XTC was a band that gave pop music a good name. Since their bare, new wave/punk beginnings, melody always mattered.

The Sweet brings back memories of a time when a pop song could be ambitious, melodic – and still be popular.

by Nick DeRiso With a shout — and a persona — to match this barrel-house presence, Big Joe Turner lived up to his outsized name every night. Turner’s emergence was tied to those brawny blasts, since Joe came of age in a time when singers had to project past bigRead More

by Pico If you’ve followed this space the last couple of months, you’ve might have first noticed the warm reception that Brazilian bassist Leonardo E. M. Cioglia got here for his majestic debut Contos. And if you missed that, perhaps you detected the album’s prominent mention in the “Best ofRead More

For all his eccentricities, Rahsaan Roland Kirk could be a staunchly sensitive interpreter. This terrific Bill Withers cover is but one example.

“Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight,” from Paul McCartney’s collaborations as the Fireman, screams – literally – for attention.

NICK DERISO: “I’m Having Fun” arrives as advertised. That is to say, it’s a bubbly, rollicking party record, featuring King Curtis — the Fort Worth native was one of the last of the great R&B saxists — shaking a bandstand to its foundations while keyboardist Champion Jack Dupree lays inRead More

Urged on by a buoyant audience, Cannonball Adderley’s “Walk Tall” becomes both a call to action and a celebration of spirit.

Lodged toward the end of a nostalgic song cycle that attempts (with varying degrees of success) to recreate the soaring pop music of his California youth, Brian Wilson offers a moment of naked, welcome honesty. On “Midnight’s Another Day,” away from the florid orchestrations and dense backing vocals associated withRead More

The title of this Chicago song, named after a Greek character who eternally pushes a rock up hill only to have it roll back down, is sadly ironic.