Back catalogue: Rock

Review: A pair of classic Donovan tracks get pressed up to this new 7" from The state51 Conspiracy. They are taken originally from his seminal double album A Gift From a Flower to a Garden and come in a beautifully printed new sleeve with golden details and limited to just 500 copies. Both are mixed in mono and first is the delicate falsetto of 'The Tinker and the Crab' with is Americana overtones and light flute motifs next to the acoustic guitar strumming and 'Wear Your Love Like Heaven' is another lushly layered folk rock sound.

Review: Six years is ages for a band to go without releasing an album or doing very much. But for AC/DC, whose work rate has always been ridiculously high, it's a very, very long time. Between then and now, the band lost their lead singer, Brian Johnson, to hearing difficulties in the middle of their last tour, and saw drummer Paul Rudd arrested in New Zealand for 'attempting to procure a murder'. Talk about impetus to finally call time.

But then these are the guys responsible for one of history's greatest heavy rock triumphs, 1980s's Back In Black, released just months after formative frontman Bon Scott tragically passed. So it's no surprise Power Up, another post-traumatic release albeit an act of reunification with now (relatively) healthy Johnson and innocent Rudd returning, is among their best in the 40 years since. A comeback record that sounds exactly like AC/DC should - ballsy, bluesy, boozy riffs.

Review: Six years is ages for a band to go without releasing an album or doing very much. But for AC/DC, whose work rate has always been ridiculously high, it's a very, very long time. Between then and now, the band lost their lead singer, Brian Johnson, to hearing difficulties in the middle of their last tour, and saw drummer Paul Rudd arrested in New Zealand for 'attempting to procure a murder'. Talk about impetus to finally call time.

But then these are the guys responsible for one of history's greatest heavy rock triumphs, 1980s's Back In Black, released just months after formative frontman Bon Scott tragically passed. So it's no surprise Power Up, another post-traumatic release albeit an act of reunification with now (relatively) healthy Johnson and innocent Rudd returning, is among their best in the 40 years since. A comeback record that sounds exactly like AC/DC should - ballsy, bluesy, boozy riffs.

Review: Six years is ages for a band to go without releasing an album or doing very much. But for AC/DC, whose work rate has always been ridiculously high, it's a very, very long time. Between then and now, the band lost their lead singer, Brian Johnson, to hearing difficulties in the middle of their last tour, and saw drummer Paul Rudd arrested in New Zealand for 'attempting to procure a murder'. Talk about impetus to finally call time.

But then these are the guys responsible for one of history's greatest heavy rock triumphs, 1980s's Back In Black, released just months after formative frontman Bon Scott tragically passed. So it's no surprise Power Up, another post-traumatic release albeit an act of reunification with now (relatively) healthy Johnson and innocent Rudd returning, is among their best in the 40 years since. A comeback record that sounds exactly like AC/DC should - ballsy, bluesy, boozy riffs.

Review: Live from the now closed down Hippodrome at London's Golders Green on October 27 1977, Problem Child offers an unadulterated earful of the Aussie rock giants in their earlier sonic heyday, complete with the legendary Bon Scott on vocals. Captured during their expansive run in promotion of their fourth Scott era LP Let There Be Rock, the set boasts some of the record's most timeless and bombastic cuts, from the iconic title track to the banging 'Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be' to the quintessential 'Whole Lotta Rosie', but there's still enough energy to pump out the frenetic closer 'TNT' in all of its original, raw abandon.

Review: If you want blood... well, we all know what comes next. AC/DC are among the most marmite of stadium-sized rock bands, their consistency over the past six decades seen by some as relentless homogeneity. In reality, it's an auteur signature. We know, within three chords of school uniform-clad Angus Young's iconic Gibson, whose song, it is yet to the trained ear there are huge differentiations at play. From drawly blues through to seismic main stage energy. Highway To Hell is one of the group's seminal early outings, and any self-respecting fan should own it already. Although perhaps not in this stunning gold edition, released to celebrate the LP's 50th anniversary. Newcomers can expect an insight into the barrooms filled with sweat and spilt drinks from which this mega group came out of and a clue as to why Bon Scott, the lead singer who tragically died as they really hit fifth gear, will always have a place in our hearts.

Review: This special two-part live album from rock legends Def Leopard was recorded on October 1st as part of their Euphoria tour. It saw them play across the States then head to Japan for a series of dates. Tokyo's prestigious Kokusai Forum was the venue for the show, which was recorded for live FM Broadcast across Japan, and it features plenty of the tunes from their seventh album, Euphoria, released on 8 June 1999. It saw them go back to their roots and serve up the sound that first made them famous.

Review: Former Hanoi Rocks frontman Michael Monroe formed Demolition 23 in New York in 1993, and their sole album should be considered essential listening for any lover of that ramped up glam-punk sound. 'Nothin's Alright' was an absolute earworm of a lead single from the album, but throughout there's stomping, singalong anthems to get your strut on to. Shockingly, this is the first time the album has ever received an official vinyl pressing, so don't expect this one to hang around once the Hanoi faithful catch wind of it.

Review: Back in 2005, Depeche Mode recorded a special live set for broadcast on US radio that - much to most people's surprise at the time - featured fewer synthesizer sounds. Instead, it saw the Essex outfit reproduce many of their classics hits and fan favourites using traditional rock instrumentation (think electric guitars, drums, bass guitar and electric piano), with the addition of more electronics as the set progressed. Now finally released on CD, the set is genuinely excellent, despite the pared-down, altered musical set-up. Highlights include fine renditions of 'Personal Jesus', 'Behind The Wheel' (which here sounds like a post-punk disco throwdown) , 'Enjoy The Silence' and - after a partial take ruined by sound problems - 'I Feel You'.

Review: Confounding critics (and, to a lesser extent, fans) has long been one of Dexy's calling cards, though even by Kevin Rowland and company's standards The Feminine Divine is a surprising set. The surprise lies not in the fact that it exists at all (Rowland publicly exclaimed that he was "done with music" back in 2016), but the sound of the music on show. Alongside the kind of horn-heavy 1970s soul that delighted fans in their early 80s heyday, The Feminine Divine also includes Serge Gainsbourg-esque spoken word vocals, Prince-inspired electrofunk, slow-motion breakbeats, hands-in-the-air house pianos and nods towards the kaleidoscopic, saucer-eyed rush of Ibiza-inspired Balearica. It's hugely entertaining and, for all the welcome musical surprises, still very much a Dexys album.

Review: Take a trip back in time with this exquisite live recording of The Doors back in their pomp and heyday. It was on June 5th 1970 that the legendary group fronted by Jim Morrison headed to the Seattle Center Coliseum following widespread plaudits for their recently released Morrison Hotel album in February of the same year. They were warped up in several legal issues but played out of their skin on this night for a broadcast on KUOW-FM radio. It was the fifth and last time they played in Seattle and finds them playing with power and vitality despite a hostile crowd and some sound issues.

Review: Although it's only appearing now, Bob Dylan's 40th album was recorded back in 2021 and formed the soundtrack to Alma Ha'rel's intimate concert film, Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan. The concert depicted in the film, in which Dylan ran through songs from the first part of his career on a sound stage in Los Angeles, was something of a fiction, with the actual recordings featured being captured in a West Hollywood studio. That's what we get here: Dylan delivering decidedly bluesy folk and Americana interpretations of songs from the formative years of his career, ably supported by a cast of musician friends including Don Was (up-tight bass) and country legend T-Bone Burnett (guitar). Dylan's superb songs have never sounded better.

Review: "It's grown on me as well. I think this song has something to do with the classical world, something that's out of reach. Someplace you'd like to be beyond your experience. Something that is so supreme and first rate that you could never come back down from the mountain. That you've achieved the unthinkable." So said Bob Dylan himself in a 2020 New York Times interview when asked why 'When I Paint My Masterpiece', his 1971 sleeper hit, had made its way to the forefront of live shows in more contemporary times. Opening with that track, this album reflects the score of the 2021 concert movie, Shadow Kingdom, which in itself reaffirms the artist as one of the 20th, and 21st Century's greatest songwriters. There's really nothing more to say.

Review: "I don't know where I'm going from here, but I promise it won't be boring," David Bowie famously quipped at his 50th Birthday concert in Madison Square Garden. That was 1997, and sadly we can now look back at the years between then and now as the last the icon would enjoy, although given the pantheons of unreleased material, music and other, we still have more than his legacy alone to learn from. He certainly kept his word, then, not least by opting to work with Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, a band that found inspiration in myriad styles and sounds, from Human League to Pink Floyd, carving out a 'industrial electronic rock' niche for themselves. In addition to tours and one-off shows, recordings of their collaborations are remarkable, generating fresh wholes from the enormous sums of these parts.