Jon Secada really had only one blockbuster album, but he nevertheless was one of the finest adult contemporary singers of the '90s, as Greatest Hits proves. Released at the tail-end of his Virgin contract, just before he began recording for Sony Music, Greatest Hits covers his first four albums, including not only all of his hits – "Just Another Day," "Do You Believe in Us," "Angel," "I'm Free," "If You Go," "Whipped," "Mental Picture" – but selected highlights from the records themselves. As such, it's a definitive portrait. Secada always sounded good on record, but his material was occasionally uneven. Here, every song connects, making it not only a fine greatest hits collection, but arguably his best record to date.

The Very Best of Level 42 is a compilation released by the UK band Level 42. It features a chronological track listing of the band's hit single releases from 1981 to 1994.

Like Steely Dan, The The wasn't so much a band as a personal musical conceit/alter ego, this one for English writer-performer Matt Johnson. While Johnson's "band" came of age during the English synth pop boom of the early ‘80s, electricity was about the only common denominator between Johnson and his fashion slave contemporaries. Indeed, the sense of conscientious outrage that informs many of the two decades worth of singles collected here fostered a perception of Johnson as something of a prickly malcontent. But fashion was never an end in itself for Johnson, even on early pop fare like "Uncertain Smile" and "Perfect." Johnson's restless creative bent has led him to remix many of these tracks anew, ensuring that this set would never be seen as mere artistic obituary. Johnson's reputation as a socio-political crank reached its zenith on tracks like "Heartland" (which decries the reverse cultural colonization of Britain by America) and "Armageddon Days" (a shotgun blast at pan-religious hypocrisy, here introduced by a hilarious parody of the Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz": "Are you ready Jesus? Yeah! / Budda? Uh-huh."), but subsequent history has only proven him sagacious.

Chart-topping rock band who blend shimmering electronic pop with Shirley Manson's emotive vocals. Collection includes: Garbage (1995); Version 2.0 (1998); Beautiful Garbage (2001); Bleed Like Me (2005).

Still Got the Blues is the eighth solo studio album by Northern Irish guitarist Gary Moore, released in 1990. It marked a substantial change in style for Moore, who, prior to this album, was predominantly known for rock and hard rock music with Skid Row, Thin Lizzy, G-Force, Greg Lake and during his own extensive solo career, as well as his jazz-fusion work with Colosseum II. As evidenced by its title, Still Got the Blues saw him delve into an electric blues style. The album features guest contributions from Albert King, Albert Collins and George Harrison. The title track was released as a single and reached No. 97 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album reached No. 83 on the Billboard 200 on 16 February 1991, then was certified gold on November 1995. This was the most successful album both in sales and chart positions from Gary Moore in the US.

El Loco is the seventh studio album by the American rock band ZZ Top, released in 1981. The title means "The Crazy One" in Spanish. The band's guitarist/singer Billy Gibbons has said that the recording of this album was the first time the three members of the band were isolated from one another in the studio, rather than recording simultaneously in the same room. It also foreshadowed ZZ Top's synthesizer-driven direction later in the decade, with early experimentations in synthesizer backing on certain tracks.

Neck and Neck is a collaborative album by American guitarist Chet Atkins and British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released on October 9, 1990 by Columbia Records. "Poor Boy Blues" was released as a single, and in 1991 won a Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. That same year, "So Soft Your Goodbye" won a Grammy Award for Best Country Instrumental Performance. Atkins originally recorded "Yakety Axe", a parody of Boots' Randolph's "Yakety Sax", on his 1965 album More of That Guitar Country. This new recording features lyrics and a new arrangement that were composed by Merle Travis. Atkins also previously recorded "I'll See You in My Dreams" on an album with Merle Travis.

Though it was considered a disappointment upon its release (indeed, its production was much too sleek at times, and it lacked the creative daring of Perfect Strangers), 1987's House of Blue Light has actually stood the test of time just as well, if not better, than its predecessor. The second effort from the re-formed Mark II lineup, this album showed Deep Purple searching for an '80s-flavored hit single, and by doing so, sounding uncomfortably similar to guitarist Ritchie Blackmore's other band, Rainbow. Virtually all of the record's first half suffers from this (especially "Unwritten Law" and "Bad Attitude"), but things improve with the Eastern-flavored melodies of "The Spanish Archer" and "Strange Ways."

Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm. New Adventures has the same spirit of much of R.E.M.'s IRS records, but don't take the title of New Adventures in Hi-Fi lightly – R.E.M. tries different textures and new studio tricks. "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" opens the album with a rolling, vaguely hip-hop drum beat and slowly adds on jazzily dissonant piano. "E-Bow the Letter" starts out as an updated version of "Country Feedback," then it turns in on itself with layers of moaning guitar effects and Patti Smith's haunting backing vocals. Clocking in at seven minutes, "Leave" is the longest track R.E.M. has yet recorded and it's one of their strangest and best – an affecting minor-key dirge with a howling, siren-like feedback loop that runs throughout the entire song.

A confident and consistent album, The Blue Cafe combines Rea's atmospheric songwriting with larger doses of his slide guitar playing than usual. An overlooked talent of his, it underlies this collection of contemporary sounding songs rooted in dance beats and blues (a strange combination, but it works). Two songs from different sides of the spectrum illustrate the album well: "Sweet Summer Day" is one of the best from a master of summer anthems ("On the Beach," "All Summer Long," etc.), while "Where Do We Go From Here?" is a bitingly perceptive indictment of the emptiness of consumer culture laid against a cool, smooth backing track. All in all, this is one of Rea's most introspective albums and a strong addition to his catalog.

More than any other Fleetwood Mac album, Tusk is born of a particular time and place – it could only have been created in the aftermath of Rumours, which shattered sales records, which in turn gave the group a blank check for its next album…

From the get-go of "Lit Up" right on through to "Drink the Water," Buckcherry doesn't let up on their self-titled disc – it's like a blast of fresh air clearing out a stale room. Buckcherry returns to the raucous edge of rock while avoiding the pitfalls of veering headlong into metal land. Melodic and concise, these guys keep your attention much like Guns N' Roses did on their first disc…

The second release in the Slavonic Trilogy reissue series. Sventevith (Storming Near the Baltic) is the debut studio album by Polish extreme metal band Behemoth; originally released in April 1995. The 2021 reissue is beautifully packaged and include bonus audio material and booklets containing exclusive archival content.

Amsterdam `89 is a 1990 Neil Young bootleg of a live show recorded in Amsterdam, Netherlands on 10 December, 1989. I had purchased this back then because I had already bought some Beatles and Pink Floyd CD's on The Swingin' Pig label, as I was also familiar with Trademark Of Quality. I decided to take a chance and buy this one, and since it was of soundboard quality, I was satisfied. The CD involves two sets, both acoustic. Songs 1-8 are the first set, songs 9 to 15 are the second. This was in support of his album Freedom.

This is one of the most intriguing albums of Emmylou Harris' career, and that is saying a lot. It marked the first album where she wrote or co-wrote all the songs, and the strength of the songwriting makes one wonder why she had never attempted it before…