Committee of Vultures’ ‘Everybody Wants the Blues’ is the sound of musicians enjoying each other and their roots, delivering stellar performances.

Fred Phillips’ Best of 2021 Hard Rock and Metal also includes Black Label Society, Durbin, Ad Infinitum, Cody Jinks, Unto Others and Iron Maiden, among others.

Serving as an ode to a companion who makes life worth living, Richard Turgeon’s “Better With You” shimmers and shines.

Released 45 years ago today, Muddy Waters’ ‘Hard Again’ marked the kind of comeback you expect from the great ones.

No, there’s nothing transformational here; it’s just the Steely Dan band giving you the good stuff.

‘Inimitable’ is an intimate solo acoustic bass recording where Michael Bisio seemed to have plowed ahead and played with a lot of heart and instinct with not too much forethought.

‘Now’ showed Chicago could produce a better album than they have in years when given complete artistic control. But they still had to include a ballad.

Zan Zone’s ‘It’s Only Natural’ is all over the place, and it’s all over the place in a wonderful all over and very eclectic place way.

‘Tattoo You’ could easily be called the Rolling Stones’ last really good album of original material, given that ‘Blue and Lonesome’ was a covers project.

Similarities to Weezer and Fountains of Wayne abound on ‘Conflagration Vespers,’ but the Craig Torso Show possesses more of an experimental edge.