistitled as "When You Down." John Lee Hooker's set is a typical boogie-infested one, with solid support from a small combo doing a nice job following his idiosyncratic timing. Everything stays pretty much uptempo, with the exception of "Serves You Right to Suffer" (here mistitled as "Serves Me Right") and "Crawlin' King Snake." Actually nice live sets from both performers, and a decent addition to either artist's discography.

Quincy Jones followed up Smackwater Jack and his supervision of Donny Hathaway's Come Back Charleston Blue soundtrack with this, a mixed bag that saw him inching a little closer toward the R&B-dominated approach that reached full stride on the following Body Heat and peaked commercially with The Dude. That said, the album's most notorious cut is "The Streetbeater" - better known as the Sanford & Son theme, a novelty for most but also one of the greasiest, grimiest instrumental fusions of jazz and funk ever laid down - while its second most noteworthy component is a drastic recasting of "Summer in the City," as heard in the Pharcyde's "Passin' Me By," where the frantic, bug-eyed energy of the Lovin' Spoonful original is turned into a magnetically lazy drift driven by Eddie Louis' organ, Dave Grusin's electric piano, and Valerie Simpson's voice…