Old-timey Canadian alternative folk trio the Be Good Tanyas spent the turn of the 21st century crafting soulful, rustic tales of woe, wonder, happiness, and heartache in a style that was popular at the last turn of the century. Warm, spacious, wise, and often winsome, Frazey Ford, Trish Klein, and Samantha Parton, and for a time Jolie Holland, operated in the same sepia-toned universe as artists like fellow Dust Bowl disciples Gillian Welch and Freakwater, recharging old classics and building new songs on a foundation of traditional folk, blues, bluegrass, Appalachian, gospel, and early Americana music. A Collection features 16 tracks from the Vancouver-based group, most of which are culled from their three well-received studio albums, Blue Horse (2000), Chinatown (2003), and Hello Love (2006). Whether they were reinterpreting the traditional ("Oh Susanna," "Rain and Snow," "In My Time of Dying") or applying a traditional base to a contemporary tale ("Junkie Song," "The Littlest Birds," "Dogsong aka Sleep Dog Lullaby"), the band's tight, effortless harmonies, understated arrangements, and inventive, highly competent musicianship reigned supreme, imbuing even the slightest tale with a considerable weight. The addition of four previously unreleased songs, two of which are remixes, and two brand-new cuts, "Little Black Bear" and "Gospel Song," the latter of which closes out this fine retrospective on a lovely high and lonesome note, will likely please fans who have been waiting patiently for new material since the group went on hiatus in 2007.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

Of all the major rock artists, Bruce Springsteen is the one whose catalog lay in a state of digital disrepair for the longest (Prince is the only conceivable rival for this title). Apart from Born to Run, which has been subjected to several anniversary reissues and audiophile releases, and Darkness on the Edge of Town, none of his first seven albums saw a sonic upgrade during the CD boom of the '80s and '90s. The Album Collection, Vol. 1 rights that longstanding wrong by offering fresh remasters of every album released between 1973's Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. and 1984's Born in the U.S.A., including brand-new remasters for both Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town, presenting all seven titles as paper-sleeve mini-LPs with replicated artwork. Supervised by Bob Ludwig, the albums underwent a remastering technique called the Plangent Process and the difference between the original CDs and the 2014 editions is startling: these are filled with color and life. Naturally, the difference is especially vivid on records that have been neglected over the decades: Greetings surges with wild-eyed, open-hearted optimism, The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle feels randy and robust, The River contains muscle and gravity, Born in the U.S.A. packs a wallop, and even Nebraska, a record made at home on a four-track, enjoys a clarity that doesn't sacrifice its essence. The new masters of Born to Run and Darkness are also rich but are only subtle improvements on the previous remasters; the reason to get the set is the other five records, which are finally given the treatment they deserve. Accompanying these superb remasters is a 60-page, high-gloss booklet that contains no original notes but has plenty of good press clips, photos, charts, and ads that capture Springsteen's first decade of recording. It's the icing on the cake on what's a necessary set. [The vinyl edition of The Album Collection, Vol. 1 has been mastered from 24-bit digital masters, not analog tapes.]© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

Post-punk, apocalyptic, able to serve up some biting social commentary, and all while doing it so thunderously they seem on the very edge of heavy metal, veteran U.K. band Killing Joke get the simple chronological overview on The Singles Collection: 1979-2012, a set that does just what it says on the tin. The 1980 single "Change" is missing, but otherwise, their prime 7"s are knocked off in order with giant numbers like "Eighties," "Wardance," "Requiem," and "Love Like Blood" coming off as classic and essential. All of these greats land on the first disc, which covers the golden years of 1979-1988, but disc two's covering of 1990-2012 is quite helpful for the casual fan, who can now catch up with some prime material that was released as the band flew underneath the mainstream's radar. That said, disc two does some revisionist history with non-singles like "Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove" landing on the track list, and when it comes to the physical release, the booklet is an afterthought, filled with tiny pictures of the 7" releases and some quick, kind essays. Killing Joke have always been more of an "album band" anyway and their large, rich discography calls for overviews much bigger in size than this. Still, it is interesting to look at the epic, ambitious group by their attempts to cross over, and while not all singles were as worthy as the album cuts, this alternative view has some massive high points.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Post-punk, apocalyptic, able to serve up some biting social commentary, and all while doing it so thunderously they seem on the very edge of heavy metal, veteran U.K. band Killing Joke get the simple chronological overview on The Singles Collection: 1979-2012, a set that does just what it says on the tin. The 1980 single "Change" is missing, but otherwise, their prime 7"s are knocked off in order with giant numbers like "Eighties," "Wardance," "Requiem," and "Love Like Blood" coming off as classic and essential. All of these greats land on the first disc, which covers the golden years of 1979-1988, but disc two's covering of 1990-2012 is quite helpful for the casual fan, who can now catch up with some prime material that was released as the band flew underneath the mainstream's radar. That said, disc two does some revisionist history with non-singles like "Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove" landing on the track list, and when it comes to the physical release, the booklet is an afterthought, filled with tiny pictures of the 7" releases and some quick, kind essays. Killing Joke have always been more of an "album band" anyway and their large, rich discography calls for overviews much bigger in size than this. Still, it is interesting to look at the epic, ambitious group by their attempts to cross over, and while not all singles were as worthy as the album cuts, this alternative view has some massive high points.© David Jeffries /TiVo

Post-punk, apocalyptic, able to serve up some biting social commentary, and all while doing it so thunderously they seem on the very edge of heavy metal, veteran U.K. band Killing Joke get the simple chronological overview on The Singles Collection: 1979-2012, a set that does just what it says on the tin. The 1980 single "Change" is missing, but otherwise, their prime 7"s are knocked off in order with giant numbers like "Eighties," "Wardance," "Requiem," and "Love Like Blood" coming off as classic and essential. All of these greats land on the first disc, which covers the golden years of 1979-1988, but disc two's covering of 1990-2012 is quite helpful for the casual fan, who can now catch up with some prime material that was released as the band flew underneath the mainstream's radar. That said, disc two does some revisionist history with non-singles like "Ghosts of Ladbroke Grove" landing on the track list, and when it comes to the physical release, the booklet is an afterthought, filled with tiny pictures of the 7" releases and some quick, kind essays. Killing Joke have always been more of an "album band" anyway and their large, rich discography calls for overviews much bigger in size than this. Still, it is interesting to look at the epic, ambitious group by their attempts to cross over, and while not all singles were as worthy as the album cuts, this alternative view has some massive high points. © David Jeffries /TiVo

On the heels of their acclaimed 2012 reunion record Ignition, the Shoes released the generous retrospective 35 Years: The Definitive Shoes Collection 1977-2012. Beginning with their 1977 debut, Black Vinyl Shoes -- wildly accepted as one of the classic power pop LPs -- and sampling relatively equally their three major-label albums from the early '80s and the indie trilogy that followed in the '80s and '90s, this 21-track collection covers far more territory than their previous comp, 1987's Shoes' Best, just by sampling from the 25 years of records that followed. That may not amount to more than a handful of LPs -- after a pair of albums in the mid-'90s, the group took an extended hiatus until Ignition -- but adding cuts from Propeller, Fret Buzz, and Ignition helps round out the Shoes narrative, presenting them as both power pop pioneers and keepers of the flame, offering hooks and harmonies for 35 years and running.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

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British singer/songwriter Kris Ife never had significant commercial success, but he did hover around the U.K. music business for quite some time, recording in a variety of styles between the mid-'60s and mid-'70s as both a solo artist and a part of several groups. This 25-track CD assembles a lot of his most significant work, including some late-'60s solo singles; the obscure 1970 Snarling Mumma Lion LP by Judd, for which Ife was the singer and a frequent co-writer of the material; a non-LP 1971 Judd single; an outtake from the LP; a couple singles he did in the early '70s as half of the blue-eyed soul duo Jackson & Jones; and an outtake from an unreleased concept album that would have aimed to teach U.S. history through popular music. (Though this anthology doesn't contain anything from his mid-'60s British Invasion group the Quiet Five, that band's career is comprehensively covered by another RPM compilation, When the Morning Sun Dries the Dew.) Such was Ife's range that it's difficult to summarize the disc's contents in a sentence or two, though generally he pursued a soul-pop approach that used more of the pop part of that combination than many such artists did. Certainly the most significant track here is his decent soul-rock cover of Joe South's "Hush" (from a 1967 single), which inspired Deep Purple's more hard rock-oriented hit version of the same tune. A vaguely South-like blend of blue-eyed soul and swamp pop was also heard on his other late-'60s singles and the Judd album, though the Judd LP also included more middle-of-the-road songs with a slightly overwrought Righteous Brothers/Tom Jones-like approach. The Righteous Brothers influence, as Ife himself admits in the liner notes, really comes to the fore on the Jackson & Jones singles, which have lush early-'70s orchestration. For all his activity, however, he was only an average vocalist and composer -- certainly nothing on the order of South or the Righteous Brothers, to make the obvious comparisons that are begged -- making these outings of only slight appeal, and mostly of interest to dedicated collectors of the period's British pop scene. RPM does its usual fine job with the packaging, though, featuring a detailed historical overview, as well as comments on most of the tracks by Ife himself.© Richie Unterberger /TiVo