The eighteenth century is probably the most extraordinary period of transformation Europe has known since antiquity. Political upheavals kept pace with the innumerable inventions and discoveries of the age; every sector of the arts and of intellectual and material life was turned upside down. Between the end of the reign of Louis XIV and the revolution of 1789, music in its turn underwent a radical mutation that struck at the very heart of a well-established musical language. In this domain too, we are all children of the Age of Enlightenment: our conception of music and the way we ‘consume’ it still follows in many respects the agenda set by the eighteenth century. And it is not entirely by chance that harmonia mundi has chosen to offer you in 2011 a survey of this musical revolution which, without claiming to be exhaustive, will enable you to grasp the principal outlines of musical creation between the twilight of the Baroque and the dawn of Romanticism.

If Day at the Races was a sleek, streamlined album, its 1977 successor, News of the World, was its polar opposite, an explosion of styles that didn't seem to hold to any particular center. It's front-loaded with two of Queen's biggest anthems – the stomping, stadium-filling chant "We Will Rock You" and its triumphant companion, "We Are the Champions" – which are quickly followed by the ferocious "Sheer Heart Attack," a frenzied rocker that hits harder than anything on the album that shares its name (a remarkable achievement in itself). Three songs, three quick shifts in mood, but that's hardly the end of it.

The Muppet Show: Music, Mayhem, and More is a Muppets soundtrack/compilation album released in 2002 by Rhino and Jim Henson Home Entertainment. Its release commemorates the 25th anniversary of The Muppet Show. Although the disc is considered a Muppet Show and Muppets soundtrack collection, it includes two tracks that originated on Sesame Street ("Mahna Mahna" and "Bein' Green").
This was the last Muppet album produced before The Walt Disney Company's acquisition of the Muppets in 2004; since then Muppet albums have been released by Walt Disney Records.

90125 is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes, released on 7 November 1983 by Atco Records. After disbanding in 1981, following the Drama (1980) tour, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White formed Cinema with guitarist and singer-songwriter Trevor Rabin and original Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye, who had left in 1971, and began recording an album. They adopted a more commercial and pop-oriented musical direction as the result of their new material, much of which derived from Rabin's demos, with former Yes singer Trevor Horn as their producer. During the mixing stage former Yes singer Jon Anderson, who had left in 1980, accepted the invitation to return and record the lead vocals, and subsequently Cinema changed their name to Yes.

Though there was no specific hit on Hallelujah, this album contains Canned Heat's fully developed blues chops and a slightly newfound political edge. Of special note is "Sic 'Em Pigs," an entertaining anti-police anthem, featuring drummer Fito de la Parra, Alan Wilson, and Henry Vestine making pig noises. Canned Heat Cookbook was the first greatest-hits compilation from the band, released originally in 1970, and contains the band's three hit singles, "Goin' Up the Country," "On the Road Again," and "Let's Work Together" (the latter wasn't actually part of the original LP; it was added to this 2002 compilation by Fuel 2000).

An Introduction To Bad Company is a new compilation of the British blues-rock band Bad Company by Rhino Records. Bad Company are an English hard rock supergroup formed in Westminster, London in 1973 by two former Free band members—singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke— as well as Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell. Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, also managed Bad Company until 1982. Bad Company enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s. Their first three albums, Bad Company (1974), Straight Shooter (1975), and Run With the Pack (1976), reached the top five in the album charts in both the UK and US. Many of their singles, such as "Bad Company", "Can't Get Enough", "Good Lovin' Gone Bad", "Feel Like Makin' Love", and "Shooting Star" remain staples of classic rock radio.

Ray Barretto's Carnaval combines two 1962 sessions, Pachanga with Barretto (his Milestone label debut as a leader) and Latino!. Both sets feature Barretto's first band, Charanga Moderna, with trumpeter El Negro Vivar and tenor saxophonist Jose Chombo Silva added to the front line for the latter LP. The first album is very much Latin jazz of its time, with all ten tracks designed for dancing the briefly popular pachanga, a dance that was simply too manic and difficult to catch on widely. The pachanga-friendly tempos on these ten brief cuts (most under three minutes) make the album sound rushed and nervous to ears unfamiliar with the dance fad. The far-better Latino!, recorded in nearly the same session, is a good old-fashioned jam session, with more leisurely tempos and extended playing times that give all the soloists – especially Vivar, Silva, and flutist Jose Canoura – plenty of room to stretch out. These two albums are very different, but hearing both of them in proximity reveals much about the state of the New York City Latin jazz scene in the early '60s.

LaVoe and Willie Colon came blazing out of the bugalu era and wrote a new script for New York salsa during the late '60s and early '70s: a script that included Puerto Rican and Panamanian graftings on the basic Cuban scion, and a tough lyricism that spoke of "barrio" problems to a "barrio audience". Then the pair split, and eventually Ruben Blades filled LaVoe's place in the Colon band's developing persona. Now – for this album at least – LaVoe and Colon are back together with that fat, macho trombone sound and the old width of reference (including a splendid plena, "En el Fiando.")

Unlike his Delmark sets, almost everything on this set (first issued in France on Black & Blue) is a cover (only the observant "Heap See" boasts original lyrics). Still, "Barroom Preacher" stands as the Chicago guitarist's most satisfying and consistent album, as he deals out gorgeous, shimmering versions of "Little by Little, " "Cold, Cold Feeling, " and "You Don't Know What Love Is" tailored to his soaring vocals and twisting guitar riffs (ominous minor keys often play a role in his rearrangements).

Tuonela proves the fact that Amorphis are not one of the bands that can be chained to a particular genre or style. Such bands are great because you always wonder with what they'll come up next. You can't say that Amorphis is that or is this, only that in the period xx-yy they were singing in a way and then in another way and so on. They stay true to their name (since Amorphis comes from a word that means "no determinate form or shape"). Their creation is always surprising and even though this may cause a "recycle" of their fans from period to period, it doesn't lessen their artistic merits. This album finds Amorphis experimenting with many more sounds and instruments and the good production sure helps to show it. Yes, it sure is a departure from the style of Elegy, but not for the worse…

After three years and four albums, the '80s incarnation of King Crimson, featuring Adrian Belew (guitar/vocals/drums), Bill Bruford (drums/percussion), Robert Fripp (guitar) and Tony Levin (bass/stick/synth/vocal) wrapped up their initial collaborative efforts at the conclusion of their 1984 North American tour. Absent Lovers (1998) presents the July 11, 1984 parting performance at the Spectrum in Montreal, Quebec in its entirety. As the show was simulcast on FM radio, decent sounding copies have been traded amongst the faithful for years, although not in such stunning fidelity or completeness. While the contents draw primarily from the Discipline (1981), Beat (1982) and Three of a Perfect Pair (1984) long-players, the quartet likewise dip into the vintage Krim catalog…

There have been pivotal locales which were the nurturing ground for the vanguard in many art forms. Jazz music has had a number of these spots, from New Orleans up to Chicago, then to New York and outward. It would not be hard to argue that the great city of Philadelphia should be recognized with these others as a wellspring of talented musicians. One of Philadelphia’s prominent sons is the fantastic drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath. He, like so many other Philly natives including his brothers Jimmy and Percy, grew up in the music, as the city was ripe with musicians of the first order and an important stop for many of the progenitors of the music. On his new recording - Philadelphia Beat - Heath returns to his native ground to catch the spirit and preserve it…